All: an API client malfunctioned or intentionally spammed with these comments. We disabled that API client to prevent the problem, and we are reaching out to the developer. - Bret Taylor
Wow theres a lot. ...a lot of a lot ... the likely cause was the other day when what's his name pointed his Nokia at his monitor, giving an infinite picture-in-picture of the stream he was running on qik - Dan Covington
All: an API client malfunctioned or intentionally spammed with these comments. We disabled that API client to prevent the problem, and we are reaching out to the developer. - Bret Taylor
"There has been much talk of Twitter users moving over to FriendFeed since Twitter replies were down for the majority of last week. Twitter announced that they were back on Saturday in their blog, but seeing as the outage may have inspired some users to flock to FriendFeed, I decided to take a look at the 3rd-party applications and scripts that enhance the FriendFeed functionality.
For those of you moving on to FriendFeed’s greener pastures, here are 13 essential tools for an organized, “noise”-free experience." - Russellreno via Bookmarklet
I thought about making NoiseRiver a closed alpha (by invites) actually. But then told to myself: to hell with hesitation, let's make it and face bugs together! ;-) - directeur via NoiseRiver
Directeur: Have you check you inbox for all your new followers lately? - Russellreno
@Russellreno : ouch! It's full! I'm subscribing to many of them, maybe I'm skipping some but I'll definitely see that again :) - directeur via NoiseRiver
Thanks Patrick! Actually without the great feedback from you folks that wouldn't happen... The first 20 minutes of the launch were really HOT :) - directeur via NoiseRiver
D: BTW there is a GM script that will help you subscribe. Google "Better Friendfeed Subscribe to me". After you load it you go into your "People who scribe to me" tab. It adds a superscribe button. - Russellreno
Thanks for the info Russellreno! I'll download it now :) - directeur via NoiseRiver
Actually it helped me a lot these last days, I needed some filtering and I found it funny that the whole thing was colored ;-) - directeur via NoiseRiver
Michael : Nice to have you back then! It's your turn to make something without your wife blaming you ;-) - directeur via NoiseRiver
Robert: The more I worked on this, the more I was amazed by the whole work the FF staff is doing. Seriously it's intuitive, simple and clean and this is thanks to their efforts :) - directeur via NoiseRiver
This looks like it might be pretty cool once the bugs are worked out. - Jason Wehmhoener
Had problems logging in with my email but was able to login with my username. Will give this a spin, cool idea! - Mike Reynolds
looks good, I'll test it out in a bit, as soon as you have the initial kinks worked out :) - Tim Hoeck
Tim: I was stupid, and supposed everyone will use their nicks, some are using their emails while logging in :) Now instead of those 404 I redirect to the login form - directeur via NoiseRiver
Just trying it out now. Like using delicious tags for keywords. - Tom Landini
seems like some gr8 talent is aggregating itself around FF.. is it a culture thing or just b'coz its a kewl project to be working on ? What the true EQ data points for talent attraction at FF ? - Peter Dawson
Wish you a good career with FriendFeed. Any specific thing Gary will work on? - seman
Welcome aboard Gary! Happy FriendFeeding! :*) Hey i LOVE your Mail2FF app! totally cool concept! - Susan Beebe
Cool! (BTW, looks like you folks don't need to buy chairs any time soon) - Ken Sheppardson
Very cool. Nice to see FF growing. Hi Gary...<subscribe> - Mark Krynsky
E just scanned the last day of my FriendFeed output to see if I was getting whiny myself and discovered, except for a couple of joke-y references, I didn't mention Twitter at all. I probably spent more time talking about an fftogo problem (which Benjamin Golub promptly fixed). I suspect that eventually (if not already), the reaction of a few people to Twittter will be - silence... - Ontario Emperor via fftogo
neither, it's the people whining about whining users :) - Jeff Quinton
I hide all Twitter whining threads because it's such a played out conversation. What more is there to say about it? - Mike Doeff
@Ontario Emperor - I guess I was whining about him whining about other people whining too. How far can this go? :) - Jeff Quinton
