Ahahahah... ok I get it now. Quick, someone Digg Kevin's tweet and then we can all laugh at how lame twitter is when it buckles under the load of a Digging! - Paul Short
If he paid attention to me, he would have known better. :) - Aaron Brazell
I would have made them stand in the corner and think about what they've done, but I guess I'm just old-fashioned like that. - Daniel Smith via twhirl
Im confused about this. For instance, I've noticed on many occasions where you basically say something like: "Come follow me over on FF, the conversation is over there". Isnt that the same thing? Trying to get people to come follow you? I dont mean to be critical, just trying to understand. - Andrew Baron
:D I unblocked him just to verify, and yes it was him!! - directeur via NoiseRiver
Somewhat relatedly, it's weird that I didn't think twice when Louis Gray asked us to digg a story for him. But in hindsight if it wasn't someone I knew, I would've considered it spamming/gaming digg. Interesting. - trextor
He needs another pole to broadcast actually, he won't participate in the discussions. I hate this kind of mentality. - directeur via NoiseRiver
Andrew I don't remember ever asking you to follow me. If I ever do, yes, that should earn me a block. There is a big difference between saying "here is a conversation" and "follow me." - Robert Scoble
Kevin pissed off the Friendfeed hall monitors. ;-) - Chris Baskind
directeur: exactly. This is my way of helping retard Twitter-style noise here. - Robert Scoble
LOL, I just submitted his tweet to Digg. - Paul Short
Here is a conversation about following me... I wonder if that would fly. :) - Aaron Brazell
trextor: agreed. That is interesting to watch. - Robert Scoble
Aaron: you are always experimenting with my block button. I will call you director of block R&D. :-) - Robert Scoble
Being a good sport gets the Like button! :) - Aaron Brazell
Robert, right. I blocked him before because of this actually. Look at his digg page for example. He submitted only 374 news on Digg ang got 364 popular. I don't know if we see the same thing, but it looks _wrong_ for me. - directeur via NoiseRiver
Robert: I'm directeur! Don't mess with my brand ;-) Aaron is just Aaron! And please follow me! oh wait, you're already following me! :) - directeur via NoiseRiver
I've seen a few people post follow me messages. I'm here to follow not be followed - LPH
I just blocked someone for being a total asshole. Can dish it but can't take it. Know what I mean? - Dennis Howlett via twhirl
What I don't like is all of his fan base coming over here not even knowing how to use ff, or caring to use ff, but just adding him simply because they like him. Sigh... I was back and forth on the reason you were blocking him, but I completely understand now. - Dennis Jackson via twhirl
Go home, Dennis. You have more important things to do than waste time on FriendFeed anyway, right? - Aaron Brazell
I'm yet to block anyone. I think I just like being annoyed. - Mike Lewis
(Raising hand timidly) How do you define begging for followers? What action signifies that? - Abby Martin
Yeah. Just click the Hide link and then you can set the options to always hide posts of friends-of-friends - Grant Gochnauer
It only show you things that your friends liked or commented on. This is the core function of ff so you don't want to turn it off. If you're seeing too much junk, you have the wrong friends :) - Doug Brooks
Next question -- does Friend Feed have a way to respond directly to someone or start a conversation with a specific person? - Grant Gochnauer
@Grant, you can always comment. There's no "direct message", though. - Paul Reynolds
@Paul Reynolds I thought that was the case. However if you comment or post something, the person you want to contact might not ever know if they aren't your friend yet :D.. @Paul Buchheit -- maybe a new feature? :D - Grant Gochnauer
I like the friends-of-friends, my issue is that certain friends add all their followers, then I end up with huge list of random people that my friends don't actually know (making FF less useful as a utility for me).. does that make sense? - Kevin Rose
You'll never make friends if you don't venture outside your bubble. Just saying. - Aaron Brazell
the whole point is that you are only seeing posts that your current friends are liking or commenting on. The logic being that your friends are only recommending items of interest for you. It's also a great way to discover other interesting feeds. If you are consistently seeing bad articles try unsubscribing or hiding specific people that are providing the bad content. - Doug Brooks
