Eventually I believe we will be at a place where technology allows much, if not all, of these conversations to be linked automatically so that it will be much easier to navigate (or even aggregate) your discussions about a specific topic that might be spread across several different services.

I never really planned to try and build a massive base of readers with this blog but I have found that even the sporadic posting I did initially has decreased DRAMATICALLY as I have spent more time on FF.

But I will say this when blogs first came about they were said due to trackback, and pingback to allow for the first time a fluid single conversation to occur across multiple voices. Twitter did this really well in its own way too.

What is interesting is during the drama at Twitter everyone has focused on their pitfalls and has in my own opinion possibly missed another important factor in Twitters existence and that is the market has changed or rather is in the midst of a major transition.

Conversations are now being initiated on Twitter and Blogs but they are being aggregated elsewhere. Initially this happened with the support of bloggers through the use of Disqus, Intense Debate, but not it seems to be skipping over them and heading directly to a new kind of service altogether.

Friendfeed and their kind (socialthing,etc) are where the micro-conversations are occurring. These sites are extending what Twitter started out doing so well but in the end it is and always will be a slow and inflexible service when compared to the new breed (FF SocialThing, etc).

Your thoughts.

I’m grateful for the free service Twitter offers; but I agree wholeheartedly with your perspective here.

Mistakes happen. But I think what’s happening here has more to do with strategic blundering than the quirks of quantum mechanics.

I’ll comment on FriendFeed too, just because Twitter doesn’t allow that kind of dialogue.

Even if they pull through I think Twitter has a lot of lessons to offer in things you must or must not do in a crisis situation (of which they have had many).

It has been frustrating to watch from my perspective because there have been so many things that could have been done along the way on a communications level to dramatically decrease the impact of an issue AND even develop a deeper sense of community and personal ownership in the process.

As I said in the post I am a total outsider in many ways and when I first started using Twitter and then FF I was struck by the level of support Twitter had from its users and how it wasn’t until very late in the process that the Twitter team even thought about communicating more information to their users when there was a problem.

The Twitter community has proven that they are pulling for the service and are willing to be extremely patient as some very large bugs get worked out but at some point if they don’t feel that their appreciation for the service as users is matched by an equal or greater appreciation from the service for them they are going to walk and I don’t blame them.

Just thought I would be one of the few that published a comment on your blog being as you seem to be getting lots of comments in FF.