Coder, Gamer, Runner, Husband.
So Friendfeed opened yesterday. Naturally, I had to sign in to take a look.
When I got to the point where it wanted me to configure the feeds and services to grab data from, it first asked for my Google Reader shared items. Okay, can do. Then it asked for my Tumblr name, and this is where my eyebrows went down.
So Tumblr allows me to bundle many of my “activities” in one place. Flickr, blog posts, Twitter posts, links etc., you name it. It does so by querying your Flickr account, your blog(s), Twitter, your del.icio.us bookmark dump (to name a few) via their RSS feeds. And I believe many people are using this feature just for that. I know I do. So that’s usually the first (or even second) re-posting of original content.
Now lifestream services like Friendfeed come hopping along and are going to add another level of abstraction, in the form of aggregation of already aggregated content, or an RSS feed for the aggregated lifestream, or yet another social network layer, and/or by adding comments on top of that.
How much more meta can we go? This is some Zen shit, man.
I swear, one of these days someone will put yet another layer on this Crazy Content Cake of Doom and a black hole will open in the middle of the Internet and suck out all intelligence, reason and original content. (Yes, like Digg, just a wee bit worse.)
Also, I am well aware that I, too, run my own version of a lifestream service, and that my post might seem hypocritical, but by the Gods, there’s a reason why I try to keep escaloop simple.
Update: Added some clarifications.
Looks like there is a new Flickr API output format: LOL. Not my work, no idea who built this, but I really like it.
Here’s an example of returned data (?tags=cats&format=lol):
HAI IM IN UR BUCKETS MAKING UP FORMATS GIMME PHOTOS FROM EVERYONE TAGGED CATS WITH GEODATA I CAN HAS PHOTO IMG_2326 ITZ AT http://www.flickr.com/photos/blush_response/1377293729/ INVISIBLE METADATA LOL KTHX. I CAN HAS PHOTO IMG_2329 ITZ AT http://www.flickr.com/photos/blush_response/1378198718/ INVISIBLE METADATA LOL KTHX. I IS BORED KTHXBYE.
Grab the data as usual, the format attribute is lol, apparently.
So… If you always thought about teaching your cat how to parse Flickr data, now might be the right time to jump in. Progress!
I found a few versions of this in my inbox a few minutes ago:
Dear “friends” at Rapleaf.com,
I know you’re probably just “alerting” me that “someone” might have found possibly incriminating links to my various social network profiles, and that is so nice of you.
You know what else it is? Spamming. That’s true! Ask your friends.
Sure, there is this “If you do not want to receive emails from Rapleaf, click here” link at the bottom of each unsolicited mail you’ve sent me. So what? I didn’t opt in for these mails in the first place. Someone searched for my email address, and you’ve simply used it to send out advertising. Face it: That’s what it is.
…in Europe. According to the Internet Traffic Report, Europe’s intertubes currently feature around 20-30% packet loss. Average, I might add. It seems like two of three major German routers have fallen of the net.
I can indeed confirm this: My connection graph looks like a comb.
When calling my ISP I don’t even get to the “on hold” loop, the automaton on the other end is telling me “Everyone’s busy, please leave a name and number, we’ll call you back ASAP”. Usually there’s a person answering after three rings max.
Please, dear Intertron, get unbroken again. We’ll be good kids, I swear.
Twitter and Pownce are broken. MySpace, too. Oh, and pretty much every social networking site on the planet, too. For me, at least.
It’s not the technical aspect. Not the concept, either.
(Well, I don’t understand the hype and/or praise sites like Twitter is getting. From a technical standpoint, it’s well done, I won’t argue that, but I don’t get the point of the sites. But back to the topic.)
No, it’s the semantics.
You see, offline, I don’t call many people “friend”. This doesn’t mean I am surrounded by unpleasant people, quite the contrary. But I make a difference between friends and pals or contacts. A friend is someone I would risk my life for. Usually this two-way trust has grown over a few years, and is something important to me.
Now, online, I am expected to call every Tom, Dick or Harry “friend”, and somehow, that doesn’t work for me. I create an account at, let’s say, Pownce, and am instantly bombarded by new friend requests. Usually by people I haven’t spoken to before, let alone met.
Yeah… I am afraid I can’t do that, Digital Dave.
