Hutch: here's one for you to ponder. If Seth is the smartest guy on the Internet (and I think he is), why isn't he on FriendFeed? : ) He also doesn't allow conversation on his blog posts! - Robert Seidman

not a big fan of the game, can't dance and can't finger dance either, very interesting viral model however - Lou Paglia

Robert - some people achieve guru status, at which point interactions aren't needed (but would be appreciated). I imagine if Warren Buffett started a blog, he'd dispense his wisdom and not bother with what people thought. Take it or leave it. And people would take it. Same with Seth. - Hutch Carpenter

Hutch, Seth is great with interacting. But he doesn't seem to think FriendFeed adds to the ecommerce stream (that's your thing, right? FriendFeed as ecommerce?). I agree with you completely on Buffett, or Gates and lots of other people too. - Robert Seidman

seth's aversion to comments and the most engaging forms of social media do surprise me, but he's a real family guy and probably is just trying to maintain some balance. - Fred Wilson

Fred - I would think comments are a manageable form of interaction. Blogger can engage as needed. But it's cool. Really not needed for what Seth does. - Hutch Carpenter

Fred, I agree but I see a lot of people write "rules for blogging" and really, there are no rules. I don't believe Seth gets away with lack of interactions because he has achieved "guru" status. I believe he achieved guru status because his ultimate focus was towards providing good content. Everything else is second. - Robert Seidman

I have several interviews with Tapulous at http://qik.com/scobleizer that you might enjoy. - Robert Scoble

Robert Seidman (not Scoble) - interactions aren't really ever "needed". But that is one of the philosophies of blogging. If I turned off commenting and didn't show up on FriendFeed, I'd still have a (very) small readership. Just a matter of how big the audience would be. - Hutch Carpenter

I think twinkle is just as viral, I can't wait for more improvement on the twinkle-front. - karl dotter

Interactions aren't really ever needed when the content by itself is really valuable. But why do so many people make such a big deal about "the conversation" then? So on the one hand you want to say it is a big huge honking deal, but on the other hand not so much? - Robert Seidman

Robert - you mean like this conversation here? Who is this "you" kemo sabe? Conversations do matter, but all in context. Most of us are trying to figure stuff out, and it's a lot easier to do so by bouncing thoughts off others. If you're a lifelong student, conversations matter. If you're a professor, valuable content matters. And we're all a bit of both. - Hutch Carpenter

Hutch, conversations don't always (or even usually) matter in terms of ecommerce. We both may love these conversations, (and I surely do) but our love of them doesn't really mean much in terms of ecommerce. - Robert Seidman

Hmm...Robert...I'm thinking this is a conversation better held over on the e-commerce thread? - Hutch Carpenter

Back to the iPhone apps topic, analogy to FaceBook app first mover advantage falls short. FB has in-your-face viral features built-in (news feed, invites, shares, profile boxes, etc) which iPhone apps lack (as of now). iPhone app store has 3 things: #installs (doesn't translate to usefulness/quality/fun), user ratings (Apple does not allow sort by rating), and user comments which many people likely ignore. Seems like a smaller % of iPhone apps benefit from network effect, compared to FaceBook apps - Amir Gharaat

Amir, true, but then again iPhone apps have been available for a whole week! - Robert Seidman

But the game itself isn't that much fun. I have it, but I spend more time playing Aurora Feint when I'm in a line/waiting room/waiting for children at soccer/karate/gymnastics. - Cyndy