Scripting News - Latest Comments in The First Church of Scoble (Scripting News)

Re: The First Church of Scoble (Scripting News)

TDavid — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 19:25:14 -0000

Scoble -- or any other niche web celebrity -- isn't too difficult to get rid of and it starts by reducing and/or not writing about him, Dave, like what wasn't done above. If people stopped mentioning him then the annoyance factor of his web celebrity would begin to correct itself. It's the CatchScoble 22.

The thing is Scoble talks to interesting people doing interesting things and that's always been the draw. I wonder how many others are attracted to the same thing?

When I say to myself: I'm not going to get sucked into Scoble's latest whatever, his good writing skills usually bring me into the fold. That and Scoble is one of the all around nice guys on the web. He is more human and real than a lot of other phony niche web celebs seem to be, so I don't get that "annoyed" when I see him getting lots of attention, rather I think to myself: hey, at least a nice guy is getting some.

Re: The First Church of Scoble (Scripting News)

Alan Wolk — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 10:39:45 -0000

>>if there were a way to segment the Twittersphere, I'd like to be in the part where Scoble isn't the main topic of conversation 24-by-7.>>

You do realize that this segment you yearn for exists in the larger world, the one outside of the Silicon Valley bubble, right?
That only a percentage of people using Twitter work in technology or its related fields and that as Twitter grows, that percentage will grow smaller.
That other sectors do not have their own Scobles and Kawasakis and that non-tech users tend not to follow/be followed by people they don't actually know, with the possible exception of a celebrity Twitterer like Shaq or Britney (with whom they have zero expectations of reciprocity) or a broadcast-only news feed like the New York Times.

Not intending to trivialize your concerns, but I wish more in the tech field would realize that the behavior patterns being discussed in this thread are anything but universal.

Re: The First Church of Scoble (Scripting News)

danlyke — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 19:58:22 -0000

Matter of opinion, no? Someone once quipped that "Usenet is wisdom in homeopathic doses", seems like 140 characters might help distill it back to effective levels of dilution?

Having said that, I both miss NNTP and think it was a technology that needed fixing, not superseding by all of the technologies which increase server load and centralize data, but perhaps that's what was necessary to balkanize the discussion (Props to Elf Sternberg for his "Balkanize Usenet" manifesto and that simile).

I update Facebook and Twitter simultaneously, I'm happy to update anything else that comes along, but I'm also logging those updates to my own databases so that I can still own that data. Don't know what to do with it, except perhaps publish it as an RSS feed (although that loses the "interact with others" nature of the two), but I very much see my use of Twitter and Facebook as something I need to find and/or develop an alternative to.

Re: The First Church of Scoble (Scripting News)

marshal sandler — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 07:47:21 -0000

Recently I have been deleting most of the people on my twitter account not out of anger I just find micro blogging apps of no real value ! I have a Blog and a Tumblog Posterous account ! I follow you and a few people who have interesting articles on Tabbloid a free service from Hewlett Packard ! I agree with Mr Wilson on Tumblr and recently I added An application to my Browser called Glue it handles most of my bookmarking needs ! I respect Mr Wilson's opinion since he has been involved in I think Tumblr and Glue these two items are excellent but the Micro Blogging idea may just be another Edsel ! Recently all my twitter requests are from internet marketing Gurus ! At 72 years old I am my own Guru ! Feliz Ano Nuevo

Re: The First Church of Scoble (Scripting News)

fredwilson — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 06:50:17 -0000

great point about posterous and tumblr showing the way forward dave. i have a blog, a twitter account, and a tumblog. and for me, there are different use cases for each of them. but i do think tumblr does a good job of being the best of both worlds.

i blogged a bit about this in late 2007

http://www.avc.com/a_vc/200...

Re: The First Church of Scoble (Scripting News)

Jordi Soler — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 06:03:02 -0000

Here's the thing: I'm not a techie guy, never was. Some time ago I started following Scoble's blog and thanks to him now I have a presence in Twitter and Friendfeed. And thanks to him I can now have interesting debates in internet that I was not able to have in my little blog. So, for me, in a way Scoble was a blessing, and got me interested in plenty of tech stuff that I wasn't aware of, up to the point that now I'm starting to think seriously about abandoning my blog and establishing my social base in Twitter/Friendfeed.