Noob! Click hide. It works for me. Welcome to the dark side, Mr.Rose. - Mike Lewis
Charged with Reckless Headline Writing with Intent for Revolt in the 1st Degree - Aaron Brazell
I specifically didn't select any of these people to be my default friends because I saw through the maneuver. I also don't think they're "all that", anyway. The rest of the sheep probably wet their pants when they joined and saw those people were already signed and wanted to be their friends - Dread Pirate PJ
But: if you leave on friend of friend after adding one or more of the Big Four (et al.), you're exposed to a pretty interesting group of folks and conversations. That's where I started when I joined FF and it's worked pretty well. - steplow via Alert Thingy
Wasn't there talk of just boycotting the opening ceremonies or something...and then going about with the rest as normal. I mean...$, and good sporting aside...we've got some serious human rights issues that can't just be ignored and shoved aside so we can watch girls in leotards flip around a mat - Erin Kotecki Vest
China has no interest in seeing those T Bills they are holding turn to worthless paper either :D - Earl E Morningwood
You're smoking crack if you think that boycotting the games will change anything. You've got HUNDREDS of years of cultural history and precedent, not just the modern history involving communism, etc. They aren't going to change overnight because of a protest. - Aaron Brazell
In other words, quit being so Western. China will change. But it won't change on your timeline. - Aaron Brazell
This means a lot to China, and it's more than propaganda. This is a matter of national pride. I think Beijing was a poor choice, but we should go. Insulting the Chinese will only radicalize them, and play into the hands of her hard liners. - Chris Baskind
US needs to learn to be a world citizen and quit acting like the world is US and everyone else just slacking, Things they are a changing. I am proudest of my home country when they are big-hearted not small minded. - Mark Forman
Boycotts are bloody meaningless! The whole point of the Olympics is to forge world friendships using sports without politics getting in the way of things. Do you really think the Chinese would give two tosses if Butthead Bush stayed away? I don't think so. - Mark O'Neill
God, I f*cking hate him. (And other more salient points.) - Ayşe E.
My "best of" page has zero FriendFeed stories and one Twitter story. I agree that we need to improve the diversity constraints on the best-of though. - Paul Buchheit
"You can find me on FriendFeed here." Good way to end it. - Hutch Carpenter
MG, here are Paul's subscriptions: http://friendfeed.com/paul/sub... As far as unsubscribing goes you could unsubscribe from everyone who talks about Friendfeed too much, but I agree we need a global exclusion and inclusion operator of some kind. For instance, I'd love to follow certain people but only see their links or comments when they mention a certain keyword (like the word "google" for instance). - Philipp Lenssen
Paul doesn't follow me. Thing is I get sucked into the FriendFeed threads like this one. - Robert Scoble
@Paul you mean like - tags? To sort / profile it better? ;) - Nicole Simon
@philip - The thing is, as I mention, I DO want to see the talk a lot of time - I just want the option not to see it as well at times. - MG Siegler
Ironically, but predictably, this is now my #3 "best of" story for the day. I think I'm close to breaking the FriendFeed/Time Continuum. - MG Siegler
Quick glance at my daily 'best of': (1) Scoble's "Participation Premium". (2) Homemade Flame Thrower. (3) Allen Stern's FriendFeed Follower Patterns Exposed. (4) Steve Rubel's post about Likes as bookmarks. (5) edythe's apartment therapy unplugged. - Hutch Carpenter
such is the nature of the best -- get ready for all the likes :) - Shey
@hutch - so 3 out of your 5 are about friendfeed, slightly better than mine - MG Siegler
But I do think that eventually this phenomenon will die down as the FriendFeed community grows and matures in size. I think this is true for any other service. Write a post on Mixx and submit it to Mixx and it will get voted up, guaranteed. - Shey
This is the only FF-meta post on my summary page. Also featured: dog and baby pictures, quality chairs, and Google daycare kerfuffle. This is the benefit of not being subscribed to the blogosphere talking heads, I guess. - Alex Power
Yup. I didn't even Like or comment on edythe's, but nice to see it in there. - Hutch Carpenter
