Best way to reduce noise? Turn off Twitters that don't have either comments or "like's" attached. That way, the shared items and other things rise up more. - Ian Betteridge

I only subscribe to around 30 but via Scoble another uh...2500? I don't find it too noisy and I like the diversity. The current feature set around "remove this" seems enough. But I'm not looking to turn FriendFeed into a one-stop-shopping for all information. Maybe with proper noise reduction it could become that, but I doubt it. - Robert Seidman

Robert, let me hear your thoughts on http://ffapps.com/flowcontrol/ - the original design was for a Greastmonkey hack, but due to the complexity involved, I'm incorporating it into ffreader.com - which is essentially a Reader interface that "extends" the default FF interface with a whole bunch of noise reduction features, bookmarking individual items, etc. I'll send you a link to test it out next week - Aviv

Two things. (1) Brandon mentions the item consolidation feature. FriendFeed co-founder Bret Taylor has a good discussion about that here (http://is.gd/dWm). (2) I like Robert's notion of the # of stars/comments as a guide. I agree. Paul posted a question about super-likes here earlier. That might be OK, but I'm not quite grokking its value. I'd also like to add - I'm enjoying the noise! It keeps it lively and addicting to tell the truth. - Hutch Carpenter

This conversation is a recurring theme here. We could talk all day about "noise" or "fractured comments", but this is the new way of the Web, period. The smart content owners will adjust. Those who want new tech to act "the old way" are going to be less relevant over time. - Louis Gray

I agree with @Louis Gray I think there are improvements that could be made but the core elements are what make me come here and drastic changes to the setup wouldn't be appreciated! - Joe Dawson

Louis - you're right, and I think this recurring theme may eventually result in FF being perceived as yet another noisy distraction in the life of a potential [mainstream] user. And that's not good, and I'm sure that in the coming weeks and months improvements by the FF crew as well as independent third-parties will help users consume their FriendFeed more efficiently and in ways that are tailored specifically for each user. - Aviv

hide is the ultimate tool for reducing noise. - Thomas Hawk

(1) Sometimes the twitter which announces an item with TinyURL has a good discussion. Be nice to include those too. (2) It's be nice when I find an item (aka put it in my del.icio.us), if FriendFeed would flag me with the already-existing discussions - maybe indent them to the right. This would allow me to get rid of many of my duplicate "likes" (which are simply the attempt to follow the interesting conversation in 5 places on the same blog post.) - Mitchell Tsai

@Mitchell either that or they could work it in a similar way to the likes - ___, ____, ____, ____ and ** other people liked this - Joe Dawson

Noise isn't too much of a problem for me in FriendFeed. However: (1) I don't try to read everything in my feed. (2) I'm following less than 300 people. - Ontario Emperor

I've cut down to following 92 people (maybe fewer when I have time). Most people I simply pop by their pages occasionally (by saving those pages in a list). Same on Twitter. I try to trim my listen-to-list to people whose interests match mine more closely. - Mitchell Tsai

Mitchell: I will start hiding people who are not providing interesting info about the tech industry. At least here on FriendFeed. I'll keep Twitter open so I can see the raw noise. - Robert Scoble

Robert: And I thought you were going to listen to 20,000 FriendFeeders, includng all the Farsi ones. :-) - Mitchell Tsai

I already hid the Farsi ones. My wife can tell me what's going on in those. Or they can translate for me. - Robert Scoble

Robert: You should run the script from internetducttape.com and import over all of your Twitter friends. That would be some noise ha! - Joe Dawson

Joe: I tried to, but it crashed. 21,000 friends proved too many. - Robert Scoble

I am keeping Friendfeed fairly quiet for myself as I have all the noise I can handle on Twitter and FB - Francine Hardaway via Alert Thingy

One other way to reduce noise? Look at just the FriendFeed items that I've commented on or liked. That will ensure you won't see my noise, but is the feed where I've found the great stuff coming at me in FriendFeed: http://friendfeed.com/scobleiz... -- I wish there were a better way to point to this in the FriendFeed UI. - Robert Scoble

Robert: The only thing I didn't like is that the script submitted a message from my FriendFeed account here http://is.gd/dZf - Joe Dawson

The problem occurs, as I see it, when the technology that is supposed to serve human aims instead passes the balance point and enslaves or demands from us. Personally, I believe that this occurs when our lives are out of balance and we are looking for the technology to do what it cannot do, and what it is not meant to do. For example, fulfilling our social needs (as when the industry (e.g. social network) group becomes one's best or only friends). (I'm friendly and make friends with people on social networks, but have a distinct life as well apart from that). When our lives are in balance, then technology fits into its proper place. It's just a tool, like a pencil is a tool, with a functon to serve. - Alex Hammer

Specifically related to noise -- best not to create it in the first place, then there is nothing to undue. I go to Friendfeed when I need to up the information/noise level. When I have enough I don't continue and I don't go back. - Alex Hammer

Robert, while I'm not claiming it's faster than the Web UI, FriendFeedMachine at http://www.friendfeedmachine.c... lets you sort by # of comments or likes, and this is yet another way. You can also "star" real friends vs. people you follow here, to filter the stream. - Louis Gray

Louis: Thanks for the FriendFeedMachine tips. - Mitchell Tsai

Thanks for the heads up Louis I wasn't aware of that either! - Joe Dawson

how are online friends lesser than face-to-face friends? That is often asserted, but rarely supported. And what about those in geographically isolated areas? or those with limited mobility? or those with mental issues that make it difficult for them? An earlier commenter said that he makes friends easily, so of course for him, he will. Not so for everyone. People have different balances. - rambn

