DISQUS

Scobleizer · 1 year ago

Bing!

ontarioemperor · 1 year ago

I don't have the link handy, but it's interesting that MyBlogLog trumpeted the fact that they DON'T overlay comments over the items in their lifestream. At this time, this resonated because of the worries about conversation fragmentation - and I'm sure that there are still a number of people who criticize FriendFeed for fragmenting the conversation. But I suspect that FriendFeed is providing opportunities for conversation that wouldn't exist otherwise.

It's definitely a good idea to participate in the discussions in FriendFeed, even if you have to set a silly goal to make sure that you do it.

Louis Gray · 1 year ago

And what does it tell you that I _forgot_ to mention MyBlogLog as "yet another" aggregator? They got topics right, and their widgets are cool, but it's not a destination or interactive.

ontarioemperor · 1 year ago

I just found the link I was talking about before. Here's part of what Ian Kennedy said in a February 27 blog post:

"...[W]hat is the value of hosting comments on a site that is removed from the place that generated the content? If I’m feeding my updates to a site such as Pulse or FriendFeed, I would rather be able to keep the conversation threads all together on my site or at least tie them together with something like a trackback to pull in threads if the discussion jumps over to another venue. The way Pulse and FriendFeed are built, your readers can never know what additional discussion is taking place which makes it an open loop of dis-jointed conversations that may never come together...." [more]

iankennedy · 1 year ago

Hi Louis,

You hit the nail on the head about MyBlogLog - we're not a destination for interaction - we're a broadcast platform, a transport mechanism. We pull in what you want to share, mix it together and get it out to people that want to know, then send them on their way to the source.

Each and every design decision we've made has been about "sharing the love" and driving people back to the source so you get the full context of the original post. Should you wish to add comments of your own we hope that you make them for the benefit of the entire audience and not a select few.

Cesar · 1 year ago

I am the only of Latin America who read you?..

Ok, I think that everything that have the word "social" must have social participation as a center piece.. who achieve participation will be successful.. is like having friends and not talk to them in "real life".. so does not work..

robdiana · 1 year ago

And people wonder why Scoble keeps pimping your blog. Excellent point about using friendfeed. It is coming to the point where I may just use friend feed, and dump my RSS reader for tech news.

Louis Gray · 1 year ago

People wonder why Scoble keeps pimping my blog? If only that were the case! It's interesting you say that, because the tendency is for me and others to refer his way. Just last week I got a note begging me not to kiss up to the A-Listers (which I didn't think I was doing). What's interesting about Robert is that his enthusiasm is true. I don't get the feeling that he highlights others for his own benefit outright. Technology and blogging get him excited. If it's true that he has highlighted my activity a little more of late, it's because we're participating in the same Web circles and finding a lot of commonality.

nicolesimon · 1 year ago

It is true that participating changes the game to some degree, because once you invest time you start caring about it. But you make it sound like this is the only thing which is necessary to find a tool like ff exciting, and even if it is fun to you (like sharing in google reader) there is more needed than just that (for example friends who read what you are doing.

It'll make a difference to a certain kind of people where to participate makes it click. But I am quite sure that no matter how much I participate in some services, I will never find it satisfying because other ingridients are not there.

I am pointing this out because part of what early adopter separates from mainstream is that mainstream comes in and likes the promise of the early adopters. They want the same. But only in part will they get it, because other things are missing.

One thing people say about twitter is that it is great for asking questions - which is true, but it will not always work like that. Only sometimes, with the right set of circumstances. Friendfeed is great to find new friends - if you can handle the kind of information stream.

So my conclusion would be: try to find out how you tick and what has been working for you in the past, then look at anything around you and find a way to apply it and yes - engage.

smorty71 · 1 year ago

First, thanks for mentioning Profilactic. We appreciate it.

Second, are you sure you aren't talking about Digg.com? :)

"and quite another to thoughtfully add comments and like items you find interesting, and think your friends will."

