“Barack Obama on FriendFeed? Don't believe it. I met the guy who set up the account and it actually is done by a Republican lobbiest. He said he set it up to keep track of Obama and also to keep Obama's staff from using the account. I wish there were a way to authenticate that people are who they see”
June 23 at 6:03 pm
- Link
Kamyar Navidan, roamin, Joe Ferris and 76 other people liked this
Liked 'cuz I think this is hilarious. That lobbyist gets the Good Job Badge of the Day. - Craig Eddy
just like the folks who grabbed "robertscoble" on plurk. That seems like identity theft to me, it's one thing to have the same name but it's another to imply you are a another person. - Doug Brooks
Yet another proof of the classic comic: "On the internet, no one knows you're a dog." - Craig Eddy
It was Patrick Ruffini. http://friendfeed.com/patrickr... - Louis Gray
Was? Patrick ain't dead yet. - Andrew Feinberg
Louis knows everyone. Yeah, it is Patrick. - Robert Scoble
Heh, you can tell he's committed to integrity, too: "McCain Nearly Outraises Obama in May" So you mean, he didn't. Friendfeed gave back the Engadget account to Ryan Block when he requested it: who do you have to talk to at the Obama campaign for them to make the same request? - Mark Trapp
brand squatting is a rampant problem. who should get to create the salesforce.com account on any service? i think this needs to be tied to domain ownership, possibly via OpenID - Kingsley Joseph
via twhirl
Ahhh. That probably explains some of the items fed to the Obama-2008 room. http://friendfeed.com/rooms/ob... - Robert Seidman
O so you mean the man running one of two active campaigns in the US doesnt actually use FF? Well I never... - Anthony
Mark I am talking with someone from the Obama campaign on Thursday. I will ask. - Robert Scoble
plurk all over again... lame - Susan Beebe
Excellent, Robert. Now, I wonder who's squatting http://friendfeed.com/johnmcca... ... - Mark Trapp
classic. let's see how many comment this gets :) - Tim Hoeck
So is this like *real* politics where there's a real dude and a fake dude all with the same name? - Susan Beebe
I thought I read somewhere that Ruffini had the McCain FriendFeed account. Why haven't Obama's people complained? Are they gunshy after the MySpace account incident? Or is it unimportant? Same question to McCain, if Ruffini controls that too. - Ontario Emperor
via fftogo
what a fucking loser - Ryan
unless they use OfficialBarackObama. but i figure knowing this info couldn't they sue? - Outsanity
Pretty simple solution. Obama campaign creates a FFtogo account. Posts it on their site. The unofficial one gets ignored or blocked. - Bill Bittner
via fftogo
By the way, John McCain is also Patrick Ruffini. http://www.readwriteweb.com/ar... - Louis Gray
This name squatting across socnets is silly. Fork over your DNA @scobleizer and only then shall you get that coveted @scobelizer moniker across socnets. Bow down to thy namesquatters. - Brian Daniel Eisenberg
I believe it. Their Internet strategy was beyond awesome. - Charlie Anzman
Louis, what you don't know is that Patrick is merely a vessel in which McCain will enter when his body gives out. Sort of like Being John Malkovich, except Patrick is more interesting. - Andrew Feinberg
This is hilarious. But on looking at the stuff in the channel it is clear that he is promoting Obama. Why is he doing that.... baiting the folks to believe that this is the real official channel? - Vic Podcaster
Ruffini is a Republican, but he's very interested in the process, campaiging itself as well as social media. Not everyone is a Republican is evil, surprise surprise. - Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins
Sneaky. All is fair in love and politics. - Michael McGimpsey
via twhirl
Lay off Patrick. He's a smart guy who happens to be on one side of the line. Every time I read his stuff or talk to him I learn something new. I can't say that for a great many Dems, sadly. - Andrew Feinberg
Dirty tricks in politics. I think Jefferson made them up. - Francine Hardaway
Just like Premier Wen on Facebook - Jia Liu
He is not a lobbyist he is an ecampaign strategist and blogger - identifying ourselves as Republicans (or worse Republican campaign operatives) on FriendFeed and Twitter is bad enough we don't need to be labeled as lobbyists as well. Next thing you know we are going to be "Republican lobbyist lawyers who own used car lots" - Marco (aureliusmaximus)
Marco you forgot the words 'extreme' and 'fundamentalist' :) - Erin Kotecki Vest
You guys don't see any problem with him purporting to be someone he's not? - Mark Trapp
@erin get back in your fort! I was pretty certain combining "Republican" "Extreme" and "Fundamentalist" would have been seen as unnecessarily repetitive in FriendFeed ; ) - Marco (aureliusmaximus)
Wow, everyone is ready to rip this guy even though he hasn't done anything malicious with the accounts. Has the Obama or McCain camps even asked him to give up the accounts? - Shey
By signing up an account name that is so clearly intended to be someone else, and not disclosing that is really playing on people's trust. If it was used to seed malicious information, surely thats libelous. - Dom Barnes
Yikes! - Mike Reynolds
i'm sure if the obama campaign approached friendfeed, they could get conrtol of the account. this is a non-issue - Baratunde Thurston
I Actaully befriend da obama handle , thinking it was a campaign person from Obama's camp...after all their Twitter handle seemed genuine and worked well. So what is FF's policy for such malicious users ?? Are they going to block account and freeze it or what ? and this is not just about having a prez handle and workin it. rather a community /social question.. we all know the rift on the Loren/Shel issue, but how do we & FF Mod's negate such trolls in this space ? - Peter Dawson
As long as there is no (realistic, scalable) way to check people's identities that works for everybody (so no credit card) and is free (or companies won't implement it), all this talk is useless. - sebmos
@Peter Dawson - Beside being an account that wasn't created by Obama's campaign, this account didn't do anything wrong. It's definitely not a "troll", as it didn't comment useless stuff, etc. I'm having a difficult time seeing the problem with THIS account. - sebmos
The account does not claim to be Obama, and clearly is not slandering Obama. Further, even if it WAS on Obama's behalf it wouldn't "be" him anyway. As for the whole squatting hew and cry, think of the nightmare. How popular would someone have to be before they could demand the special status of "he who gets to use one name everywhere"? Does Scoble get special treatment but a smaller person is just screwed? First come, first served is fine. In cases of slander or fraud there are already laws. - Soulhuntre
"He said he set it up to keep track of Obama and also to keep Obama's staff from using the account" - and you replied..... - Rashunda Tramble
