In my opinion, the echo chamber is what you make it. - Shey, Jamaican of FF

what shey said ;) - mike "glemak" dunn

@Aden I'm still pretty new myself, my advice: keep reading and ask questions. Don't be afraid to say what's on your mind and just be yourself. Holding back can get frustrating sometimes :) - Shey, Jamaican of FF

Aden: Nobody will hand out a report card - jump. Nice folks over here will catch you :) - MaryAnn Chick Whiteside

I like the article quite a bit. This is what has kept me from posting certain things. On the other hand though, I have found that I can post away and get absolutely no participation from others. I see similar posts to what I am sharing elsewhere with tons of comments. Its not a popularity thing, but a time investment thing. I don't want to spend time sharing if no one is caring. Reasonable? - Adam Helweh

@Adam It takes time. What I do know is that your participation by sharing/creating good content will will reciprocated eventually. Maybe you aren't interacting with the right people? On FriendFeed there are many people who have accounts but participate in discussions at all. - Shey, Jamaican of FF

@Aden in general folks might complain that we're a reflective - self-obsessive - navel gazing bunch here on FF but the upside of it is that we don't bite .. well hard anyway :) - Steven Hodson

I hear you on the issue of exacerbating the inherent problems of the echo chamber by narrowly defining who can access your posts on FriendFeed. I believe groupthink is a more acute threat than social faux pas yet I still find myself biting my tongue and not commenting on certain posts. I hate to sound needy but group acceptance plays some role in this race toward transparency. I guess my admitted reluctance leaves me a bit more opaque. - Christopher Harley

@Christopher I can understand your hesitation, sometimes it can seem a little cliquey. Personally, I just comment where I think it's appropriate and I can add value or awareness to the conversation. Try letting go and see how it feels :) - Shey, Jamaican of FF

Another way to help this along is to reciprocate and/or subscribe to people (from the everyone tab) and just see how it goes. I've come across incredible talent of all kinds here (on FF) and some of it (like Twitter??) has been from those with very few followers to start ... Thoughts? - Charlie Anzman

Charlie, I think that's an great idea. Fresh sources of content is a start. But we still have to encourage new thought, tech or non-tech. - Shey, Jamaican of FF

This whole meme has me floored. Absolutely floored. To the point that I'm demanding we discuss it on the podcast tonight (tomorrow for those of you on the other side of the GMT line). - Cyndy

Diversity of opinion is definitely key - too many times I have seen people get shouted down just for having one that may not agree with the 'established' view. This is all definitely what you make it and we make different things with it - as you say, it's all personal choice and preference. We do run a dnager of losing what we started with though. I have made a specific effort to follow those outside of the usual suspects to get a wider picture but, while I see more non-tech/early adopter content, less of it is relevant to me and I have to make a decision on whether to hide or unfollow - we have to find our balance. - Colin Walker from fftogo