Will someone explain to me why anyone is complaining about a service that they don't pay for being down? Supreme Court said we have the right to bear arms not the right to bare our souls on Twitter 24/7 - Cathleen Rittereiser
@cathleenritt - even if twitter is free, there is a time investment. after some number of whales the effort isn't worth it. - Ontario Emperor via fftogo
yes it was down :( apparently the web host is still having problems and I'm getting fed up but can't do much about it at this time - Steven Hodson
The best way to stop twitter whining - stop using twitter. I gave up on it about a month ago, and don't even notice the outages (or the whining) anymore. The whining comes from the wishy-washy who can't commit to supporting them or quitting. Just pick a side and move on! - Jason Kaneshiro
Whining users. And here's why: FF has been available and functional since the failwhale started appearing on a daily basis. While I've never suggested anybody ditch Twitter for FF, it has served as a productive and functional alternative. I'm not "done" with Twitter (and *do* sometimes complain about the ongoing problems) but we have a viable choice here so people might as well just use it. - melmcbride
I have offered similar comments as @Cathleen. I can't bring myself to complain about a service that charges nothing. Here's some numbers to put things in perspective 303 million americans 1.9 mil twitter users (so let's say that's 1mil US users) Only 1 in 303 Americans know what Twitter is. If the early adoptersand abusers who have 20,000+ followers or follow 20,0000+ leave the service that means the remaining 1.8 million will once again have a service that works. So go already and stop complaining. - Kevin Shannon
Workarounds: (1) Make ":-)" comments instead of links - Polly's idea (2) Edit a comment by (a) making a new comment (b) deleting the old one. - Mitchell Tsai
At Fri 10:31 pm EDT, my "likes" are working again. If you guys did something, many thanks! - Mitchell Tsai
Oh well, used 8 more likes, and at hit the limit again at 10:40 pm EDT (from 860/week to 868/week). But my "edits" are working again. Yay! - Mitchell Tsai
Hit the "edit-comment" limit again at 10:48 pm EDT. - Mitchell Tsai
Voyagerfan5761: The limits are roughly ~260-300/day, so you're not anywhere close to hitting them. It's just us like-comment-addicts. :-) - Mitchell Tsai
That is a massive amount of likes in a day, you are definitely an addict! - Joe Dawson
at least twitter realizes what a problem this is. just buy summize please. - MG Siegler
srsly. i hate having to rely on the web version of twitter, first of all, then having the reply tab bork, and then having to go to summize, and hit reply there and pray that twitter works. It's why I only check Twitter once or twice a day now. - Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins
If your application requires you to tell your users to go SOMEWHERE ELSE for the use of YOUR AP, you have a much, much bigger problem than you think you do. - Alexander Williams
/Like twice: Once for the conversation as a whole and once for Alexander's comment. - Voyagerfan5761
sure... it's the last thing keeping me connected to the conversation in twitter; without TweetBeep I would have left twitter much earlier due to the outages and disabled @replies feature - Susan Beebe
Oops i forgot to post link... www.pelikoira.net/collabtive we use that for bug/task tracking, google code for code tracking. - k00pa via fftogo
Despite Google Code having an issue tracker...? OK... - Voyagerfan5761
It, er, won't let me change my profile (particularly password). It says I need to enter a valid value for E-mail, even after I do so. - Voyagerfan5761
I haven't had any problems with Collabtive, though I have noticed that it is a bit rough around the edges. It isn't a major problem, in my opinion. - possible248
I got around it by using Firebug to run document.forms[0].submit(); on the user edit page. JS hackery FTW! :D I still think Google Code's built-in tools would be just fine... - Voyagerfan5761
Meh, k00pa suggested Collabtive, and I only got the Google Code page after we had posted a couple messages on Collabtive. We'll see what happens. - possible248 via NoiseRiver
well said - poser comes from surfer lingo btw, for guys that would show up w/ nice boards and "pose" on the beach while the real surfers paddled out - very recognizable on the beach and in social media ;) - mike "glemak" dunn
