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Digg
Darren Rowse commented on a story on Digg
August 10 at 11:31 pm - Link
"wow - amazing that a country with the population the size of India has never won an individual gold before - just amazing! I think us Aussies take them too much for granted." - Darren Rowse
Digg
Darren Rowse commented on a story on Digg
July 28 at 3:51 pm - Link
"lol - killer portraits would definitely be interesting.... Tip 1: Don't get too close" - Darren Rowse
Digg
Darren Rowse commented on a story on Digg
Digg
Darren Rowse commented on a story on Digg
Blog
Chris Brogan posted an entry on chrisbrogan.com
July 21 at 2:30 am - Link
sheesh - that's a post I've almost written on a weekly basis for the last 6 months! Lock yourself in a room - turn off the internet - take a deep breath and knock the pile of work before you off one step at a time. - Darren Rowse
I'm glad I read this before I emailed you. just wanted to say thank you for the fast answers to my little interview ;) - Dennis Bjørn Petersen via twhirl
The suckiest parts are those that I deleted from the post. I have to send out a whole lot of "Sorry, I missed our deadline" and "sorry, but I'm going to have to cancel my previous commitment" kinds of messages. - Chris Brogan
Honest and understandable sentiment, Mr. B. I can only imagine how much more swamped you are because I barely can handle what's on my plate, especially Monday morning! Thanks for raw brutal honesty. Leo from zenhabits and Tim Ferriss would be proud of you! :) - paisano
yikes - good luck Chris, I hope you can get ahead of the curve!! - Adam Singer
Nothing like a little honesty, humility...and human-ness. Good stuff Chris. Got nothing for you. It happens :-) - Richard Binhammer
i don't know if i should chuckle or not... - karim
I was seriously going to call you today. hehe. glad I read this first. - Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins
I know the feeling - Duncan Riley
this made me laugh. ha! - Clintus
Blog
July 16 at 12:42 pm - Link
Sweet! I was just about through my Canon EOS book and need some resources. Good timing; thx! - Kevin C. Tofel
Thanks, just in time for my new 40D. - Alexei Tolkachev
thanks for posting this, Thomas!! i think i have some reading to do! - carlotta fancypants
the most useful one for me is actually the one that refers back to your workflow. I was going to email you about this, I am very pleased that you have documented this for us aspiring amateur hobbyists. That being said I will be sharing the link both here on FF and via del.icio.us. Once again thanks for this Thomas. - Carlos Ayala
thanks for the link Thomas - glad you liked it. - Darren Rowse
Thanks for the link. I should write my workflow up too. One day... - Jauder Ho via twhirl
Blog
July 6 at 7:28 am - Link
This is a great list. I especially liked #4: "4. There is no such thing as bad weather." This is so true. I'm always amazed that people want to wimp out when it's raining when some of the most amazing photographs taken come from rainy weather. - Thomas Hawk
Excellent list! I have found that I already follow quite a few of the items on your list, but still learned a few new ones. Great advice. - Jeff P. Henderson
All right I must come back and re-read after dinner. I dug #4. - Mathew A. Koeneker
I love photography. Following Martin and digitial photography school on google reader - Phillip Jeffrey
thanks everyone for your comments - Darren Rowse
#4 yes there is , come to canada and shoot in mid january in 3 ft of snow and 30 degree weather ... I still dont like it http://www.flickr.com/photos/j... - fotographic
Bad weather here in the SF bay area is temperatures below 40F and 2 inches of rain in one day ;-) - Jeff P. Henderson
Yap - thanks everyone !!! Good to see some conversation going on in here ;) - Martin Gommel
Blog
July 7 at 7:22 am - Link
Im gonna pass this along to a few of my flickr groups , thanks - fotographic
I think it's a mistake to assume that photos are all about the photography. More often it's the subject matter itself which is the point of any discussion. It's like as if blog comments were always about the author's writing style rather than what they are writing about. - Andy Roberts
this post went crazy on Digg today - thanks for passing it on fotographic - Darren Rowse
your welcome darren , always enjoy the blog - fotographic
I enjoyed this article, I know I'm sometimes guilty of being overcritical or just posting snarky comments. - sergiooo (droffset)
FriendFeed
July 5 at 7:21 am - Link
For me, it depends on why it got the traffic. If because of Digg, Slashdot, etc. No. If because I see tons of "thanks for writing this" reader comments, Yes. - Kevin C. Tofel
