In fact, most of these conversations aren't even in English. - Robert Scoble

so.... not in English= not smart? Maybe you could learn some of the languages. You'd be smarter then! - Vicarbott

Jeremy: I used to think that too, but then I unfollowed everyone and changed my strategy. My lists are very good now for getting smarter. - Robert Scoble

Jim: not in English = not making ME smarter unless I translate and, even then, finding good conversations is very difficult. Most of the conversations on FriendFeed are pablum, sorry. For instance, the item underneath this one on my screen reads "Just smashed a finger between a pair of 45 pound plates." OK. - Robert Scoble

Clearly your definition of 'good conversation' needs revision. If you think that a conversation cannot be 'good' unless it makes you smarter than you have a worldview that's much too small. Yes, that's RAPatton with the smashed finger. If you knew anything about Robert then you might find that post to be significant. You might learn something about Robert and the many, many physical trials he's had to endure in his life. - Vicarbott

Smart is not in what information you get, who you talk to. Smart is in how you use the information you get, - Brian Sullivan

+++Brian - Melanie Reed

Robert, thank you for sharing that information about smashing up one's fingers. Just the meme presenting itself into my conscientiousness so that it may be drawn up in some future potential accident with my hands may indeed help me by association to avoid it! :) It's not all useless. - Melanie Reed

Jim: I don't want to talk about everything in the world that's happening to everyone. Maybe you want to talk about Tiger Woods and his problems or how someone smashed their fingers, but I don't. I'm looking for something smarter. - Robert Scoble

Your request appears to be best handled by Google Wave these days since it is easy to lose threads in most other tools. - Roney Smith

No Robert you are looking for something Techier which coincidentally does not equal smarter.. Different yes, smarter no. You are starting to act like that annoying person who keeps going to parties just to complain about everything. If you don't want to be here don't be here. I'm getting tired of your weekly friendfeed is dead bash on friendfeed thread. - Rasmus Lauridsen

robert, what someone... (perhaps louis gray?)... could make is a lazy feed for friendfeed-style conversations. what do you think? - sɹǝɥʇɐǝɟʞɔɐןq

Google Wave is 100x more noisy and less useful than FriendFeed ever was. - Robert Scoble

Rasmus: no, that isn't true. I read a wide variety of things. For instance, world news: http://twitter.com/scoblem... - Robert Scoble

If you read that it's more focused and makes you smarter. Here? I don't find I'm getting smarter. I find I'm spending time having fun, maybe, but not getting smarter. - Robert Scoble

Robert -- sometimes I think you are just full of it. Have you ever actually used Google Wave? - Brian Sullivan

Brian: yes. I have hundreds of conversations open in Wave and it totally sucks. If you get value out of it you must either have only a very small group of people you collaborate with (I don't have that luxury) or you must be a better person than I am. - Robert Scoble

Robert you could not have missed my point more than you did. I'm done though... sorry. I like you but you just do not get it. - Vicarbott

MIT Courseware is a good place to go to get smarter Robert... http://ocw.mit.edu/ --- since when has FF been a place to go to get smarter... twitter sure isn't doing that either is it? - Chris Heath

Wave is not for conversations it is for collaboration -- so what you are saying is the way you use it it sucks -- maybe because you don't know how to use it? - Brian Sullivan

Pffft. Not only do most conversations on here or Twitter not make you smarter, some actually cost you money: "Scoble is an egotistical fatso." - WoH: Minding her Botts

Brian: even if you know how to use it it becomes noisy very quickly and you can't easily get back to the value that someone left in a long thread. OK, I guess from your message that you only have five people in your Wave. Then it's OK. - Robert Scoble

Well, some of the stories on that list will probably help expand one's way of thinking... but Kim Kardashian and bed picnics? Knitting Icelanders? Seems there's a relative amount of fluff on that list as well, from the brief glance I gave it. Expand your brain all you want, Robert, it's an excellent idea. But don't discount the play factor in learning... which appears to be kind of what you're doing. IMO, playing teaches as much as serious study... and is more fun. :D And now I know... avoid heavy things when my fingers are near. - Bette Cooper