remember when all those people came out initially and called Twitter a "fad?" Lots of folks hated it. Didn't matter though it still represented innovation and to that end eventually even the haters were brought on board. Same thing will happen with FF. Gillmor is a hater right now. But he'll eventually come around. They always do. Same thing happened with the conversion from film cameras to digital cameras. It just takes some more time than others. - Thomas Hawk
your article was boring linkbait. How's that much different from Digg? :-) People should be allowed to use services any way they see fit. You get out what you put in, so what difference does it make? Perhaps Gillmor wants to use FriendFeed merely as a way for Scoble to have an easy way to see his tweets on FriendFeed, so be it! - Robert Seidman
already on my block list for his dipshit commentary on gillmor gang. - Scott Cropper
Well written article! I also have a problem with these "posers" showing up as recommended users and I also feel FriendFeed is not an application you can look at on paper and dismiss. This happens more often than not. - Bwana McCall
Sweet! My first linkbait! As for the boring part.. we will see how popular it is... - J. Phil
Boring linkbait can be quite effective, J. Phil, I suspect it will be among your more popular articles! - Robert Seidman
I agree with Robert. Back when Scoble posted numerous tweets on Twitter, people started arguing with him that he was using Twitter "wrong". His response was great: essentially, there is no "wrong" way to use Twitter. Use it how you like to. FriendFeed is the same way. What if all I want is a lifestreaming service that I can post to my blog sidebar? Does it make me a poser just because I don't particularly want to join and interact with the community that is on the service? I don't think so. - Nathaniel Payne
Bwana, so the issue is more a product development issue w/FriendFeed continuing to recommend the same people. Do you really have an issue with Gillmor or anyone else not really using the service? - Robert Seidman
Nathanial, if it was anyone but Steve Gillmor, I'd agree with you. He's not doing that though. He's hedging his bets. - J. Phil
I will preface what I said with an agreement that someone who doesn't necessarily interact with FriendFeed shouldn't appear as a "recommended" user. ;) - Nathaniel Payne
Yup. I read it. Phil. I gave up trying to pay any attention to Steve after his rude interview with Bret Taylor, who was more than courteous in his replies to Steve's leading questions. Gillmor's snobish and elitist line of questioning with Bret and others who work at Friendfeed is testament to his child like behavior when it comes to FF & Twitter. His is noise I can do without, so I have one simple answer: Block on Twitter, Block on Friendfeed. Problem more or less solved. - Brian Daniel Eisenberg
So if he signed up for the service, tried it out, then discontinued using it, that makes him a poser? Does not compute. - Kirk Kittell
Brian, about the same conclusion I came to, but I thought I'd set off some fireworks first. - J. Phil
Whether he tried it or not is irrelevant... he's not using it, so why is he a recommended user? - Bwana McCall
don't look at the recommendations, the way they're are generated is questionable maybe even random, besides that the post was LOL, it felt right - Dobromir Hadzhiev
@Bwana - That doesn't make him a poser. A poser is trying to get in front of the crowd to be seen by that crowd. Gillmor isn't inserting himself in front of this crowd, his account is being placed there by the service. - Kirk Kittell
I noticed these folks too, I think "using it wrong" is a bit harsh, but all the same, I've begun weeding them out of my subscribe list. I have GReader to pull in feeds, I come to FF for the conversation. But if there's conversation on FF around something posted on an inactive users list, I'm happy to partake of it if it's interesting. Just because one doesn't like the source, doesn't mean the resulting bits around it aren't worthwhile! - felix
There's nothing wrong with just setting your feeds up and walking away. That's just one way to use this service. There are other, more social, ways to use it, and that's ok, too. Agree that what's raw is if he still lands in the Recommended list. Plurk does this, also, I believe. Who do they "recommend?" The usual suspects...which can be rather boring. It may give the creators brownie points and blog links, but little ense. I would hope the FF gurus would mix it up more often. - Jim Stanger
