DISQUS

Tom_Nocera · 9 months ago

Cyndy,
I wrote on my blog about Twitter explaining that originally the word describing those who purchase or use products or services soon after their introduction is "Early Adaptors" see: http://indepth.posterous.com/the-o9ers-arriving.... I wonder if someone years ago made a typo and spell check didn't catch it, because adopters is a word and can apply. However, one of the key characteristics of early adapters is that they find new uses for products - they adapt them for to suit their needs. Check it out. I think you may conclude that a major correction needs to be undertaken.

Louis Gray · 9 months ago

Post by Cyndy Aleo-Carreira: http://friendfeed.com/fourlittlebees

Lindsey Dragun · 9 months ago

Oops, our bad.

Mitch · 9 months ago

Awesome post Cyndy

Scobleizer · 9 months ago

Nope, you miss why early adopters flee communities after newbies move in. Here's why:

If you and I start a community right now, it will be pretty fun at first. We'll cover something we both love. Let's assume it's skiing. We'll talk about places to ski. Gear to use. Techniques. Etc. Great.

Well, this will be lots of fun for both of us for about six months. I've seen this happen on all online forums (I've been participating in, or helping run, online communities since 1985).

What happens then? Newbies move in. At first that's fun because you have something to share with the newbies. They'll ask about the skiis we were talking about six months ago. Or ask us about the local resorts. That's fun through a few waves of newbies.

But let's assume we aren't getting paid. After getting asked 50 times about skis and the local resorts we'll start getting tired of it.

And, worse of all, about this time trolls and spammers move into the community, making what we once found a lot of joy in really is getting nasty.

So, we turn grumpy, which makes the problem worse "who died and made YOU king?" Soon we both find we just aren't having fun anymore and come back to the forum less and less, which means that newbies are answering newbies, if they care at all (hint: they won't in my observations) and the trolls and the spammers take over and the community dies, a rotting corpse of what it once was.

This is actually why friendfeed and facebook are so interesting. They are decentralized communities and are more resistant to these problems than older communities like the ones you'd have found on the Well, Prodigy, Compuserve, or Usenet. Friendfeed, in particular, has decentralized moderation (I can delete comments under my content, but not underneath Louis Gray's). This is really great stuff because it extends the life that early adopters are going to get some value out of it.

But it is cool that you can find long-lost friends in facebook and see if there's a new spark that will keep you together this time.

Ontario Emperor · 9 months ago

While there is some overlap, there are some differences between my Facebook, FriendFeed, LinkedIn, MySpace, and Twitter groups. Some people can only be found on one of the services, and if you want to reach them, you have to go where they are.

Ontario Emperor · 9 months ago

Even if someone is on multiple services, I use them in different ways. I'm probably not going to talk twins with Louis on LinkedIn, for example - I use that network for a different purpose.

kylehase · 9 months ago

Sometimes I just sign up for namespace reasons and to prevent impersonation. Then agian I doubt anyone would want to impersonane me.

Alex Blom · 9 months ago

Agreed to many a degree. I like keeping LinkedIN as my central point of contact, but rarely accept LinkedIN connections on Facebook - I have many other unique connections there. Likewise, my Twitter has many unique connections. I see no reason to share the same information across multiple platforms.

Jason Kaneshiro · 9 months ago

I was just about to quit Twitter for this very reason. I've already abandoned Facebook. I'll be the first to admit that I don't like to be where "everybody else is." Same reason why I don't shop at WalMart and don't listen to the Jonas Brothers or watch American Idol.

Lindsey Dragun · 9 months ago

kylehase, I do the same thing, sometimes. There's exactly one site I've come across where someone else has my main SN and it drives me insane. haha

Robert Scoble · 9 months ago

Jason: neat thing about friendfeed is you can create your own secret club and hide inside here from everywhere else.

Rick Powell · 9 months ago

I got in contact with my family again after 6 years. Because of one of my nieces finding me on Facebook. It's also the only way to keep in touch with all the backpackers and budget travelers I've come in contact with over the last year.