Seriously, though, we have always felt like commenting was something that any lifestreaming service will eventually need to adopt; however, we aren't going to fragment the conversation. Very soon, we are going to be capturing comments; however, only if they feed back to the original content item on the originating site.

It's really early in the lifestreaming market and FriendFeed is getting most of the attention right now. However, being the first to add comments doesn't mean that that is the best approach to comments.

Thanks again for the mention.

Alex Hammer · 1 year ago

Good post. I would add that participation needs to be done intelligently (i.e. with some discipline and focus, not scattered). This should be obvious, but among some of the A-listers (not Louis), it isn't. I'll explain. It's not about the number of followers that are listening to your message, or even how many you follow (although that is better) nor even about the number of comments that one makes. It is about, rather, how intelligently one is turning noise into actionable information, for both ourselves and others. People trust us and link to us as a valuable resource, for example, if we cut through the crap (pardon the term) -- no one can keep up with the entire blogosphere - and act as a relevant filter (but not too stringent) for the most relevant, useful and/or interesting material. Just as time is a critical resource (maybe moreso than money, because money can be replaced but time can't. One dollar is the same as another, but a lost moment cannot be recaptured), so is attention. Don't be an attention whore, letting everything into your mind (or trying to be all things to all people). Technology serves business and human needs, not the other way around. When the order is reversed, people feel stressed and overwhelmed. When it is in the correct order, people feel empowered.

Louis Gray · 1 year ago

Participation should be done intelligently, of course. I try not to over-analyze, but if I'm sharing something to Google Reader, I know it populates many Web services, so I don't want to do it wrong, for the sake of the consuming community. And, of course, not all comments and likes are equal on FriendFeed. Chat there can be noisy, like Twitter, at times, so I try to be thoughtful when I do participate. But even while some like the activity we're providing, others don't. You can't make everybody happy all the time.

Eric Berlin · 1 year ago

I think the discussion of participation is interesting, and perhaps telling. It's the "early adopter" crowd that is far more likely to participate in a service than later adopters. Therefore, it's going to be the services that provide lasting value that will keep the early adopter / participants around (I suppose Digg and Google Reader are examples here) while the late adopters arrive.

So I see what you're saying Louis and I agree: participation enhances the personal experience while adding to the overall community. *But* the larger the community, the more people are likely to not participate, or participate only to a very minimal extent.

Carla Thompson · 1 year ago

Participation is indeed key and I completely agree that it's the "secret" to becoming involved in FriendFeed. I also think, however, that participation is what separates the early adopters from the mainstream. Mainstream users - those with jobs that don't involve 24-7 technology - don't have time or inclination to participate to the degree that these services require. This post and yours earlier in the week about the chasm between us and the mainstream are inextricably tied together. Perhaps early adopters' complete immersion and participation in the social Web will lead to a honing of the technology so it can be better absorbed by the mainstream. So in a sense, we're participating now so they won't be required to later in order to get the full impact of a product.

webomatica · 1 year ago

Good post, although I am skeptical that mainstream users are interested in participating to the level where these social services become as useful as we want them to be. YouTube is such a huge site because it's passive like television. Just search for a video you want to see and that's it. Yes, it has social elements but I don't think that's the draw.

In a sense, I'm pointing out my skepticism that social networking as whole will ever become a truly mainstream actitiy. There is a lot of time and effort involved in building an "online reputation" and the value of that is still not proven to the public at large. An email address, yes. You own website? Unless you have a business, not mainstream. Profile page on a social site? Even less so.

It's worth stepping outside this cloud of technology we live in every once and a while and really realize how "niche" all this tech early adopter stuff really is.

Stefanos Karagos · 1 year ago

Great article!
Participate. Participate. Participate. All together now ;-)

Jacinta Spinola · 1 year ago

Great post with helpful information. I'm trying to figure out all the various social media and figure out how to put it all in one page. I have a Twitter, Wordpress, Plaxo and LinkedIn accounts and I hate having to log into each one to see updates. I'm going to give Friendfeed a try and see if that works.
Thanks. -Jacinta