Comments on: Riff raff

By: BuzzMachine » Blog Archive » Local ain’t easy

BuzzMachine » Blog Archive » Local ain’t easy — Wed, 30 Nov 2005 14:16:18 +0000

[...] Brad Feld invested in Judy’s Book, yet another effort to get people to submit reviews of local merchants and such. Fred Wilson concedes that the same issues folks like me raised with Riffs hold for Judy’s Book. Judy’s Book tries to encourage people to submit reviews by having them earn coffee cards and iPods — paying them, in other words. Paying for contributions is great. But it just indicates that it is otherwise difficult or impossible to get people to contribute content. And I’m not sure this will scale any better than previous efforts have. [...]

By: Patricia

Patricia — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 15:43:40 +0000

I agree, Jeff, that media must give people control–direct control, as in blogs, as opposed to indirect control, like cancelling a newspaper subscription, and we will indeed use it.

But new things like Riffs have to also teach people how it’s valuable to them and how to use it. I’m pretty knowledgeable, but I sort of glaze over when I read tech talk and visit sites like Riffs that are dauntingly different. I think computer companies should have boots on the ground in the stores this Christmas season demoing all these new applications, showing non-geeks like me how easy and fun they are.

By: Max

Max — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 15:37:11 +0000

Do you have a second law?

By: Go Flock Yourself » Blog Archive » Jeff Jarvis is an idiot, news at 11

Go Flock Yourself » Blog Archive » Jeff Jarvis is an idiot, news at 11 — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 01:09:14 +0000

[...] I probably don’t need to say it (since most of you probably already know this), but Jeff Jarvis is an idiot. Why? Just look at his recent post on Riffs. [...]

By: Angel

Angel — Sun, 20 Nov 2005 23:06:27 +0000

I think Mr. Feinman makes a good point on the issue of popularity. Various social We pages and software systems makes our lives easier in many ways and help us discover others with similar interests. However, there is that issue of why we should trust some random person we find on a place like riff, or del.icio.us or any other social service. Just because something is popular and a lot of people have reviewed it, it does not mean it (whatever it is, a book, a movie, a website) is any good. More importantly, it may not be any good for your tastes or personal criteria. So some element of evaluation has to come into play. Just a thought.

By: TechCrunch » Why I don’t like Riffs

TechCrunch » Why I don’t like Riffs — Sun, 20 Nov 2005 22:02:16 +0000

[...] Fred Wilson writes about the service and addresses points similar to those above that I made on CrunchNotes and Jeff Jarvis made on his blog. [...]

By: Robert Feinman

Robert Feinman — Sun, 20 Nov 2005 21:01:51 +0000

Somehow the idea that some random person would have something insightful to say on an item that I might be interested in implicitly presumes a level of commonality in interests and tastes.

So, without knowing the context of the reviewer I don’t see how I can use the information. If X says they like a movie because it is a bloody action film (without mentioning the blood) and Y says they dislike it for the same reason (also without mentioning the blood) how am I to evaluate the opinions? Pointing out that neither provided a good review is not adequate, why should I expect high quality reviews as a matter of course?

Another assumption seems to be that popularity reflects something other than popularity. As the TV talent searches show there are lots of factors that people use to chose a winner, besides “talent”.

I want some indication that the review I’m reading comes from someone whose opinion I should value/trust. Otherwise I have to spend as much time evaluating the reviewers as the content. Not very efficient…

It is the same problem as when reading blogs. One develops a sense of the worth of the opinions from an individual. Those with poor ideas get rejected. Those with original points of view get return visits.

By: Michael Arrington

Michael Arrington — Sun, 20 Nov 2005 20:06:14 +0000

Fred,

I think that microformats and tagging solve the problem. Riffs should be aggregating this data, not hosting it. They’ll get access to the entire blogosphere’s data that way, not just people who’ve heard of Riffs. I understand their hesitation to do so – they could build a market and then others could easily follow because the data is open and on the web. But in my opinion, creative companies can still mind very good business models in the new world. Companies that force unnatural human behavior will have a much harder time succeeding.

By: David

David — Sun, 20 Nov 2005 16:00:44 +0000

Since you’ve given us control I’ll Use it and am sure you’ll revoke that control soon as you find that you don’t like what you have to read.

After you crawled out of your wormhole when the Iraqi constitution was passed I said you’ll crawl back into it once the initial excitement dies down and we find ourselves in the same place as before…mainly a few GI’s getting killed every few days. So as a reminder to you Mr. Blog Daddy Chickenhawk:

“With 92 American military deaths, October was the fourth-deadliest month for American soldiers since the invasion in March 2003.”

Remember that the next time you crawl out of your wormhole and tell us how great things are going over there.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/11/19/19417/422

By: Bruce

Bruce — Sun, 20 Nov 2005 13:54:21 +0000

hi jeff,
your comments are thoughtful but you clearly have the perspective of a committed blogger which most of us will never be, unless there are tools available to make our opinions and recommendations manifest and syndicatable quickly, easily, lazily and inconsistently rather than the determined effor to ‘publish’ as is the case now.
i agree withj you that finding my communities of interest and friends and potential new friends easily is the task at hand.

By: Jeff Jarvis

Jeff Jarvis — Sun, 20 Nov 2005 13:42:33 +0000

Fred: Yes, I see the benefit of hosting services, when you don’t have a means of hosting them yourself.
But Gotham Gal has a place to host her reviews, on her blog and that’s where they belong — because they belong to her ,and together they make up her blog and her presence and personality on the web. So I don’t see trying to get her to post on Riffs and feed her blog; that’s reversing the flow. I want a better way to find her posts when I’m looking for a review of a restaurant in the Village.

By: fred

fred — Sun, 20 Nov 2005 13:34:44 +0000

jeff,

i agree with your points, but i use flickr to host my photos and post them to my blog

i use vimeo and youtube and blip.tv to host my videos and post them to my blog.

i might use riffs to host my reviews and post them to my blog (because they have the entire database of things i might riff on already loaded)

google base doesnt’ do that for me

something to think about

By: Tim Windsor

Tim Windsor — Sun, 20 Nov 2005 13:11:29 +0000

“Sorry, we don’t currently support your browser. For the best riffs experience, please try any one of the browsers below:”

’cause I’m using, like, a really crazy obscure browser called Safari. Sheesh, when will people learn? Guess I won’t be trying out Riffs….