I wanted to start off this blog post talking about “noise” on friendfeed. What is noise you ask? The noise level is all relevant to the amount of people you subscribe to. A good example is Robert Scoble. While at first I did not subscribe to him (nothing personal), I do now. Scoble probably has the biggest follower base on Friendfeed. Fear of noise is why i did not subscribe. After following him for 2 weeks on Friendfeed, my opinion is just the opposite. His stream is full of valuable nuggets of information. Most of his followers are smart and intelligent and have value to add to Friendfeed. If this is considered noise, then I embrace it. Hutch Carpenter broke it down even further classifying 2 types of social media consumers, Signalist or Discoverer’s. I would have to classify myself as a little of both, leaning towards the side of discoverer. That’s why I can tolerate noise better. Twitter is the true definition of noise. On Twitter you have the ability to block people or choose not to follow them at all. On Friendfeed you have the option to hide peoples content you deem noisy. You can also unsubscribe from them as well. So the options are there if you choose to use them, but when you constantly complain about noise and do nothing about, you yourself become noise. Now I’m gauging this opinion on the amount of people I follow on Friendfeed, which is close to 100 subscriptions. This is relatively small compared to the heavyweights on Friendfeed who follow several hundred people. I have linked below to some notable posts regarding noise, also embedded a Friendfeed tutorial video on how to use the hide feature.
Notable reads:
A Definition of Noise
Five Ways To Use the Hide Function
The noise reduction system
Hide Tutorial from Ross Miller on Vimeo.
Related posts:
Nice job. Scoble doesn't bring noise. He brings interesting content and people. He's a good person to follow and learn from for he has this down to an art.
I'm not sure exactly how, but FriendFeed makes Scoble easier to digest and I get more value from following him now than I ever have previously.
I think there's a third type of person, the creator of the content who would be a discoverer too I suppose. i like having my content in my feed mixed with my choices.
Nice job. Scoble doesn’t bring noise. He brings interesting content and people. He’s a good person to follow and learn from for he has this down to an art.
Great stuff – so glad to see more people countering the growing number of posts telling me that I need to subscribe to their particular philosophy on information processing.
Thanks!
I’m not sure exactly how, but FriendFeed makes Scoble easier to digest and I get more value from following him now than I ever have previously.
I think there’s a third type of person, the creator of the content who would be a discoverer too I suppose. i like having my content in my feed mixed with my choices.
great post, I think you just convinced me! “You are now subscribed to Robert Scoble”
Great stuff – so glad to see more people countering the growing number of posts telling me that I need to subscribe to their particular philosophy on information processing.
Thanks!
great post, I think you just convinced me! “You are now subscribed to Robert Scoble”
Thanks Michael! I work very hard going through more than 5,000 people's noisy feeds to find interesting things for you all to consider. It's a new kind of decentralized news system and you are paying me to be your editor by giving me your attention. I'll keep looking for great stuff for you. Thanks!
I find it interesting how we cope with noise. I was initially nervous about subscribing to too many people for fear of info overload. But now I find ff too quiet during the weekends, with less people on line (even though Louis Gray and Robert Scoble are still usually here ).
I totally agree with twitter being more noisy than friendfeed, with less options to manage the noise (though new twitter clients are helping)
Thanks Michael! I work very hard going through more than 5,000 people's noisy feeds to find interesting things for you all to consider. It's a new kind of decentralized news system and you are paying me to be your editor by giving me your attention. I'll keep looking for great stuff for you. Thanks!
I find it interesting how we cope with noise. I was initially nervous about subscribing to too many people for fear of info overload. But now I find ff too quiet during the weekends, with less people on line (even though Loius Gray and Robert Scoble are still usually here ).