taking a back seat
Rich Manalang is taking a back seat and suspending some but not all of his online activities which is an interesting exercise I will follow as it unfolds. Or, rather I won't, because he won't be blogging about it. I suppose I could always email him at work.
I suspect Google Buzz was the final nail in his Web coffin. It certainly was for me. The privacy issues, the multiple, loud and prolonged orgasms from the Technorati, the same old avatars gradually showing up in my 'Friends' list quickly followed by the immediate same sense of 'Emperors New Clothes' and the inevitable post coital cigarette: 'How was it for you, darling ?'
Rich's decision to take a step back interests me as in the past, on at least two occasions, I have gone slightly further and committed Web 2.0 suicide. This entailed spontaneously and maliciously terminating a bunch of accounts on FriendFeed, Tumblr, LinkedIn and elsewhere. Of course, it didn't last and in due course I miraculously resurrected myself - but after slightly longer than three days.
What I find slightly odd about Rich's decision is that he will preserve 'IM and email' - I presume he means in order to work but maybe he includes personal use too - but he then goes on to include Google Reader as he finds 'GR adds order to the chaos'. I agree completely although I think the experiment would be much more interesting if he ditched GR and idle Web browsing for that matter too.
I suspect if I embarked on a similar exercise I would revert to scanning my small set of favoured Web sites. I also suspect, and it sounds slightly counter intuitive, that I would find lots more to blog about. Of course, Rich can't blog more because blogging is also suspended during this hiatus period. I also find this odd as he states outputs (5%) are much more valuable, but greatly outnumbered by, endless, mindless consumption (95%) so it would be interesting to see whether his outputs increase as a result of his self-imposed exile.
strategies for making friends on social networks
Early Jurassic - Mum takes you to playgroup, kicking and screaming and your friends are forced upon you. Free milk at 11 am.
Cretaceous - Primary school. You go round to Robert's for tea and Robert comes round to your house for tea. Painfully shy in female company.
Middle Monolithic - Secondary school - you hang out with the kids who play football and avoid those who threaten you with knives at the bus stop.
Triassic - Football, gigs, pubs. The best time of your life. With the best friends of your life. None of them will ever do FaceBook but that doesn't matter.
Late Mesozoic - University - no real strategy here. If someone stands their round, then that's good enough.
Web 0.1 (alpha) - Usenet, flame fests, email using elm on an amber VT100. Avoid people who use VMS at all costs.
Web 1.0 - IRC is just like a Friday night in the pub. There will be fights at closing time.
Web 1.0 - surf the internet, send large attachments (amusing photos) to colleagues every Friday afternoon.
Web 2.0 - social networking. Accept blindly absolutely any friend request. Approach complete strangers and ask them to be your 'special friends'. Friendship isn't friendship - it's a bragging contest.
Web 2.0 (beta) - Follow Scoble's example and be slightly more selective. Cull thousands of so-called 'friends' in futile attempt to avoid information overload.
Web 3.0 - Twitter - the endless, interminable byte stream of inane drivel. Until Stephen Fry signs up which makes it all alright. Stalk celebrities.
Web 3.0 RC3 - Finally it dawns on you.
- People on Posterous mainly like talking about Posterous
- People on FriendFeed mainly like singing the praises of FriendFeed.
- People on Twitter mainly like talking about Twitter. Repeat ad infinitum.
- People on identi.ca love identi.ca and open source and despise the evil borg.
- People in UK tend to have more friends in the UK
- You are on first names terms with the developers of Disqus and they fix stuff - just for you.
- If you're a keen photographer, try Flickr.
- If you like football, seek out people who like football.
- If someone Like's a post/tweet you wrote, it's possible (but not certain) you will like their outputs.
- If someone lives on your road, it doesn't mean they're your friend. There's a good reason you haven't had your neighbours round for coffee since last Christmas.
- If people actively dislike your output, it is less likely they will be a good friend.
- If people say 'Great, interesting, thought provoking post', it's likely they are trying to sell you a 'Penis Enlargement Kit' (or worse).
Web 4.0 - The end of the world. Social Networking dies and we all adjourn to the pub (again) and play board games.
Why JS-Kit and Echo is doomed
Yet another service in the overcrowded blog comment field is JS-Kit who already have a conventional outsourced blog comment capability (similar to IntenseDebate and Disqus).
JS-Kit recently announced an extension to the service called 'Echo' which also includes any fleeting reference to your blog post, refreshed in real-time from other services like Twitter, FriendFeed, Google Reader and Facebook.
Echo isn't generally available to mere mortals yet. Yes, you guessed it - it's limited beta, invitation only and curiously, you need a Twitter account to even request an invitation.
However, if your name is Michael Arrington, Guy Kawasaki, Robert Scoble or Duncan Riley, you are entitled to use the service which is fair enough as it works best for high volume sites with lots of comments
However, look at this example on The Inquistr of Echo in action on a live site.
Wow - just look at all those 'comments'. Look again closely. Most entries are not comments at all. They are merely links or retweets to the article from Twitter or FriendFeed. The vast majority merely echo the main headline with no additional comment or insight.
Look again and try to find any meaningful comments where people are actually commenting on the post and expressing their opinion. Guess what. The vast majority are mostly classified as 'via Comments'.
So, that's three reasons, I won't be installing 'Echo' on this blog.
- I don't use Twitter.
- It adds no value.
- No-one ever comments anyway.
consolidation of commenting services
Since I started this blog, I have maintained an interest in various blog commenting services. Back in November 2007, I experimented with SezWho and also reviewed three more similar comment tracking services before finally settling on Disqus.
Competition is obviously a good thing but this is proving a tough climate for small, Web 2.0 companies competing in a small, overcrowded marketplace and we have recently seen some consolidation in this area.
- SezWho - Unfortunately, SezWho ceased trading yesterday with a recommended upgrade path to JS-Kit.
- Disqus - still going strong with recent announcement of improvements to performance and UI.
- coComment - still going albeit with a horrendous interface.
- co.mments - consigned to the dead pool.
- commentful - still alive. For now.
The two main commenting services that appear to represent serious competition for Disqus are IntenseDebate and JS-Kit although I have no personal experience of either product. Anyone out there used them ?
Web 2.0 relationship scorecard
- +1 for a 'friend'
- +5 for a 'follower'
- +10 for a blog comment
- +25 for a blog contact
- +50 for an email
- +100 for a photo
- +250 for a NSFW photo
- +400 for an audio conversation
- +99,999 for a hot steamy IM session
- +1,000,000 for sharing a pint