Rob O'Daniel · 9 months ago

I still prefer blogs - both reading/contributing to others and working on my own - but I have grown kinda fond of Twitter. And I use LinkedIn, but am very judicious about who I "friend" on that service since it's intended as a professional networking tool. FaceBook is kinda lost on me but my wife likes it...

craterdweller · 9 months ago

I've had a facebook account for quite sometime, and I'm still not convinced I totally get it. But just this last week I've been able to reconnect with some friends that I'd lost contact with. Friends that are not likely to use twitter, or friendfeed or read/participate in a blog, so maybe I am getting it just a little bit finally :D

Rebecca · 9 months ago

As I get older, I find more tolerance and appreciation for superficial relationships. As long as they don't encroach upon my reclusive habits too much. My Facebook account gathered cobwebs for almost a year, until I found a new attitude precisely because enough others came on board to make it worth hanging out. It's the perfect venue to stay in touch with people I like in a shallow sort of way, requiring very little expenditure of energy for the amusement I get in return.

Dutch Driver · 9 months ago

I am reminded of this anti-civilization song "I Was Born Under a Wandering Star" by Lee Marvin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnbiRDNaDeo I think it captures the sentiments express by Scoble.

Anthony Citrano · 9 months ago

What Scoble said.

Ian Betteridge · 9 months ago

Facebook has got me back in touch with people I haven't seen for years, and which I'd have liked to stay in touch with. That's only happened because it's become super-popular. If you want to hide, the internet is not a good place to do it.

thomaspower · 9 months ago

The other thing Louis is that the Early Adopters spend no money and expect everything for free, they contribute marketing word of mouth but not capital. I agree they need to be there.

Jamie Vidamour · 9 months ago

I agree totally with louis. While it's nice to have smaller more private areas on twitter and friendfeed (as stated by scoble in the comments section), it's also nice to have somewhere to catch up with my no techy friends. The mass acceptance of facebook along with my fairly selective number of friends means that i can keep up with a number of people who i would otherwise lose track of.

Dutch Driver · 9 months ago

IRL I've noticed the water cooler talk is starting to include connections with old friends. When you listen, you'll hear the meta messages.

thomashawk · 9 months ago

I usually jump to something new when the tech gets better and if community based a community large enough to thrive exists in the new place. Twitter was fun, but Twitter completely lacks the visual side of things and the cohesion of conversations that FriendFeed provides. The community at FriendFeed is large enough to make time better spent there.

Blogger was good, but WordPress is better. TiVo was good but (for me at least) Media Center with it's low cost XBox 360 extenders was a better platform. I liked my old Windows Smartphone, but the iPhone blows it away.

Competition is a good thing. If someone makes a better product I think they deserve the attention more than a company out of pure loyalty.

Dolan · 9 months ago

I'm not sure if anyone has brought this up, but the only way you were an early adopter of Facebook was if you were in college on the east coast in early 2004 (technically Harvard in late 2003). I don't mean to sound bitter but this goes along with Scoble's first reply; Eminem has a great lyric that says, "nobody wants to hear their grandfather rap." Well, for people who have been on Facebook since the beginning, nobody wants to see their grandfather on Facebook. But FB "jumped the shark" long before the "unwashed masses" came. It happened when they let high schoolers on way back when. But if you were an early adopter, you would have known that.

Rebecca · 9 months ago

Daniel Boone in the 21sts century.

Craig · 9 months ago

Facebook is different than other networks because it is more personal. It's the only network I have extended family or friends on, not like other networks. I don't use it often although have started to more, but it is nice to shoot a quick message to someone you haven't seen or spoken to in some time and feel comfortable doing so.

ChangeForge | Ken Stewart · 9 months ago

Cyndy, very nice observations. This was a pleasure to read. It always gives me a chuckle when I think of the cyclical nature of things. Without the early adopters, services would never get off the ground because everyone would be too sheepish to join or to hesitant to be a beta tester for months or even years. After the platform has passed muster (and many other things must come into play - like a solid business model) then the masses arrive...

A friend told me of a saying he heard, "there are pioneers and settlers. Both have their purpose and without each the world would indeed be a much smaller place."

Warmest Regards,
Ken

AlexSchleber · 9 months ago

This kind of behavior is totally predictable and has been thoroughly discussed in Malcom Gladwell's "Tipping Point" chapter 6 on adoption patterns and translation from early adopters to early/late majority. The early adopters don't like the mass adoption for the same reason that they sought out the phenomenon in its infancy in the first place: Feeling special.

Once you get 5M new users per week(!) on Facebook, it's certainly no longer special. That said, I agree with Cyndy that there are benefits to the mass adoption, one just has to be able to recognize them. Some are personal (as described in the post), some are business related, if you have the eyes to see... [cough]... Groups + Video... [cough]...