This idea was inspired from this post by J. Phil of scribkin.com. The idea is simple, and I think will be very rewarding.
When I first joined FreindFeed in February, it was easy to maintain a normal balance of my friends and their activities. This was easy because my number of subscriptions was low. Five months later, over 330+ people are subscribed to me, and I have reciprocated back to about the same number. The core group of people I follow are great. They provide tremendous value to me with the content and conversations they create, contribute and participate in. I often find myself on FriendFeed sticking to and staying close to the herd I follow. While there is nothing wrong with this, it’s coming at an expense which is isolation.
I feel like I have isolated myself and a lot of subscribers by sticking to the herd. I very often will visit the blogs, like content, comment or share the content of people who are newly subscribed to me. This has become a nearly impossible task, to keep up with over 330+subscriptions. Google reader helped tremendously in this task when my member circle and rss feed count was lower. I currently have about 300+ feeds in Google reader & Toluu alone. In some respect it has become what I feared the most, quantity and not quality. The time has come for me to broaden my horizons on FriendFeed and stray from the pack.
This will last for 5 days beginning midnight tonight 7/29.
The Objective: To participate only in my circle of 330 friends. Sorry foafs. This entails only liking and commenting on content from members that are subscribed to me. Now the noticeable change will be in the content I share via Google reader, and the content I post via bookmarking using Diigo and the Friendfeed bookmarklet. The content I share must come from a members blog that is subscribed to me on Friendfeed. The usual content from the trusted sources such as Duncan Riley, Louis Gray, Hutch Carpenter, Steve Hodson and Sarah Parez will still be shared on my feed for the next 5 days. Not only because I like their writing, but more importantly because they are subscribed to me on Friendfeed and part of my member circle. Begining tommorow and lasting 5 days, I will actively share content from a majority of members blogs I have never seen, much less visited. I will have the same level of engagement with my conversations, comments and liking.
I have set up a new Google Reader account for this purpose. This account is only for member blogs that are subscribed to me. Going through 330+ members profile is not feasible, so I started this thread on FriendFeed asking members in my circle to post their blogs. If you subscribe to me and publish a blog, please list it in this thread.
The Goal: To broaden my horizons and to truly get to know the people that follow me better. I hope after 5 days, my level of engagement on FriendFeed will be more enriched and fufilling. I will post a follow up once the 5 days are over.
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20 Responses to Paying it forward on FriendFeed
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very interesting idea. it reminds me of when a composer shuts out music other than his/her own to not let the noise distract from originality. i look forward to the outcome of this experiment.
sean808080
http://sean808080.com
Neat idea! I'm looking forward to the content you will be sharing. FF is a wonderful place, and I find myself there more than my Google Reader and my Facebook page nowadays.
I agree. This is a very cool idea. I can recall doing this a few times (in fact, this is how I found a few the folks you mentioned above.), but not with so much intent. Maybe you've inspired me to broaden again. I'd like to use FF a bit more. Any recommended reading on how to maximize my experience? Just add you to my following list.
First, thanks, I'm honored that I inspired you to strike out in a new direction.
I find myself in a similar situation. I think I have over 500 folks following me and I follow even more, and that's just on FriendFeed! So naturally, I am very interested on how this works out for you.
don't follow people, even if they follow you. follow your intuition, your interests, or your trusted sources. there is simply too much stuff otherwise, and only because you did the “politically correct” thing of reciprocation. by doing that you diluted your own experience, and nobody wants you to do that.
tyler.face.edu
I am with Gregory, beside content that you need to digest like food takes time and if you are rushing from item to item that just doesn't help you but it does help the egos of a few.
I am going to stick with my plan and just try to keep the filter and stream tight. Doing this means those who subscribe to me get better posts, better shared items and that (I believe) is the reason they subscribed in the first place.
I am off to bed, good night
Cheers Mike (it is okay to call you Mike instead of Michael right)..
very interesting idea. it reminds me of when a composer shuts out music other than his/her own to not let the noise distract from originality. i look forward to the outcome of this experiment.
sean808080
http://sean808080.com
Neat idea! I’m looking forward to the content you will be sharing. FF is a wonderful place, and I find myself there more than my Google Reader and my Facebook page nowadays.
I agree. This is a very cool idea. I can recall doing this a few times (in fact, this is how I found a few the folks you mentioned above.), but not with so much intent. Maybe you’ve inspired me to broaden again. I’d like to use FF a bit more. Any recommended reading on how to maximize my experience? Just add you to my following list.
First, thanks, I’m honored that I inspired you to strike out in a new direction.
I find myself in a similar situation. I think I have over 500 folks following me and I follow even more, and that’s just on FriendFeed! So naturally, I am very interested on how this works out for you.
don’t follow people, even if they follow you. follow your intuition, your interests, or your trusted sources. there is simply too much stuff otherwise, and only because you did the “politically correct” thing of reciprocation. by doing that you diluted your own experience, and nobody wants you to do that.
tyler.face.edu
I am with Gregory, beside content that you need to digest like food takes time and if you are rushing from item to item that just doesn’t help you but it does help the egos of a few.
I am going to stick with my plan and just try to keep the filter and stream tight. Doing this means those who subscribe to me get better posts, better shared items and that (I believe) is the reason they subscribed in the first place.
I am off to bed, good night
Cheers Mike (it is okay to call you Mike instead of Michael right)..
I recently found you on FF through Scoble and I love your posts – interesting stuff and cover subjects I'm not always up to speed on – this being a prime example. Just wanted to say hello and keep up the good work, it's much appreciated
what an absolutely awesome idea – thanks for posting this!
I recently found you on FF through Scoble and I love your posts – interesting stuff and cover subjects I’m not always up to speed on – this being a prime example. Just wanted to say hello and keep up the good work, it’s much appreciated
what an absolutely awesome idea – thanks for posting this!
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