It's more of search traffic from google, the comments are present, but not overwhelmingly more than other posts (my blog is less than two months old) but people are searching this topic more than the others I posted. Thanks for the comment. - Keith Bloemendaal
If people are searching about this topic using a variety of different search key phrases then it's worth adding more content in the form of additional posts. If it's all on one specific search phrase then that's good too, because you may be able to spin off a whole new blog just about that phrase. - Andy Roberts
Thanks Andy, they are using a variety of search terms. - Keith Bloemendaal
like others - for me it depends on the source of traffic. If it's Search traffic, I do a couple of things: 1. optimize the page so it ranks even better. This involves some on page optimization as well as linking to it from other relevant pagses on the blog. 2. write related posts (usually not on exactly the same topic but on related ones that either extend the post, find a similar topic etc. - Darren Rowse
any posts about how to optimize a poplar post or page? - Miguel Wickert- Pineiro
will write something on that Miguel - keep tuned into ProBlogger - Darren Rowse
A related technical question: how to approximate/relate bandwidth to #visitors. Limits of virtual compared to dedicated. Host reliability, etc. - phil baumann
That's an easy one. YES! Expand on the topic any way you can. Ask for user experiences, turn it into a detailed series, do polls, how-tos, tweaking, etc. And don't blow the whole was at once. Space it out. Do other stories in between to keep the site from becoming just about that topic, which (like anything else) could become a past fad at any point and no longer relevant. - Ernie Oporto
I've been wondering about this very issue myself. How far do you go to capitalize on a great post. - Todd
it's important to do at least some analysis as to why it was so popular and performed so well. Sometimes the content had little to do with it. - Allen Stern
Thanks for all the responses, my blog is a niche that I have not found many other blogs to look to for topic help, and I am having a new wordpress site built by iBusinessLogic.com (Scott Pooler) and am working on some ideas for two more sites. This post in question has now quadrupled the traffic on any other post I have written, so I will be working on expanding the topic in the near future. - Keith Bloemendaal
I have a couple of posts getting traffic because they were linked from another site. I also just noticed I'm getting a small amount of google traffic. I would definitely like to see a strategy to capitalize on this situation. - Rahsheen Porter
I ended up creating two separate series on the blog based on the post's success. It allowed me to expand and use other networks to grow the audience even more. - Andre Natta
awesome, thanks Darren! I'm looking forward to it. :) - Miguel Wickert- Pineiro
Yep. In fact I did so earlier today after looking at analytics and saw organic traffic coming in from a certain post. - Brian Weaver
@Keith I think that if the first doubling does not push you to expand on the post, the continous grow is a clear sign that it has to do with the content, and not just "lucked out on digg". - Roland Hesz
It would make sense, but I'm guilty of not capitalising on it and just letting that one post bring in the traffic - Adam Christie
I write my blog for me, there are subjects that get more attention but I am not going to sell out what I enjoy doing! - Joe Dawson
@ Joe Dawson I write my blog for consumers, and if they are searching heavily on a subject, why not give them what they are looking for at my blog, especially if it has to do with my niche (which happens to be very small), so if trying to give them what they are looking for, while at the same time attracting more readers, then OK, I will sell out as you put it. My blog is not monetized though, so I get no money for it, I write on it for free, I would think selling out would have some monetary benefit to me. - Keith Bloemendaal
it all depends. tempting to cash in on popularity but if you're not passionate about it, others can tell &blogging becomes a dreadful chore. - jane
I would certainly add in a few links to other relevant posts, or perhaps add a little note suggesting that readers might like to sign up to the RSS feed or newsletter. Realistically these posts often attract transient traffic but some of that can be translated into regular readers for sure! - Winston
Twitter
Darren Rowse posted a message on Twitter
FriendFeed
ProBlogger Room: Nancy Nally posted a message
June 10 at 12:05 pm - Link
yeah - I immediately thought of it more as a good tool to update my blog/moderate comments etc - but mobile readers will continue to increase! - Darren Rowse
FriendFeed
ProBlogger Room: Maki posted a link