WorldofHiglet: I just sent my $100 to the Food Bank. Was worth every penny. - Robert Scoble

Robert, if your looking to get smarter then get off the internet and go read a book. Or stay on the internet and go to websites that provided educational material. I'm so sorry that we don't provide you with the knowledge that you are seeking.... - Mathew™ aka Youngblood

Bette: there's always fluff. But now I don't need to dig through fluff on top of fluff. :-) Here I'm faced with both the fluff (and, sorry, compare the link above to the world news link and you'll see there's more fluff here) but here I need to deal with the conversation fluff too. - Robert Scoble

When my brother decides to step in the poo, he certainly splashes it all over. - Scoble, Alex Scoble

Jim: whatever. You obviously get value out of this kinds of conversation. I don't. - Robert Scoble

Alex: I love giving people here what they want: a conversation. :-) - Robert Scoble

Mathew: I read books too (even have a Kindle so I can buy most anybook and read it immediately), but they make me smart about something that happened 12 months ago (or longer). - Robert Scoble

Robert, this isn't the kind of conversation that most of us are looking for. We are looking for fun or meaningful conversation. This here, is accomplishing anything more then wasting time. - Mathew™ aka Youngblood

Ok Robert I feel I need a disclaimer here... I was one of the Scobleites that followed you here, I stayed around though since I found it interesting. But yes you gathered a list on world media, that list though is not you or your conversations.... But look at your twitter feed, your conversations are 90%+ tech. - Rasmus Lauridsen

So where's the guy who wondered where all the conversations have gone? Look at this one... the fine art of avoiding heavy objects, and how to fling poo in a civilized manner. Now that's a conversation! :D - Bette Cooper

Is this your monthly Friendfeed slam? If so, thanks, see you in January. - Kenton

Looking to get smarter, or looking to feel superior? I'm allergic to condescension and this post almost killed me :P - Lo the Baker

Lo: :-) - Robert Scoble

Lo: the thing is the traffic here has NOT been going up and I'm trying to communicate why. Most people look at FriendFeed and don't see the conversations. Then, if they do find the conversations they see a bunch of noise. FriendFeed is fun for my brother, but not for people like me who are looking for something more specific. - Robert Scoble

Rasmus: my output is mostly tech, because that's mostly what I want to talk about, yes. But my inbound is much wider than that. - Robert Scoble

Good luck finding what you are looking for on Twitter. - Scoble, Alex Scoble

Alex: I already found it on Twitter. It's easy with lists. - Robert Scoble

So Robert, in order for some of us to actually learn something; What do you, or any of us, gain by you coming here periodically and posting what is wrong with Friendfeed and the community? It seems to me that if you are looking for intelligent conversation you wouldn't just troll for comments, you'd actually start something worthwhile. - Kenton

Kenton: it's fun. Oh, so you are admitting that some conversations are more fun for you than others? EXACTLY MY POINT! - Robert Scoble

And I keep coming here, seeing the noise, and it makes me grumpy. Just like I'm making YOU grumpy! :-) - Robert Scoble

Why does it make you grumpy? Because you see it as noise and others don't? - Bette Cooper

Bette: yes. I see noise and not much signal. Makes me grumpy. But, worse, it explains why traffic numbers here have gone down. - Robert Scoble

Kenton: and, as for starting something, I've already done that: my own filtered feed: http://twitter.com/scoblei... -- I wish I could do something like this here, but FriendFeed never got to it. - Robert Scoble

TRAFFIC has not gone down! Traffic has gone up! Us American folks don't make a website! The people of the world make a website! - Mathew™ aka Youngblood

The reason it makes me grumpy is that I don't appreciate people who drive by and fling insults and tell us all that we're doing something wrong. The community here on Friendfeed works for the people who want it to work. If you're only doing it so you can have fun, have it at someone else's expense. Oh, here's a list of all the conversations (5 tweets or more) on Twitter. Oh, wait, how do I do that? How about Facebook? Oh, hmmm, can't do that there either. - Kenton

Mathew: that doesn't match the statements I've seen from traffic sites. Would love to see URLs proving traffic has gone up. - Robert Scoble

