DISQUS

I'm confused. Do you prefer the new FF or not?

oops, I put in my old blog address. The new one is here and explains how Silicon Valley can turn this around:
http://dawnsplan.wordpress.com/

For two hundred thousand years social networks were simultaneously economic networks. If that were true with today's social media, then we wouldn't be in such a horrible mess.

If you want to help, then I suggest you put your weight behind getting advertising distribution turned over to social media users via an open ad network. This would make companies more accountable and allow tons of people to start making money from the Internet. This would inject trust back into buying, increase consumer confidence, and rebuild the world's economy from the ground up.

Regarding you empowering others, I can attest to the fact that you go above and beyond to help! You're a terrific role model for "giving back." Thanks!

>Aside from the previously mentioned Scoble monetization post, only one post I have ever made has >hit 60 or more comments

I don't think you're getting complete responses to your searches, Louis. The post you made on Saturday about my blog article had well over 60 comments. Thanks again for that, btw.

As I mentioned in my latest blog post, I too gave up blogging a while back because of vicious and relentless trolls who were obviously working to drive me and my ideas about the future of the Web away. They succeeded for a time, but I'm not going to let it happen again. There is too much at stake.

Now that the hatefulness of the election season is over and there is a psychological sentiment that we're all in a sinking ship together, I think a lot of the rats have abandoned ship, and once again civil and productive discourse is possibe via blogging. I think "public life" will be easier, at least for a time. I hope so.

And yet I still stick up for right, despite you publicly calling me an idiot and unintelligent. You're welcome.

Actually, I appreciate the block. My FF experience has been much better without all your noise. I highly recommend people people disagree with you about politics and religion so you'll block them, too.

Back in November of 2007 Scoble offered the Kindle through his Amazon affiliate deal and then gave it a poor review. If you look at his post here http://tinyurl.com/74atmx you can see me telling him in the comments: "Well, Robert, you talked yourself out of a $40 commission. But I appreciate your honesty. I’ll wait and hope that they get the next version right."

I think the majority of Scoble's readers know that he says what he truly believes, no matter what. This "conflict of interests" argument in Scoble's case isn't a valid attack.

Now if you want to argue what an ass Scoble is in other areas, I'm with you, but I don't think you can legitimately throw doubts on his integrity when it comes to product reviews.

It amazes me how poor Google's products are. They feel VERY primitive compared to MS tools. I think MS will blow them out of the water in water spaces they choose to compete.

But I, too, believe "the cloud" is way overblown.

Robert, you said: I’d agree with that, but at many rallies and in many talk shows lately I’ve seen the points made that those who don’t agree are “unAmerican.”

You often claim that people who don't agree with you are unintelligent. So what's the difference?

Taking a stand is great. But what's wrong with picking the hills you stand on? Why do we have to step over political crap everywhere we walk?

You "take a stand" on Twitter and on FF all the time. Why do you have to do it here, too? I don't think it's lame to suggest that there is a time and place for politics and that it need not be 24/7 everywhere we go.

Endlessly yelling at each other and pissing each other off doesn't accomplish anything. Quite the opposite, I'd say.

When it comes to writing a business blog, I don't see the value of having political rants. It's a polarized country. Why turn off half your potential audience? I don't like seeing political crap from either side when I'm reading a blog that's supposedly about something else. Haven't we gotten enough already?

Robert, trying to watch your feed is literally making me motion sick!!

Wow, just like the old days when you could come to this site and actually see new posts! :) Nice.

This is a good example of that makes "professional blogger" such a confusing misnomer to me.

I would call Rob Hof a professional tech blogger because he blogs under his BusinessWeek hat and he's a trained journalist with journalistic standards. But, then, I'd call Michael Arrington a professional blogger, too, because he makes his living off of his blog. He certainly doesn't always act professionally, however.

Robert, you were one of the first bloggers, and I suppose since you were doing it for Microsoft at first, that makes you a professional. But then again, you no longer get a salary for blogging and you don't make your living primarily off your blog, so...

Maybe it's just me.

