content vs people: what's important to you?

[kaigou]

I came across an article comparing several different linking applications (delicious, diigo, pinboard, etc) and the author raised a question that I hadn't considered before, but I think is pretty interesting. Feel free to signal-boost, because having some sense of what's important to fandom-users will probably be important down the road... and this kind of "what's important" is one of the most basic issues.

I'll explain more in a later post, but I don't want to bias anyone. For now, just have a poll.

Poll #8248 linking intentions

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 46

View Respondents

When you're using a bookmarking application, which path do you prefer/most-often take?

View Answers

Mostly I look for content I want, and that introduces me to new people
29 (63.0%)

Mostly I find people to follow, and that introduces me to new content
5 (10.9%)

I do both equally.
12 (26.1%)

Comments

[qem_chibati]

On delicious I would use content I'm interested in to find people and tags I wanted to follow. If I found a person that had a lot of my interest in common I would follow them and as their interests changed either pick them up or scrolled. Or if I knew them from elsewhere I would add them since the people I know and like tend to be cool for finding new things, people give a lot more variety than a range of tags - such as fantoms I didn't know existed or I have limited interest in but still enjoy on occasion such as stargate.
I also had subscriptions to a few specific tags that I would go into on occasion, and bookmarked some of the busy tags to visit when I was only interested in that content.

[qem_chibati]

That is I used the who else had bookmarked my bookmarks or tags I was interested in a lot for expanding my network and potential tags to check.

My network produced a lot of links -I browsed in 100 link mode and I scrolled more than I clicked.

[kaigou]

It's the scroll-more-than-check that says to me it was a site that's predominantly focused on content. I'm probably not the best example, seeing how on FB it's taken me like two years to work up to about 40 or so people, but I don't do a lot of scrolling. I read most of the posts, and the design is definitely geared towards making it as easy as possible to reply. On DW and LJ, however, the system isn't set up to be quite so easy to reply -- there's that whole "click here to reply", which opens a new page, and all that jazz. It's not a built-in, reply right there, little friction; not that the journal-clones have loads of friction, but they have more than FB, certainly. But on DW and LJ, I'm scrolling, scrolling, scrolling -- because I'm looking for content. I don't feel obligated to reply to every little thing like I do on FB, where the other users are supposed to be the entire reason I'm even there. On DW/LJ/etc -- like on Delicious -- it's the content that we're seeking, so we scroll massive amounts to find the two or three really worthwhile pieces that deserve some extra attention.

Errr, does that make sense? Kinda coming down off a long-post-high (been awhile!) so I'm still a little spacey.

[qem_chibati]

It does. I'm tired and sick at home, so I'm not at my best myself.

Delicious is all about the content, buti think that people and the exposure to variety and convience is what heaped make it such a popular service.

If their aren't users generating and providing a filter of sorts with additional commatary then you might as well be filtering direct sources or search engines or privately bookmarking.

[kaigou]

In other conversations (and thinking of my own patterns), it seems like Delicious was almost perfectly designed for that. I mean, you see a list of links -- let's say, the most popular -- and none of them catch your eye, but a tag or two does. You click on that, and you get more links, and you try another tag, and eventually you realize you're seeing some of the same names, so you start clicking on those names, too. The primary/opening pages were link/tag driven, but as you moved down through the levels, you got into the user level.

That's what I meant by the idea of using content to find people -- as opposed to a site like, idk, Linkedin, where the emphasis is on people. You see a list of people in your region, or your industry, and that's your route to finding something further, like someone's website or blog or whatever. You follow the names to find content.

[qem_chibati]

It really was which is why so many of us miss it. :(