Isn't becoming better a nobler goal than being smarter? Smarter as a goal is solipsistic. Better as a goal encourages well roundedness and non means oriented connections with other people. - Todd Hoff

Kenton: it takes two people to have a conversation. If you don't like the insults, don't pay attention to them! - Robert Scoble

hmmm one man's turd is another mans gold... As I said before why do you come here if you don't like it and it makes you grumpy. To me that sounds quite masochistic... How are we to gauge your conversations? Conversation by definition takes two.. So what comes in through your lists can't exactly be said to be conversations you are taking part of. Your feed on the other hand can... - Rasmus Lauridsen

Todd: that's cool, but I'm already listening to 1,300 on Facebook, 16,000 on Twitter, and something like 15,000 here. How many more voices do I need to listen to before I become "better?" Me? I'm ready to narrow my focus to people who are actually teaching me something and making my life more interesting. - Robert Scoble

Here you go. http://www.alexa.com/siteinf... Now I do want to say that traffic does go up and down. But, it is easy to see that Friendfeed is on a upward trend. - Mathew™ aka Youngblood

Rasmus: I keep getting pulled back here because some of you take my name in vain. - Robert Scoble

Mathew: Alexa is well known to be very inaccurate. Quantcast is the one that most people use as real numbers. - Robert Scoble

As noted earlier, also seems language is proximate fundamental limiting factor. Really need Ubiquity add-on or some similar magic to do on the fly translation, (think Aunt Rosy Wavebot style). Seems next major limiting factor on expanding knowledge and integration of global cognition grid is language. This is fundamentally doable with today's tools, but nobody seems focused on making it happen in a way that we can all start teaching the GCG how to translate more accurately, understand slang, etc. - michael silverton

Well, when I goto Quantcast and see "rough estimate" that doesn't work for me. I want to see something that looks solid. But, whatever, I'm done. No one is going to satisfy you with whatever they bring to you. - Mathew™ aka Youngblood

Jeremy: truth is, I do like the site, but haven't liked it as much lately because everytime I come here I see noise, even on the lists I hand made. - Robert Scoble

No, you haven't found it on Twitter because it's not possible to have conversations on Twitter. And I doubt it will ever be possible. Twitter is like the modern equivalent of beepers. There's nothing there. Seriously. - Scoble, Alex Scoble

Mathew: 20% of traffic comes from Turkey. I could care less about traffic there. - Robert Scoble

Robert: Funny thing is I like what you do on twitter, I even follow most of your lists on there, but the persona showing up here seems so very different. - Rasmus Lauridsen

Alex: really? I have conversations all the time on Twitter. I post a URL to my blog and on my blog I have Disqus, which lets me have conversations. Or, we link here, like we do for Gillmor Gang. - Robert Scoble

"How many more voices do I need to listen to before I become "better?" - is better defined by information absorbed or actions of quality taken? - Todd Hoff

I use FriendFeed to start smart conversations - I don't need to find ones to join, but there are those, too. I post them to Twitter, then continue them over here. - Jesse Stay

You may careless about the traffic there. But those who own and run Friendfeed care about ALLLLLLLLLLL traffic, not just US based traffic. - Mathew™ aka Youngblood

Alex, Twitter can be the start of the conversation. - Paul Harvey

Todd: Better is hard to define. Some people think better is having Turkish conversations. I don't. - Robert Scoble

I call it weeding the wheat from the chaff, Robert. FF is an excellent place for relaxing, for finding stimulating tidbits that lead to other things... and for getting a good laugh after a hard day. Oh... and for taking your name in vain... you make it far too easy. :-p Dude, you get what you give. The way it works. You want good stuff, give it. You want laughs, don't ever change. You're entertaining just as you are. But seriously, give the whole death knell thing a rest. You might be grumped out by the 'lack of education', but du er meget kedelig nu, så stop! (something new for you to learn) - Bette Cooper

Mathew: the people who own and run FriendFeed don't care about FriendFeed. They run a little site named Facebook. You might have heard of it. - Robert Scoble

I've had some great conversations with David Recordon, Chris Messina, Dewitt Clinton, Cristo, Otto, Stephen Mack, Atul, Steve Gillmor, and more and I don't have to worry about losing the organization of the conversation over here. There's still nothing better, but it's your responsibility to make those conversations happen. I can't do what I can here over on Twitter. - Jesse Stay

