Long time ago, (in internet time) Robert Scoble of the A-list, started bashing people about ownership of conversations. At the time I agreed with him. The only reason for insisting that comments happen on your blog and nowhere else is to defend your advertising revenue.
But something else has happened recently. Twitter decided to drop the @ reply feature for awhile. I really liked being able to tell when people were talking to me. As rarely as that happens, I do not want to miss those replies.
I have been (not) using FriendFeed for several months, but checked today to see if it would work as an alternative to twitter’s reply feature. Within the first page of posts was one talking about people who are constantly posting but never reading or at least never replying to other peoples contributions. I had to reply:
How on earth do you tell when someone is talking to you? Comments are spread across hundreds of posts in FF. Is there an @ sign like twitter? If so how do I use it? Is there a way to see just the new comments added to posts that you have commented on? For example, I am asking a question here right now, but if you answer an hour from now, how do I find out?
A few hours later I checked FF again, and sure enough there was absolutely no indication of any replies, or of any conversation directed my way that I needed to respond to. So I went back and found where I had asked the question, and found a reply:
Luke: I’m watching tens of thousands of people and you are stretching it to say that there are comments that are stretched across hundreds of posts. You can just search for your name to see people who are talking to you, or in reaction to you. New posts are at the top of the page. Stuff that’s never replied to is down below. – Robert Scoble
First, thing I noticed was a humorous misunderstanding. I was referring to hundreds of different comments/topics any of which could be pointed at me with no easy ways to tell which ones are and which are not, but the meat of his comment was his “solution.” I tried it and here is my reply:
Robert: I tried the search you suggested and your comment was hidden behind a note that said Click to see 17 more. Plus when I did the search it pulled up my comments, comments to me, and everything I posted elsewhere. If I was not already looking for a reply to this post I would have missed it.
I am starting to see why some people started complaining about the conversation moving away from their comment section. First people start talking about you on FF then they start talking about you being a snob for not replying then you get to read all about it months later. You could reply to each of these attacks with sincerest apologies, but no one would read it because they would not realize you were even talking, much less talking to them.
For me it is not about content ownership, it is about making sure that I realize when people are talking to me. I have a hard enough time with this in real life. I don’t like tech that makes this even harder. I know this could also happen on any of the hundreds of other services that I am not part of, but at least there no reasonable person would expect me to read or respond since I am not even in the room. With FF, I am in the same room, a meter away, and totally ignoring you even when you address me by name.
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