DISQUS

I've been using FriendFeed for about nine months, and yes, it's much less intimate now than it once was. Can you imagine entries with thousands of comments? Yikes.

FriendFeed's Changing Tapestry of Users, Nine Months In
http://www.louisgray.com/live/2008/07/friendfee...

But, if we want it to succeed, we should hope it doesn't always stay a niche.

I saw a lot of those entries flow through Google Reader today.

And after all that consolidation, there will still be some great independent bloggers fighting against the trend. Just be yourself.

#1, Disqus has only gone down once that I know of, and it was for about an hour. #2, all services have some level of risk, but Disqus is looking to get strong import/export capabilities. Your comments are no more at risk with Disqus than they would be with Haloscan, Blogger, TypePad, etc.

I tend not to write short pieces, so I use headlines to make people click and read through. Whether my pieces are complex, is of course, based on the reader's interpretation. But even for complex issues, a good headline helps.

That's why I said Headlines are more important than ever. You only have a few seconds to grab somebody's attention, and it's likely they're not reading the whole story.

In Blogging and RSS, Headlines Can be Make or Break
http://www.louisgray.com/live/2008/03/in-bloggi...>

It's a simple statement because it's simple to write. :-)

There's a lot of "gray", no pun intended, as far as seeing people adopt to new ways of thinking and doing. Duncan Riley did a great job discussing what he saw as Blogging 2.0, and I was highlighting some of the key differences.

I haven't labeled you as 1.0 and don't plan to do so. I just think the smart thing to do is engage where the conversation is moving. It will get you a leg up on your peers and make you more visible.

Following Jason Calacanis is one way to get a good, noisy, view of FriendFeed, but clearly wasn't the best experience for you. I've liked FriendFeed quite a bit, and it can be as noisy or loud as you like. Start with a few people, and be aggressive in hiding things you don't find relevant. Hide Twitter if you want. Hide Disqus if you want... but did you know other services support hundreds of services, not just the 30+ FriendFeed does?

You can find me here: http://www.friendfeed.com/louisgray

E-mail me any time if you want more tips. I'm happy to help.

Of interest... the reason this post has as much discussion as it does is because FriendFeed brought it here. Clearly, it's a circular argument, as it's about FriendFeed, but it's gained in visibility because of FriendFeed, and this can happen often to bloggers of all types.

Looks good! I like the video update and hope your typing capabilities come back strong soon!

I made the Twitter Noise ratio to show how I think about it, and clearly, others think about it in a different way. Why measure? I guess, because Twitter gives us the numbers. If they stopped showing # of followers, # of followed, etc., would we be okay with that?

And yes, it's not perfect, but it certainly has people thinking about it. I hope new metrics debut.

It is hard work, and as the saying goes, "your mileage will vary". I had thought of linking out to friends who have complained about their meager revenues, but I opted not to, not because they aren't there, but as I didn't want to call them out.

If you're pulling in that much cash from your efforts, that's fantastic. That's why I left the word "Most" in the headline. There will absolutely be exceptions. But as you noted, I wanted the reality check out there, and occasionally grow fatigued of folks whining about things that aren't "fair".

Great job, SheGeeks. I enjoy LinkRiver as well, of course. Adam has done a great job, and I'm glad you recognize it. This market is a lot of fun, and It's awesomesauce that you get it!

So... I could: 1) Post the blog post, 2) Post it to FriendFeed, 3) Add it to Del.icio.us, 4) Submit it to Digg, 5) Hype it on StumbleUpon, 6) Share it on Google Reader, and 7) Send a Twitter about it.

On FriendFeed, that would get annoying (one reason I usually don't do that). But there are definitely people who only get it on the blog, or on Google Reader or on Twitter, so there are often duplicates.

What is the proposed solution?

"Louis Gray added a new post "TechMeme Such and Such" and shared it on Google Reader and sent a Tweet: "TechMeme Such and Such"...

Some of these are also hiding at: http://www.techaiku.com/

Psssttt... Rupert Murdoch.

And to think... it almost cost me my life on Saturday, if words drew blood. :-)

Excellent list! Susan did a great job pointing out the discrepancy I had in the first round of "elites", which was obviously subjective. I know my RSS feeds are overweighted with the XY set, but I just don't have the knowledge you have here. I actively looked for people like Kristen Nicole of Mashable, and didn't find accounts, but I'm glad you did the work here. Over the last few days, I've thought a lot about doing more research and seeing what great women bloggers I've been missing out on. No slight intended at all, trust me!

Nope. There aren't too many.

It's not uncommon to have multiple sites serving a single space, and eventually, users gravitate toward the ones with the best experience. Nobody has it 100% nailed, and we should encourage startups to continue to innovate, rather than mocking them. I look forward to more, and can think of many that FriendFeedFeed misses. :-)

LinkRiver, BlogCatalog and AssetBar come to mind.

Of course this is right. That's why I swore off news-chasing a long time ago. And it's clear to those of us who watch what the difference is between those who make the news and those who follow. Unfortunately, some of the more influential and louder folks are in this category, so saying who I think they are would be a bad idea. But ... we know.

How are you tracking "uniques"? What counts as a unique and what software are you using? Depending on which software I use, the total number can vary widely, with SiteMeter and MyBlogLog showing the lowest #'s, and Summary or Analog having the highest #'s.

FriendFeed is a real community. Facebook is more like spam.

Thank you sir, I made mine following along to your post.

http://www.louisgray.com/live/apple-touch-icon.png

Had I not been gifted my iPod Touch for free (yay!), I don't know that I would have gotten one. There's no question I really like it a lot, but it's clearly missing some functionality. I dream of getting WiMax and having Internet everywhere. Maybe 3G gets you there okay, and maybe not. Regardless, I'm still not signing up for an AT&T contract...

Blogger should automatically grab "Backlinks", which are close enough to "Trackbacks". So your link will show up there eventually. Of course, there are issues with Apple Safari, but FireFox works great.

Good comments on Twitter. I'm thinking that with good discipline, it may be useful. I'm clearly watching for an opportunity to break my own rules. As for trimming down RSS, I won't be doing that for a while. We're around 230 feeds now, and stay on top. If I added a ton of Twitter traffic as well, I'd have to learn how to filter.

The $2.99 price point doesn't bug me. After all, we've paid $5 for Comcast On Demand shows, so this is in line with expectations. As with the iTunes Store on the music side, it'll take a great expansion of the library to make this all it could be. We're looking forward to it. We're also looking forward to getting the updated Apple TV software. I wonder when that shows up...