i guess its safe to assume you & gabe don't 'click'.. - Zee.

Zee: I was Gabe's #1fan for a long time. Then he took a wrongturn. I hope he sees the error of his ways in time but based on his tweets he won't. - Robert Scoble

Zee: here's another way to look at it. Where will TechMeme's traffic come from? People linking to it, talking about it, etc. Will pros do that very often? No. I've been tracking that. They don't like linking to things they don't control. Will bloggers do that? Yes, but not if they aren't on there. Same for Twitterers and FriendFeeders. At least if I send traffic to friendfeed and TechFuga I know that I have a shot at being on those pages (and so do my videos, which I put a LOT more work into than any blogs) - Robert Scoble

Zee:in the past year TechMeme has gone much more heavily "pro" with all sorts of news from sites like Wall Street Journal and New York Times. These journalists will very rarely link to techmeme, which means traffic growth will be very slow. This is why Twitter is growing so fast. CNN can be guaranteed a spot on Twitter and will therefore talk about it and link to it. Same here on friendfeed (where some famous blog/journalist networks are already building intranets that are using private rooms). - Robert Scoble

This is a fundamental misjudgment of Gabe's. Also, whenever I see Gabe he has disdain for many people here on friendfeed and doesn't see that very many people here are authoritative. That exclusivity and elitism served him well when he was picking winners from the blogging world and helping that world to grow, but now he's going to find it hurts his ability to get our help (I predict he'll turn on features that look like facebook and friendfeed in 2009). - Robert Scoble

Of course,my misjudgment might be in attacking him. Gabe can keep me from ever appearing on techmeme. Which is a risk I'm willing to take. He's already kept all my video work off of techmeme and that hasn't hurt me too much, it just made me work harder to get people to know about my videos. - Robert Scoble

By the way, is this a blog post? Yes, it is. The fact that I'd rather post here than on my blog should tell you something. - Robert Scoble

who is behind techfuga btw? - Matt Hooper

What are the key differences of techfuga that make it more effective than techmeme? - Ryan Craver

Matt: I don't know. I've never met them. I will definitely seek them out in the new year to learn more about them. Ryan: techfuga has a room here on friendfeed, doesn't treat friendfeeders as idiots and uses the gestures we're putting into the system here to build the news page on techfuga. Will it work? I don't know, but it is interesting to watch. - Robert Scoble

thanks Robert - will definitely keep an eye on this one too :) - Matt Hooper

Really interesting Robert...Curious though, how much traffic does being on the top of techmeme bring you. From my knowledge, it really isnt that significant in comparison Hacker News, Digg...It does obviously have quite a following amongst bloggers of course but from what I've been reading Gabe is pissing off quite a few high profile ones. However, he does have Arrington on board...wonder how long that love story will last - Zee.

Robert YES this is a blog post AND I love it!!! :) I fully agree with you on Techneme and hope Gabe drinks the FF koolaid soon... err... sees the light soon!! - Susan Beebe

Zee: I usually get 1,000 to 1,500 unique visits by being on top of techmeme. You are right that the others bring more traffic, but they generally don't bring as quality an audience (most insiders like VCs, PR, and CEOs read techmeme every day -- I know this because I ask). - Robert Scoble

For me that's still a pretty nice traffic bump, but lately twitter and friendfeed and google reader bring me most of the "quick" traffic. Arrington told me a couple of days ago that 2% of his traffic comes from Twitter and 60% comes from Google. That matches my stats. - Robert Scoble

Bravo Robert, thanks for the in depth response, and on FF. Let the addiction continue! - Eric @ CSTechcast.com

i couldn't establish a RSS feed of http://www.techfuga.com/ yet ; ( - ewing2001akaNicomedy2010

wonder if a meme like section on Friendfeed would work...And whether TechFuga is a success or not..it's great to see some competition in the space. Unless i'm mistaken, you have been up there on Techmeme a fair few times recently...so it hasn't got to the point where Gabe is taking your beef personally. With Duncan Riley, it's incredible how they have completely blacklisted his content now... - Zee.

