Comments on: Is there an echo in here? http://www.mathewingram.com/work/2006/08/30/is-there-an-echo-in-here/ ... at the intersection of media, technology, business and the web Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:29:23 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: Mike http://www.mathewingram.com/work/2006/08/30/is-there-an-echo-in-here/comment-page-1/#comment-43890 Mike Sun, 03 Sep 2006 06:05:40 +0000 http://www.mathewingram.com/work/2006/08/30/is-there-an-echo-in-here/#comment-43890 of course, Vince is most famous for his pathetic linkbait attempt by swiping a blog design as his own - and when called on it got sooo offended. of course, Vince is most famous for his pathetic linkbait attempt by swiping a blog design as his own - and when called on it got sooo offended.

]]> By: Mathew Ingram http://www.mathewingram.com/work/2006/08/30/is-there-an-echo-in-here/comment-page-1/#comment-42741 Mathew Ingram Fri, 01 Sep 2006 00:34:43 +0000 http://www.mathewingram.com/work/2006/08/30/is-there-an-echo-in-here/#comment-42741 Thanks for the comment, Gabe. I don't think this is an anti-Techmeme thing, at least not from my perspective. I think you do a pretty good job of reflecting what bloggers are writing about -- although more diversity is always a good thing, to keep things from getting stale. I think the problem (if there is one) is that people get all wrapped up in whatever the top posts are at Techmeme and wind up just writing about that instead of thinking of something fresh. That's not your fault, obviously -- and I think lots of lesser-known voices show up on the site, if you take the time to look. And thanks for the flashback to when we ganged up to rule Techmeme -- I have a wall-sized poster on order :-) Thanks for the comment, Gabe. I don’t think this is an anti-Techmeme thing, at least not from my perspective. I think you do a pretty good job of reflecting what bloggers are writing about — although more diversity is always a good thing, to keep things from getting stale.

I think the problem (if there is one) is that people get all wrapped up in whatever the top posts are at Techmeme and wind up just writing about that instead of thinking of something fresh. That’s not your fault, obviously — and I think lots of lesser-known voices show up on the site, if you take the time to look.

And thanks for the flashback to when we ganged up to rule Techmeme — I have a wall-sized poster on order :-)

]]> By: Gabe http://www.mathewingram.com/work/2006/08/30/is-there-an-echo-in-here/comment-page-1/#comment-42725 Gabe Thu, 31 Aug 2006 23:35:46 +0000 http://www.mathewingram.com/work/2006/08/30/is-there-an-echo-in-here/#comment-42725 Hi, a few thoughts: - I want Techmeme to be an interesting Tech news site. If the best coverage of stories occurs over a larger number of sites than I currently capture, I would indeed like more diversity than I have now. If not, then I don't need more diversity. Ultimately, I'm about interesting news, not diversity. - TechCrunch reports lots of interesting and breaking news. I can't see any reasonable scenario where it won't appear very often on Techmeme. - I do hope to make Techmeme a little less blog insiderish, which I suspect should help the diversity thing, a little. - I run into a lot of people with criticisms of Techmeme, and while I've heard the point about "X, Y, and Z appear far too often", it's almost always been bloggers who've raised that issue. This is rarely a concern among the non-blogging readers who make up the vast majority. No discernable groundswell there. - I have noticed a groundswell among the same crowd who echoed each other onto the top of Techmeme a few months back: http://www.techmeme.com/060502/h1400 Sorry, can't please everybody! Ok, that last point was just a fun, gratuitous slap, no insult intended. Thanks for all your thoughts, and I hope I can make Techmeme better for you while keeping other users' preferences in mind as well. Hi, a few thoughts:

- I want Techmeme to be an interesting Tech news site. If the best coverage of stories occurs over a larger number of sites than I currently capture, I would indeed like more diversity than I have now. If not, then I don’t need more diversity. Ultimately, I’m about interesting news, not diversity.
- TechCrunch reports lots of interesting and breaking news. I can’t see any reasonable scenario where it won’t appear very often on Techmeme.
- I do hope to make Techmeme a little less blog insiderish, which I suspect should help the diversity thing, a little.
- I run into a lot of people with criticisms of Techmeme, and while I’ve heard the point about “X, Y, and Z appear far too often”, it’s almost always been bloggers who’ve raised that issue. This is rarely a concern among the non-blogging readers who make up the vast majority. No discernable groundswell there.
- I have noticed a groundswell among the same crowd who echoed each other onto the top of Techmeme a few months back: http://www.techmeme.com/060502/h1400
Sorry, can’t please everybody!

