Congratulations! that's really great news. RWW has been a great blog for ages now. back then you came on board it really became stellar. best techblog out there. hands down. - marcel weiss
I didn't like it. I find it less personalized, boring, and unreadable. I can't skim the data with this loaded fatty typography. - Burak Arikan
Because of nofollow/noindex/noarchive pragmas for search bots, delicious.com has virtually no presence on search engines. They have made it a walled garden unless you use something like FriendFeed and then your bookmarks (and associated notes) get searched/crawled. - Atul Arora
Ah but put it through lijit (and your network), powerful stuff. One of my more useful research methods - Deepak
Mmm... I think I dislike the disability to one-click remove a tag... such as toread... :( They do have such 'x' buttons on the tags for filtering... - Egon Willighagen
And it would be nice if the tag pages that are repeatedly 404 for more than 4 months or so... - Egon Willighagen
Love the new design and color contrast. - Vic Podcaster
Holy cow! They didn't f it up, In a time when every one is rolling out v 2.0, it's nitce to see these folks get it. - JMac of Earth
Dave, me neither. I had an account for less than a month and then cancelled it because I didn't find it that interesting compared to the hype I've heard from my friends. - imabonehead
I can see maybe connecting with old school chums. But I don't really see its use in business, and I have an 18-year-old daughter who's made it clear it's HER TURF. Seems to me we've got plenty of other places to play -- here, and associated spaces, plus blogs, plus LinkedIn, which is big-ish in St. Louis. And in my field, I really like AdGabber. - Mary Baum
I'm with you, most people I know are on it and active members, been trying to avoid it. Not 100% sure why, just never got into it. - maxim shevertalov
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i don't like any other sites,i got an account 2 an it's boring,lmao - amy
I'm an FB user, but only minimally. I mostly use it to keep in touch with friends long since lost. But actually logging in... not much, I get my updates and such via an imaginary friend setup here at FF and also I get updates in SocialThing, consequently I almost never log straight in to it unless I need to reply to someone, so as long as they don't lock anything off from access, I could care less about it. - nick carrasco
The rest of the planet doesn't seem to care much about facebook either. So you're definitely not alone. - Luis Figueiredo
I am still a member over at Facebook - but purely to remain connected with old school friends. - Jonathan Beckett
I stay for the Scrabble, pure and simple. - Kevin C. Tofel
I like to have my FB pge automatically updated by other apps like Twitter, Last.fm etc. so I don't actually have to go to FB and do anything. That way it looks like I'm somewhat active to people who are interested and I don't have to bother. - Todd Brunner
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I do like the FB private video mail, especially to connect to friends who are on FB & noplace else. - Brian Rendel
I don't, but I also don't give a flying fcuk that you don't give a flying fcuk - in the same way that you don't give a flying fcuk on my views on Bebo, Google, Seesmic et al, for sure - Ivan Pope
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i don't use it much but we're out of the demo - watch a gen y interacting w/ their tribe sometime on fb - they're it - mike "glemak" dunn
I agree. I tried to use for marketing purposes, it failed miserably. Then I tried to use it for fun and it was worthless. - Globecode
I think Facebook is a good tool. Maybe if you are Dave Winer you don't need it. - Vic Podcaster
May be user error, but FaceBook didn't seem as useful as hoped. I thought it'd bring cool convos together. I still have to hunt. - MiɳiMagɘ (AlwaysMiniMage)
Facebook started off with excitement, and ended up with apathy. FF started with curiosity, and has ended up with real social interaction. I know where i'm spending my time... - Iain Baker
You're clearly not alone. I have yet to sign up. - Tsega Dinka
Oh is that what that FB stands for on my FF nav bar. Now that scrabulous is gone, not sure what the appeal is, unless you're trying to reach the younger crowd. YUK. I do like Knighthood though, let's you paWn your coFBers. - JMac of Earth
Robert Scoble is blogging again -- refreshed, with new vigor in his writing. Here's a quick note on why he wants to throttle back on the PR end of tech writing. - Chris Baskind
I like roberts new blog posts. New format is great. - Vic Podcaster
It may not be the popular opinion but I agree with Facebook here. It's their service to define and they want the real people not their alias (there is a difference). Make your Alias a fan page and be yourself, Facebook is a more structured environment and that's served it well - I don't think we can expect any change in that department - David Knight
One of the many reasons why I have little use for Facebook. No other major site cares much about psuedonyms, and given Facebook's history of privacy problems, I'm don't trust them with much. - Logical Extremes
Kind of BS in my opinion that they disabled Vic Podcaster's account for this. - Thomas Hawk
