One Response to “Sum Social Slash Blend XLI”

1. The Plagiarist on Oct 17th, 2008 at 4:46 am

   I don’t know how important of a clarification this is but I think readers should know that the Mixx toolbar being talked about here is NOT an official Mixx toolbar.

   It is actually a collaboration between SearchMe and Mixx and SearchMe has been an independent service from Mixx for awhile so Mixxers shouldn’t relent on suggesting what they want with a Mixx toolbar because this is not THE Mixx Toolbar.

   I also think Reem might be on to something about phases. To quote something I recently read:

   “The other I’d say that turns people off about big, do-everything applications is overlap. Nobody really wants to use a service whose features they already make use of at other locations, even if this service provides some different features as well. For example, I don’t know a soul who makes regular use of Facebook chat, because everyone already uses GTalk/Chat, AIM, and other services.

   With that said, features are not a bad thing: they make good services better and more powerful, and I doubt there exists someone who’d refuse to use a service because it’s better and more powerful than it otherwise could be. What’s important is being smart in implementing these features, so they don’t make your sight overly complex and turn-off casual users. Equally important is releasing the features at a gradual and easily-manageable pace. Once you have millions of users, it’s okay to pile on the features and improvements — people won’t like them to begin with, but if these features are actually worthwhile then your users will adjust. Hopefully at this point your user-based is being propelled by virtually-unstoppable viral growth, so you app is valuable enough that new users are willing to take the time to learn about your features.

   Facebook is a perfect example of this style of development in action.”

   Ironically from a Mashable topic though I didn’t know that you had a special guest and he’s a Mashable writer until later on in this video.

   (I’ve been writing this comment as the podcast moves along.)

   btw I still rest my case (from my comments in the main Mixx link) that Digg did succeed in proving that Democracy leads to Fascism and of course creates a network effect where the top dog can poop on the influencers whenever they reach this status.

   Also kudos to your guest, I WAS waiting for him to bring that issue up and I was shaking my head when he didn’t initally bring it out and I was going to say “yeah, he has a point but what such a cop out for not pointing the same flaw with Mixx.”

   I also want to point out that Reddit has been ON a downturn and that’s by the standards of most redditors. Mark my words when Digg dies, Reddit’s degradation will be exposed for what it is and the Reddit that the guest is talking about here? That’s potentially going to Hacker News or back to Slashdot.

   I also disagree with Greg. The beauty of Reddit is that you don’t follow “users” aka as “social networking” where as Reddit is about following “commentors” and the format is about building community through “commenting” and the easeness and speed of reading through these comments rather than “who’s the guy with the most friends that will grab the commentors” aka as social “media” or more accurately social “reporting”.

   Also I think Reem’s marketing background is showing. Come on, she’s not wrong but what she’s talking about is Social Media Optimization not really all forms of Social Media usage. ;)

   Also Reem, you should also know that frankness can also be an appealing feature. Anyone with a blog really can’t be said as a having no “top user” potential. Just the idea that anyone has enough content to actually create (not plot!) an archive full of short posts that someone would subscribe their rss feed to, also have in them the capacity to regularly work on submitting tons of stuff in any social media service so it’s a bad example to use them because “no PR is still PR if your out there in a single location.”

   Remember the phrase “Attention cannot be given, only taken away”? Well that’s the flaw with that example. Anyone with a blog still has a magnet that can attract attention. That at the end of the day is still PR even if it’s not intentional PR. Sometimes it’s even the best from a niche standpoint.

   Finally I’d also like to remind readers that you have more chance of having someone listen to your revenge voting/spammer problem in Mixx than avoid the huge crowd of revenge script voters in Reddit. I’ll even wager that there might potentially be more revenge voters in Reddit than there are regular users of Mixx and this is not a hit on Mixx’s small community, Reddit is just college to Digg’s high school so don’t get sucked in to the baby bottle just yet.

   I know this sounds like just a way to credit Mixx over Reddit but no, I’m not saying Mixx is superior to this either BUT Mixx so far has a much more respectful much more casual community than either services. Chalk it up to the small community but in my opinion it also has a subtly different audience because all the techies flock to Reddit and all the stupid mass Dunbar’s Law self prophesizers are repeatedly going to Digg like an overpriced whore that the foundation is different enough that the community might still come out different even when it gets better. Not superior but might be different enough to be better. Of course, if all the wrong Diggers and Redditors just suddenly jump ship to Mixx, this doesn’t mean the identity of the community and the service won’t be raped.

   Disclaimer: I don’t represent the general Mixx populace so if you have a problem with my post, don’t take this as a general stereotype of how all Mixxers are.

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