Zee: Gabe really dislikes Duncan (for a variety of reasons). I'm sure I'm getting close to getting blacklisted if I keep this up. It doesn't bother me, though. There's 140 million people on Facebook and I haven't even STARTED to make use of that yet. Techfuga needs work to be considered a success. Right now it's interesting and it shows that Techmeme has gone in the wrong direction: after Google News instead of making use of the rapidly growing audiences on Twitter, Facebook, and friendfeed. - Robert Scoble

ewing2001: yes, Techfuga is really lame for not understanding the role of feeds and permalinks. If you don't get the basics right you won't be able to take market share away from existing properties. - Robert Scoble

Hey but what do I know, I'm just an outsider trying to look in. Correct me if I'm wrong? Failure to innovate and improve equals a quick burial. - Mike Fruchter

@duncanriley nice discussion about crunchmeme. Would love your comments - Sidharth Dassani from fftogo

Robert I love it when you bare all and expose the weakness of the industry because it forces everyone to step up to a higher standard. I value your opinion because not only are you smart but also you have the courage to speak up and demand change!! Techmeme has degraded itself to buzzmeme and by doing so has reduced its relevancy and credibilty! Gabe should take heed and adjust Techmeme or watch his site become obsolete fast!! - Susan Beebe

I can't see Gabe's comments, so I'm going blind in this entry, but here goes. The problem with Techmeme is that it's a service that pitches itself into 2.0, but doesn't play by the rules. It excludes sites based on personal likes/ dislikes, and doesn't give a true picture. Gabe can justify this all he wants, but as a strategy we know how exclusive services fare in the broader market. The name of the game is linking out more, including more, offering the best of more people. Techmeme's traffic as tracked - Duncan Riley

by nearly every service speaks for itself. The hardest thing for Gabe will be the tight market: ppl want value for money, and a small, elite group might be a good sell in good times, but it's a hard sell today and next year. As Scoble points out, we're also now seeing competitors, so that place at the top is more under threat than in previous years. - Duncan Riley

Gabes had a good run and I congratulate him for it. 2009 though will kill Techmeme unless he drops the crap and starts joining the broader 2.0 community in being open, transparent, and most importantly fair. None of those are currently happening on Techmeme, no matter what the last suckhole (hi MG) says. - Duncan Riley

Duncan: there is still a lot of value in techmeme's algorithms. Generally Techmeme does find a lot of interesting news and doesn't let much noise except for bitchmemes onto it and even they only appear in slow news days. I just think it was strategically stupid for him to go down that path when the interesting stuff is happening elsewhere. - Robert Scoble

I find it shocking how fast Gabe went from being a brilliant one-man operator to a unilateral douche. This exposes a lot about our tight culture. - Mitch

Google "Tweetree" and my blog post is on page 1, but not in Techmeme's discussions. I'm glad. - Bwana ☠

I don't understand what Gabe did wrong. Can someone enlighten me? - trextor

Trextor: apparently Gabe took some sort of "wrong turn." That's really all I understand. - Mitch

Mitch and trextor: I like Gabe. But for about a year now I have been telling him that he made a mistake in making techmeme all about "pro" news. So far he has been right to ignore me but now it is clear that Twitter and Facebook and Friendfeed are causing things to happen in a way that shows the disadvantage of Gabe's inflexible approach. He thinks I am stupid to spend so much time on friendfeed and therefore is calling you stupid. I don't see it that way and 2009 will prove to be an interesting battle ... - Robert Scoble

...in the two approaches. Duncan's issues are noise to the real strategic issues here. This showdown has been a year in the making and there are some interesting competitors coming soon (far more interesting than alltop or techfuga). - Robert Scoble