Agreed Robert - LG is the Web 2.0 Jedi. - Hutch Carpenter

Good post Robert. I wrote a story today on why people should be Lifestreaming. you cover one of the reasons in your post, but there are many others. You can read it here: http://lifestreamblog.com/why-... - Mark Krynsky

Ok, this is seriously cool. I'm starting to like Friend Feed more and more. - Don MacAskill

I use my "Comments and Likes" page as a newspaper, to see what's happened on these articles/posts/Twitters since I last saw them. Without the Comments/Likes, stuff would get totally buried (even only following 50-80 people. How do people follow 10,000? Ouch.). 2 weeks ago, I barely used "comments" and "likes" and stuff moved so fast on FriendFeed, that in a few hours, everything was so far down the pages...lost. Good post. - Mitchell Tsai

I may put a "like" on something interesting, so I can (1) come back in a few hours (2) see if any cool discussion is going on (3) remove the "like" if it's boring (4) gives me time to Del.icio.us the article if I was too lazy/busy when I first saw the article. (5) Remove the "like" if I make a "comment" so I don't hit that FriendFeed "like" limit .... uhhh speed bump. :-) - Mitchell Tsai

Robert: I think a perfect place for a discussion link would be in the hover-bubble that appears over each name in friendfeed. http://friendfeed.com/e/94d317... - J. Phil

What Robert Scoble and Louis Gray really nailed in their two posts. - If I like person X, I can easily see what person X also likes. Waaaay better than reading one blog. Better than a set of RSS feeds. Combines (1) the power of "light-weight communication" - interaction without e-mail/phone (2) the ability to make "50 million personal newspapers" (3) the building of a community with multiple layers for everyone (e.g. asymmetric links, you don't have to follow your fans) (4) imaginary friends - Mitchell Tsai

@Mitchell Shaulis: I am clearly not in the big league on FriendFeed as I didn't realise there was a limit to how many posts I could Like. I need to up my involvement clearly! Great post Scoble, I enjoy reading both yourself and Louis Gray! - Joe Dawson

This is great thnx for the heads up - John Spencer

We should ALWAYS remember that blogo-something is a two-way road. Commenting helps keep stuff healthy. Not commenting is unhealthy to the network. - Cesar Cardoso

It is apparent that FriendFeed is one of those services that you should know very, very well. - Alex Williams

I'll try to comment on the original blog post rather than FriendFeed. If they're not using Disqus my comments won't show. - Andy Murdoch

Andy: what you doing commenting here then? - Robert Scoble

The power of blogs over traditional publishing is the two-way communication channel. Many times the post is just the jumping-off point for the good stuff. Those that forget that intrinsic fact usually are suffering from a fit of an inflated sense of self-importance. - Morgan via twhirl

@Phil, it is in beta, and I'm sure the developer would love feedback. He'll undoubtedly see the discussion here. - Louis Gray

Love the concept; it needs the last 20%, the polish that makes web apps shine. The animations run for WAY too long. - Benjamin Golub

Phil, http://ffreader.com might be just what you're looking for. Many have emailed me saying they either don't like to manage Greasemonkey scripts or simply don't use Firefox.. so I've been working on a FF wrapper with all the goodies and filters built in. Hope to have it ready by the end of the month. Lemme know if you'd like to test it :) - Aviv

FF is a great platform to build on and we'll probably see quite a few interesting projects around it. - Aviv

@Phil, also the first page (Home) shows those individuals and the services that would otherwise be on FriendFeed's home page for you. Sometimes it's more than one service per person, but usually it's only one (Blog or Twitter, etc.) - Louis Gray

@Aviv - would love to test ffreader. That iphone link is very appealing... - Paul Arterburn

I can't use ffreader. - Roger Chen

Few more days :) decided to change a few things once the Comments IDs became available in the API - better now than later when people are actually using it. This allows for better tracking of discussions and recommendations. http://ffapps.com/flowcontrol/ is a layer on top of ffreader for those who want to stay within FriendFeed.com for whatever reason, and that might be released before ffreader is open for use via web interface. Not sure yet... - Aviv

ffapps? ffs. - Eric Rice

@Aviv: You tempted me for nothing. The Login button is disabled. :-( - Voyagerfan5761

I think Paul was asking if he should 'block the bot' here ...via AlertThingy - Charlie Anzman

What are the benefits? What are the cons? ...via twhirl - Corvida

The ability to import feeds from other services is a relatively simple feature, and it has already been done by a number of people (see http://www.fabricoffolly.com/2...), so I would say that it's relatively obvious. What's more difficult and also more important is to then take all of that information and make it useful and interesting, which is where we put a lot of our effort at FriendFeed. - Paul Buchheit

I think that execution can sometimes be more important than innovation. Of course, a built-in 70 million user base for new features can be hard to combat. - via FriendFeedMachine - Scott Goldie

Status Quo is the most fierce competitor. - David Daniels

I think the Bay City Rollers are fiercer ... j/k ;) - via FriendFeedMachine - Scott Goldie

For me, FriendFeed replaces Reddit, not Facebook. - Amit Patel

facebook like socialthing works with your existing network. friendfeed gives me a new perspective and connects me with new circles of interesting people. - Nicole Simon