DISQUS

Does you guys ever, um, work....

What's to be said about a community that doesn't give-up on a product when it doesn't work. Isn't that the backbone of all entrepreneurial endeavours: People will use things that work and not use things that don't work. Why are we going against the natural order? There are more than enough alternatives out there, friendfeed being one of them. I think it's time to vote with our feet (in the meta sense) and go somewhere else. Otherwise, of course the people who run Twitter aren't going to care, why would they? We're not going to leave, right?

Seesmic video reply from Disqus.

I'm going to (slightly) play the Devil's advocate here. I made the same mistake roughly nine months ago. I had no experience with any of this, but worked for a company that heard the meme that everyone else is hearing: There's money to be had here. I, acting on their behalf, sent a boneheaded email to a very important blogger requesting he do something ridiculous for us. He called us--and me--out on it as well and nearly got me fired. The thing is, for most people in the business world, this is just HOW things are done. Nothing malicious or sinister about it, it's just an accepted matter-of-course.

Thankfully, I both left the company and, despite this incident (or perhaps because of it) stayed around long enough to get involved. But, I wonder if sometimes we're not being counter-productive by trying to shame those who "don't get it". If we agree that a lot of it is 'new' then why are we so shocked and dismayed at the prevalence of the old? Should everyone be expected to know the ins-and-out of the conversation before joining it?

Robert, I think, despite the nitpicking of others, your historical assessment is essentially true and reaches far beyond just blogging. The moon mission, as some have pointed out, cannot be detached from the politics of it's era, but to see it was only 'Us vs. Them' is both wrong and paints a rather petty, and inaccurate, view of our country. If Kennedy had said "Let's go beat some Commies!" we would have had a space program whose only ardent supporters would have been the John Birch Society. Was there an underlying need to get there before 'them'? Sure. But if sold that way it would have been dead on arrival.
Hate and the need to dominate may offer short bursts of energy or small sparks to light fires, but they can't 'sustain' them. Pettiness and small-thinking have never, as far as I know, led to anything but petty and small outcomes.

Excellent job Loic! Seesmic has really helped me grow my profile and expand my network (also to really connect with people whom I'd only tweeted with before). What I mean is that it's benefiting all kinds of people, even economically. I hope it continues to do well, not just for me and the users, but because your whole team are such great people. Thanks again and hopefully I can thank you in person if your ever in New York.

Also, unfortunately, we can't forget affluence. Car companies make tailored ads for LOGO (the gay channel), which has rather tiny audience. Why spend money on unique ads then? Because LOGO's small audience has a lot more disposable income than, say, the Country Music Channel's large audience.

Not public? Her first Seesmic post involved playing a rather beautiful song on a ukulele. That's more public than I've ever gotten. :)

Tell her Seth said Happy Birthday!

I got this for a friend for her Birthday earlier this year. It makes a Great Gift! I have been seeing a rise in the wholesaling of content lately, especially when it comes from one single producer. More and more TV studios/DVD companies have been releasing 'Complete Series' boxsets as opposed to Season 1, Season 2 etc. A much better pricing structure in my opinion. Now, personally, I don't need ALL of the New Yorker, but if Amazon would start doing this with individual authors (i.e 'Hemingway's complete works'), they may convince more and more of us to buy the Kindle.

I think it will be great. Those few videos you did on Facebook were great (like the 'play' one). You speak well. Can't wait!

BTW, I kept getting the same question at PodCamp. Me: "ermmmmm...."

After reading that 'moving on' post, I took the plunge and applied for a new job, one that will..well, if it happens I'll tell everyone. I hope it works out well for you, hope the commute's not too bad and thanks for the continued inspiration.

Wait, so today you can yell back at the *idiot*? :)

Really, though, I don't think it's THAT controversial. A lot of people seem unimpressed and your one of the few, on either side, who stated actual reasons other then 'it's open source...' You have to remember how excited everyone's been about this, it's tough sometimes to look at it logically.

Their problem is that it seems like they're building a phone aimed primarily at 'techies' (i.e. opensource everything but unintiuitive as far as basic functioning goes) and yet their marketing strategy seems to be aimed at the average consumer, if not the down-right uniformed consumer. However, I think I disagree with you on it being 'Vaporware'. They seem to being trying to avoid the accusations thrown at Apple by releasing the SDK BEFORE the platform and not months afterwards, so it's hard for them to show you anything since I doubt much of it is implemented. But it was definitely a god-awful video.

"an outlet for people's anger so easily"

I've wondered why your comment section was hidden away. Kind of like the waiting period on buying a handgun, give 'em a little time to cool down.

Methinks this is almost written in verse. Wonderful!

Folders are nice, but Google Reader now goes offline (via Gears). Until Bloglines does that, there's no real hope of me switching.

I just want to be high up for my niche. If someone does a search for "micro-fiction", I want to be on the front page because so far everyone who has found me via Google this way (I think I'm three pages in) has become a 'reader'. Likewise, I wish I'd stopping showing up high on searches that have nothing to do with my site, but just happen to be the right combination of words; I always want to tell people who this way: 'sorry, that I don't have what you want.

I like the Upcoming list even more then the linkblog. It's awesome (that is, if you have a strange need to leave the house every now and then.) I've gone to so many great things already, right here in NYC! (met some swell folks too)

I really have grown to love Dave (in the meta sense). He's always putting together cool stuff just, it seems, for the sake of putting together (and sharing) cool stuff. Also, I suggested @Flickr that he rearrange it alphabetically instead of by frequency and, thus, it was done. Awesome. I really have switched camps in a certain undeclared blog war.

@chris They're not taking away the freedom of their consumers, they're taking away the freedom of their people.

Although I wonder what's worse: China blocking all search engines or China allowing search engines (ie Google) so long as they do China's censoring for them. In the second case, we (America et al.) are PARTICIPATING in the censorship which so far most of our companies have been more then willing to comply with.

Yes, the whiteboard is back! Because online friends don't let online friends read Valleywag.

@Levi: Good point, I'd already forgotten about that episode :-). Opening up the phone is a significantly bigger deal, but that "rebate" was certainly a precusor

@project: I'm aware of what Steve Jobs has said, but then I'd sure like to know what the big security developments have been between early summer and now. Furthermore, one can hardly deny that Apple, through much of it's history, hasn't been very "pro" open-source. I'm simply saying that what happening with the iPhone is a significant step in the right direction, one that has a lot to do with the web's massive "suggestion box"-like functionality.

What exactly does a fella need to do to get on your linkblog?

I wonder if this is in-spite of everyone's complaints or because of them. If it's the latter then it proves that bloggers can--together-- be more powerful then even the mighty Steve Jobs (who I somehow doubt came up with the idea himself).