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Diaspora breaks $100k and all of Kickstarter's records

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Re: Diaspora breaks $100k and all of Kickstarter's records

#101

Post by jacquesm »

neilk wrote: post #86
icey wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And now everyone will know my secret shame of not being able to make up my mind. I still don't think it's great for Kickstarter, but I don't think it's as big an issue as I initially did. I was hoping nobody had seen my comment, but they did; and I wanted to explain the reason I deleted my comment.

I don't think it's a shame at all. You should take pride that you're trying to construct well-reasoned arguments, and in the course of that, sometimes you change your mind. Only cranks and trolls never have that experience.

That's why it would be great to have a 'preview' button the initial form is pretty small to work in and it is very easy to miss something before clicking 'reply'.

It sure encourages brevity though.

Re: Diaspora breaks $100k and all of Kickstarter's records

#102

Post by andymoe »

jacquesm wrote: post #79
joubert wrote: post #19

What programming experience do the Diaspora guys have?

At their age? Not a whole lot. But then again, Zuckerberg was about that age when he built the first version of facebook. It's not rocketscience. The problem is, there is facebook now. And that sets the bar pretty high. Going up against the proverbial 800 pound gorilla makes for a great story but it will probably end in some squashed egos. The book rights will be worth something though :) Just like duck-duck-go isn't…

What they are proposing is significantly more difficult than what Facebook initially wrote. Facebook, at one point, was just another web app with a nice story for bootstrapping new users via the college networks. These guys are trying to build a distributed, secure, encrypted network on which to build social networking functionality. If they do it correctly it could be the basis for a whole lot more. And even if they don't work it out entirely as long as they release the source code it is a step in the right direction and others can continue to work on it or something similar.

Re: Diaspora breaks $100k and all of Kickstarter's records

#103

Post by chegra »

I see a lot of people worry about if they fail. I think in the community there are a lot of people here to make it a success, and I think at this point that showing a little opportunism would be good right now. Identify ways you can help that can create a win-win for both you and diaspora. Don't say you miss the party for this one.

Re: Diaspora breaks $100k and all of Kickstarter's records

#104

Post by jacquesm »

anigbrowl wrote: post #98
jacquesm wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's true. But they would come over a lot more credible (at least to me, that may be different for others). I you've misjudged your initial funding requirement by more than 10:1 you are already showing that you've done something wrong, so since they've received what they said they needed the logical next step would be to put up some proof they can deliver. Like that expectations stay within the realm of the feasibl…

But Jacques, they haven't misjudged their original funding requirement - at worst, they've underestimated potential early investor/market interest in the product they are proposing to create. I do see two problems here. 1. Diaspora is now awash in money - which might go to their heads or not, but which in any case creates new, non-code responsibilities for them. $100k is not chump change, and you can't just stick it…

as to 1) Yes, agreed fully, a trust is the way to go. Grellas would be awesome.

2) Kickstarter will likely learn as much from this particular event as anybody (including the diaspora team), they have seen their model validated in a way that you can only dream of when you run a service like that with a ton of free publicity to boot. If diaspora is only marginally successful that would be enough, but they should be careful to show their independence from the project.

I'm going to watch this very closely in the next couple of months, it is imo the biggest story in the year to date with respect to start-up financing.

I sincerely wish those kids the best of luck, they'll need it. Their biggest problems will be that they will be sitting on a significant sum of money and that alone will attract all kinds of sharks, which is not good when you're a goldfish.

I've suggested they apply to YC, that's one of the ways in which they could get the expertise they need in order to at least make it to a launch of sorts. They'll be in dire need of people they can trust.