June 10 at 9:36 am - via Bookmarklet - Link
"Windows Live Writer (WLW) is a visual blog editor for Windows. It integrates with most blogging platforms (WordPress, TypePad, Movable Type, Blogger, and others), allowing you to see how your posts will appear in your blog's theme, even when you're offline." - Maki
Twitter
Darren Rowse posted a message on Twitter
FriendFeed
Social Media: Reem Abeidoh posted a link
June 4 at 11:57 am - via Bookmarklet - Link
nice overview mu :) one thing about the replies not showing up in a public timeline - i think a lot of the replies end up being quirky smily face replies, and just friendly remarks, which would really clutter up the timeline (though of course not all of them are - this is just my first 24 hours observation). a good solution is just to reply in a new thread so that you can be heard if you have something important or interesting to add and then link back to the original persons plurk i.e. http://www.plurk.com/p/3yrh - jaybol
I've been allocating my friendfeed time to Plurk. Damn that site is addictive. - Maki
@maki I feel you, I'm caught in a vicious love triangle with Plurk, Friendfeed and a half working twitter. Lets see who will win my long term affection=) - Steaprok
Maki - Re-tune your FF and split the time. Trust me ??!! - Charlie Anzman
Playing with Plurk today too - http://plurk.com/redeemByURL?f... - Darren Rowse
"Import" your plurk feed as a "blog." I agree, @Maki, addictive and fun! - Kimberly J
there is a FF Room for it BTW http://friendfeed.com/rooms/pl... - David Harry
Hey Darren, good to see you in here. I've been plurking so much you can call me a Plurkaholic. The experience so far is leaps ahead of Twitter and FriendFeed. Now we just need a bigger community (which is thankfully taking hold quite fast). - Muhammad Saleem
It sure is addictive, but I really can't see this going mainstream...even if the karma keeps people around. - Ryne Nelson
msaleem, already creating another room for plurk? :D - Syahid A.
Plurk is too much wurk - I am not a fan - Leslie Poston
FriendFeed
ProBlogger Room: Darren Rowse posted a message
June 1 at 7:35 pm - Link
Absolutely I would! - Traci Knoppe
Yes I would and I would look forward to it also. - Grant Griffiths via twhirl
Yes Yes YES! Any more questions? LOL - Nancy Nally
Yep Yep Yep. I'd love to hang around :) - Shankar Ganesh
I think it's a mistake to not start one Darren. Think of all the content ideas you could get from it. Ala searchenginerountable....via feedalizr - Jim Kukral
No, my attention is too divided as it is with social media and writing - Leslie Poston
I think it is a great idea, but you need a team of moderators who are truly democratic and open to controversial issue! If you start banning users because you do not agree with what they saying, it will be a negative backlash for Problogger! While I have all the confidence in Darren, but I cannot see Darren always moderating the forum. So unless Darren has a group of individuals who he can trust and delegate this authority, while at the same time supervising them, it is better not to do it! - Igor The Troll
So Darren please ask yourself this question, "Do I have the proper resources to run a forum?" And resources means technology, people, and your own time and energy! - Igor The Troll
FOLLOW UP QUESTION - what areas/topics would you like such a forum to cover (if you answer yes that is) - Darren Rowse
While I think a forum would work well on your site, because you have such a large and strong community already, Igor has a good point. The resources to run a forum are very different from running a blog. As for topics to cover. Look at http://forum.authorityblogger.... they have a good start for a blogging forum and topics. - LGR
Regarding the follow up question... I think it should cover all the obvious topics, like social media, SEO, affiliate programs, AdSense, etc. Another interesting forum would be an "ethics" forum or something along those lines, for people to discuss their views on the ethics of various promotion/monetisation strategies. - Eric Daams
I would love one, Darren. I think it could be a great place for bloggers to connect, find like-minded people, and have a place they feel they can have a voice with other bloggers. - Mark Frost
I think the topics should be Social Networking, SEO, Advertising, Writing Advice, Viral Marketing, and maybe some off-topic sections. Just promise to use vBulletin, Darren. - Mark Frost
I agree about the topics! - Igor The Troll
Cannot see why not...but could be difficult for you to moderate? - Luke Harvey-Palmer
What about a Wiki? Self moderating, would contain similar info to the forum? - Luke Harvey-Palmer
Who is going to write the wiki? Average Joe, same like Wikipedia? - Igor The Troll
