Mashable - The Social Media Guide - Latest Comments in Are Ping.fm & Co. Solving the Problem or Exacerbating it?

Re: Are Ping.fm & Co. Solving the Problem or Exacerbating it?

Nate Moller — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 13:39:00 -0000

I think @dotlizard is a "Kiss Ass" but that's beside the point :)!

I recently discovered Ping.fm and am pretty excited about it. I do see Mu's point about "non-personalization" but really, with twitter fox and other apps, I can follow the main networks, keep in touch with who I want to keep in touch with, and possibly touch more people.

I'm open for debate and obviously respect what @msaleem is saying, but am going to test more before I completely abandon the idea.

@dotlizard - I mostly just wanted to say that for fun!

What do you all think about the FF idea - focusing on it more than Ping.fm?

Re: Are Ping.fm & Co. Solving the Problem or Exacerbating it?

chris — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 01:24:44 -0000

absolutely loving Ping to bits. making my life so much easier.

Re: Are Ping.fm & Co. Solving the Problem or Exacerbating it?

Erlend Wilhelmsen — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:09:26 -0000

What is personal and what is not is a matter of content - not method of distribution. My FB graph is really quite different from my LinkedIn. Should I spend more time on multiple posts or should I spend time on more productive endeavors?

Re: Are Ping.fm & Co. Solving the Problem or Exacerbating it?

nickc321 — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 10:43:59 -0000

I don't know about HelloTxt, but Ping.FM has some 'post control' where it can post to only a set of platforms... so not all post have to be undirected mass comm posts.

Re: Are Ping.fm & Co. Solving the Problem or Exacerbating it?

funkyboy — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 08:02:47 -0000

I think commitment is not related to the tool you use to communicate. If I am committed to a friend of mine, I am when I talk to him by phone, or when I send an email. Tools and services are not negative per se. The use we made of a tool can be negative or positive.

Re: Are Ping.fm & Co. Solving the Problem or Exacerbating it?

Mayank Dhingra — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 01:57:22 -0000

I agree with your points and find them spot on.

While updating your microblogs regularly is important being a regular listener is even more important and to me that's the core problem here.

There's a shift towards quantity from quality, since sending updates is more convenient than checking others updates. Inactively listening will eventually lead to commitment problems.

Re: Are Ping.fm & Co. Solving the Problem or Exacerbating it?

Matt — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 18:07:38 -0000

I would disagree, but I can see your point.

Personally, I use the socialthing / ping.fm combo. I actively monitor all the services I broadcast to. Most of my friends most actively use Twitter. But at work, we most actively use Brightkite (we work under a "distributed" model, so it being location based is fantastic).

I do agree that there are too many me-too services in this realm. But I don't think ping.fm, nor socialthing are to blame. Besides, competition is healthy. Eventually these sites will need to monetize, the ones that have strong followings and are able to properly monetize will succeed, and others will fall to the wayside.

As for bringing us together ... I'm starting to think that is just not what the web is for. Sorry, but folks have been saying that ever since the web came into existence. If anything, I'd argue that it's further fragmenting us all. It's extremely easy to set up shop in a silo now. If you want to interact with people, tell your friends to meet you for a beer would be my advice.

Re: Are Ping.fm & Co. Solving the Problem or Exacerbating it?

kevinmhuff — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:45:11 -0000

Make that digsby ... took his word at face value. :-)

Re: Are Ping.fm & Co. Solving the Problem or Exacerbating it?

Ryan — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:43:41 -0000

Pidgin has a Facebook plugin

Re: Are Ping.fm & Co. Solving the Problem or Exacerbating it?

Charlie Profit — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:29:09 -0000

Ahh, thanks!

Re: Are Ping.fm & Co. Solving the Problem or Exacerbating it?

MikeonTV — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:25:42 -0000

He meant to say http://digsby.com but Pidgin is a better service that offers the exact same thing (minus Facebook atm)

I'm amazed he misspelled it so many times!

Re: Are Ping.fm & Co. Solving the Problem or Exacerbating it?

kevinmhuff — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:23:32 -0000

The question is valid. Does this devalue your social network.

I blogged about this back on Aug 25th at http://kevinmhuff.wordpress... among other places. ;-)

The answer is, Ping.fm both adds value ... and devalues at the same time.

For those whose social networks aren't as meshed as mine, you are likely adding value using a Ping.fm tool, especially if you didn't update all your social networks, all the time.

For those, like me, who now avoid visiting all my social network sites ... well, we're devaluing your social network as we're not looking at what you are saying.

A Digby or Socialthing will help level the scales.

Good stuff, nice post.

kevinmhuff

Re: Are Ping.fm & Co. Solving the Problem or Exacerbating it?

Charlie Profit — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:19:26 -0000

Digby? I went to Digby.com and it seems to be more of an ecommerce app for mobile devices.

Re: Are Ping.fm & Co. Solving the Problem or Exacerbating it?

Syd — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:08:53 -0000

I use Ping.fm in combination with Digby. I can update all of my social networks at once or individually (using the commands) with ping.fm from one platform.

Then Digby is synced with all of my networks to let me know when my friends and followers update, and or reply. I am able to keep up with Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Plurk, several email accounts, and update my blog with microblogging through Tumblr all from one application.

I'd say it helps me be more socially interactive, not less. If I were to commit to only one social network, I would miss out some of my connections. As someone pointed out above, my contacts on each platform are mostly diversified across each site. Without Ping.fm there is no way I could keep up with what everyone was doing or saying. Ping.fm may be my broadcasting tool, but with Digby, the connection is two way.

Re: Are Ping.fm & Co. Solving the Problem or Exacerbating it?

