I think it's time to leave Twitter to the celebrities - Sandra

not sure i agree. i think CNN's audience is more interested in twitter than Oprah's... - Jeremy Toeman

I am starting to agree with that. So where do we go then? - Adam Martin

First to a million for sure. Take that Ashton Kutcher. - Leo Laporte

Mosquito nets are suddenly a growth industry: - Steve Lynch from twhirl

I'm going to create an Oprah imaginary friend on Friendfeed so her first post here will happen at the same time! - Leo Laporte

Am I the only one who is completely bored with Twitter follower races or celebrities on Twitter? - AJ Kohn

No. I'm bored as well. - Roberto Bonini

So very, very bored. - Chris Charabaruk

Twitter is dead to me now, how long before friend feed gets over run with celebrity detritus? - Gunnyman ™

Please no. I don't think I could take the loss of FF too! - Leo Laporte

Perhaps we should talk Paul into making FriendFeed invite-only, so it'll be just us cool kids, then? - Chris Charabaruk

Really, though, this is the way of things. But at least with FriendFeed, we have a much better wall against content and people we don't care to see. After all, we have Hide. - Chris Charabaruk

@Gunny and @Chris: I certainly wouldn't subscribe to celebs and if one of my filters (aka - people I subscribe to) started to bring them into my feed via FOAF I'd either a) unsubscribe from that person because of filter-fail or b) block the celeb in question. - AJ Kohn

Besides, I think that FriendFeed is still a bit too esoteric for the average person. The beta in some ways makes it easier for the regular Joe to use, but in other ways makes it more complicated. - Chris Charabaruk

@AJ: I'd have no problem subscribing to celebs, as long as they are celebrities I'm interested in. If friends of mine started pulling in stuff via FOAF from celebrities I'm not subscribed to, I'd treat it no different than any other FOAF content, really. - Chris Charabaruk

Jeremy: really? CNN only had 80,000 followers (before it got added to the recommended follower list). Oprah hasn't even Tweeted yet and already has 25,000. Oprah's audience is a LOT more engaged with Twitter than CNN's is. - Robert Scoble

@Chris: True. If Lance Armstrong really used FriendFeed I'd subscribe. But I start getting Lindsey Lohan FOAF content and I'm either blocking her or re-evaluating the person who brought that into my feed. - AJ Kohn

Signing up on Twitter is one step closer to FriendFeed - Ahsan Ali

Do you guys rail against celebrity blogs too? - Kevin Kuphal

@Kevin: Occasionally. But I got a friend who does a better job of railing against celebs, overall. - Chris Charabaruk

@robert: how does Oprah's audience even know she's ON twitter yet? seems like the 25K people might be coming from somewhere else... - Jeremy Toeman

Jeremy: Oprah's network is spreading the news very effectively. - Robert Scoble

@Matt: I see it as kind of an old guard vs new turks kind of issue. The early adopters (us old guard) feel threatened by the celebs and their followers (the new turks) because we are afraid that the new users will change the character of the service with their behaviour. Often, that fear is well placed. - Chris Charabaruk

On the other hand, those changes often bring in further changes which improve the character of the service, and make it more open. Less of an old boy's club for all us on-the-bleeding-edge folk. - Chris Charabaruk

Sandra: You're dead on - guruvan (Rob Nelson)

This week was a serious kick in the pants to the two way communication street on twitter...We haven't seen the repercussions, and won't for a few weeks, but mark my words, with the CNN vs aplusk race, and the acquiisition of two accounts and OMG now Oprah? Twitter is toast. It's a broadcast medium and will have no going back. It's still useful as a platform for pulling in your broadcast information, and broadcasting your own information, but if you're looking for conversation and discussion, go elsewhere! - guruvan (Rob Nelson)

Sorta surprised it took her this long, the news is kind of ho hum to me, I have no plan to follow her - Kim Landwehr

Rob: Twitter was always a broadcast medium, not a communication tool. The closest it can get to communication tool are people screaming at each other across a crowded dance floor. - Chris Charabaruk

Matt: the problem isn't the noise from the celebrities, it's the noise that they are going to cause by being there. The celebrities with a million followers are going to drive the overall push for huge followings to an incredible pace, and all the people on twitter looking to get rich quick are going to drown out any useful conversation (for the most part) Wait until people with 20k-200k users start trying to sell their accounts. They already use those numbers to gain financial advantage via paid tweet-ads - guruvan (Rob Nelson)

Leo: It's likely to happen here, but there are better defense for the average user, and thus I think that FriendFeed will last longer before all the cool kids have to pack up and go to the next new big thing. I also suspect that the next big thing will depend heavily on FriendFeed for content, just the same as FriendFeed depends heavily on twitter for content. The internet is a layered thing, and always has been. This process will continue. - guruvan (Rob Nelson)

@Chris the word used to describe any out-of-hand rejection of new users is "elitism". - Jeremy Toeman

Chris: I'm not threatened by celebrities. I just hate it when Twitter turned away from a meritocracy and started manually picking who will be a celebrity and who will be a loser. - Robert Scoble

I will never understanding the complaints about Twitter getting noisier due to the influx celebrities. Simply don't follow the celeb's and if you see people sending too many @ replies to the celeb's then unfollow them too. Problem solved. You have *total control* over what you're see. - Mike Doeff

i agree with @mdoeff - Per

@robert it was never a meritocracy, it was inherited popularity based on technology bloggers' existing status. - Jeremy Toeman