Definitely. It would be a great resource for new, old and soon to be bloggers. - Patrick Britton
I go with the forum Webmasterworld, Lonelyplanet Tree! These are great communities! - Igor The Troll
Maybe Igor could write on the Wiki? - Luke Harvey-Palmer
No thank you! Did my Wiki days on Wikipedia! It is very hard to maintain an industry wiki unless you have professional editors. - Igor The Troll
I would probably decline if Darren asked me to be a moderator on the forum! It is a lot of work and you have to be impartial, fair, and respect all members beginners and advance! - Igor The Troll
I would love to see a forum on ProBlogger, but like many people who have already commented, I am concerned about whether ProBlogger has the resources to run one. - Riayn
Sure, I'd really like to use it too!! - Desi
I would sure visit it a few times a week. - Michael
I'd like to make one more point because I know Problogger is already a massive sort of community even without a forum, but there is no real way for a blogger to get sort of instant feedback from other bloggers about their progress. Take for instance if I wanted help developing my writing skills to connect more with readers or needed tips on how to be more creative, I could probably get feedback within minutes. - Mark Frost
I'm confident Darren can pull together a team to help. I moderate a large forum and would be willing to help or moderate a new ProBlogger forum as well. I'm a web designer, so could help on installing a forum too, if help was needed with that. - Traci Knoppe
Isn't that what we're using now... lol - Martin Jamieson
No thanks. There are plenty of forums for bloggers already. Too much UGC at problogger might allow Darren to retire completely and kill off the main blog itself. - Andy Roberts
Yes for a forum. Get a few forum users to moderate it. - Guinevere Orvis
If you make a forum, make sure you integrate the blog. Make it so that each of your blog posts spawns a thread in the forum where people can respond. Have the comments from your blog and the comments from the forum thread cross-pollinate, so that the discussion is complete. If you do this, there will be less of a wall between your blog and the forums. - Ed Healy
@Ed I'm not sure that's a good idea and that has been one of the things keeping Darren from making a ProBlogger forum in the past. I think if he makes a forum, the discussions should be separate from that of the blog and its posts as to not have the two interfere with each other. - Mark Frost
Is there a reason why tying them together would be bad? If the concern is whether forum posts will pollute the quality of the blog comments, one solution is to have the cross-pollination only go one way. IOW, have the blog populate forum threads (post only, no comments), so that people can discuss the blog in the forums, but stop the tie-in there. - Ed Healy
Yes, but only if you'd participate too. :) - Sarah Parker
I'm not a very big fan of forums. At least, not anymore. I think that the way things go on ProBlogger's FriendFeed Room and comments on the blog it's about right for my needs of communication. It seams I appreciate a lot more the simplicity of FF conversations. - Alex Cristache
The two comments I posted this morning (WordPress questions) are exactly the sort of thing that I would love a forum for! - Nancy Nally
Find like-minded people to interact with in one place. - Janette Toral
thanks everyone for your opinions - lots to think about here. I agree though - I'd only do this if I can find enough moderators to help cover the load. This is what I did at my photography blog and it worked quite well. - Darren Rowse
FriendFeed
June 3 at 10:59 pm - Link
P.S. It's a customized WP "Sandbox" 3-column blog design. - Cathryn Hrudicka
Sidebar on the right is supposed to be better for SEO, but heck if it looks good, keep it. - Tris Hussey
@Tris why right-side sidebar is better in terms of SEO? thanks! - Jansen Lu
Thanks for your responses, friends. Tris, why is a right sidebar better in terms of SEO? I was thinking more in terms of placement for users to take action, such as subscribing, signing up for e-letter, etc. Does left sidebar make that harder? Does it matter if users are right or left handed? BTW, my company "pages" will be in a top band beneath colorful, pretty banners at top of blogsites. Obviously, I want users to click on "pages," so they stand out on top. Robert, thanks for checking this convo.:-) - Cathryn Hrudicka
Here is what I've been told. Because HTML is read top down, often the left side bar info comes before the content on the page. So engine have all that crud to go through first, then your content. People look to the right first ... then left ... then right. So I'd put a newsletter sign up right side, towards the top. - Tris Hussey
