Ok. So here’s a little experiment. I’ve noticed (perhaps you have too) that everyone seems even busier than they did a couple of years ago, and furthermore, that facebook, twitter, and other such social networking sites have fragmented and otherwise mopped up some of the conversation that used to take place a lot on blogs. You might say that there’s nothing wrong with that since the conversations are still happening somewhere, but the problem with that is the fact that if parts of the conversation disappears behind the horizon of people’s facebook accounts (so that only their friends can see it) it takes away from a lot of what I think is the best spirit of an open blog – (1) anyone can join in, (2) the conversation is there on the web to be searched for and used as a resource later, and so on and so forth. Besides, in my opinion there’s a lot of fun chatter on facebook, etc, but it is mostly the exchange of (sometimes playful) short remarks about a status update or a picture of something. Conversations can be more than that, but I’ve found little of that there. (Of course, as we know, conversation can rapidly deteriorate on blogs as well, for a variety of reasons. As you know I’ve tried to steer clear of the shouty stuff here for that reason.)
Anyway, I’m not expecting a huge change as a result of this, but in an effort to try to connect thoughts expressed here to conversations inside facebook, I’m trying out facebook connect. This is a further step – recall that I set up the blog on facebook’s networked blogs, which some of you joined (yay!) – and the point of this is to get more of a flow between comments here and comments there. I find this a bit painful since the aesthetics of my little blog’s design that I’ve stuck to for almost three years have been messed up a bit by the plugin I’m using, but I’ll grit my teeth on this for a bit. So, right now what I’ve got implemented is a “share” option at the end of each post (I might kill that… it already annoys me how it looks) and a “community” part of the sidebar. If you log in there using facebook (it is secure, don’t worry), you’ll eventually be embedding Asymptotia in your personal facebook universe. When you try to share you will get the same operations you see in facebook: your friends show up and you can select them and so forth. When you make a comment in the comments, assuming the little box there is ticked, it will mention that comment in your news feed so that your friends can see your thoughts and musings and perhaps come along and comment too. Or they can comment on your comment on the usual way inside facebook. And so on and so forth.
Try it out! Let me know what you think. This is not connected to whether you follow using networked blogs, so if you want to, go ahead and join that if you have not already.
Anyway, let’s see how much fun we can have with this, at least.
Oh, and yes. While I see limited point to twitter, and don’t expect to be using it myself (I get enough status update kicks in facebook), I did set up a feed of recent posts to asymptotia on twitter in case you want to follow and get shouts from there.
-cvj
Good evening Professor Clifford:
Hello Clifford my name is Cora; I am here on the east coast, up-state New York (Schenectady) to be exact.
I have written this short note as a prerequisite to my future more depth notes.
To close, I am quite impressed with you and your accomplishments.
Warmly,
Cora
Clifford,
I do agree with your general point. It seems to me, moreover, that Facebook etiquitte seems to almost demand that one refrain from substantive conversation. Twitter, of course, inhibits it entirely.
Perhaps this is the Nets analog to TV’s long established reduction of political discussion and other forms of public thought to sound bites.
So I am logged in through Facebook, I have ticked “Publish this comment to Facebook”… Here goes!
Don’t you wonder what people from the past would think about the evolution of media pre/post internet. print, radio, tv, internet newsgroups, blogs, social networking, mobile communications etc.
e.
Hello Clifford,
I didn’t yet find any feed on your twitter profile.
Arjen
Ahem.. could you say that all again, but while logged in through facebook? 🙂
-cvj
I think this is a noteworthy experiment. I too find myself conflicted between Social Networking and blogs in terms of pros/cons. It will be interesting to see if the two media can be blended in a meaningful way or if there are some ways that each can/should remain true to the original intent.
I don’t really see the point of twitter but I’m not a real blackberry mobile kind of guy. I like to be off line or on line at times of my own choosing.
e
Ok. But I will try to get rid of that dreadful box it puts at the end of the posts and just keep the little facebook symbol and the word “share”. When I find the time.
Thanks
-cvj
I like the new face of Asymptotia. More options for us readers, and an interesting experiment in broadening the reach.
I have a small request: While I understand and appreciate your maintaining the aesthetics of your blog, could you keep the “share” link for a little while, and see if your readers use it? I like being able to share what I find interesting, and though there’s a workaround in facebook, it doesn’t always appear as I would like it to.
Great features, btw!