Comments on this blog? No, not many, and I know I’m not alone either. Another blogger thought that the main casualty of Twitter isn’t blogging, but actually commenting. We alluded to something similar a few years ago, when Kari and me both wrote blog posts on where the conversation was going. Ironically, back then, we did get comments, but my conclusion was that comments were moving towards more specialised platforms, like Digg, Slashdot, and now Friendfeed, and maybe Twitter.

Back when I followed 300 people on Twitter you couldn’t pay me enough to read my Twitter-stream. I called it trying to drink from a waterfall several times and you all know what happens when you drink from a waterfall: you fall in!

No, the only way I read Twitter content and pretty much the best way to catch my attention these days is to @vincentvw me, just because I have an rss-feed just for that.

The traditional, “writing for success” way? Write a compelling title. But that has back-fired on me as a reader more than once. You can also write posts to p*ss off people, which is pretty effective, but leads to stuff like death threats.

I like the idea of pinging someone personally, à la the Twitter reply, much more. What I would like is something as follows:

A system that gives people the option to register with their names, contact-details, and interests (in the form of tags, maybe). And when, and only when, that particular interest is being written about, then you get pinged.

I guess you could already do this with some fancy Google tracking or just by subscribing to a tag-based rss-feed (Delicious allows for this, not sure about other platforms). But I see this as a great way for blogs to become relevant once more. It would also force bloggers to connect more with their readers’ interests and perhaps lead to a stronger community feel.

What do you think?

Vincent
(Picture, called “Emptiness is form,” is courtesy of Scott Snibbe.)

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We’ve already covered ULIKE in the past. You may recall: it used to be called ULIK. Well, Ulik, cofounded by Mathieu Léronde & Raphaël Labbé, has become ULIKE.net. I like a lot the vision behind ULIKE: ULIKE is not a web app, nor is it software or a “cultural Facebook”. ULIKE is before all a vibrant community whose members are taking pleasure on sharing their tastes. You can tell their community is extremely powerful by the density of their contributions: once you’ve subscribed and spent some time on the service, it becomes addictive naturally when you meet new people & discover new things you may like. Here’s a screenshot of their new, beautiful, interface:

I suggest you take a look at their excellent advertising: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXKICOo5qdM]

…or the movie their team (now funded by AXA Private Equity, one of the best VCs in Europe) made for their launch party. The movie highlights the 100 top contributors: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dZcV_iyhv4] (I love the music, by BNN)

Now that the introduction is made, what’s ULIKE for?

- meeting new people, alike or very different, both virtually and in real life (ULIKERS tend to meet quite a lot offline)

- discovering new stuff: books, paintings, cities, people, etc.

-  sharing your tastes with your friends, family & fools so that they can buy you gifts

-  and having your own non-geek online gallery accessible to all online (so called ULIKE lounge).

At least, this is the way I use it. How about you? 

Check out my ULIKE.net lounge! http://www.ulike.net/jeremy

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