Terms of Service are only useful if they are reasonable and even-handed in applying them. If they can't explain why, they shouldn't. - Andrew Feinberg
Why do they have to explain why? It's their ball and they'll take it home. If you don't like the rule don't use the site. It's that simple. - Adrienne Van Houten
If you can't explain how you are applying your own terms of service, either you aren't following them or need new terms of service. - Andrew Feinberg
I'm perceiving a shift in social networks and forums, more people using their names instead of fancy pseudonyms. Maybe I should say "names" without presuming that they are the person's real name. - Jack Carlson
Facebook is a joke for this reason, on your birthday you obviously get a few messages. I hadn't spoken with some of these people in a while so I got involved with them. I received two warnings about my conduct and I backed off from talking! Incidently Louis I see that we share the same birthday from your profile! - Joe Dawson (beta)
@Ryo I still really enjoy what Facebook offers, I get benefits from other sites but the majority of my friends are active on Facebook! - Joe Dawson (beta)
There's nothing wrong with pseudonyms and there are lots of reasons to use one, not just 'hiding'. Don't ask why people use Facebook, it's simple. People use Facebook because people use Facebook. Momentum, name recognition, user base, and it's a good product. - David Knight
I've already cut back a lot from using it so I won't care if they eventually delete my alias. One more reason to move to A|N only - Divided By Zer0
But hey, many have been calling it Fakebook for a long time. - Daniel Schildt
Despite what they say about aliases, it does seem to be very hit and miss - I know of one person who is on as "Troubled Pink" and has been for a while, whilst others seem to get locked out pretty swiftly. - Richard Peat
as they should, identity is really important - Jeremiah Owyang
When I joined FB a year ago, it was as "Somerset Bob" - a pseudonym I wanted to use as I built a new online persona based around my revamped blog. After three weeks I was duly suspended until I changed it to my real name (Bob Kingsley). It rankled then, and still does to a certain extent - especially as I, too, see FB users who are using obvious pseudonyms. It's been the only social networking site that's made a fuss. - Bob Kingsley
Agree with Jeremiah and David. Keep it real, Facebook :-p - Jamie
Jeremiah: The policy should be applied evenly. Check this out http://tinyurl.com/6mz2zo now tell me what do you think? BTW Vic Podcaster is the real name I use in real life. - Vic Podcaster
Actually you can poke someone using the new design, but you must go to a specific friend's profile page to do so. I've had no difficulty with it. Check over on the left hand side of the page. - Jill O'Neill
After this was posted, I saw that Pokes were still available below friends' profile photos. Jesse is updating. - Louis Gray
Pokes are annoying, I guess they finally realized that! - Gavin
that's a GOOD thing. hiding pokes is a great feature of the new facebook design. you're looking at it all wrong - Baratunde Thurston
i'm glad pokes are gone, always thought they were super-lame unless you were a college freshman trying to flirt with a girl at your school (of which i am neither) - Morgan
Hmm. Not sure I am missing something but all of these appear to be on Facebook... perhaps they are rolling out the features slowly? I definitely see ignore/poke/pages/groups. - Jamie
I have many "poke" wars going on with friends right now. The poke is still very much alive. - Shawn Farner
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This is why friendfeed is awesome. I was originally pleased that poking was gone (given my network friends are far too partial to messaging me asking why I won't poke back). Now, after coming here, I know where to find them (whether or not I would want to). It's just one of the benefits of FF --the follow up comments are quickly becoming the reason why I use FF more often. - Derick Valadao
I do pokes in the new interface all the time. Not sure what's missing on yours. Edit: Missed louis' fllow up comment about updating. Sorry! :) - Clint Ecker
Jesse is working on a follow-up. Though written with best intentions, of course, this post needs some changes. - Louis Gray
The actual use of the "Poke" is misunderstood by many. It isn't there just for random use :-P By poking someone, you allow them to view your profile. If they poke back, you can see theirs too (albeit temporarily) without having to add each other as friends. - Shawn Farner
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The "Groups", "Pages" and email info are all contained in the new "INFO" tab. I can poke friends, no one else. - Susan Beebe (Santa Claus)
404 Error on this link...what happened? - ♫ Rahsheen ™ ★
@shawn thanks for dropping that FB science! i did not know that! now it makes more sense .. still a bit creepy, but now not as much! - Morgan
It's a conspiracy orchestrated by FB to silence Louis Gray! - ♫ Rahsheen ™ ★
Do people not actually read the comments? (rhetorical question!) The post is gone, because the post had incorrect info and is being updated. - Robert Seidman
