July 2, 2008

Friendfeed.. How do you like it?

Posted by : Mike Fruchter
Filed under : Unfiled, friendfeed

One of my favorite functions on Friendfeed is the “like” feature.  The higher “likes” an item gets, the more attention it gets from the community. Think of likes as a reward system. The Friendfeed tech savvy crowd instantly recognizes quality and rewards the content authors and distributors with likes. Having a bigger subscriber base helps. This will dramatically increase the amount of likes on an item. Let’s not forget the swarms of FOAF’S (friend of a friends) that will follow the queen bee. The ultimate reward for having a large number of likes on your content , is to be listed with the creme de la creme on the “best of Friendfeed.” This page highlights the best liked content from the past day, week, or month according to the people you’re subscribed to. The like system on Friendfeed allows one to get instant social gratification.

Today I started a discussion on Friendfeed. I asked my fellow Friendfeeders a simple question, classify the type of liker you are. The responses varied and were very interesting. Among some of the reasons why I like content are to show support to the  author or content distributors.  Then there are topics that hit home and bring out emotion. I also like content as a substitute to commenting. A lot of time I am too busy or tired to leave a thoughtful comment, therefore a silent comment, by liking, still gives your seal of approval.

I decided to classify some of the types of likers on Friendfeed.

  • The Super Liker - Is a person who has a huge following and influence on Friendfeed i.e Robert Scoble. Whatever they like usually turns to gold.
  • The Active Liker - Is a person who is really active on the site - They frequently take part on the site  by sharing, posting, and commenting, and are an integral part of the process.
  • The Average Liker - Is a person who use’s the site recreationally, just to pass time whether screwing around at work or school to kill spare time. They typically do not submit or share a lot of content. They instead use the site for their own entertainment. Once in a while, the they might comment and get involved on something they are passionate about. Mainly they pretty much go about their business, adding friends now and again and checking in a few times per week.
  • The Selective Liker - This is a person who is as selective with his likes, as a sommelier is with his wine.
  • Supportive Liker - This is a person who always supports quality content. They fearlessly standby their network of friends. These likers bring a special trait to the game, it’s called loyalty.
  • The Random Liker - Is a person who randomly likes any type of content. They are usually non-discriminatory.
  • The like it likes it’s hot Liker - Is a person who strikes only when the content or a topic is hot…
  • The like to go back to it later Liker - Is a person who use’s likes as a bookmarking system.

Coincidentally on Friendfeed, Julian Baldwin started this thread, which brings us to the last type of liker on the list I coined a  “Drive by liker”

Quoted from Julian

“ When you’ve liked every f*ckin piece of media that flows through FF then you’re not participating - that requires true assessment “

What type of liker are you?

Related reads:

FriendFeed ‘Likes’ Compatibility Index

Related Posts


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  • July 2, 2008 at 3:20 am directeur
    I guess I'm a selective one :)
  • July 2, 2008 at 3:40 am Mitchell Tsai
    Nice article. (1) There's a non-liker. I've noticed a few people who post a lot, but have 0-50 comments/likes (as opposed to some who post...nothing...completely blank feed, and do all the activity in comments/likes). (2) I'm not sure if wanna-be-noticed likers exist. I would imagine that commenting & liking would be way more effective than just liking.
  • July 2, 2008 at 3:56 am Oliver Ortega Chua
    Hate to say it but I'm just "average." :)
  • July 2, 2008 at 4:37 am Mitchell Tsai
    (3) "Vanishing Liker" Liker who unlikes later (maybe related to the "like to go back to it later Liker") (4) "Caught by the cops" liker - Liker who likes 200/day and hits the limit... ( ---> (5) "Tag-team likers" (haven't seen this yet) Way to get attention on FriendFeed: (A) Post (B) Get two friends to "like" post (C) Just one person says "Amazing post!" - Two people would be overkill (D) Have one of the friends be Robert Scoble...
  • July 2, 2008 at 11:47 am Mike Fruchter
    Mitchell, I like your feedback. I think I might add that to the list.
  • July 2, 2008 at 11:52 am Robert Scoble
    Mike: I "super like" this blog. Heheh.
  • July 2, 2008 at 11:54 am Mike Fruchter
    @Scoble HA! :-)
  • July 2, 2008 at 12:24 pm Matthias Schwenk
    8 different types? that's a lot and still I miss a category for persons who are not really aware what the like-function on FriendFeed implies. Among the german users recently someone mentioned the fact that "like" can also be used for oneself to find good stuff later again.
  • July 2, 2008 at 12:30 pm Joe Dawson
    Love FriendFeed I am addicted and I will shortly be crossing over into the thousand comment/like mark. Deserve's a t-shirt hey ha!!
  • July 2, 2008 at 1:03 pm Mike Fruchter
    Matthias Mitchell mentioned that in his first comment, I will add that to the revised list. I also like the ""Vanishing Liker" , some one who unlikes later on.
  • July 2, 2008 at 3:20 pm Ron Emrick
    Big fan of Friend Feed right now... looking forward to continued enhancements and improvements.
  • July 2, 2008 at 3:23 pm Hutch Carpenter
    "Vanishing liker" = like that one
  • July 2, 2008 at 4:43 pm Sam Pullara
    I don't 'like' articles. I might be interested, they might be relevant, but 'liking' them has too many connotations.
  • July 2, 2008 at 7:47 pm Mike Fruchter
    Sam you define the Friendfeed "Non-Liker"
  • July 2, 2008 at 9:52 pm Alejandro S.
    According to your definition, I must be a selective liker. Although, the flickr content is so good here I usually "like" every set I see. ;)

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