fight club had better rules. First Rule don't talk about Fight Club. Second rule is Screw the BLUE STATE FASHION TYRANNNY... oh wait... that is my rule - Noah David Simon
I tally +5, but that is without numbers for the final two portions of the date (nor does it include any post-date in-house euphoria or disgust) - Michael W. May
I didn't invite him in if that's what you mean - Michelle Miller
So what about the ex gf talk and the phone call? Am I being petty? - Michelle Miller
Well you know how I feel about the phone call thing. You need to give him a break on the ex talk. He was probably just making conversation. - Rick Schmidt
was the phone call time sensitive or was he just shooting the breeze? Did he apologize? As for the exes. it depends on what he said. - RAPatton
Unless the phone call was about someone in the hospital, I'd say it's rude. The ex-girlfriend talk is a classic first date mistake. Sordid romantic lives is second date material. Both indicate a level of inexperience dating. - Mark Trapp
Talking on phone during date = FAIL ....and of course I return the courtesy, when I'm quiet on FF it means I'm on a good date ;) - Mona N via fftogo
ps people who talk about their pasts on first date = EMO. seriously. red flag. Michelle, move to SF. The female to male ratio is SO unfair. Our favor of course ;) - Mona N via fftogo
Don't get me wrong guys. He was VERY sweet. I don't wanna be too petty but those really bothered me. It's not a deal breaker or anything. @mona Packing now :) I wish! - Michelle Miller
What would a date be without the out-of-context harsh analysis of other people? Keep us updated! :) - Mark Trapp
did you twitter while on the date ?? next time do that.. yeah talking on the phone a big mistake . and even bigger mistake is talking about ex-g/f =EMO wreck !! WTF is he doing dating a girl with da ex still on is mind eh ? - Peter Dawson
I put my phone on vibrate. No twittering or anything. I'm trying not to snap judge but there will be another date :) - Michelle Miller
Awesome! It's like our own little friendfeed soap opera. Talking on the cell phone was a definite minus but talking about old exes (as long as its not gushing) doesn't really bother me. Thank god he didn't "ask" to kiss you . . . that's just awkward - Lindsey Smith
@lindsey Thank you. I've talked to my friends about this and several of them say they would like the guy to ask before they kiss them. Not me, he surprised me and it was GREAT! lol - Michelle Miller
Well if I ever need to go back into the dating game, at least I know that there is a support group here. LOL - Aaron Brazell
I'm paying over $7.25/gallon in Israel - Yaakov Ellis
Yep, unleaded petrol jumps around a bit but it's been around $AU1.50 to $AU1.65 a litre in Australia lately. - jjprojects
23 gallons = about 87 liter /// $ 108 / 87l = 1,24 $ / l /// $ 1,24 = € 0,8 /// € 0,8 / l ==> wow, cheap :-) - Steven Verbruggen
Steven compared the US prices to Europe and finds it cheap at 0.8 euros! hehe - Loic Le Meur
in Italy €1.50 - €1.55/l. 87 litres= €130 = circa $197 - Giovanni Crescente
In the Great White North - $1.30-$1.50 CDN per liter = $5.20-$6.00 CDN per Gallon. - Stephen Pierzchala
For sure, it's cheap. Here in Paris, the diesel liter is double (1.56 € today). Equivalent to 5.9 € / gallon (3.78 l) = 9.26 USD / gallon. - Philippe Bovigny
I've always wondered - why hasn't the US switched over to the metric system? - Yuvi
The same reason why the US spells words differently the rest of the English-speaking world. Although it does have interesting effects on the construction of Mars probes - Stephen Pierzchala
Loic, Oregon Grille in here in Baltimore might have the best Steak au Poivre anywhere. - Aaron Brazell
filled up yesterday for the equivalent of $9.57 a gallon in Ireland - Patphelan
$10 a gallon in Ireland?!!! wew now THAT is not cheap - Loic Le Meur
Our Mercedes requires premium and so we see those numbers too, although not frequently, since we keep driving down. The ML350 has a 25 gallon tank. x 4.65 / gallon by our house. - Eric Rice
It's $6/gallon in Canada for regular, close to $7 for premium - urgh - Seann G
How do you think the two writing styles affect readers? It seems like some readers will automatically skip Eastern-style pieces: if there's nothing in the first line to 'hook' them, they're gone. - Thursday Bram
I think eastern style writing invokes curiosity and that's the hook. "What is the bigger picture here?" - Aaron Brazell
I've not seen this done on FriendFeed yet (have you, Kevin?), and I'm surprised. It was one of the most popular threads I started on our own Google Webmaster Help Group, and before that, on a swing dance board I co-founded. - Adam Lasnik
