Documenting some interactivity isses in NIng on MFT with Firefox 3.5.4 under Mac OS X 10.6.1

[mike whybark]

testing, couldn't post a comment on the scarcity thread - looks like a js widget is not loading. I'm testing to see if it's local to the post or if it affects me in all comment boxes.

UPDATE: I can't post in comment boxes, and I can't logout. Killing my browser, will be back to see if that fixes things.

Specs:

FF 3.5.4, Mac OS X 10.6.1, plenty of RAM (4gb), late-model MacBook Pro - the setup has been consistent for a fair while, I'd say the main variable in question is the version of Firefox.

quit and relaunch did not resolve. Trying Safari and then rebooting.

no logout in FF after reboot still, no text-control widget in comment box, no commenting possible on blog entries under ff 3.5.4 for me.

3.5.4 is a very recent update:
http://en-us.www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/3.5.4/releasenotes/

so I would expect this issue to affect other Snow Leopard / Firefox users in the short term but probably to clear up on either 3.5.5 or a Ning update. Argh.

[mike whybark]

Yeah, on the whole I think you are right. He broke his leg in OCS and since it was estimated to take up to 18 months for full mobility they gave him an honorable discharge. He seems in good spirits. His wife is sure glad to have him home again.

[Jeb Banner]

Yeah Joey in the military was one of the more bizarre things I ever heard spoken to me, but hey, people change and it was probably a good experience for him! I really enjoyed hanging with Joey and Jason Z back in Bton, they were fun, maybe a little too much fun :)

[PJ Christie]

Joey and I had some really good connections back in his anarcho bluegrass mohawk phase. After that a psychic link was formed. The last time I really spent time with him was at Casa de Senor Banner and we had a great time making music. Fate has kept us separated for too long, although the pain is eased by some rare digital interactions.

I don't mind saying that I was stunned when he joined the militia. It seemed very out of step with the young man I knew in Slackinton Indiana. Still I know that nothing can break the dedication of a Zagorski.

[mike whybark]

Also, pardon my French, literally! I have no idea why I wrote that sentence down there. It says, "What a shock, I must excuse myself while I do nothing different at all becasue I ALREADY KNOW THAT," referring to self-awareness of my own idiosyncrasies.

PJ, Joey speaks very highly of you. Of both of you, in fact, and was surprised we don't know each other in the flesh.

[mike whybark]

hey, no biggie. If the sched works out we may be musicking tomorry chez moi! Fiddle, banjo tuned (I think, I just ear check the banjer). Manodlins tuned but will need dialing in, natch.

When I said walled garden I mean the way that Facebook is deliberately designed to keep Facebook message correspondence in-thread at Facebook - you can't take it to email, all via the simple expedient of enforcing a [e-mail] return address on the email notifications. Smart, dives up pageviews, keeps the thread indexable and exposed to topical ad presentation. Just not the way i like it personally.

That said, in the past month two (admittedly small) biz things have turned up and turned over on FB that would have been unlikely without the platform - one, an illo for a pal, is in round three of revs and we haven't spoken verbally or emailed, all facebook-based communications. The other one is music related and I will superstitously say no more here.

[Jeb Banner]

Mike, sorry for missing your response earlier, it has been a couple crazy weeks, mostly in good ways.
I have a ton of respect for your opinion on this stuff.

I think Ning will start playing catch up quickly here but I don't think they will take the platform to where many, including myself, think it could be.

I don't think Facebook and Google have built guarded walls. If anything I think they have grown by creating a number of portals on their "walls". The fact that Google, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have been the successes they are lies in how they play with others. Same with the iPhone. It's second act- Apps- was better than its first- just being an iPhone. Apps allow all kinds of ways for that small little thing to "play" with third party services.

I'm pretty upbeat about technology and I know that blinds me a little, the sunshine of optimism. I think it's interesting how fast platform fatigue sets in. We burn out on a specific experience. That might be the driver of the constant turnover in social media platforms. Friendster-MySpace-Facebook-Twitter-....in the span of less than 7 years.

Facebook- in order to stay relevant it must get increasingly simple but deep- like Google. The current platform is confusing to me at times and I consider myself on the post novice side of things like websites.

Back to Ning. I hope they get this right. It's hard for companies to recognize when to open the doors and let the masses in. Masses mess shit up, they steal your beer but they are also masses which is a good thing too.

Let's talk vocally soon.

[PJ Christie]

No shit...

Unemployed?

Out of the Army?

Google is storing information about me?

Two of those things are surprising.

[mike whybark]

I did, and have been following your updates. I didn't feel she really responded effectively to your criticisms, although, hey, nice to know that someone is listening. I suspect that (despite my cynicism about revenue-stream generation regarding support and pageviews) Ning has basically been caught in the crossfire between Google and Facebook for hiring kids ready to put in the 80-hour silicon valley week. Facebook's feature rollouts this past year, tune deaf privacy issues and usability shocks aside, have been the equal of or better than Google's app-and-feature rollouts, and they have done it while maintaining a consistent focus on building a walled garden.

Currently, I receive about a quarter of my friend correspondence within Facebook. I fucking hate it, and wish that my FB peeps would just email me directly. As a result, I have largely stopped spending time on Facebook and decoupled my Twitter account from FB. However, that's not to say I'm not in a walled garden myself - I am, and it's tended by Google (my MX records for my domains are all at gmail).

I think it's clear that in general, people don't mind the sense of recursion and boundaries presented by Facebook or even Ning. I do, but apparently I'm not like other people. Quelle choc, il faut que je m'excuse moi meme pendant je ne fais rein different de tout parce que JE LE BIEN SAIS. That said, captive audience should equal marketing gold. I have no decent idea how to do that in FB, but believe you me I am thinking about it.

I was totally not kidding when I mentioned into the air but directed at Yukki that a FarmTown game branded with Rock Band and provisioned with track downloads as level prizes would be a thing that should exist in the world.

I gotta go finish cooking dinner.

Hey, did I mention I'm unemployed? Not that I have any idea how I'd add to your revenue stream. But it's on my mind.

ALSO: Joey Z. got demobbed and is back in town, now an ex-soldier. He broke a leg in OCS and that got him shown the door. I am looking forward to mandolining with him. And blueskying biz ideas.

[Jeb Banner]

Mike, did you see my post on blog.smallboxweb.com "What Happened to Ning?"
Gina from Ning responded.

[mike whybark]

login/out OK on Safari