As to the merging of Twitter+blogging, I've tried Twitblogs and now I'm using Twitwall. I find those services amazing, although still in the early stages. But I think they will become the future because:

1. People can follow everything you do just from your Twitter account
2. Forget about fancy domain names and all that stuff for your website: it's all linked to your Twitter
3. Your templates are all the same in all your websites
4. You can easily identify your commenters just by clicking on their name and have access to their twits

Re: The First Church of Scoble (Scripting News)

gregorylent — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 04:57:59 -0000

next layer of the blogosphere ....

.. a table of several people at a cafe, all conversations streaming by, can join any or several .. closer to real life ... real-time, the comments are the blog

Re: The First Church of Scoble (Scripting News)

BillyWarhol — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 03:52:48 -0000

Sheeesh it's gettin' UGLY out there!! ;)) Glad U raised the Rich point of Boring Text Twitter that Far Superior Services like FriendFeed currently enjoy! Twitter completely misses the Boat on Web2.0 Comments + Social Interaction as swell* I also Hope we can Dump Butt Ugly MicroPOOP Windoze style Plain black on white rampant in WordPress + move on to a WEB3D.0 Browser experience exemplified by Cooliris* Surely if Television can go HD w/ Full Surround Sound than the Internet can Get with da Program!

p.s. I like Scoble! ;)) Peace*

Re: The First Church of Scoble (Scripting News)

Mark Krynsky — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 01:27:15 -0000

Good points Louis. Especially that last paragraph. Many of these other social media services just act as outposts where we can engage with users outside the confines of our own blogs.

Think of it as an analogy where your house was your blog, you can't always expect your friends to come over. You have to go out and meet them in environments where they choose to hang out. Ultimately though you will develop relationships where they are invited back to your home.

I pulled up my top 10 referrer stats for 2008 for Lifestream Blog and guess what? FriendFeed came in at #1 and Twitter came it at #5. So I think the value of hanging out and engaging on those sites are valueable and a must to get your message out there.

Re: The First Church of Scoble (Scripting News)

Hutch Carpenter — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 01:24:37 -0000

Interesting thoughts there Dave. I hear shades of what is undoing the newspaper industry. One other thing I hear there...sounds like there'd still need to be some sort of editor on a site, managing the various bits of multiple contributors. True?

Re: The First Church of Scoble (Scripting News)

sameasiteverwas — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 00:35:04 -0000

Well, there is the distinction that Twitter limits your posts to 140 characters. So you've recreated Usenet, only less useful.

Re: The First Church of Scoble (Scripting News)

Anthony Farrior — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 23:29:13 -0000

Scoble is like the PC on EagleEye[spoiler alert]. He's everywhere you need to be internet-wise and apparently has more power than any one person should have...

Re: The First Church of Scoble (Scripting News)

most people on twitter — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 22:54:19 -0000

"You can't be on Twitter or FriendFeed and not be inundated with comments from and about Scoble." -- Sure you can.. I don't subscribe to him on either.. viola.. it really ain't that hard dave

Re: The First Church of Scoble (Scripting News)

mkrigsman — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 21:47:02 -0000

Robert, The three (or four) goals you mentioned certainly reflect your actions.

But, remaining top of mind gets you followers. It's naive to think your access and position is independent of these followers, and you don't strike me as a naive person. Of course, your sponsors are also not unaware of that legion of followers.

Re: The First Church of Scoble (Scripting News)

mkrigsman — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 21:40:33 -0000

Dave, Not to put too fine a point on it, but you did write a post focused on Scoble. How should the interested reader interpret that?

Re: The First Church of Scoble (Scripting News)

Mike Fruchter — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 21:40:18 -0000

Mona, for me personally It's not an issue. For what I input into these services, the output is much more valuable. It's a small price we all pay for using these services. I'm all for data-portability with our social graphs, content etc, but we are nowhere near reaching that horizon just yet. These services may stake claim to our content, but the distribution it provides for me is well worth its weight in gold, and the price I'm paying in comparison is small.

