Tape Noise Diary

We are creating accounts in more and more online services and this is a trend that doesn’t look like it’s going to stop. I guess we do this because we’re in search for that holy grail of the perfect one thing to use. Another reason is that we don’t want to stay behind and miss that next big thing. There are many solutions to keep up with the many online services you are registered with, specially the ones that are social networks. One of them is Friendfeed, but I’m going to focus on two of them that bug me a little. Ping.fm and auto-linking your blog’s feed.

I’ve been considering using Ping.fm, but like I said it’s giving me a bad impression. It offers the solution of not having to “fumble around the web to post anymore. You just post once and be done with it”. The problem I see with it is exactly what they’re trying to resolve. Let me explain. You’re are not going to use all those services you have an account with on a consistent basis. When you auto-ping to those that are least used, sometimes people reply to that update, but they get totally ignored. I’ve seen this happening in places like Plurk and Pownce. My biggest question right know is if Ping.fm emails you or tells you about those replies. My suspicion is that it doesn’t.

Now to auto-linking your blog’s feed. People with blogs want more traffic. Hey, me too. That’s totally OK and that’s expected, but auto-linking your blog to places like Twitter or Tumblr makes you look like a spammer. Why? Because your not participating in them. When you start following people and those look at your stream an all they see are blog update links, a high percentage of them wont follow you back. Also, sites like Twitter and Tumblr have strong mini communities that are there to have exchanges of content and ideas and to catch their attention I think it is a must that you participate in them.

I’m not saying that these tools are wrong, but some people are definitely doing it wrong.

Don’t agree? Think I’m wrong? Then I will gladly appreciate a comment.