As for me... I'm Adam, a native S. Californian living in Mountain View (near San Francisco). I like traveling (mostly to see friends, not just sites!), social dancing (Lindy hop and Waltz primarily), eating, and geeking. Among other things :). I'm on Friendfeed, because I like having a place to vent, and I enjoy seeing others' points of views and the interesting tidbits they uncover. - Adam Lasnik
I'm Robert, a native of Washington, DC living in San Francisco (near Mountain View). I like hiking, sports, science, eating and geeking among other things. I'm on FriendFeed because I like having a way to vent too, but I also like being able to see what other people are interested about and reading and there are some very smart and thoughtful people here to discuss things with. - Robert Seidman
Since you ask :), I am an Indian living in the DC metro area. I love movies (almost all kinds), music (mainly Hindi Film Music and Ghazals), and pondering about how languages work. Web technologies, design, and usability issues interest me as much. FriendFeed to me is primarily a life-tracking mechanism. Lately, though, I have found its great potential for venting out as well. - Vinay
I am Paul from Oklahoma City near Tinker AFB. I have a wife of 19 years and two teenage sons. I love photography, amateur radio (K5GLH), and social networking. I spent 10 years in the Air Force in three countries and six states. - Paul L. McCord Jr.
I grew up outside of DC :), common thread here. I'm fond of politics, rock climbing, and painting. Friendfeed is like a link blog for me and it makes it easier to share and find new sources of information. - Michael
I'm Aaron Brazell, born in a hospital outside of Buffalo, NY and now a 19 year resident of Baltimore. With brief stints living throughout New York State and Africa, and travelling a bit in recent years I'm growing to hate Maryland more. :) I'm an amateur photographer trying to understand Thomas Hawk's photography and a blogger trying to make a living doing whatever I can on the web. - Aaron Brazell
I'm Kirk, I'm a native Illinoisan living near the space center in Houston. I like to run, read, hike, write. Lately, I've been trying to organize the debris of my digital life -- travels, photos, music, writing, etc. -- online and offline, so a fair amount of the things that show up in my feed aren't new. I'd be happy to find some other folks to follow here with similar interests; right now, I mostly follow the social media elite (which seems to be the vocal majority, understandably) - Kirk Kittell
I'm Vince from Louisville, KY - my life didn't start for me until I lived in Japan around 1999. There I met my wife and in 2003 we had our first and only child (girl), who is the absolute love of my life. By day I'm a manager of around 140 and IT's worst nightmare because I love to make my own apps in ASP.NET. The Internet and Social Networking are two things that are infinitely interesting to me - the things I've learned and the people I "meet" have given me a lifetime of knowledge. So, hello! - Vince DeGeorge
I'm Erica, an Everywherian currently living in Brooklyn, NY (though soon to escape to Cali). I'm into taking pictures, playing Halo, computers, and reading. I'm a web nerd at heart but I have no coding skills so I appease the computer nerd in me by fixing computers (that's what I get paid to do anyhow). I likey the FriendFeed because I can passively discover interesting things. - Erica Baker
I'm Jordan, originally from Lincoln, NE, but now living north, in Fargo, ND. During the day, I write code for a living. The rest of the time I enjoy being with my wife, seeing what all of you are doing, taking pictures, writing more code, and many other things. I'm on FriendFeed because I get to follow interesting people and see interesting things. - Jordan Hofker
I am Mathew, but please call me Mati as my friends & family do, a native of St. Louis, Missouri. Did a prolonged stint in Nawlins as a Tulane undergraduate. Lived in a LA for a stint as an intern for Teach For America. Went into banking and then music club operations in NOLA. Returned to StL late in '90's to help home hospice grandmother and went to work in CMOS & Bond Operations for Edward Jones for 5 years. I have been in Hotel finance/accounting for the last 5 yrs or so. Hobbies are the outdoors, my friends & family, new experiences, kayaking (flat & ww), reading, photography, and living as much as I can. :) - Mathew A. Koeneker