A right sidebar would only have SEO benefits because usually it means your actual content is appearing first (to the search engine spider), meaning there is less chance of it getting lost, there may put slightly higher importance placed on it etc. unless you've got a really complex sidebar with a lot of javascript etc. it's probably not a huge issue. - Martin Jamieson
Thanks, this is great info. I'll copy this discussion & send to the two people working on my sites. I do have good SEO as far as titles, meta, key words in blog content, etc., so hopefully this would overcome the sidebar being to the left of the blog, but maybe we can change it. I could test it both ways, as I've been changing my blogs openly for months, and ask readers' opinions about how it looks and works. Thanks again. - Cathryn Hrudicka
Another thought: If blog categories or tags are in far left sidebar, that should help SEO if I incorporate key search words & phrases in my tags/categories. Also, page titles on top banner should help SEO, no matter where side bar is, right? Top would be read by Google first, before any columns, so I need to choose page titles carefully. If users tend to look right-left-right, that would still work well for getting them to read my blog. Wonder where studies are on this, how eyes move on sites. I'll search. - Cathryn Hrudicka
Page titles are probably your #1 concern for on-page SEO, however don't get too caught up on the rest of it, anything you do on the page is only a tiny part of the algorithm. The main thing you should concentrate on is getting relevant and contextual links to your pages from good websites. - Martin Jamieson
FriendFeed
ProBlogger Room: Jansen Lu posted a message
June 3 at 7:17 pm - Link
Ask questions and request suggestions in every post. :) - Sarah Parker
Engage the commentator. It is a two way Street! - Igor The Troll
Do you have a conversation strategy? http://beth.typepad.com/beths_... - Beth Kanter
FriendFeed
June 3 at 2:32 pm - Link
Networking is fun and rewarding, but is so overwhelming and a time sucker. It's a catch 22 as I do believe it is key to my blog's continued growth. I find that my traffic goes down if I slow down on networking for a few days, but I don't want to be a computer addict either. :) - Sarah Parker
Finding time and energy to post properly. My earlier pro-blogger attempts were mostly link posts, which failed miserably. Now, I'm vastly better at original content creation, but with a fairly full-on day job, I find it hard to find time and energy to create well. - Andrew Garrett
Getting more readers for the blog and trying balance that with actually having time to write posts for the blog. - Trisha
Finding ways to be comfortable blogging about several totally unrelated topics all on one blog. Trying to write for different audiences without impinging on each other. - Andy Roberts
It's hard to stay organized reviewing the incoming information that I need to stay apprised of to get the news and information I need to write my posts. There's feeds to read, news sites to browse, social networks to keep up with... I'm sure it takes me longer to do than it probably should. - Nancy Nally
Does it mater where you post? Unless you trying to become rich from selling Adsense on your blog you should be able to garnish interest and followers even if you only post on social media networks. So do not be a "Blogger" only person but post were it is relevant. By having this kind of mentality you will have enough time for your off line activities. It is not the number of people who visit your blog, but how many people read what you write on the Internet as well as off the Internet. - Igor The Troll
all good stuff, thanks... post is taking me longer to write than expected and I've got to go out for a few hours... working at home with two young kids after a few days of rain that kept them inside and unable to run-off their energy is definitely my biggest challenge, lol. so keep em coming, I'll post the link here when it's done. - Martin Jamieson
Thanks again to everyone who commented, my post about facing challenges can be found here: http://marketing-seo.com/blog-... - Martin Jamieson
nice use of the room Martin - will check out the post, it was a good discussion. - Darren Rowse
FriendFeed
ProBlogger Room: Sarah Parker posted a message
June 2 at 11:47 am - Link
Set up some email templates covering a few typical answers, requests etc. As for commenting, try to answer as much as you can without messing your schedule. Look especially for those comments that could further develop a conversation. - Alex Cristache
Try to reply to several commenters in one comment of your own, there's no need to reply to everyone seperately - Stephen B via Alert Thingy
Batch process comments and email. Darren had a good post on clearing your email inbox efficiently: http://www.problogger.net/arch... - Maki
