Webomatica

 

Quitting FriendFeed

June 26th, 2009

Almost entirely at random, I got caught up in a FriendFeed thread by Aaron Brazell where he voiced dissatisfaction with the service. Things got rather surreal, and argumentative. But while Brazell hasn’t officially pulled the trigger and quit – I decided to save myself a few days of waffling, and actually did it.

I’d been slowly sliding towards pulling the plug for the past few months, ever since the redesign which left me cold. I was once a passionate FriendFeed user, even wildly comparing it to Google. But passion slipped away and I became just a user. Now I’m not even that. And a great sense of relief and anxiousness has lifted.

The basics:

  • “Community” and “conversation” are not the killer apps I once thought. I used to participate in Usenet forums back in the day, as well as dabbling in MUDs and MMPORGs. But I don’t participate in those communities, anymore. With each, there was a point where it just got tiresome. I see similarities to FriendFeed – they’ve done a great job of creating a vibrant, constantly changing place for people to communicate in real-time. After a time dabbling in these communities that annoy me as well as entertain, I inevitably start asking myself what I’m getting out of association with these people. Inevitably, the answer is always: not much. Plus, most online communities have a nasty habit turning into a mob surprisingly quickly (perceived anonimity of the Internet). Recent run-ins on FriendFeed have included Rizzin, TechCrunch, and now Brazell. I was never the target of a mob, but just seeing their rise and fall is enough of a turn off. Perhaps FriendFeed needs a community manager.
  • Facebook and Twitter pretty much cover everything. Facebook has literally, everyone on it. I have found Twitter’s non-commital, lack of conversation and community a positive. If you fail to participate for months and nobody cares. Twitter is a communication tool; it’s not a place to hang out. Or if you want to hang out, use Facebook. I’m not convinced anymore, that there is an inevitable, evolutionary path that users will follow, from Facebook, to Twitter, and then FriendFeed. I’ve heard many Facebook users say they see no point in Twitter. Sow how will they ever get to FriendFeed? If they don’t get Twitter I can’t with a straight face, suggest FriendFeed.
  • Jon and Kate Plus 8: I have never watched a single episode of the popular television show Jon and Kate Plus 8. However, because of their recent divorce, my curiosity was piqued. In about half an hour online, I learned everything I ever wanted to know about Jon and Kate Plus 8, and now feel no need to ever watch the show; it’s not for me. Did I miss out by not watching the show for the past five years, or at any point in the future? As far as I’m concerned, no. I’ve saved a lot of time and energy by not being a regular viewer over the past several years. Last year, I quit Twitter, and this year, returned to it. What did I miss? Like Jon and Kate Plus 8 – absolutely nothing as far as I can tell. Same with FriendFeed. If in a year or two, FriendFeed is as big as Twitter is today (doubtful), I may give it a second shot. But I’ll take the bet that in the meantime, I won’t miss anything important. Because: anything worth hearing about, appears on Twitter or Facebook.

All of this, is enough for me to give FriendFeed a rest for the time being.

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  • Hey Jason-

    Follow your heart on this one. The best conversation is going to be where you're passionate to be, rather than where a bunch of people tell you be. I've made my reasons for leaving pretty clear and I think it closely matches your reasons.

    Whatever works for you at the end of the day.
  • Thanks. More tools, less conversation, hype and hyperbole.
  • Jason, sorry to see you go - as Louis said, we'll be here when you get back.
  • Certainly. Just taking a break. Meanwhile, pretty much everyone I care
    to follow on FF has a blog, Twitter, etc., where notable things
    happening on FF will filter up.
  • alfredwesterveld
    Leaving friendfeed? Lately I am only using friendfeed to get my information. I really like the realtime feed via http / xmpp integration. I like all the new friendfeed features .
  • As soon as you wrote "http/xmpp" my eyes rolled over.
  • You have to do what is right for you.
  • What a surprise - this post gets more comments than most others (sometimes I think I should just open a shop that sells nothing but references to FriendFeed...) ;-) I appreciate your frustrations but FF is still a good aggregator for feeding blog widgets etc. and you can post multi-media there. Aren't those reasons to continue using?
  • "don't let the door hit you on the way out..." Anyhow - both aspects
    you mention of FF are pretty cool. At one point last year, I was using
    SimplePie to pull FriendFeed into this blog. But I seem to be pulling
    back from social websites in general, to where all I really care to
    pull in is Twitter and Netflix, and possibly Google Reader and the
    Apple iTunes Store.

    One of my early notes about FriendFeed is that its value as an
    aggregator depends on how many social sites one uses - That's
    certainly true for me now... my list of sites I've quit in the past
    year is longer than the ones I keep using, so the value there, has
    gone down.

    And about multimedia attachments - this will sound quaint, but what's
    wrong with email?
  • Hutch Carpenter
    Bummer Jason - I've liked our interactions on FriendFeed. Is your account now completely pulled? Well, I'll catch you on Twitter (* goes to see if we're following each other *) and your blog.
  • Thanks. Definitely following on Twitter.
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