Re: The First Church of Scoble (Scripting News)

Mona Nomura — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 21:28:25 -0000

Mike - what do you think about content ownership? Are you ok with having Twitter, FriendFeed, and various aggregating sites owning, for a lack of better term, what you and others contribute to these services? Or is that even an issue?

Re: The First Church of Scoble (Scripting News)

Chuck Shotton — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 21:06:03 -0000

If Twitter and blogging merge, you've pretty much just recreated UseNet with a Web interface instead of a NNTP reader. The idea of many people reading the posts of a few and being able to interject comments is the gist of UseNet. Longer posts with commentary (blogs merged with Twitter) are indistinguishable UseNet. The only substantial difference is the ability to easily mute people. Nothing new under the sun...

Re: The First Church of Scoble (Scripting News)

Hutch Carpenter — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 21:00:31 -0000

Dave - Nice one here. I'm intrigued by your points about Arrington and Calacanis, desiring to cling to the status quo. Because there is truth there, but blogging will still be around too. It's just that Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed open up sharing well beyond blogs. And you are hitting on something else even for regular bloggers - Twitter, et al will become an essential part of the mix.

Long form blogging will still have its place. Longer developed posts, with analysis and perspective. For a lot of non-technologists (professionals in other fields), it is an essential component of a full online persona.

Re: The First Church of Scoble (Scripting News)

dave — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 20:51:08 -0000

I used the word "quaint" to describe the aggregation they do, but I could
have used the word "pioneering" as well. It's all going to come together in
customized views, that's what Twitter and Facebook with their arrangements
of news feeds are bootstrapping. We've broken things up into very small
bits, now they're going to come back together, they're already coming back
-- when it's done TechCrunch will have missed an opportunity, imho. I talked
about this with Mike on the phone last week. If I were him, I'd open up the
TechCrunch franchise to publishing the work of a lot more people. That's the
way to embrace the change that's coming.

Re: The First Church of Scoble (Scripting News)

Gail Gardner — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 20:26:16 -0000

Are we arguing semantics or substance? Unless you make a connection it is impossible to have a discussion. While I am interested in what Scoble says, I am far more interested in reading what others have to share.

I suspect you don't REALLY want to know what I'm online for, but I'll tell you anyway. To connect, learn, and share what I've figured out so that others don't have to reinvent the wheel. To explain complex subjects in a way that anyone new to that subject can actually understand. To change the world by assisting those who are contributors with integrity maximize what THEY do.

Re: The First Church of Scoble (Scripting News)

Mona Nomura — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 19:38:24 -0000

The greatest part about engaging is when it comes to product/new technology/new site and service reviews, I trust opinions of those I know and are familiar with technology, than XX site telling me what to and not to like. That's a huge reason why I value FriendFeed so much. We discuss everything from bacon to Jailbreaking iPhones, why Twitter sucks/rules, pros/cons of netbooks, etc., etc. :) But like you said, to each their own: Choices. ps: Thank you for your words, Dave. They mean a lot. :) Especially since you're a pretty intelligent man - but don't tell anyone I said that!

Re: The First Church of Scoble (Scripting News)

Mike Fruchter — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 19:22:44 -0000

If the volume is to much simply unsubscribe, and turn off FOAF while you are at it.. Scoble is informative and adds value. If you cant take the heat maybe you shouldn't be in the kitchen.

Re: The First Church of Scoble (Scripting News)

jasoncalacanis — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 19:19:44 -0000

That's actually a fairly good point. Perhaps Twitter will do to Blogs what the quick pace of blogs did to newspapers... of course, I really think the limitations in length limit what can be accomplished.

Your thesis above is a solid and could not have been made in Twitter unless you did at least 10-15 tweets.

CB Radio is a lot of fun when you're on a road trip with three other cars, but it doesn't replace the telephone.

Re: The First Church of Scoble (Scripting News)

dave — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 19:18:25 -0000

I think it's about different things to different people, but I support your effort to love people, and engage with them. I am a regular reader of yours, and never fail to be entertained and touched by your creations. :-)