Thank you. I am always afraid someone will feel left out. :( But I can't spend my life responding to comments and emails, I realize. I know I feel slightly bummed when I leave really thoughtful comments on someone's post and they do not respond, So I'm afraid of accidentally overlooking the same person, esp repeatedly. But I need to get over it. Thanks for the advice! - Sarah Parker
Sarah - this is a common problem. In addition to the link Maki left above I've written another - http://www.problogger.net/arch... on this exact problem. Hope it helps - Darren Rowse
Close your comments unless you willing to engage your commentators! You do not need to respond to everyone, even though it is desirable, but respond to main themes. Darren does it one way, Maki another way! I respond to all. - Igor The Troll
Thanks again, guys. I really appreciate it. - Sarah Parker
Sarah, you should read this link about Gary Vaynerchuk where he talks about his daily email routine with commenters from his podcast: http://www.hooversbiz.com/2008... - Nancy Nally
Thank you Nancy! - Sarah Parker
FriendFeed
June 1 at 5:12 am - via Bookmarklet - Link
Problogger testing a new Anit-Spam filter TypePad AntiSpam. So do not panic if your comment is held for moderation! - Igor The Troll
so far it's been great. Not a single person complaining of comments being eaten in 24 hours. Comments are still being moderated (Akismet did this too) but less false positives as far as I can see - Darren Rowse
Great job Darren very professionally done! I like the idea that you did a test post to see if there would be a problem. I recommend to all Bloggers when installing a new Anti-Spam filter to keep an eye on moderation cue, because you do not want a commentator to feel bad if their relevant comments are flagged for moderation! Akismet has a big problem with False positives. You can see my PHSDL Anti-Spam project documentation about Akismet false positive here. http://www.phsdl.net/phsdl-vs-... - Igor The Troll
yes we've been watching the spam filter carefully. It's hard to watch everything it filters (we get tens of thousands of comment spams a day) but I'm yet to see any go through falsely of the thousand or two that I've scanned through. - Darren Rowse
Darren try PHSDL it will eliminate 95% of Spam even reaching the comment moderation cue! - Igor The Troll
I can't get mine to work - Michael
FriendFeed
ProBlogger Room: Sharon posted a link
May 31 at 4:23 pm - Link
Looks like a great start! - Nancy Nally
welcome to the blogsphere! - Heidi Cool
Sharon, the blogger. Welcome! (Tip: Make use of paragraphs when you write. Helps people read easier.) - Alex Cristache
Welcome... I'm new to blogging also. Just starting to figure out Blogger (after experimenting with Tribe.Net for 150 posts). Then later maybe WordPress... Any blogger tips are very welcome! - Mitchell Tsai
There is no formula for blogging, just go with your passion! - Igor The Troll
welcome to blogging! - Darren Rowse
You are in the right place! Get to know the community and have fun! - Igor The Troll
Great Blog to learn the ins and out! lol Very Educational. - Igor The Troll
FriendFeed
Darren Rowse posted a message
May 30 at 5:34 am - Link
that should have been 'stranger' not 'strange' - Darren Rowse
does that make you question your openness? I have always been hesitant to give much in terms of family details. - Rob Diana
yeah - a little. I don't generally use my family's name. The only time I did was when my son was born almost 2 years ago - although I do call him 'X' and there are not too many X names out there :-) - Darren Rowse
I am the same Darren, I think I reveal too much in my blog at times but I never mention anyone's names and try not to detail in advance where I am going. You never know who's reading! - Joe Dawson
it's always a tough one becaue you want to be personal as that is engaging but too personal has its dangers - Darren Rowse
Interesting topic here! I humbly think that the bad thing in social networks in general is the cult of "person", when it should be the cult of "concepts" and ideas... but I may be wrong... Am I ? :) - directeur
FriendFeed
ProBlogger Room: Darren Rowse posted a message
May 30 at 4:51 am - Link
Awesome! - Shelly Weiss
Looks nice! - Igor The Troll
i feel all warm and fuzzy about it.... - now we just need bean bags - Darren Rowse
It's nice to have somewhere to land the helicopter. - Andy Roberts
LOL - i'd never looked at it that way..... now I just need a ProBlogger chopper to land on it! - Darren Rowse
Darren, soon, soon! You will be a celebrity before you know it. lol But I doubt you want to be one! - Igor The Troll
We're styling now! - Nancy Nally
Excellent! - Arachne Jericho
It looks great up there! - Joseph Z.