By definition you aren't having conversations on Twitter. I get way more participation here than I ever will on Twitter even though I'm sending the same stuff there. Twitter just sucks. There's no way for you to say that it doesn't. It's popular, but that in no way shape or form makes it a viable alternative to friendfeed. - Scoble, Alex Scoble

You may think that but I don't. And unless you can show be proof to support your statement then I'm not changing my mind. Because if they didn't care about Friendfeed it all it wouldn't be here. - Mathew™ aka Youngblood

Jesse: true. That's why I link to the Gillmor Gang over on Twitter (I link here). - Robert Scoble

Alex: you're just as delusional as me. It's a Scoble trait! :-) - Robert Scoble

Most normal people would say we're both wrong and they point to Facebook as proof. - Robert Scoble

It's incredibly hard to talk intelligently in 140 characters, and even harder when the conversation isn't organized. - Jesse Stay

Jesse: when I need more than 140 characters I blog and post a URL. It works. :-) - Robert Scoble

You know what, I'm hiding this post. I'm done, because all it is doing is angering me and wasting my time. - Mathew™ aka Youngblood

I have intelligent conversations on Facebook as well - see a few of the conversations (not near as many as here) over at http://facebook.com/stay - Jesse Stay

Mathew: now you know why I bitch. I come here, see all sorts of noise and it makes me angry so I lash out. - Robert Scoble

Robert, but your blog doesn't thread underneath the Tweet like my responses do here. If I need anything longer than this, then yes, I blog. - Jesse Stay

Jesse: Facebook is definitely becoming more interesting. - Robert Scoble

Jeremy: I tried for 18 months to get everyone to use FriendFeed. I failed and will continue to do so because most people don't want to have conversations with people they don't know. That's the secret sauce on Facebook. You know everyone you talk with (mostly). - Robert Scoble

http://www.quantcast.com/friendf... stats, mostly US. And from Compete.com: http://siteanalytics.compete.com/friendf... - Robert Scoble

Twitter has its place as well - don't get me wrong, and there are many smart people there to learn from, but as far as continuing that conversation, I can have much more intelligent conversation here than I can there. I wish more people used a combination of the two, or at least turned on e-mails so they get responses to their FriendFeed shares. - Jesse Stay

Jesse: email bacn is horrid. I turn off email notification from all social sites. - Robert Scoble

Sounds to me like you need to prune your feed again Robert so you only get the stuff you like, in the language you like from the countries you like. - Rasmus Lauridsen

"Better is hard to define" - Better in this context is your personal goals, that is being smarter, not the thread language choices :-) - Todd Hoff

maybe FF'ers are a bunch of know-it-all type of people.,.... therefore they need not get smarter ;) - Jeff (Team マクダジ )

hey everyone... forget this nonsense... watch the TWiT holiday special with Coulton and Hodgman - http://friendfeed.com/twit-co... - Chris Heath

Gotta run, gang. Keep up the great work. I'm trying to make this Mozilla Raindrop thing work http://mozillalabs.com/raindro... -- YAARF? (Yet Another Aspiring Relevance Filter) Feedly's doing great, but needs Open Calais rockin' and aforementioned realtime translation. ;-) Onward! - michael silverton

Jeff: heheh. - Robert Scoble

Robert, FriendFeed replies aren't bacon - it's the only way I can stay organized. - Jesse Stay

Jesse: I would get too many of them to make them at all useful. - Robert Scoble

Robert, understood, but most people wouldn't, and should keep it enabled. Or find some way to know when people are responding to their posts. - Jesse Stay

Anyway, I just checked out the link here again that I started this whole conversation out with and, boy, is it exciting! Not. Oh well, see ya again soon for more self loathing. - Robert Scoble

Robert, sounds like you need to set up some lists ;-) The guys I named are a good start. - Jesse Stay

The other thing that doesn't make sense with this conversation is you couldn't even do the search you did on Twitter. What would Twitter return if you could track responses to original Tweets that are greater than 5? - Jesse Stay