Re: Diaspora breaks $100k and all of Kickstarter's records

#105

Post by jacquesm »

andymoe wrote: post #102
jacquesm wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At their age? Not a whole lot. But then again, Zuckerberg was about that age when he built the first version of facebook. It's not rocketscience. The problem is, there is facebook now. And that sets the bar pretty high. Going up against the proverbial 800 pound gorilla makes for a great story but it will probably end in some squashed egos. The book rights will be worth something though :) Just like duck-duck-go isn't…

What they are proposing is significantly more difficult than what Facebook initially wrote. Facebook, at one point, was just another web app with a nice story for bootstrapping new users via the college networks. These guys are trying to build a distributed, secure, encrypted network on which to build social networking functionality. If they do it correctly it could be the basis for a whole lot more. And even if they…

Yes, but if they hire say cperciva or someone with credentials and experience like that I can see that part as 'solvable'.

The technology is doable, after all, skype was built by two guys on top of a library created to distribute mp3s.

If you look at the top of the pledge page they write "Decentralize the web", they do not specifically mention facebook, so they seem to be aware of the fact that this could be the basis for a whole lot more.

Re: Diaspora breaks $100k and all of Kickstarter's records

#106

Post by jacquesm »

canadaduane wrote: post #90
nirai wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would Google "donate" senior talent to a project which at this point is basically just some videos and badly designed logos for download? Comments here are as insane as the amount of money these guys collected.

Success is an outlier outcome achieved by people who are initially indistinguishable from the insane.

That is just plain poetic.

Did you come up with that yourself ?

Re: Diaspora breaks $100k and all of Kickstarter's records

#107

Post by Jun8 »

icey wrote: post #73
someone_here wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Making a comment, deleting it, and then replying to a comment that agreed with it stating that what they are agreeing with you upon is wrong is an interesting way of creating an argument.

And now everyone will know my secret shame of not being able to make up my mind. I still don't think it's great for Kickstarter, but I don't think it's as big an issue as I initially did. I was hoping nobody had seen my comment, but they did; and I wanted to explain the reason I deleted my comment.

"The best way to know you have a mind is to change it" Judge Pierre Leval

Re: Diaspora breaks $100k and all of Kickstarter's records

#108

Post by anigbrowl »

nirai wrote: post #84
jacquesm wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, absolutely. They initially asked for $10K. They now have 10 times as much. To pause the contribution round now and to show they can deliver would help them in avoiding the enormous risk of as someone else here already mentioned of becoming 'the next cuil'. Hype is a double-edged sword, it's great when you have it but you only get one shot at delivering and in an overhyped situation that is much harder than in on…

By your logic, a person winning the lottery should cap at 100K and say no thanks, I rather not piss of my friends family and colleges. Most likely the public interest in this project will die out within 1-3 months. Hopefully they will not ruin their future lives endlessly trying to reproduce this incredibly lucky strike. But while their at it, they should get as MUCH as they possibly can and totally and shamelessly g…

It's not about personal morality, but legal responsibility. For example, just what are their tax and commercial obligations right now? You can't just hand the IRS a copy of the GPL; a large sum of money like this will require them to spend some time and $ just to document and report it correctly so it doesn't get treated like a scam.

Re: Diaspora breaks $100k and all of Kickstarter's records

#110

Post by anigbrowl »

dustrider wrote: post #72
pstinnett wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that necessarily the case though? I'm hoping to see a lot more open source projects popping up on Kickstarter. While I'm not donating to Diaspora* (yet) I think I would be happy to donate to plenty of open source projects and Kickstarter seems to be a great platform for collecting those donations.

kickstarter isn't about donations, it's supposed to be about microfinancing startups. They are investments. I'm with GP, these guys wouldn't get an inch with any angel or VC's so why are the general populace giving them their money? just because it's $20 it doesn't mean you shouldn't consider it in the same way as a $20000 investment. A punt is a punt, but you don't put money on a statement, that's what lobby groups…

Ah, they are explicitly not investments, so as not to fall afoul of securities laws. Kickstart donors get exactly zero property interest in any IP - check the FAQ. It's a sales outlet for custom products offered on a promissory basis.
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