Chris: I'm not sure that I totally agree thsat twitter has always been a broadcast medium. Perhaps that was the design, (what are you doing) but it's come to be a huge chatroom....shouting across a crowded dance floor is still communication (not real effective but...) now it's going to turn more into something like shouting across the room at the TV. - guruvan (Rob Nelson)

twitter jumped the shark a while ago. the celebs are just catching on? - BEX

@BEX: Twitter jumped the shark for all of us. But we're a different crowd than the celebs and their hangers-on. What they consider jumping the shark isn't necessarily the same thing that we consider jumping the shark. - Chris Charabaruk

@Robert: On meritocracy, I have to agree with Jeremy. - Chris Charabaruk

Jeremy: that's a meritocracy. I earned an audience on blogging and brought thousands to Twitter. So why did someone who had far fewer followers on Twitter, like Mike Arrington, all of a sudden get gifted hundreds of thousands? Why is Mike Arrington better than Leo Laporte? That is NOT a meritocracy. - Robert Scoble

BTW, I don't see more celebrities squalling more noise on Twitter. There's a lot more lurker accounts on Twitter than there used to be, and a lot of these silent accounts are people who are just following celebrities and their online entourages. If anything, the celebs are going to make Twitter quieter. - Chris Charabaruk

It's merit given on a standard that was set up by Twitter. - Christian Burns

Christian: when humans hand out gifts (and penalties) meritocracies go out the window. The recommended follower list on Twitter was totally picked by humans. How? We don't know. That's the opposite of a meritocracy. - Robert Scoble

@robert: first, Mike is not "Better" than Leo - it's a terrible word choice. second, go find a twitterer with a huge following who does not ALSO either a) have a huge blog/media presence or b) run a big company. if it were on "merit" then it wouldn't have any relationship, and people would gain/lose twitter followers purely based on the "quality" of their twittering. which, we all know, isn't accurate, at all. - Jeremy Toeman

Jeremy: well, Mike is on the Twitter Recommended Follower list. Leo is not. Leo is a bigger name, and has more of an audience than Mike does. He also had more followers before this list was developed than almost anyone on the list. Twitter left Leo off for some reason. This list is the antithesis of a meritocracy. It's whoever is friends with the Twitter team. - Robert Scoble

I think the smugness in the comments here re: the celebrity presence is not so wise in the context of FF's future. Yes, I, too have no interest in following Oprah. Or Ashton. Or even CNN for that matter. But millions of people do. I can't and shouldn't speak for FF here, but dangit, if we want FF to be more than an unprofitable nerd paradise in the years to come, we all gotta cut out the exclusitivity crap. - Adam Lasnik

We should instead support FF in efforts to empower *all* of us (current and future* to filter, prioritize, etc. Putting up walls, even rhetorically, is the way to stagnation. - Adam Lasnik

ah, i see what you are saying - we were on two different issues. my issue is that i dont believe twitter popularity as a *whole* is about merit. regarding the list, i agree with you. - Jeremy Toeman

Adam: you're right. But it doesn't matter. This exact same conversation happened on Twitter two years ago. - Robert Scoble

Adam: That's what I've been saying, here and on my blog. Whether we like it or not, it's good for the service and everyone, because it's opening things up to people who aren't quite so tech-driven as us. - Chris Charabaruk

I might follow celebrities on Twitter, but I will quickly unfollow them if they don't have anything interesting to say (I'm looking at you @BrentSpiner) - Andy Roth

Jeremy: I watch many thousands of Twitter accounts. Very few are any good consistently. - Robert Scoble

There more than enough Oprah: TV, print etc ... Why on earth would I want her (or her assistant's) tweets in my stream too? - Rob Michael (Atmos Trio)

Well, that's that. It was good while it lasted. Where shall we go now? See you all over at Brightkite? - Andrew Terry

@andrew you *do* realize that if you choose not to follow anybody new, this has ABSOLUTELY NO IMPACT on your life. *nothing* changes about twitter, nor your ability to use it. since following is a proactive decision a user must make, twitter's growth is only relevant to the individual who chooses to follow more people. - Jeremy Toeman

@Jeremy - yes, I get that; in the scheme of things it's just noise, but even though *I* might have no interest in which celebrity or mainstream media organisation has just joined Twitter, many of the people I follow *are* tweeting about it - you must have seen this your own twitter stream - so it *does* affect my experience with Twitter... - Andrew Terry

My concern with Twitter-Oprah is that it's another Eternal September event, causing the internet to super-implode! - Ernie Oporto from Nambu

Oh great. A live tweet(!) Probably be something mundane like "recording oprah show - Twitter rocks. Buy my books" Couldn't care less. - Dom Barnes

I tried explaining Twitter to my college students and some were under the impression that it was just for politicians or celebrities! Apparently, some people have already given up on Twitter before they even try it...That's pretty sad... - Eric Ebersohl

How many @operah's are there, anyway? Interesting to see the number of spinoffs, some of which have been around for a while. What's Twitter's WIPO policy? 8-> - Shane Curcuru

Wow. 5 tweets and 82,500 followers. for oprah. 2nd tweet=food tweet how lame. hahaha. :) - guruvan (Rob Nelson)