Jesse: one of the major reasons I keep coming back here is for the search. Twitter is rebuilding its search from scratch, so it'll be interesting to watch in 2010 (so is Facebook, btw). - Robert Scoble

Jesse: I spent hundreds of hours organizing my lists here on FriendFeed. I find all I need to do is track you because you get involved in almost every interesting tech conversation here. - Robert Scoble

They'll need to implement threaded conversations for a search like that to work. I'm listening though. - Jesse Stay

Well thanks Robert - I use it as a tool. I wouldn't be using it if I didn't find it productive, which is why I get involved in interesting conversations. You know all this stuff better than I though so I know I don't need to convince you. - Jesse Stay

Worried about getting smarter? Read a book. *says the Librarian, in a "the more you know" voice ;) - ωαřмaiden TeamOtto

Archangel: books are nice for knowledge that's 12 months old (or older). It takes that long to publish the damn things. - Robert Scoble

true. but it's a good in-depth supplement to the quick-hits of 140-character discussions. Plus, political theory - what's currently on the nightstand - isnt exactly on an expiration date (not often at least). ;) - ωαřмaiden TeamOtto

Twitter Trending Topics... Thanks for playing... - Johnny from iPhone

For the record, twitter trending topics are #oneofmyfollowers , #ghettobabynames , #nowplaying , #thoushallnot , Jersey Shore , #p4a , Colts , #DavidArchuletaLive , Xmas , #omgfacts - Bruce Lewis

Robert, if Jesse's in all the conversations interesting to you, just save this search: https://friendfeed.com/search... - Bruce Lewis

My eyes sorta glazed over about half way down this thread, sorry... but I just wanted to correct something mentioned above about "traffic" being up. Alexa says "Reach" is up but "Pageviews" are down about 20% since August http://www.alexa.com/siteinf... And that's global stats. US only is a whole 'nother conversation. Whether "traffic" is up or down depends on how you define traffic... and what you're trying to prove. - Ken Sheppardson

Here's what wolfram|alpha says http://friendfeed.com/ccheath... - Chris Heath

With each conversation, I learn a bit more about those to whom I am subscribed and I hope they learn a little something about me. I am quite happy with that. - Michael W. May

There are three major aspects of any social network: Relevancy, Technology and Community. FriendFeed has the best technology, period. The community is also excellent. The difference here is that it has changed from 12 months ago or 24 months ago. When I visit FriendFeed, I am not looking for the deep technical conversations we used to have because the community more accurately reflects the outside world. I use lists here (as on Twitter) to find more technical data, but Google Reader continues to dive technology news for me. - Louis Gray

For Robert, who is a good guy even though at times he can be misunderstood or frustrating, this change in community has decreased the site's relevancy. Couple that with an unclear future, and he is doing what is right for him. I could make some quip about how Robert needs to get smarter more than most of us, but I won't. :) - Louis Gray

Louis, has the community changed or has just a section left? I see people from 18 months ago and my feed hasn't changed much in that time. - Johnny from iPhone

Johnny, without invalidating the above, I would suggest that you are part of the "new-ish" community that joined after FriendFeed's initial 6+ months. Yes, many of the people Robert and I consider peers and friends who used to engage in the deeper tech talk here have left, but other great folks like you made the place a whole lot of fun. You just have to see what I like or comment on to see how I do engage with the community here for entertainment and friendship as much as tech discussion now. 18 months ago, that might not have been true. - Louis Gray

So it has become a little bit more social media than social media... - Johnny from iPhone

Yes Louis we all get that... What we don't get is why he keeps returning just to lay a brown one every two, three weeks. If he doesn't like it here, he doesn't have to say so again and again. He can just mosey along and think back on the good times. Being the "biggest fanboy" does not give you the right to then come back and be annoying after leaving. We all heard him the first time, if not second or third.. - Rasmus Lauridsen