Kirk, then why won't he delete the account? Or stop feeding? - Bwana McCall
why should he, Bwana? Not that this is the case w/Gillmor, but let's say he just wanted to aggregate his Internet presence on FriendFeed and give that feed to his friends and family and not participate all. What's wrong with that? That will likely be a fairly common use case if FriendFeed is to scale. - Robert Seidman
Jim.. good point. That's essentially what I was thinking in the article, but I deliberately went for a more rant attitude. I just love how emotionally charged the word 'poser' is.. I didn't realize people had such different interpretations of it, though. - J. Phil
@Bwana - probably the same reason I don't delete my Hi5 or Friendster accounts: it's less work to not delete them. As long as they aren't bothering me with mail, they don't exist to me, and I don't even consider deleting them. I suppose that's the difference I would mention between a poser and non-poser: intent. - Kirk Kittell
I think your assessment may be a bit harsh. There are many who don't use FF to chat and they are not posers. We are all figuring out how to implement the various social meda tools in our arsenal and Twitter was an easy medium for chatting. I admit I initally thought of FF as an aggregator not a chat vehicle. - Karen Swim via Alert Thingy
Just because people are getting used to a service - or find new or personally convenient ways to use a service doesn't mean they are "posing." but I didn't read the blog post - so maybe Im missing the point... - Tony
Also, I'm not as closely involved in the same industry as the rest of you -- I don't have any back story to the why/why not for Gillmor. He's just a name I recognize from Gillmor Gang, which is something I don't follow... - Kirk Kittell
kirk nailed it - there is a backstory here when it comes to steve and ff... - mike "glemak" dunn
Karen - Agreed, actually I tried to say several times in my post that I have no problems with most friendfeed 'tourists'. - J. Phil
Ah. Well. I see. In that case: back to work... - Kirk Kittell
J. Phil, noted and thanks for saying it again! I :-) - Karen Swim
you could say the same thing about folks feeding their shit to Jaiku. A great deal of people set up their feeds and never came back. Are some of you feeding your tweets to Jaiku? HA! Posers. Anyway, most folks are still pulling for twitter but they want to start setting up shop over here to prepare for the inevitable. - Richard
I often come to FriendFeed to see what's going on with friends on other sites. It gives me a nice rundown of what they're saying other places and what they find interesting. I don't often come chat or vote up sites, probably because commenting here doesn't show up on blogs, so doesn't make sense to post twice and because Plurk isn't included, so the main place I want to talk isn't available. It doesn't mean I don't use it, I do and often, but I'm pretty sure I don't use it like it's "supposed" to be used. - Teeg
If you read the post, J. Phil's just saying that it's kind of rude to feed your blog and Twitter to FriendFeed and then never participate in the ensuing conversations. I think "poser" may be a bit harsh, seeing as most people haven't really thought this behavior through to this extent, but he it's an interesting point to make. - Lon Harris via twhirl
Richard, FriendFeed can be viewed as a simple lifestream aggregator, and using it as such as fine. Or whatever, actually I don't really care how anyone uses FriendFeed or NOT using it or whatever. There are three (well, four) reasons I wrote this article, to be honest: 1) I wanted to say 'for shame' to those who depend on services such as twitter and friendfeed to promote their personal brand, and they bash FF and *are using it for advertising anyway*, 2) I wanted to write my first "rant" article (contd') - J. Phil
3) I wanted to highlight that friendfeed's suggested people to follow mechanism is sort of busted, and 4) I wanted people to realize that FriendFeed has an amazing amount of potential for community building and opinion and input, and those people who just visit and vanish are basically ignoring all that. - J. Phil
@Lon Its not being rude because nobody is forcing you to care about those people. POSTING a picture of somebody on your blog and calling them a poser is RUDE. - Richard
