DISQUS

louisgray.com: louisgray.com: The Talk About Rules for Social Following Is Getting Out of Hand

  • Hao · 1 year ago
    Social media, High School 2.0.
  • Louis Gray · 1 year ago
    Hao, that reminds me of something I wrote back in May.

    Just Like High School: Your Blogging Clique Will Move
    http://www.louisgray.com/live/2008/05/just-like...

    By the way, how bad is it that I'd rather link to old posts, or reference posts in actual conversations, than repeat myself? It keeps happening. It's not as if I've written everything there is to write...
  • nicefishfilms · 1 year ago
    Louis, your post on the "Rules of Social Following" made me laugh and think. Being on the "bleeding edge" of social networking will undoubtedly cause a few nicks and scrapes here and there. I find that FriendFeed is similar to being at a real live social gathering (they do exist, honest.) When I find an interesting conversation with a group of people I listen for awhile (Subscribe.) When it gets a little too noisy or not very stimulating, I walk away for awhile (UnSubscribe.) Why would it be any different in a place where there are thousands of streams of discussions? I understand the need we all have for being heard, but the fun at FriendFeed is the listening. By the way you can follow me @ ____ (just kidding, of course!?)
  • ppmartin · 1 year ago
    Thanks Louis for this interesting post (as always) and based on a very valid concern shared, I trust, by many networkers. The "firehose" of information from life-streaming can become quickly unmanageable as networks grow, and being selective in adding social networking friends - and / or following back internet friends - is becoming an art form ;)
  • Earl E Morningwood · 1 year ago
    Good one Hao!
  • Matik72 · 1 year ago
    I have to agree. An application is just that. You decide the best way to utilize it.
  • marco · 1 year ago
    Good stuff - I started out twisting the Friend Feed nozzle left as fast as possible but have also found myself being more discriminate. I view Facebook and LinkedIn as much more personal services so I give even more thought to who I invite to join those networks.

    Remain utterly fascinated by all of these considerations and concerns.
  • keif · 1 year ago
    The only reason to repeat yourself is if you need to say "now when I wrote this..." or "I first wrote x, but I changed it to this..." unless you then write a new post updating the old...
  • stephanmiller · 1 year ago
    I usually filter all friend request emails from all my networks into one folder and then check has followed me to see if they are worth following back. I have run into some great bloggers who has worthless tweets and vice versa. I know I never follow just because someone else followed me and I don't expect the same.
  • Eyebee · 1 year ago
    Quantity rarely equals quality. I can remember back when there were 3 TV channels. Personally , I watch very little TV, and I think the quality of the output has gone down faster than the number of channels has increased.

    Also back in those three-channel days, one would perhaps plan an evenings viewing. These days, many people just channel surf, not really watching anything all the way through.

    It's the same with Social Media. Subscribe to too many, and you don't have time to separate the wood from the trees, and you end up, skimming past a lot of things, that you WOULD find interesting, if they weren't lost in the noise.
  • Neal Jansons · 1 year ago
    That's so funny, people trying make rules for such a thing.
  • Walter Schwabe · 1 year ago
    Great post. I'd say more here but I have to ping.fm to broadcast my own 6-point procedure for following...actually I don't need it I'm not that popular. twitter.com/fusedlogic

    Excellent points...it's amazing at how distracting micro-blogging specifically can be if one doesn't really know why they're doing it...or care for that matter...
  • michaeltwofish · 1 year ago
    Just to be clear (or attempt to be clear, because it doesn't seem to have worked so far) my post wasn't supposed to imply I had any expectation of you (or the others on the list at all). I really don't mind at all if someone decides to follow me back, I was thinking about the effect unsubscribing from people would have on my interactions on FriendFeed.
  • smbeebe · 1 year ago
    Excellent blog post Louis, as usual for you! I like how you analyze things in depth like this! It makes me think and go, "Oh yea, that's something I've been wrestling with too!" Hao's comment, "Social media, High School 2.0." is right on the money! I've said the same thing myself before.