Rasmus, I am explaining the behavior, not endorsing it. :) - Louis Gray

I know Louis :-) - Rasmus Lauridsen

I don't understand why you think that social networking sites that encourage people to post all the small mundane things in their life is the place to go to find an abundance of intelligent tech discussions. I would think a busy forum whose focus is on tech, inhabited by intelligent people, would be a better place to find what you are looking for. For me that happens to be the forum at DonationCoder.com. Just read what the members have to say: http://www.donationcoder.com/Forums... Check out some of the discussions from the latest newsletter: http://www.donationcoder.com/Forums... The only real problem I could possibly see with you participating there is that they don't take kindly to paid endorsements or self promotion, so you can't promote Rackspace or push your blog, and all are considered equals, so you can't be a top dog with a big following. BUT, it is an unusually civil, intelligent, respectful community and surprisingly troll free, despite its almost 200,000 member size. I would start by subscribing to their RSS feed, which you'll learn something just trying to do that: http://www.donationcoder.com/Forums... - April

Good recommendation, April - thanks! - WoH: Minding her Botts

michael silverton (way up this thread ^ ), you mentioned on-the-fly translation tools? - I created them (not in Ubiquity, but Greasemonkey/Greasekit): http://translatorize.com - implemented for Friendfeed, Facebook, Twitter and Identi.ca - Micah

Back when Robert was 'getting value' out of FF, he mentioned it (the first implementation was for Friendfeed): http://friendfeed.com/fftrans... .... hey, the Scobleizer blog post link is dead! So by my count: Friendfeed *not* dead, blog post dead (Seriously, I looked in the archives, Robert, but I don't see it? Did some stuff get lost when the site was hacked months back?) - Micah

Micah, I linked to it from my "FriendFeed's Fine" post - it's here: http://scobleizer.com/2009... - Jesse Stay

Jesse, you're checking the wrong one. It's http://scobleizer.com/2009... - Micah

Oh, you're talking about one of the ones where he said it wasn't dying. A lot of that stuff got deleted when he was hacked, which is probably the case for that one. - Jesse Stay

*slow-mo-facepalm* - Micah

Why not look to exercise your brain at least rather than having to get "smarter"? - Michelle Matthews

unexpected connections is what make your brain expand, hearing the same stuff from the same people is enervating... - WarLord

what a noisy dumb post - james

Oh vey. It is what it is fluid and alive. :-) - Mathew A. Koeneker

This thread isn't making me any smarter ;) - Jason Williams from iPhone

FriendFeed has evolved, just like every other site out there. Perhaps at one time, it was a forum for techies. Now, not so much. You and those techies went somewhere else to fill that info void. Meanwhile, others joined FF for the social interaction. Not understanding why you keep coming back here to stir the pot. It's not for you any more. That's fine. Let it go. There are discussions here; they just aren't topics in which you're interested. I read lots of spirited political discussions. >>> - rowlikeagirl

As for the bigger picture, I'm seeing FF turn into another aggregation site. Not a criticism, just an observation. ((((returns to watching Turkish animated GIFs))) - rowlikeagirl

Robert , indeed,you shouldn't be in need to look smarter.I ,and many of your followers think you are smart.Here's what you read : @scoblemedia/world-news-brands .Some more can be added to this list.But your time will not be enough.Keep up the good work please...Thank You,and Best Wishes... - Dedegi

I just ate a mango. The problem of infinitely multiplying narcissistic minutiae in social media. The solution: ultra-smart news filters and recommender systems. (And a big wave to Akiva Moskovitz, my biggest fan on Friendfeed.) - Sean McBride

News recommender systems: what are the most important remarks made by the most important people on the topics I most care about? Sort them by priority, please. One wishes that Friendfeed had taken an interest in this technology but, alas, no. - Sean McBride

"I can always make you smile" http://i171.photobucket.com/albums... :) - Citronella

Public conversations of every conceivable variety should be able to coexist comfortably in social media space, without any conversation impinging on any other conversation. What we need are the software tools to discover, prioritize and manage those conversations that are most interesting to each of us individually. There is really not much point in complaining about conversations that are not interesting -- simply don't pay attention to them. - Sean McBride

" I wish there were a filter for smart conversations because most of these are, while entertaining, not making me smarter about anything" ~ http://news.ycombinator.com - Peter Renshaw

Robert, I have taken it upon myself to help grant you your wish with this hashtag: #HelpRobertScobleGetSmarter - April