Ok, that last point was just a fun, gratuitous slap, no insult intended. Thanks for all your thoughts, and I hope I can make Techmeme better for you while keeping other users’ preferences in mind as well.

]]> By: Mathew Ingram http://www.mathewingram.com/work/2006/08/30/is-there-an-echo-in-here/comment-page-1/#comment-42320 Mathew Ingram Thu, 31 Aug 2006 04:48:06 +0000 http://www.mathewingram.com/work/2006/08/30/is-there-an-echo-in-here/#comment-42320 Thanks for the comment, Jon. I hope you are right. And Vince, the irony you refer to is not lost on me -- that's why I said I was ignoring some of Chris's suggestions for the post. I prefer not to think of what I was doing in my post as echoing, but more like supporting and affirming. I guess that's a judgment call though. I definitely got it from my aggregator, but I don't think I regurgitated -- and just for the record, "advice" isn't really a buzzword :-) Thanks for the comment, Jon. I hope you are right.

And Vince, the irony you refer to is not lost on me — that’s why I said I was ignoring some of Chris’s suggestions for the post. I prefer not to think of what I was doing in my post as echoing, but more like supporting and affirming. I guess that’s a judgment call though. I definitely got it from my aggregator, but I don’t think I regurgitated — and just for the record, “advice” isn’t really a buzzword :-)

]]> By: Jon Husband http://www.mathewingram.com/work/2006/08/30/is-there-an-echo-in-here/comment-page-1/#comment-42297 Jon Husband Thu, 31 Aug 2006 04:04:14 +0000 http://www.mathewingram.com/work/2006/08/30/is-there-an-echo-in-here/#comment-42297 This is a new set of conditions for human beings, and yet it involves our oldest tools .. symbols for making meaning used to grope and struggle together towards shared meaning and understanding. I've always believed that blogging (or expressing oneself on the web through personal publishing, or whatever) will follow a similar .. and sometimes different .. process as acquiring language, or learning another language. In other words, people will start doing it, emulate others, give each other advice and correct each other .. hit a plateau, rest for a while (if any of you have ever worked hard at acquiring another language you'll know it can get physically taxing after a long day of using the neurons differently), and then start again ... and then all of a sudden you'll notice greater fluency and range. I suspect that the coming 3 to 5 years will see more (quantitatively) and greater variety of what so far I call blog-like derivatives, and the blending of blogging with wiki-ing (hmm, I guess that's WetPaint ?) and other application that support the dynamics of personal publishing, hyperlinking, pointing to others, social bookmarking, tagging, etc. to a wider range of purposes in a wider range of human and organizational activities. It is for sure that keeping to your beaten track will narrow your world more and more, and that is a recipe for us replicating, by and large, what we already do in real life at work and with friends. One of the great promises of this marriage of technology and sociology is the expansiveness and learning that is possible if we choose to work consciously at breaking patterns and developing new habits. This is a new set of conditions for human beings, and yet it involves our oldest tools .. symbols for making meaning used to grope and struggle together towards shared meaning and understanding. I’ve always believed that blogging (or expressing oneself on the web through personal publishing, or whatever) will follow a similar .. and sometimes different .. process as acquiring language, or learning another language. In other words, people will start doing it, emulate others, give each other advice and correct each other .. hit a plateau, rest for a while (if any of you have ever worked hard at acquiring another language you’ll know it can get physically taxing after a long day of using the neurons differently), and then start again … and then all of a sudden you’ll notice greater fluency and range.

I suspect that the coming 3 to 5 years will see more (quantitatively) and greater variety of what so far I call blog-like derivatives, and the blending of blogging with wiki-ing (hmm, I guess that’s WetPaint ?) and other application that support the dynamics of personal publishing, hyperlinking, pointing to others, social bookmarking, tagging, etc. to a wider range of purposes in a wider range of human and organizational activities.

It is for sure that keeping to your beaten track will narrow your world more and more, and that is a recipe for us replicating, by and large, what we already do in real life at work and with friends. One of the great promises of this marriage of technology and sociology is the expansiveness and learning that is possible if we choose to work consciously at breaking patterns and developing new habits.

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