The intent/purpose problem (& an appeal to @scobleizer) is flat brilliant, Macro. One of the most accurate summaries of the current situation, to date. To my mind, it comes back again to adaptation, or failure to adapt, when you describe that … Reactions from members have taken several forms:
Declaring their support for FriendFeed till the plug is pulled. Continuing to post and participate as if nothing has happened. Leaving “quietly” by just no longer using the service. Spending their time posting about how FriendFeed is dead and everyone worth paying attention to has already left.
I might add: 5. Taken the new capabilities gained and lessons learned and moved forward to explore the next frontiers; honoring all that has gone before, yet relentlessly driven by the ambiguous possibilities and potentials of what is yet to come. Some teckheads are pioneers, settlers; they like to stake claims and proclaim Next Big Things (NBT’s). Some are frontierswomen, explorers; they are not content to sit round campfires telling the same old stories; they are not satisfied deciding which feathers count in the next Great Tribal Headdress 3.0 or techcrunching the newest herbs and berries into the latest get-richer-quicker elixir. Some pioneers may desire to be revered as free-spirited and driven frontierswomen, yet actually do not want to bear the inconvenience, uncertainty, and Massive Social Reputation Risk of an authentic explorer’s life. It’s no picnic. Out here on the perimeter, there are no stars; just regular joes, everyday innovators, making the incremental discoveries and changes on the fringes that will eventually (sometimes) reveal the way toward the next great breakthrough. Until the frontierswomen and men cut that next trail, the Popularity Pioneers don’t have a new place to settle and proclaim as The Next New Thing. Popularity pioneers are settlers. They don’t know how to chart a course to the Next Big Thing; they can only complain that the previous New Thing elixirs are no longer working and that their pioneer’s self-image feels diminished, stuck. One equivalent for frontierswomen and men is the, “why the phrack isn’t this (insert candidate NBT) obvious to everyone else by now?” syndrome. The frontierswoman’s only hope is to connect with like minded pioneers. The pioneer’s only hope is to connect with several reliable frontierswomen, because no individual explorer always finds the best NBT, first. None of this is right or wrong, it’s all just part of the Emotional and Sociological Circle of Innovation’s Life. ;-) If not for the pioneers, the frontierswomen and men have less incentive to find the next Happy Hunting Ground. If not for the frontierswomen and men, the pioneers might go all Donner Party on us; and in cases like the one you describe, that may be a little bit of what’s happening. Even if that’s not the case, I hope it made for an entertaining and thought provoking blog sized story worthy of a few AdSense chump change sympathy clicks, if nothing else; at least until we can get the User As Content / Conversation As Content transaction fabric in place. P.S. Wonder where all our FF “Room” and “Group” links will wind up? I don’t know; and that’s okay.