Sites like Flickr do it differently. People are “contacts”. If I decided I like them, I can promote them to “friends” or “family”. Which is okay. If we have spoken online, maybe in the office, maybe even met, then I am willing to add you as “contact”. That’s cool and not diminishing our relationship.
And this is my point: just calling someone “contact” instead of “friend” doesn’t mean I don’t like that person. It just means I don’t know him/her well enough to consider him/her a “friend”. Because to me, this word has a meaning. Shying away from labeling you “friend” isn’t impolite, it’s honest. Because we are not friends.
There are people I am fond of, people I like, but with whom I am not that close. I enjoy hanging out with them, and I enjoy their company, but they’re not my friends. And that is perfectly alright, for both them and myself.
(Truth to be told, it wasn’t always like this. But I’m growing older, and my views change.)
Another example: The other day there was a bit of drama in our little WoW guild. There was a younger lad who we were playing and chatting with quite often. At some point, he felt thoroughly insulted when Christian (pal of mine) and I kindly tried to explain to him that we were not his friends. Heck, we had never met. We were playing an online game together, and chatting a lot while doing so. We tried to get the message across, tried to explain that we liked him, but we didn’t consider him a friend in the true sense. He got upset and left the guild in anger.
Well, it happens. Not much I can do about it.
The net is our (relatively) new world. Our habits are changing, human relationships might, too—at least a bit. Still, should we abandon our values? If everyone is a “friend”, it means nobody is. For me, this prospect leaves a lot to be desired.
Dear site builders, please stop trying to build a virtual Woodstock. I know you’re probably just trying to achieve a feeling of “I belong here” for your users so they come back, but for God’s sake, stop making me pretend I care equally about everyone. Because I don’t.
—
Update, 2007-07-25, 9:18 CEST: jr suggested the use of a new word for this type of online kinship, and I like the idea. His suggestion was “webbie”, but to me that sounds too much like a certain online award.
Anyways, my personal proposal is the use of “webster”. I’ve checked Wikipedia, the original meaning of the word has kind of “expired”, so let’s re-use it. :) Are you with me, people?
It just dawned me that on the web, Germany must be to the UK and US what China is to the rest of the “real” World (at least in the perception of the rich western countries): copycats.
Cases in point: Frazr vs. Twitter, StudiVZ vs. Facebook, a dozen del.icio.us clones vs. del.icio.us.
Seriously, the (visible part of the) German startup scene is making a sad impression. Pretty much each new German site I see is more or less a carbon copy of a successful UK or US site. The other day I was even approached whether I wanted to help clone Pownce (“Hey, how quickly could one copy a site like that?”). What happened to ingenuity and/or integrity?
I really start to believe I know the only original guy around.
Yeah, I’m in. Thanks to Hendrik for the invite. I guess.
It’s strange. After two days of more or less using it I am still unable to say if it’s cool or “just too much”. Hmm.
One thought that crossed my mind when signing up: “I wish it had OpenID support.” Now, to me, that says more about OpenID than Pownce. :P
So I have 100 invites for this new site called Spock.com. In a nutshell, I see it as Wikipedia + search engine, but just about people. It’s an interesting approach. For a general quick explanation, feature list, a few screenshots and all around overview, see this TechCrunch article.
The interesting thing is that it’s not a social network, but more of a meta-hub that allows you to find, tag and describe yourself and/or others. Like a mix of Jyte and ClaimID. It’ll be interesting to see it either take off completely (like Wikipedia) or tank completely (because of malicious users).
Anyways, I have invites to give away. If anyone is interested, leave a comment below or email me at carlo@zottmann.org. I’ll need your email address for that.
And if you already have access to it, stop by my entry.
After many hours in the lab, spent on creating timelines and elaborate flow charts, I am proud to present you, World, my “Evolution of Digg.com”. I’ve manage to condense it into a few short lines, too:
Late 2004, Digg.com created > “a fun site!” > gains momentum, becomes useful > single spammers appear, some fools, too > OMG it’s spammed, lots of fools > unbearable > totally useless > PRESENT DAY.
Don’t go there unless you feel like clawing your eyes out after being confronted with utter stupidity. If you actually do feel like, pick any thread.
That is all.
Das Internet ist wie eine externe Version dieses total wahnsinnigen Teils meines überaktiven Unterbewusstseins, der mir dauernd ungefragt lustige Filmschnipsel, Zitate, blöde Songs und uralte Gags auftischt.
