Do feedbumps make sense in Facebook?

In part one of this post, I recounted three suggestions that I had previously advanced to make the Facebook experience more like the FriendFeed experience. But when I advanced those suggestions, I failed to think about whether or not they may sense.

My first suggestion for Facebook was to bump active items to the top of the feed.

If you're not familiar with the way that FriendFeed works, let me provide an illustration. Basically, things on your FriendFeed appear in reverse chronological order, like in a blog, but with one exception.

Let's say that at 6:00 am I share a highly advanced thought with the people on my feed.

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Looks like the sun is rising in the east again today.
1 minute ago

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A little while later, I share another highly advanced thought.

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I need coffee.
1 minute ago

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Looks like the sun is rising in the east again today.
3 minutes ago

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Someone on FriendFeed sees my earlier comment and likes it. This moves the older comment to the top of my feed, because it has the most recent activity.

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Looks like the sun is rising in the east again today.
3 minutes ago
:) edythe liked this.

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I need coffee.
1 minute ago

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Now if another person were to like this, the thread wouldn't be bumped any higher. However, new comments added to the post will (to a certain point) bump the comment higher.

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Looks like the sun is rising in the east again today.
2 hours ago
:) edythe and Louis Gray liked this.
John, thank you for illuminating the obvious. - Shevonne
I try. - John E. Bredehoft

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Miley Cyrus and Lindsay Lohan in the same club?
40 minutes ago from Google Reader
:) Derrick liked this

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I'd be willing to bet that the sun will set in the west.
1 hour ago
:) Caroline liked this

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I need coffee.
2 hours ago

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Compare this to Facebook, in which the items, like the items in a blog, remain in reverse chronological order. Therefore, if you want to find an item in my Facebook feed with a lot of activity, you will have to hunt for it.

Now, if you drink the FriendFeed Kool Aid, you immediately decide (like I did) that the FriendFeed way of doing things is better, and recently-discussed items should always be at the top of the feed.

Or should they?

Ben Parr of Mashable is in favor of FriendFeed's way of doing things, and notes that this did not originate with FriendFeed:

In some ways, FriendFeed is like a message board – any time someone likes or comments on an item, it gets bumped up to the top of your feed. This allows you to continue a back-and-forth conversation on a key item. As you do more and more of this, more and more people will notice and subscribe to you for the most important reason of them all: because you’re interesting.

On the other hand, one disadvantage of feed bumping is that you lose the contextual nature of the items that are added to a feed. In Facebook, if I post three items in order, that order will be retained even if people only take a fancy to the second item. In FriendFeed, the second item could be bumped to the top of my feed, but the context provided by the first and third items would be lost.

Another disadvantage of feed bumping is that people can misuse it (or use it in excess, depending upon how you look at it). Let's say that I put a truly outstanding item in my FriendFeed feed a week ago, but nobody paid attention to it. If I add a comment to it a few days later, it will get bumped to the top of my feed again - and to the top of everyone's feeds who has subscribed to me. Now there may be a valid reason for doing this:

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Boy, I'm glad that Facebook and FriendFeed are completely separate corporate entities. I'd hate to see what happened if Bret worked for Facebook.
Wednesday
So then a few days later Facebook acquires FriendFeed; looks like there's egg on my face! - John E. Bredehoft

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On the other hand, you could bump something just to bump it.

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Make money fast!!! http://bigfatscam.com/
Wednesday
You should really try this!!! - John E. Bredehoft
You should really try this!!! - John E. Bredehoft
You should really try this!!! - John E. Bredehoft
You should relly try this!!! - John E. Bredehoft
Shut up!!! - Steven Hodson
You should really really really try this!!! - John E. Bredehoft

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Of course, these things have a way of regulating themselves. If I were to pull something like this, hundreds of subscribers would reach for the hide control - or perhaps the unsubscribe control.

Perhaps the best way to handle the "chronological order" vs. "most active" question is to do both. There are several ways to do this, but it all boils down to giving the user the control over how he or she wants to view the feed. Claiming that one way or another way to view the feed is the best way possible for all people in all circumstances is NOT the best solution.

But what about multiple feeds? Stay tuned for part three.