Interfacing blogs and Facebook July 16, 2007
Posted by Andy Roberts in : facebook, blogs and community , trackbackThe interface between blogs and Facebook is throwing up interesting dilemmas. There are various ways to import blog posts, so that they show up on a user profile, application or minifeed within Facebook. But there is no RSS back out again. So whilst it may be desirable to have blogs exposed within FB where the critical mass of presences may lead to new readers and friends, the overall osmotic pressure is ultimately an inward one, slowly pulling more and more of the activity in behind the walled garden. That’s something Linda worries about too.
For example, my recent post on this topic gained a useful comment from an old friend who is now on Facebook as well. But his comment was posted right there, where he read the post. Inside the wall. So what do I do?
I’ve replied in situ and I’m tempted to reproduce the comment here. At this stage it would have to be without identifying the author, but that’s something I’m not happy about. So I’ll wait for consent or clarification. Instinctively I feel that any technology which mitigates towards the unconscious splitting of conversations is probably not desirable, so I’ll also look again at the different methods for importing feeds into Facebook and choose carefully.
is an online professional who initiated DARnet 
Blogs are outward-facing, Facebook is inward-facing. Different networks, different usages. Importing your blog into Facebook is quite bad, I feel, not-the-least because it sometimes ends up spamming your personal friend networks with content that’s written for a different audience.
Better to separate the two, then occasionally post a link out to blog posts that you think would be relevant to your personal network within ‘posted notes’.
Clive Power replied within Facebook:
I don’t think you mean my comment but feel free to anything I write in FB elsewhere if ever relevant.
As you’re someone who’s expert in these sites, I ‘ve been following your lead and looking at your profile to check the things you can do. I take some time considering if I wish to ‘commit’ and invest time getting applications. I don’t yet know about FB and never use any site but partially.
I don’t ever expect perfect utility but the ‘walled garden’ approach is worrying and can make me think of going. I’d generally rather make comments in the widest possible arena i.e. publically, unless sensitive. I’m confused by what’s what in FB.
Following on from a minor bug bear, I dislike old terms to explain the new e.g. quill icon for emailing. It can confuse, as in what is the difference between a ‘note’ and a ‘blog’ entry on FP - none, unless blog refers to an external site? They’re but text and it’d be best if FB gave one area for you writing text.