DISQUS

Benjamin Golub · 1 year ago

Your post inspired me to do a better job of this on fftogo. Now it will try to figure out the verb instead of just saying "posted" for everything.

sarahintampa · 1 year ago

I thought the whole thing was pretty funny myself. I slept through the whole thing, actually, so I wasn't even there to deny it. Oh, the drama!

Shey · 1 year ago

We've seen it happen all too often already. Many people skim over posts or don't even read them -- commenting only on the article title, others spreading false rumours without checking the source.

We've got to regulate ourselves a little better.

Svetlana Gladkova · 1 year ago

Very true Shey, I have seen it pretty often that a post from Profy receives, say, 30 likes on FriendFeed and a dozen of comments, and our server stats only shows a dozen of people actually visiting the post to read it and leave a comment on FF (if that is the place they prefer to leave comments). It is annoying when I realize that people only use FF to create some presence for themselves by liking and commenting titles instead of actually consuming the content they pretend to like - I think it is even worse than fragmentation of comments that FF initiates.

Louis Gray · 1 year ago

Svetlana, there's no "one right way" to use any service. I believe some people make a lot more likes or comments than I am comfortable, and I am sure some people say the same about me. But I have no concerns about FriendFeed reducing page views and comments. It simply hasn't proven to be the case. I would encourage bloggers to be engaged there, or on any other site where the conversation is taking place.

Svetlana Gladkova · 1 year ago

Louis, I'm afraid I never intended to post this with any reference to traffic stats, the main point for me was that people seek some heavy presence on FriendFeed by liking and commenting heavily and never actually bother about the content. It's not about traffic (I know FF sends lots of it anyway), it's about that I don't really feel very comfortable when people show that they like my content without actually caring about it.

Shey · 1 year ago

You're right, it does happen. But I believe this type of behaviour existed before FriendFeed. With many people only interested in leaving "Great post" type comments to get a link back to their site.

Sure it may be a nofollow link, but a link is a link to them.

Svetlana Gladkova · 1 year ago

Yes, absolutely true, it existed before FriendFeed - FriendFeed simply made this type of behavior more obvious to me, that's all.

nicefishfilms · 1 year ago

As always, an informative post. It is getting a little harder to track down the source as we add services like FriendFeed, etc. I'm still a little frustrated that we can't figure out a system to source link more clearly. It would be nice if aggregation sites like Technorati and Digg would find a way to list primary source so that when I see something linked to in FF or RSS Readers it would show a breadcrumb like trackback.

Your point seems to go along the line of responsible journalism in blogging. I enjoyed the Cranky Geeks Episode #124 (http://www.crankygeeks.com/episodes/) nice roundtable on accountability. We should all strive to a higher standard for responsible Blog Ethos. Updates, corrections and strike-throughs are examples of the writer actually caring about their audience.

ryanbrenizer · 1 year ago

FriendFeed needs to make this more clear somehow in the UI. I hate favoriting photos on Flickr now because people can't tell them apart from my content

Svetlana Gladkova · 1 year ago

Louis, since you mention your own habit of sharing your own entries on Google Reader, does the problem you discuss here mean that you will be more careful about these shares. It is always tempting to give your own post an extra vote somewhere but it is a rather sensitive question that often bothers me - how far should we go to make our posts popular? And if this further confuses our readers, is it actually worth it?

Louis Gray · 1 year ago

I have no intention of changing the way I share items in Google Reader. I know that there are people who are subscribed to the link blog, or who are my contacts in GMail, who are not FriendFeed people. I do occasionally share my own items, but not all of them. I share those I think are interesting, just like I do for TechCrunch, Scoble or anybody else. And I am not worried about my readers being confused.

Svetlana Gladkova · 1 year ago

Thanks for your explanation. To me personally for some reason it seemed to be strange to share the items that I have authored myself, this was the reason for the question. Obviously, when you have a link blog with some subscribers that may not be subscribers to your main blog, it sounds like a good idea to offer them some posts of your own instead of only sending them to other items you personally find to be interesting. But to me it is always a major dilemma if I should vote/share my own items so I'm interested in knowing your opinion.