I no longer know what a "blogger" is. Web logs used to be like a diary of one's life. Then some bloggers became more like journalists, going out and getting stories firsthand, instead of just pontificating on somebody else's news.

Today I hear about "professional bloggers" and "amateur bloggers" and I wonder where the heck the lines are. If I click on a link that takes me to an unfamilair blog, I have zero idea of the credibility of that person and what he or she is spouting.

If you go to newspapers and magazines, at least they are a devil you know.

"Blogging" has become this confused mish-mash, IMO. Maybe it's time to start breaking it out into better sub-categories or something.

What's to be afraid of? During recessions what money you do have goes farther, your taxes get lower (unless Obama is elected), stronger companies are created, kids and adults alike learn invaluable lessons about saving and budgeting, people start looking out more for their neighbors, families and friends become more creative as they can no longer afford to buy gifts or have somebody else intertain them....

In the grand scheme of things, money isn't as important as we all try to make it out to be. Recessions provide a good, healthy reminder of that.

I don't see the point of this post. I'm not even a geek and even I know about a third of these already. The ones I don't know, I'm not interested in learning about. I have only so much time a day.

Besides, I've already befriended you, and since you're friends of everybody else, I already see their FF stuff. Why go directly? It will just increase the noise even more.

Am I missing something here? Is this just a "I need to link to popular people because the neglect of my blog is hurting my Google juice," or is there a real value here that I'm not understanding??

Robert: One problem with you using FF is that comments here have mostly dried up. I think that's significant if you care about your blog being a historic record. The FF discussions wash away quickly.

But I suppose that's why you often come back and say, "The discussion to this post can be found here." Will those FF links always be good? Do they plan to archive everything forever?

Do FF posts show up in Google? I haven't run across any.

Regarding Robert's comment that "Global warming is something that’s observable. Not a religion. A religion is where you take things on 'faith.'":

Current observations are is that the globe is actually cooling, not warming. And the so-called "fact" that human activity is causing global warming is not a scientific fact at all but is accepted by the faithful despite lots of evidence to the contrary.

I'd also point out that when it comes to God, there have been countless observable miracles that science itself cannot explain away.

Alan: Maybe you're right, but then again, I'm passionate about ripe tomatoes but I don't grow them myself. And I've known lots of couples who were friends before they became passionate about each other.

Seems to me that to expect passion on the frontend limits products more than they might otherwise need to be. I think Activewords has it right. That's something I'm actually using because of their babysteps approach. They didn't expect me to be passionate immediately. It worked.

I don't like the word "non-passionate" anyway. I'm a very passionate person. It's misleading and would likely offend people outside the tech world. Seems to me that to imply somebody isn't passionate, just because they don't like the kinds of things I like, is a bias seeking an -ism label.

Why can't we just say geek and nongeek. "Geek" is no longer an offensive term, right? Or is it?

btw, this conversation has made me decide something. When my site launches, I want TWO instructional videos. One for the passionates and another for the nonpassionates. :)

Michael, I really don't know how to explain it. I'm just not gadget inclined. If something comes with a lot of buttons, I don't want it.

Funny that you mentioned nuclear power plants. My husband was a Navy Nuke (reactor operator) for 8 years and he wound up working for Intel. But I was better at using software than he was. He was great at hardware, which I don't even like to mess with.

It's something to do with the brain's wiring I think, but I'm no expert, so I'm not sure I can explain it. I do read lots of nonfiction books (business) but I don't do manuals. I can force my brain to go there when I have to, like somebody is paying me to do so, but I won't on my own time. Even if I want to record something. :)

Maybe the key is in your car example where you said you'd take lessons. So would I. I wouldn't read a book to learn how to drive. I don't want to read instructions to learn how to use Ubiquity. Like I said in my previous post, show me how it works.

You know, I never thought of it this way, but maybe that's why I like Robert and read this blog, even though I'm not a techie. Robert shows me stuff. I want to see it used and hear about how it's being used and then maybe use it myself if I think it's useful or fun. I don't want to read an instruction book about it.