UPDATE 12/28: All is restored. But I think my opinion, below, still stands in spite of the personal cost.
UPDATE 12/27: Hold the phone! There hasn’t been much communication about this issue from Feedburner or Friendfeed, but just a couple of hours ago, Feedburner posted this update on Twitter: “As many have noticed there appears to be a reporting issue with FriendFeed subscribers. The cause is currently under investigation.” So perhaps I’m wrong! We shall see!
Overnight (Christmas, at that), the subscriber count for this blog went from over 2,000 to around 100ish. Ouch. The reason? This blog is fed to my Friendfeed stream, which was formerly counted into the Feedburner count. But no more. For me, this obviously stinks a bit, but I understand the change and even welcome it.
I don’t think it was really accurate to include Friendfeed subscribers in the subscriber count to begin with. Are Friendfeed subscribers truly “readers?” Well since I actually feed at least 6 different blogs to my account, I don’t think so. I doubt that my Friendfeed subscribers account for very much actual readership. So I think it was the right move, despite my own disappointment. But hey, now the challenge is even stronger to grow this blog’s real readership.
I also have a concern for Friendfeed. Everybody knows it’s user base has been declining steadily since Facebook acquired it, but Friendfeed is actually my favorite online networking platform. It’s how I feed things to Twitter, and it’s how I aggregate my entire social media stream in the sidebar of two of my sites. In other words, the inclusion of Friendfeed stats may have been motivating some to hang on to the service.
What do you think? Any faithful Friendfeed users out there as disappointed as me? Anybody else agree with me that it was ultimately a good move?
About Brandon Cox
Twitter: fhtwits
says:
I have been using feedburner for my blog its the best option when compare to others
Mohideen recently posted..Google Plus for your business – 3 Plus Points
I can imagine I read it twice. Though I’m not as versatile on this subject, I agree with your closings because they make sense. Thanks and goodluck to you.
Very nice initiative!
i always use feedburner for sharing the feeds of my blog, feedburner is really great’.,
i always use feedburner to syndicate my blog posts to other subscribers.~`.
Feedburner is really very useful for syndicating feeds from other websites.;;;
This really is unheard ,i have friendfeed account and i have added blog feed but the number of subscribers feedburner shows are very less than my total friendfeed subscribers .
This is from a very long ago , so does that mean , this feed counts ? or do people have to manually subscribe to the feed ?
In short , to increase the subscriptions do people need to subscrible to only feed or to me as i have added many blog feeds , here a bit confused .
.-= Ajinkya´s last blog ..Commit Suicide in Social Networks =-.
If you aggregate a blog into Friendfeed, then all of your Friendfeed followers are counted into your Feedburner subscriber total.
Same happened with me subscriber decreased to 120 from 160, but now it again come to 160 after I made post on my blog.
.-= chandan´s last blog ..List of Edu blogs =-.
Twitter: Ileane
says:
Hi Brandon,
I heard about this RSS drop over at Famous Bloggers and I think it’s really bizarre. I say that because I can’t understand why there was no warning that this was going to happen. Do you think they will get rid of FriendFeed and this is a way of letting us down easy? I’m still waiting to see if Yahoo! is really letting MyBlogLog go, although it looks like they are.
In this case perhaps the change is good but the communication with users stinks.
Thanks for the info and the chance to share my thoughts.
@Ileane
.-= ileane´s last blog ..WordPress.com Themes vs. Blogger Templates =-.
Twitter: Ileane
says:
Brandon, your feedburner stats should be restored now. I got this tweet yesterday from @feedburner As many have noticed there appears to be a reporting issue with FriendFeed subscribers. The cause is currently under investigation
Take a look at your counts and let me know. I think someone had too much egg nog.
.-= ileane´s last blog ..My First Site Review on Shvoong – Su.pr link shortener =-.
Thanks so much, Ileane! It has been restored and I’ve put a couple of updates at the top of the post.
Brandon,
To tell you the truth I really do not use FriendFeed. I just got it to merely have an account and I noticed to that my “subscriber” count has went down, but to tell you the truth I am very glad.
Why?
Even though it does not show the public that you have many “subscribers” these are really not real subscribers. Additionally, if the popularity of FriendFeed is going down then it surely does not represent the true number.
Instead, I like that this number is closer to the actual number. This makes it easier to make realistic goals for 2010.
Best Regards,
Derek
.-= Derek Jensen´s last blog ..Purpose of New Slogan =-.
Very true Derek, helps us understand what our impact really looks like.
I also noticed it. For me it dropped around the 24th. I was searching for reason but didn’t find one. It just means people need to work hard to get more subscribers to your aweber list and feedburner list. Greg Ellison
.-= Greg Ellison´s last blog ..Make your blog mobile phone accessible =-.
You’re right Greg – time to work even harder!
Twitter: b6s
says:
From 2000 to 100+… ouch. Very generous of you to welcome the change nonetheless.
.-= Anne @ b6s.net´s last blog ..How Will the Movie Avatar Effect the Internet =-.
Like I said, I think it’s ultimately the best move for accuracy’s sake – and I’m sure I’ll recover. :)
I do share your dissapointment and i am totally agree with you that this could be a good thing have an accurate count is the right way to go and i am of the feelings that the aquisition of friendsfeed by facebook may have a lot to do with this just wait some explanation will come to light soon
.-= lawmacs´s last blog ..Merry Christmas to You All =-.
I agree, but don’t know that we’ll get a good explanation. Google’s blog hasn’t addressed it, Friendfeed’s blog was last updated in August, and Feedburner hasn’t posted anything in quite a while either. Would be nice to hear from them.
Yeah! it’s disappointing me to, but I agree with you the naked truth will make a better challenge to get real readers and subscribers to this counter!
I am just wondering, do you really think FriendFeed will disappear for ever? from your Feedburner stats counter? why you think so?
.-= Hesham @ FamousBloggers´s last blog ..3 possibilities why Feed FriendFeed is droped from your FeedBurner Stats Counter =-.
Hesham, I tend to think it’s a permanent drop because of the reasons stated above. If Friendfeed is seen as a subscription tool like Google Reader, then many other tools will need to be granted the same status and I don’t think Google wants to go there.
I still send my Twitter updates to Friendfeed, but I rarely visit it anymore. Never seemed to get any traffic from it, and pretty much stopped using FriendFeed about a year ago….
.-= Keith@NeedInformation´s last blog ..Sunday Funny’s 12-27-09 =-.
I wish it had been able to go more mainstream, but there are other emerging technologies on its heels that are equally great, such as Cliqset.
Twitter: AlisonMSmith
says:
Have never used FriendFeed. Interesting insights.
.-= Alison Moore Smith´s last blog ..6 Steps to Startup with WordPress: The Guide for the Wannabe Blogger =-.
I’m a big fan, but I know it never took off like Twitter.