Jesse "pulled" the post to "draft" mode and is redoing it. There were clearly some issues. :-) - Louis Gray
My apologies for the mistakes - it just goes to show how confusing the new design is! Facebook has also re-added a few of those omitted features in the last week, as they weren't there when I last looked at them. - Jesse Stay
It's a much cleaning looking set-up, most people had far too many things on their profile page. Me like the new "look" - Kol Tregaskes
I'm most annoyed by how useless the application updates in the news feed have become. Used to be that my Flickr updates would show up as thumbnails in the news feed. Similar thing for my Tumblr updates. Now it just says 'Michael updated My Flickr Photos' and people need to go to the Boxes tab and hunt around for my Flickr application. This is forward progress??? - Mike Doeff
Kol, I like the cleaner look as well. Today's mistakes just made me realize though that it's definitely going to take some getting used to. - Jesse Stay
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Mike, that is mostly the responsibility of developers, but my issue there is that Facebook did not give developers much time to integrate, which is why you're seeing such odd application updates. - Jesse Stay
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This clearly was rushed Facebook release. - Vic Podcaster
My 12 year old daughter will not be very happy. Right now it's her favorite form of online communication with me. I think we've been poking each other for over a year now. - leigh himel
Leigh, be sure to read the post - I made some mistakes. I wasn't seeing pokes last week, but evidently they're back now. - Jesse Stay
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Thanks @Jesse that's a relief (for her...not really so much for me :) - leigh himel
hey there was NO admins to take up Scoble's cause, so I just volunteered. Wanna help get Scoble's rights to Facebook re-instated? Join! - Susan Beebe (Santa Claus)
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Not sure about this but I think this problem happened a long time ago and Scoble is currently active on FB. Unless some new issue has surfaced - Brian Sullivan
WTF? Slutsky... now Scoble? Oh wait.. this is the old story of Robert doing OCR to move his contacts out... has this fight been re-ignited? I'm in! - Richard Walker
My account just got disabled on Facebook. Looks like they have soem sort of script which does it automatically. Here is the link to conversation. http://friendfeed.com/e/500756... - Vic Podcaster
Vic, your story and others like explain why I haven't bothered to join Facebook. - Ontario Emperor
OK Some PPL don't want to join facebook !That all right with me . - Victor
Uh-oh. I think this will be a big deal. For example, a friend of mine, Bill Parnell, goes by Biznill Parnorell in Facebook. Is he doomed as well? (And I know Vicky's secret last name. We were coworkers from 2002-2005.) - Louis Gray
Avatars deal with this fear all the time. I couldn't have my gamer name 'Spin Martin' there. Myspace, yes. Facebook, no. Of course people think my name is a stage name so I'm waiting for the day. Stupid anagram names. >:| - Eric Rice
oh, yeah - modern digital slavery 'gimme yr name or gtfo'... feel for you, Vic - silpol
Facebook sucks for just this reason. - Robert Scoble
Every case like this I've seen Facebook has re-enabled the account once they've realized the person was real. I think this is a good thing - it keeps fake people from being on the service, something unique to many other services out there. Why does it suck? - Jesse Stay
I know "Records" is also a name that cannot be used. My friend ran into that problem. - Daynah
I'm wondering if being preemptive would mean anything. If you real name is also a celeb name or looks fake, should you contact FB to let them know. I'm sure there are many people with an initial as their last name as well. - Phillip Jeffrey
One thing Facebook does still need to do, but I argue this is a minor thing, is make sure a human is reviewing disabled accounts before they get disabled. This is why Robert's account was suspended and most likely why yours was suspended. - Jesse Stay
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Do you think they'll believe Oli Kenobi is a real name? If my account's disabled, I won't go back with my real name. Who will be the loser in the end? Not me! - Oli Kenobi
my friend Bruce Cumcock was denied access. - PC Easy
Jesse: Imagine Google deciding to shut down my gmail account because they do not like my last name. It has not happened and is not going to happen, period. If Facebook does not allow certain last names, they can for sure check and prevent me from opening an account. 8 months latter, I am an active user, they just can't get up one morning and shut me down because they don't like my name anymore. This is simply not done. - Vic Podcaster
It will be a lot better for everyone that Facebook spells out the rules clearly. Today it is about names, tomorrow they may not like something else. Facebook has to play fair game. - Vic Podcaster
Vic, I agree - Facebook needs humans monitoring this process before disabling accounts. However, on the same front, Google is full of spammers and scammers because they're not as strict. Facebook still needs these scripts to keep the "real person" environment that they have. They just need to do some filtering before they actually disable accounts. - Jesse Stay