All I'm saying is if you're going on record to dismiss a service, why bother feeding it your data or even using it. Case in point, I hate/dismiss Myspace all the time, and I have an account. There's absolutely nothing there. It's solely for squatting. I agree that the "recommended user" part is mostly a FriendFeed issue, but I don't see Gillmor complaining about it either. My $0.02. - Bwana McCall
@Robert Seidman: "Not that this is the case w/Gillmor, but let's say he just wanted to aggregate his Internet presence on FriendFeed and give that feed to his friends and family and not participate all." *Spot on!* If someone just wants a link for people to see what they're up to/have to say, they are not at all a "poser" they are just taking advantage of what the service has to offer. @J. Phil: If this blog was just a way to single out Gillmor, then this would not be a problem at all. However, if you are talking about the gen pop of FF users, I think you're off base with this one. - David Cook
David,I'm quite sure Gillmor has went on record to point people to Twitter for everything. That scenario doesn't apply here. My assumption here is that even though the title is general, it's a poke at Gillmor specifically. - Bwana McCall
Bwana, my point is simply that if he wants to bash someone he doesn't necessarily like, then by all means do it and I'll probably get a laugh out of it. But I just don't feel that all people who don't "use" FF are wrong. If you want a service aggregator and don't actually visit the site to check up on it, doesn't make you a poser. - David Cook
David, as I said in my article (and here to Karen) my intent is not to say that most people who use friendfeed (even as a tourist) are posers. - J. Phil
@David If FriendFeed were a pure aggregator (like Profilactic), I'd agree with that, but it's really not if you ask me. There's much more to it. But I digress. I have other concerns about Gillmor that are outside the scope of this article. I'll agree to disagree simply because inserting Gillmor into this situation brings along a lot of baggage. - Bwana McCall
Bwana, I see your point and I agree with you in the sense that FF *should* be more than just an aggregator. I, myself don't use it that way at all. I love getting involved, reading posts, comments, and making comments myself. It's just that when J. Phil said: "So, my advice to you internet pundits, either crap or get off the pot. Why not pull yourself off FriendFeed completely until you want to interact? I’m close to just blocking FriendFeed posers as matter of policy." - David Cook
Bwana - I agree with you here, but as I stated in the article, I picked on Gillmor (though I deliberately did not use his name in the title) because he was the first person in the suggested people to be a clear non-user of the service. I admit that using his name would heat up the discussion a bit, which is good for an opinion piece. - J. Phil
This is the limit. I need a way to filter posts that have the word "FriendFeed" in them. - Sprague D
J. Phil, "David, as I said in my article (and here to Karen) my intent is not to say that most people who use friendfeed (even as a tourist) are posers." I read what you said to Karen *after* my post went through. But the quote I posted to Bwana is what made me say all that. - David Cook
Sprague - LOL sorry for have annoyed you with my post. Feel free to hide or block as needed. ;) - J. Phil
You're on to something Phil, but I'm not with you 100%. - Shey
Thanks, David. No offense taken, or meant. - J. Phil
Shey - That's OK. Remember my about page. My goal is to increase my writing portfolio. This was an opinion piece, a 'rant'. While I of course will take personal responsibility, I wrote it mostly to see if I could write it, as much of a tautology as that sounds. - J. Phil
It's social (media) Darwinism to a certain extent. Those who use, explore and excel using FriendFeed will benefit the most. Should Gillmor or anyone else decide to not do so is only really harming themselves - if you believe FF is here to stay (which I think it is.) So others will be late to the party, some too late, but others will have enough social capital to join when the tipping point becomes obvious. - AJ Kohn
more to the point, and given your own realisations on writing that article, does posing that question place you further into the realms of poser? lol, j/k obviously - Slippy Lane
Slippy - I wouldn't consider myself a poser on FriendFeed by my own definition. Now, you look at me on Twitter, Pownce, Jaiku, etc.. HELL YES. - J. Phil