Scoble throws us another bone. you evil evil man - Bwana ☠

Now we get to bug you about these new competitors :) - Bwana ☠

It's like a love-triangle, but for egos. - Mitch

Mitch: I used to be Techmeme's #1 evangelist but back then Techmeme was all about new voices. Bloggers. Very few businesses and "pros" were on it. Back then it was a lot like friendfeed or twitter are today. Then Gabe kept making it more and more about the pros. friendfeed became the place to find disruptive voices. I like disruption more than orthodoxy so we started growing apart. Arrington's intervention with me was another part of that. - Robert Scoble

Mitch: it is all about ego AND money! That is why it gets nuts! - Robert Scoble

Current top 'tech' headline on TechFuga: "Thrilled to have great seats at this hockey game! Woot!"... from FriendFeed. Doh! - Christopher Galtenberg

So your inherent biases are very dynamic. This is what I wished Louis Gray would have touched on more in his recent blog post. There is sometimes good cause not to be a diehard fan of company X: things change. - Mitch

Christopher: I don't see that but I do see some stupid stuff under friendfeed. - Robert Scoble

Hi: This is Joao from TechFuga; it seems I arrived a bit late here...give me a second and I will replay to almost all of you...Joao TechFuga - TechFuga

Yes! We are very pleased and thankfully, to Robert; that in fact he is our “Godfather” here on FriendFeed. In addition, Do not get me wrong! - Robert can say positive and negative feedback about our service as quite often he does and that is what we need. That is what we would like to hear from all you. What you like and what you do not like., - TechFuga

About Videos been featured in TechFuga: and this is not to please Robert, who quite often mentions about it not been on techmeme; we will be adding Tech Videos. From the very outset when we started this project, we thought about it. Therefore, we have lots of bone to chew until then as probably you all see the current issues facing us on the front page (lots of irrelevant news and noise and less signal) nevertheless, it will come ...Joao/TechFuga - TechFuga

@Robert: i think you are mischaracterizing Gabe's perspective. i doubt most people (bloggers or otherwise) feel that Techmeme has taken a "wrong turn", regardless whether he's dialed up the authority component or not. i can't speak to Duncan's issues with Gabe, but i doubt he's as personally vindictive as you claim. he may have his biases for sure, but in general i hold his ethics in high regard. in any case, Techmeme marches to its own drummer and i think that's fine. i still check it every day. lots. - dave mcclure

TechMeMe's still a keeper ... and I expect it will be for a long time. - Charlie Anzman

Dave: I doubt most people would agree with me here too. We will see how it plays out. I too watch techmeme lots but I check it 1/100th what I used to. It will be interesting to compare your usage again in six months. As for ethics. I am not impugning those. This is not about ethics, although Riley and him have differences. For me it is about choices he made that are business decisions. I am ahead of you there. - Robert Scoble

Robert - The reality is that Gabe managed to keep TechMeMe alive and well (and still drawing advertisers) this long .... which by anyone's measure is impressive. I just checked out techfuga and it's a great mix ... Time will tell. On a larger scale, it would be 'nice' to see PopUrls lose Spike?! and Alltop to become 1-step easier to navigate - Charlie Anzman

Charlie: Gabe is smart. I am sure he will do OK. - Robert Scoble

I watched your twitter exchange up to you signing off on my G1..wanted to weigh in really bad...I feel you Robert on your positions last night and your personal disclosure and cultural sensitivity. I appreciate your mind and your realization that new business models MUST evolve.. as must new Mindsets....CHANGE...I awakened this morning with that subject on my mind and decided to come out of hiding and post my Diary..... - bcultral

It seems to me like Gabe's just taking a different strategy - he's attacking the business and mainstream end, vs. the early adopter audience that got him to where he is now. Learning to adapt is good - as long as he continues to adapt, and focuses on an end goal he'll be successful. Unfortunately, adapting has to abandon some, in this case being the early adopters. Will this be successful? I can't say - I don't have his balance sheets to tell where the money is, but he seems like a smart guy. - Jesse Stay