This is great idea to let people know it is a part of ProBlogger community, not a part of Friendfeed:) - Oliver Ding
Twitter
drew olanoff posted a message on Twitter
Seesmic
Robert Scoble posted a video on Seesmic
Blame Scoble? Bulls**t.
May 30 at 5:07 am - Link
I twittered about twitter lame excuse ~5 hr ago...they can't be serious. - Tal Keinan
The comments are really pissing me off. FriendFeed is 1000 times more reliable. Twitter was going down before I even got popular on the service. Their architecture has always sucked and everyone knows it. They've never been able to get a handle on the quality of their service and now it looks like they are blaming their top users. Wonderful. I'll just go to the service that CAN keep up with my load. So far FriendFeed has been. - Robert Scoble
*face palm* - Andrew Dobrow
Have I missed something? Have Twitter actually blamed you (and other "super-users" for their problems? (UPDATE - Ahh, scratch that, just found the post). - Ian Betteridge
Ian, yes, they did in their latest technical post. Not using my name, but they said that noisy users with lots of followers are part of what's causing lots of load on their systems. - Robert Scoble
VentureBeat post in question http://venturebeat.com/2008/05... - Andrew Dobrow
Twitters excuses are pathetic. If one power user could take down Twitter, they should stop their services. Okay, Robert Scoble is a real power user. But if a service can't handle one of those guys, it shouldn't be on the web. - Ryo
Time for the "noisy users" to take their conversations elsewhere? I wonder where they could go that would support them and be able to handle the traffic they bring with them....hmmm. - cmiper
Ridiculous. It is NEVER the community's fault. And it's NEVER ok to blame the community. I missed this excerpt on my initial reading of the post on dev.twitter. Even if the technical basis is because of some sort of data pileup, that's because of their shitty scaling and their lack of planning from public launch. They should be able to handle a rapid succession of actions if they had their head screwed on straight. - Andrew Dobrow
OK, so this is what Payne actually said: "The events that hit our system the hardest are generally when “popular” users - that is, users with large numbers of followers and people they’re following - perform a number of actions in rapid succession. This usually results in a number of big queries that pile up in our database(s). Not running scripts to follow thousands of users at a time would be a help, but that’s behavior we have to limit on our side." - Ian Betteridge
Agreed - It's all BS to blame you for their technical issues. Maybe we revisit the pay service debate? It's only going to grow. Twitter has to have the ability to keep the fire going. - Lisa Thompson
And even if this IS the case. The fact that Twitter didn't plan for this by having some sort of friend limit is THEIR administrative absent-mindedness. - Andrew Dobrow
My question is, isn't FriendFeed sustaining the same impact when we all get on here and 'chat'? I've never had a problem with FriendFeed, and most especially never got the annoying pic of the birds carrying a whale..... - Paula Hawk
Robert, Twitter has recently been pretty open about what its architectural problems are lately. The way I read what Payne is saying isn't that he's blaming "popular" users: he's explaining, openly, where the system is not coping as well as it should. As for how FriendFeed does it... think of the network effect. Think of how the number of interconnections times the number of users affects the number of total database queries. You can work it out :) - Ian Betteridge
To be fair a) Friendfeed could hit the same problems if it becomes as popular and b) what they are saying may actually be true. This may be the cause of the database jams. This is reasonably unchartered territory and technical hitches like this will be discovered. It's like heating chemicals to extreme temperatures - sometimes strange shit happens. -