Hi I'm Mona. I'm addicted to the internet and I take up a lot of pixels. FF gives me an outlet to vent FAR away from my real life. Avid 2.0er, full time SNSer, lover of all things with an on/off button. People think I'm a wild party chick but I'm just a nerd. edit: i forgot i like rubiks too... so not all things with an on/off button =\ - Mona N
I am Jason, native Texan currently residing in Jacksonville, FL. by way of Louisiana and Arizona. By day, I am a Landscape Architect. The rest of my time and interests lie in photography, design and my new found interest in social media. Trying to realize a way to merge all of these in a useful manner as my background has nothing to do with coding, social media or the like. Came across FF as a means to discover new and interesting things as well as interact with many I read about or follow. - JA Castillo
I am Robert, and I am a father to Michael (10) and Alex (8). I met their mother, my wife, in Washington DC in 1989 when we were 17. She was a year a head in school and went to Tulane, I attended the University of Chicago, but switched to The Ohio State University to get a degree in CIS. We dated long distance until she moved here after college. I have lived in Columbus, Chicago, Corpus Christi, Charlotte, DC and northern NJ. To pay the bills I am a systems architect who still gets his hands dirty and has an enthusiasm for making things go fast. My other enthusiasms include college football, reading, alternative music, the autumn, thunderstorms, travel, flickr and his family. I prefer to have a few good friends, instead of many and do not care for most social situations - RAPatton
Jack (Jeber) Carlson, born 54 years ago and raised in the same neighborhood I'm living in now. I've lived and worked in D.C. (ASA/NSA), Texas and Idaho. I blog insistently, am a mod/admin for several forums including Lockergnome's and Scot Finnie's forums. I've been a help desk jocky for Gateway and D-Link. I work as an office/production/general manager for a small cartridge remanufacturing shop and serve on the national IT committee for our parent company. I love pets, plants & 'puters. - Jack Carlson
I'd really like to know how to take a photo like this. Long exposure, which I presume is needed, will make the buildings and sky glow with an ungodly orange haze. What's the technique? - Aaron Brazell
@David I'm at MCO in Orlando, FL - not a great airport to be stuck in - Jennifer Van Grove via fftogo
Watches CNN for the latest Airline mutiny , No wonder they spend so much time making sure the passengers cant carry weapons : - Earl E Morningwood
the general consensus is that US Airways is predictably bad...tonight I found out about the estimated departure time from orbitz about 30 min before any announcement was made, still in a holding pattern & hoping the crazy cruise ship man to my left doesn't go AWOL - Jennifer Van Grove via fftogo
"“There is but one truly serious philosophical problem,” Albert Camus wrote, “and that is suicide.” How to explain why, among the only species capable of pondering its own demise, whose desperate attempts to forestall mortality have spawned both armies and branches of medicine in a perpetual search for the Fountain of Youth, there are those who, by their own hand, would choose death over life?" - Robert Seidman via Bookmarklet
I just watched this great movie... "He Was a Quiet Man" with Christian Slater and William h. Macy. made me think of it. Unfortunately this article is another argument against gun ownership. What the article fails to understand is free will. Perhaps the writer should be reading Fyodor M Dostoevsky's "Grand Inquisitor". Free Will is a burden and I'll take it - Noah David Simon
"“At the risk of stating the obvious,” Seiden said, “people who attempt suicide aren’t thinking clearly. They might have a Plan A, but there’s no Plan B. They get fixated. They don’t say, ‘Well, I can’t jump, so now I’m going to go shoot myself.’ And that fixation extends to whatever method they’ve chosen. They decide they’re going to jump off a particular spot on a particular bridge, or maybe they decide that when they get there, but if they discover the bridge is closed for renovations or the railing is higher than they thought, most of them don’t look around for another place to do it. They just retreat.” " - RAPatton
"She remembers feeling a moment of intense pain and then nothing else for a long time. Her next memory is of her husband, standing over her and screaming, “What have you done?” and the sound of an approaching ambulance. She found she could speak, but all she kept saying over and over was: “I don’t want to die. Please, I don’t want to die.”