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"Facebook sucks for just this reason" -- Facebook sucks period and the reasons in the hundreds I think. - Brian Sullivan
Jesse: Do you work for or are paid for by Facebook? It is great and all that you wrote a book about using Facebook, I am just curious why you have picture with 'Mark Zuckerberg' in your Facebook profile photo? http://www.facebook.com/people... - Vic Podcaster
Vic , no - I don't work for them - I was just having him sign my book in that picture. I'm as big a critic as I am a proponent of Facebook - Jesse Stay
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This is crazy, you've been using that name in REAL life forever.... - Zoli Erdos
Zoli: I am not sure how to tell this to Facebook. They simply disabled the account without any courtsey email or advance notice. There is no one to contact in the error message. - Vic Podcaster
Vic, no e-mail whatsoever? That's different from other cases I've heard. Did you get a screenshot of what it shows you when you try to log in? Send it to me at jesse@staynalive.com, I'd like to blog about it. I'll also see if I can find someone at Facebook that can explain or help. - Jesse Stay
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That Louis Gray guy - he always beats me to it ;) - Jesse Stay
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Go figure. Well that's Facebook for you. They'll disable your account, but the 20 or so people with the name "Jesus Sonofgod" are A-ok. Check it out: http://tinyurl.com/6mz2zo - Michael Forian
@Jesse, not only is the story interesting to me, but I know Vicky personally, so I shouldn't get much credit here for going first. - Louis Gray
I'm just glad I didn't have to do another blog post tonight - I have 3 I need to do still - Jesse Stay
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but seriously, if Facebook won't allow "nicknames", part of "real life", I agree with Robert now - Facebook sucks because of this! I hope they allow you back on. I'll see if I can ask around myself - Jesse Stay
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Hey Jesse, while you're at it, could you find me someone at Facebook who is in charge of privacy? Wait. That's their Chief Privacy Officer. Scratch that. Can you find someone who is in charge of privacy, because their Chief Privacy Officer is "traveling" "unavailable" or "out of the country" any time I make an inquiry? Or would you lose your access that you got for writing your book? - Andrew Feinberg
I know of someone who has at least 2-3 fake identities on FB, not even a nickname, and I'm wondering how they slipped through the cracks. I don't feel like playing cop and turning them in, but you wonder how they even managed more than one account. - Cathryn Hrudicka
That's funny. Ryo is my everyday name in real life, too. Well, I'm not on Facebook anyways. - Ryo
Andrew, unfortunately most of my access there is in their platform team. For my first book no one would talk to me there. I can ask Dave Morin though, although I'm not sure if he'll be able to help or not. - Jesse Stay
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I imagine they only do this only with english words. If you were using something like Victor Podcastero (Vic Podcaster in Spanish) probably they would never ever notice it. - Arturo Servin
Thanks a ton Louis for writing the post. - Vic Podcaster
Jesse: I appreciate your offer for help. I just sent you the screenhots at your emai. - Vic Podcaster
Andrew: It is almost impossible to find anyone at Facebook. I guess only way is to drop by their office. :) - Vic Podcaster
Arturo: I like your suggestion. Though Vic Podcaster is the real name I use in real life and been doing so for a long long time. - Vic Podcaster
Jesse: Based on your profile picture with Mark, you should have a hotline into Mark's office. ;-) - Vic Podcaster
An afterthought, I participated in a Facebook panel discussion this Saturday evening titled "Facebook Change-athon to migrate to new profile" http://socialsoftware.meetup.c... and I my advice to site developers regarding "Facebook Connect" was wait and watch before running with it. It will be childish of me to imagine that disabling my account on Sunday and speaking my mind about Facebook on Saturday are co-related - one of my friend just pointed out the coincidence. - Vic Podcaster
Vic - lol - I wish! I do have a video of him playing rockband with his family at F8 that he doesn't want published. ;-) I would never do that to him though. - Jesse Stay
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Nothing holds a candle to Flickr pro. Picnik photo-editing integration, Moo and Qoop product integration, photo management, RSS feeds for everything - I love it. I think you have chosen ...... poorly (but I respect your decision, I suppose). ;) - Nathaniel Payne
I like SmugMug for photo albums and better produced photos (not the everyday stuff). - Brandon Titus
