Comments on: There Must Be 50 Ways to Leave Your Twitter

By: Tamara Jones

Tamara Jones — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 14:59:48 +0000

I really wasn’t aware of this alternative to Twitter. I have been using Twitter for some time now, but I always hated the low character count and the fact that the service goes down almost on a weekly basis. It’s good to know that services like FriendFind are there to help us stay in touch w/ those we care about the most. Thank you so much for promoting this. I’m going to check that and TWirl as well. Much appreciation. Have a terrific weekend.

By: PJ Cabrera

PJ Cabrera — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 17:52:05 +0000

I don’t need your guide, as I really don’t care about traffic directed to me @ Twitter, but it looks really well done.

The only reason I joined Twitter was following you, Ken Nelson, and Mark Forman. Over time, the value of this really diminished for me. The outages make it even more useless.

No offense to Mark, but with you and Ken gone from Twitter, I really have no desire to stay on the service. I’ll make an imaginary friend on FF for Mark’s tweets.

By: Jeremy Epstein

Jeremy Epstein — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 00:42:48 +0000

BTW, I gave you props in a post in how I ‘revolutionized’ my syndication strategy…you kickstarted it for me.

http://www.jer979.com/igniting-the-revolution/are-we-conversing-now/

By: Scumbag Spammer

Scumbag Spammer — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 14:42:07 +0000

[DHS edit: I approved this spam minus their links only because I'm slightly impressed at the algorithmic way it took other people's comments, did some synonym replacement and synthesized something reasonable. Of course, I recognized the phrases as all being ones from real people so I twigged early but someone with a higher volume of spam might miss it. This is a new world, friends, and we might be losing the arms race.]

I need to be kicked and dragged to complete a registration form longer than 2 fields. Twirl’s a similar story on my end. Not only have an edifying posted, but a comic one, too! Great overview, Dave. I’m agreeing with you one this one…let’s shove the hell out of this topic.

By: Garrick Van Buren

Garrick Van Buren — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 03:56:43 +0000

just noticed the ‘on FriendFeed’ Disqus-esque comment embed on this page. It presents 3 interesting extrapolations:
a) native-commenting is replaced w/ FF comments – only FF people can post (a la Blogger & TypeKey).
b) a cacophony of comment embeds from ‘major’ services – comments are as transient as the popularity/existence of their underlying service.
c) FF starts sending comments to a weblog’s api, so they actually show up as native-comments.

By: Ken Kennedy

Ken Kennedy — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 03:15:27 +0000

Ok, at least I grok Steve’s concern now…but does he honestly think that Twitter doesn’t do that as well? Every twitter @fest about a blogpost is a conversation not being had at the blog. And being had 140 characters at a time. *sigh*

I agree that it’s a concern, but it’s basically inevitable to a certain extent. Google Reader does the same thing (pulls comments away), as does boingboing’s new commenting feature, Facebook (pulling everything into it’s silo, in fact) and any other social networking type system.

I actually like the fact that FF leverages my existing blog, feeds, flickrstream, etc…there’s no lock-in like there is with other services. In choosing a solution like Facebook, you’re “encouraged” to use it for photo storage, email, blogging, etc. I hate that. Friendfeed feels more loosely coupled to me.

My FF usage is still evolving, but it seems to me that casual conversation about a topic is easiest there, and for in-depth discussion (like this post), I click through and post. Sure…not everyone will. But as with most things in this new attention economy, one’s enemy isn’t piracy, it’s obscurity. If conversation about your blogposts starts happening on Friendfeed, that is better than no conversation at all. And I expect it will lead to conversations at your blog.

Regardless, it’ll be fun to see how it goes!

By: mike dunn

mike dunn — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 03:01:57 +0000

so the concern that steve is raising is all about the fact that friendfeed takes the conversation there versus here on your blog, only an issue if the blog author cares where the conversation is and if folks aren’t clicking through to actual read the post before commenting – i don’t agree w/ steve but i don’t put ads or try to monetize anything i do online so i’m not in the niche that steve’s raising the concern so my pov doesn’t matter…

i started using friendfeed because of its original intent, a presence aggregator, a way to follow “friends” in most everything they do online, at least the major stuff like blogs, bookmarks, photos, videos etc… – that still holds true & the commenting aspect i think just adds to the value, at least for me…

By: Linda

Linda — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 02:09:40 +0000

Thanks Dave, for insight AND a laugh.

(not to mention the ad for Paul Simon Ringtones in the right column!)

-L.

By: Ken Kennedy

Ken Kennedy — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 02:02:25 +0000

Not only an informative post, but a funny one, too! Great overview, Dave. I’m 100% with you one this one…let’s push the hell out of this meme.

By: Garrick Van Buren

Garrick Van Buren — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 01:35:41 +0000

Thanks Dave, great to see where your coming from. I’m calling ‘late adopter’ on Friend Feed. I still can’t get past the sign up process (though that’s not unique to me & FF) – I need to be kicked and dragged to complete a ‘registration’ form longer than 2 fields. Twirl’s a similar story on my end. I’m as interested to see how this model plays out for you as I am in the next EGC and Reality Break.