Peter Nehem — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:03:20 -0000

I find at the moment that ping.fm is good for general broadcast statements. Like "I'm trying to finish Season 4 of SG-1" It allows me to type this once instead of 3 times. What I wish there was, was a service that would allows me to track the replys to that message and the Twits and Plurks from each service. As it is I have to keep both Twitter and Plurk open and check and read each of them.
At the moment I'm more dedicated to Twitter because that was where I first started. My weakness is that I find it hard to track more than a few of these sites. Sorry folks, my limited brain power.
For the person that has several places on the web. For general quotes, I see where this service is a benefit.
Just my 2 cents into the stream of things.

Peter

Re: Are Ping.fm & Co. Solving the Problem or Exacerbating it?

Charlie Profit — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:50:27 -0000

But how would you know if someone is posting to 3 or 20 networks? And why would it matter if they engage with you? Someone who posts to 3 networks can be just as impersonal as someone posting to 20, and someone posting to 20 networks can be just as personal as someone posting to 3. What matters is that Ping allows one to be active on many networks and platform.

Judging a post because it was sent via Ping is just as discriminatory as judging if someone is worth listening to by their skin color. Judge the content and whether the person is engaging, not just because of the channel it came to you through.

Re: Are Ping.fm & Co. Solving the Problem or Exacerbating it?

weipah — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:32:43 -0000

As previously said social-networking is still in progress. Best shown as most of the service providers are still in private or public beta. The market develops very quickly as there a created more and more of those.
We will see what it leads to and what comes upon the providers of those services, e.g. spam abuse will be a topic many will have to deal with.

Currently both users and developers are trying to tap the full potential of their ideas and what can be done with those new social-networking-services.

It starts with (cross-plattform-)posting, micro-blogging, geolocation-tagging, timeline-following, user-profiles, ...and we will see where it all ends up ;-)

At this time I think services like ping.fm and socialthing! do a great job to provide a possibility to be part of many growing social-networks.

Cheers, everyone. (-:

Re: Are Ping.fm & Co. Solving the Problem or Exacerbating it?

MikeonTV — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:31:40 -0000

This is clearly relative to your own experiences Mu! I use Ping.FM more than any other app and although I may not check my Kwippy, Identica or Brightkite responses as much I am still looking for reactions from Twitter, Plurk and Pownce almost immediately after posting.

To be the complete devils advocate here what if I'm someone who uses all these services but does not use Ping.FM? Should I log in to each one of theme and copy/paste my message?

Re: Are Ping.fm & Co. Solving the Problem or Exacerbating it?

Steve — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:20:19 -0000

Ryan M nailed it - not everyone we network with is everywhere we network. Ping lets me send out select messages to everyone at once. It's not for every message, just some. For that, it's incredibly useful and valuable.

Re: Are Ping.fm & Co. Solving the Problem or Exacerbating it?

~Love'J~ — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:17:57 -0000

thats for sure 1 possibility out of billions... as for me i LOVE Ping cuz it makes my life easier as many of my friends who r all over like to know what im up to without joining 1 of my preferared sites n vice versus n they may not even reply but if they do i can track them via FriendFeed my 2c ^.^

Re: Are Ping.fm & Co. Solving the Problem or Exacerbating it?

Charlie Profit — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:17:36 -0000

No you don't need to be on every social networking site to be effective. But if you have friends on several networks and want to update them all, it's easier to use Ping. Of course we could all go back to using email. But the point is that different people like different services. And instead of locking out some people because you are focused on one or two services that they aren't on, you can actually develop more relationships by being where they are.

But the great thing about the Internet is if you don't like it, you don't have to read it or use it! So, ignore those Twitter posts via Ping. Or Pownce updates via Ping. You will be the one missing out. I guarantee there are more people paying attention to a Ping post than not!

Re: Are Ping.fm & Co. Solving the Problem or Exacerbating it?

devnet — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:12:51 -0000

You missed all of the comments before you made yours. You CAN keep all of your crap together if you set it up right.

Re: Are Ping.fm & Co. Solving the Problem or Exacerbating it?

Daniel DiPaolo — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:04:46 -0000

Aha, but if you not only broadcast your replies across multiple services using Ping.fm but also aggregate all of those services together in one reading place with a service such as Socialthing? I post at a network-agnostic level and I read at that same level. Some of the network-specific details shine through on the reading part simply because of the UI and some of the limitations (or lack thereof) on each of the individual services, but it doesn't change the messages I get really.

Re: Are Ping.fm & Co. Solving the Problem or Exacerbating it?

nickc321 — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:01:57 -0000

add to the mix SocialThing and you can check multiple platforms at once too. I've been using the combo of Ping and SocialThing (even before SocialThing integrated Ping) for some time, I haven't missed a reply yet (well at least I don't think I have)

Re: Are Ping.fm & Co. Solving the Problem or Exacerbating it?

Charlie Profit — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:47:17 -0000

I can see your point. But you are assuming that Ping users aren't committed to their followers. I like Ping because you can choose which networks you want your message simulcast to, and also which platform, i.e. status, microblogging or blogging. I find it easier to send out to Ping.Fm and then monitor the replies on the individual networks. FriendFeed is great for that, although it doesn't listen to as many networks as Ping does. Social Networking is still an infant, and you have to consider the learning curve for the masses. Many people are just now learning about Twitter, Plurk, Indenti.ca, etc. And just like when people first get email, they forward every joke they receive, not fully understanding that there is Internet etiquette. As these services become more mainstream, there will be trial and error. People will start writing books and articles on "Best Practice" and you won't have to worry as much about people's commitment anymore because they will have learned the etiquette.