" - RAPatton
"“What was immediately apparent,” Rosen recounted, “was that none of them had truly wanted to die. They had wanted their inner pain to stop; they wanted some measure of relief; and this was the only answer they could find. They were in spiritual agony, and they sought a physical solution.” " - RAPatton
i do believe some people truly want to die. - edythe
In a given moment I am certain many do, and all it takes is one moment and the means. I think the article showed if the mean were not there during those moments people did not seek out new means, and instead let the moment pass. - RAPatton
just to be precise I think the article illustrated that if the means were not there only a small minority sought out other means. Also the article seemed to exclude cases like Hunter S. Thompson's. - Robert Seidman
whatever your opinion is... some of us will fluctuate on issues of life and it is important that we are given as many options of freedom as possible. Finding statistical reasons to restrict freedom is a VERY SLIPPERY SLOPE! - Noah David Simon
How many people who commented or liked this article have ever contemplated suicide? - Aaron Brazell
Mark - this is completely different. The one you linked to discusses the right panel that's not a default so-to-speak. This analysis today is based on the defaults that FF is providing to 9 people. It's not the same and I don't believe in linkbaiting. - Allen Stern
This is important and should be fixed. The decision was probably made to help entice A-listers to the service, but that's no longer necessary. Thanks, Allen. - Sprague D
The real problem is these services are really lame if you have no friends. This was an attempt to fix that problem. I agree though that FF should only recommend participants on the first few screens. If you aren't participating why would FF want to feature you? - Robert Scoble
Great video -- and yea definitely not the same post. I would see this an expansion into the topic and showing the results of tracking the patterns of a new user signup experience... - Gary Bacon II
i´m just subscribed to robert - for me the other 8 people have no value in their content and i wondered all the time why they are there... but robert should be default ;) - Dieter Schwarz
Robert's point is fair. The defaults shouldn't be a random selection of users, but a few of the most dedicated participants. I look forward to seeing edythe replace Arrington. ;-) - Sprague D
Great post Allen, FF is also VERY susceptible to bots doing mass adding. I haven't really seen any one take advantage of this yet. Then again, its not easy to see a users followers/following stats. - sean percival
i only saw this as a problem if you tend to be a sheep and just subscribe because a service recommends someone vs default which to me implies they auto subscribed you when you start which they did not, i'm only subscribed to a few of these 9 folks, very similar to who i've sub'd to in other services - this seem a bit of a mountain out of a mole hill to me folks - mike "glemak" dunn
Great post. In order for FriendFeed to become mainstream they should watch this video! Otherwise FF will risk being a web 2.0 only social network. I understand why FF is by default adding Scoble and other early adopters though...word of mouth! It's to attract the fast followers.... like us.....creating the herd effect so to speak. I would suggest that FF still have these guys as a default(maybe under the category web 2.0 thought leaders?) but add a default page based on interest areas as well. - Chris Herbert
Great job on researching. I definitely realized that FF was not nearly doing the job Facebook does when looking for friends you may know or recommendations. - Adam Helweh
This isn't cool. In my book, this is kissing up to the big guys so they'll talk about you and get you exposure. Whether they know it or not still doesn't make it okay. - Raoul Pop
@mike, if you want to know why what is presented to the "sheep" is important, check out Chris's reference to "herding". Chris, if they want to become mainstream they need to change the target of their marketing from "fast followers" to common users, who would also like the chance at building an audience. A good way to do that would be by randomly presenting dedicated users. - Sprague D
Maybe I am not getting it but I do not see the appeal in having many strangers follow you just for the sake of following you. I mean, I see Robert Scoble with 20,000+ followers but he could not know 1/10th of them even if he wanted to. Maybe I am missing something. - Paul L. McCord Jr.
