It was a great thing when blogs came bursting onto the scene and even though web forums had been doing it for years with blog comments we could directly partake in a conversation about a specific things raised by the post author. Sure like everything else web wise we also got the trolls and the other mundane idiots that forgot how to spell the moment they went back to their trailers; but on the whole conversation over ideas and thoughts were becoming the driving force behind communication on the Internet.
As with most things in our “I gotta have it now” world RSS feeds came into being as a way to grab a quick overview of what was hot on the net at that moment as we bustled through the line up at Starbucks. The problem with this was that it again removed us from the flow of any conversations that were going on.
Now we have information aggregators like FriendFeed that help bring some sanity to dealing with all the ways we are connected to each other on the web. Whether it be our Twitterings, our blog postings or any number of the other ways we now communicate with each other. The thing though is that as good as FriendFeed is it has also become a contributor to the fractionation of our conversations because it lets us have sub-conversation within the FriendFeed ecosphere based on our other postings that it has gathered all together.
So no longer can we have a comment stream on our blogs based on posts therein, we can also have conversations on Twitter about the conversations we are having on our blogs. Now we can also have conversations on FriendFeed about the conversations we are having on Twitter about the conversations we are having on our blogs.
Confused yet? .. Feeling just a little bit lost yet?
Wait it could get worse.
It has been suggested that we should now be able to pull those “sub-conversations” we are having based on our blog post or Twitterings pulled back from FriendFeed; or any of the other aggregators, and included in our blog comments or Twitter meanderings. Now, Corvida you are a sweet lady – but for the LOVE OF GOD NO!
On the surface her idea would see to have merit. Hell I even suggested something similar to the FriendFeed team about being able to post back to Twitter when we comment on someone’s tweet messages that has shown up on FriendFeed. Like Corvida I thought it would be a cool idea. Then I gave my head a slap and took a step back to look at the possible confusion that would ensue. It would get to the point that we wouldn’t know where the hell we were even posting from. Service identity would become a white fog of confusion.
So Corvida as much as you might think it would be a good idea for the aggregators to give us our comments back I hope that you leave a big enough breadcrumb trail to follow once you’ve gotten lost in the forest that you could end up trying to fight your way through.
We all know that links are the backbone of what keeps the conversation flowing in the blogosphere. It’s how we discover new ideas and interesting people. It is also how we acknowledge other people who have given us food for thought and topics to talk about. Yup, links are an integral part of our blogging experience. Except when there is little or no context.
During the past week one of the stories that gained some traction was one 
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I don’t think that isn’t a blogger around that doesn’t have their favorite set of software tools that they use daily basis and would probably be totally lost if they were to one day disappear. I am no different as I have a few programs that I use all the time and for the most part I am more than happy with them.