With nearly 1200 photos there, flickr (pro) would have to start to seriously suck, or something else would have to be in another class for me to switch. Like many, I'm locked in. And other than crappy quality of video and smallish images, flickr is still a site I enjoy & visit nearly every day. - Dean Terry
I have been a very happy camper with Flickr Pro for 2 years now. I have over 6000 photos and tool set they offer me is great. Flickr rocks. - Vic Podcaster
Hey, I just realized that you're from Sunnyvale - I lived there for the first 18 years of my life and my folks still live there. Cherry Chase neighborhood! - Zach Landes
Being from Sunnyvale means that Yahoo! (Flickr) doing well helps our city tax dollars, improves the schools and keeps our roads paved, right? Not the best year for Sunnyvale. - Louis Gray
I've been wanting to give SmugMug a try on my iPhone just for fun. thanks for the news - Corvida
Never thought of that! Sunnyvale has the most ridiculous laws - you aren't allowed to work on your car, in your garage, no matter what the noise level. Lots of stupid stuff like that. But hey, its a great place to grow up - Sunnyvale Southern Little League is one of the highlights of my youth. And hey - how many places can a 14 year old get a job building computers, or a 16 year old get a job in QA support at a major software company! (both me) - Zach Landes
I use Smugmug for my toolkit videos. I like it a lot except for the problems the player has with Vista. - Jim Kukral
This approach makes total sense. I've been putting together something similar with my Dad. The key is, though, that you have your friend give (or ship you) the harddisk to store their stuff. They need 1TB that is OK, but they have to buy it. I'll check out this cucku solution -- may save me some trouble. - Robert W. Anderson
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Why bother? Time machine backs me up every morning on a cheap 500G. - Phil Boiarski
They should have bought them out or should have reached some other sort of understanding. Users liked that application, it is sad to see them go away. - Vic Podcaster
Last I heard, they attempted to buy them out, but the creators wanted an exorbitant amount each (2+MM each). - Johan
I bet the price has come down a bit since then. - bob corrigan
I've never played it, but if you treat it as a social network, $10 million is a ridiculously low price per user. Facebook itself is worth $15 Billion. - Roberto Bonini
Heard you need to be serious buyer to test drive the car and that means putting down $5K to get on the waiting list. - Rajiv Doshi
tesla is sick huh? i'm a month away from delivery of #16 and I can't wait. you have to get one dude! - Jason Calacanis
Sergey and Larry just got theirs yesterday, a Tesla executive told me. - Robert Scoble
It's freaking awesome. Thanks Calacanis for getting me a ride in Elon Musk's Tesla. - Robert Scoble
Still no plans to be released in EU or Asia, Don't if I have to wait for that or just buy an another old german or italian racer - Jean-François Amadei
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Oooh... Envious of your Telsa drive in Ohio. ;-) - Mitchell Tsai
When they make one that will fit fat old guys I am all over it! - ScottBourne
Scott: I'm a fat old guy and I fit just fine! The problem with the current Tesla is it's more than $100,000 and it only fits two people (which means it's only good for rich people who don't have kids). I have five in my family so need more seats. - Robert Scoble
Robert I just read that Tesla suppose to be working on a family car to be released at around $60,000 - Kevin Tunis
Kevin: yes, I'm one of the first in line for the second Tesla, the family car one that's going to be about $60,000. Still way too expensive for me, but since it'll probably be three years before I see that, I'll be saving up. - Robert Scoble
Maybe I should look at the first one - I was under the impression that they are small. - ScottBourne
So, now that you've had a test--the Tesla or the Audi R8? - Andrew Leyden
How long is the Tesla wait list if you buy now? I know the R8 is currently 18 months. - Ben Kessler
Andrew: Tesla goes 240 miles on $3 worth of electricity and turns a LOT more heads in Silicon Valley. Everyone was talking about the Tesla that showed up at the TechCrunch party last night. - Robert Scoble
I was using a business calling card to call Roz's Iridium satellite phone. I had no idea it would cost $13.80 per minute until I got the first bill. Of course by then I had racked up over $10,000 in calls. It costs Roz only $1/minute to call me from the sat phone, so that's how we're doing it now. I should have, of course, checked the tariff. I even remember reading some time ago that calling card calls are the most expensive out there. Fortunately, AT&T knocked it down to the lowest rate available. - Leo Laporte
wonder if iridium phones are used by anyone except "extreme" sports people who climb everest or row across the ocean? - Wilma Stoneflint
AT&T is still the Devil.. But this is a cool thing :) - Tim
shocked to hear AT&T actually do good... they never part with $$$ ...interesting. Very happy for you Leo, cuz that was one nasty phone bill!! Did you drop out of your chair when you read it?! - Susan Beebe (Santa Claus)
Happy for you Leo. The first time I have heard something positive about AT&T. I experience with AT&T was very different though. - Vic Podcaster