I thought this might be the way for FriendFeed to gain popularity as well. Get some of the most active internet peeps on Friend Feed, make them feel that their subscribers are coming in droves, and the rest will follow. Yes, no? - Adam Helweh
Paul: I actually agree. Who is following you is not important. Who you are following is VERY important. I'm following about 3,000 people right now on FriendFeed, all hand added (I just added you for making a good point). - Robert Scoble
Raoul: when I joined FriendFeed I wasn't on the list. I moved up the list because I brought a lot of people into FriendFeed from my popular Twitter and blog. Live isn't fair sometimes. You might notice that FriendFeed is at the top of TechMeme right now and that FriendFeed is growing very rapidly. But I'm writing a blot post about the "Participation Premium." If life is unfair, why are 5,000 more people following me than Mike Arrington? After all, his blog is more popular than mine is... - Robert Scoble
But Robert, why are that many people following him at all when until recently he didn't even participate here other than posting his feeds? - Cyndy
Robert: people follow you because you follow them and pass along the conversations so others can enjoy too. Mike A. doesn't include everyone.. - LPH
Sprague: what I would do if I were FF is this: I'd have config options based on interest areas, top FriendFeeders, recommended FriendFeeders, and "randomizer" (as you suggested), and most popular FriedFeeders. - Chris Herbert
It's not the same 9 people everytime. It depends on who you subscribe to. There is a short list of prominent people on FF that get recommended, but in order for them to be recommended they have to be a contact of one of your existing contacts. The list is in alphabetical order by first name. If you don't have any contacts FF won't recommend anyone to you. - Thomas Hawk
Thomas: not true. I just signed up a new account and it recommended users to me. - Robert Scoble
cyndy: ff primarily is a very valid presence aggregater - whether someone then chooses to interact in ff via comment/like is secondary to me - mike "glemak" dunn
Thomas is referring to the "Recommended" link on the friend settings tab; Allen's video is about the sign up process. - Sprague D
It seems to me, with all the social aggregation, FriendFeed should be able to discern your interests and participation among other networks and provide an appropriate set of defaults at signup. TweetStats.com can show who I most actively talk to on Twitter, for instance, and as one element of an algo maybe that data can provide a better cross-section of suggested followers. - Aaron Brazell
You may be interested in a little personal research I've done to find out the social weight of FF users and the number of followers: http://user21.com/2008/07/04/f... - atzmon
I'd call these defaults an excellent marketing campaign from FF's standpoint. Those default FF users pretty much represent the same echo-chamber 'attractors' in the technology/web space. I think it's a little disingenuous when you ask how those people became popular FF users. It's obviously a well calculated way to market to the major technology attractors; or was that comment meant to be tongue in cheek? - Jim McCusker
hmmm Robert, I signed up a new account as well and found that under the "Recommended" link it would
