Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Diaspora's Curse - Jason Fried

37signals.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 145 posts

Re: Diaspora's Curse - Jason Fried

#101

Post by lionshare »

ubernostrum wrote: post #95
lionshare wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Than how do you explain his (successful) campaign against the free google chat that competes with Campfire? Google shut it down, basically, because it's "unfair to J.Fried". Since Google did it, nobody else dare to compete directly with Basecamp, as is. Diaspora is a paradigm shift, and it will be easier to implement a better Basecamp without single point of registration and billing.

Your comments indicate less of a reasoned argument on the topic, and more of a personal animosity toward Jason Fried, 37Signals or both. Perhaps you should step back and take a deep breath?

Not a bit. They are a great company, great products and great inspiration.

I just think that this post is ugly. He could wait a while, let them finish the finance, let them work, and in a few months write about the results. The rush, the hurry, the strong word ("a curse") is - to me - too bold to be pure "startup/product advice" issue.

Re: Diaspora's Curse - Jason Fried

#102

Post by shadowsun7 »

lionshare wrote: post #85
mseebach wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What sort of company would do that, you ask? Why, the company which already has all the info Facebook doesn't know about you, and would love to get access to the info Facebook does. You know, that search engine with the colorful logo. And that's fine. But because they'll commit to integrating into the open standard that Diaspora defines, at any given time, you can take your friends and leave. If GMail (apps) starts…

Think Wordpress. Fried just doesn't want you to have that option for project management. It's not about Diasopora, it's about Basecamp.

You've not making any sense. Diaspora is a Facebook competitor. Arguing that Diaspora threatens Basecamp implies that Facebook itself threatens Basecamp. Which isn't true.

And, even if that were true, it will be still be wrong because vaporware isn't a threat.

Re: Diaspora's Curse - Jason Fried

#103

Post by mseebach »

lionshare wrote: post #96
mseebach wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you talking about HuddleChat? It was a demo-app and was a blatant rip-off of Campfire. Nobody dares to compete with Basecamp? Are you kidding me? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_project_managemen...

Huddle-chat was free. They shut it down for no reason but J Fried loud "Google is evil" complains. Techcrunch here http://techcrunch.com/2008/04/08/google-to-close-huddlechat/ Gigaom here: http://gigaom.com/2008/04/09/in-the-huddlechat-debacle-a-les... So we have to pay for Campfire. And nobody did Basecamp as is, which is not that complicated, for the same reason.

You're rambling.

Basecamp alternative: http://lessprojects.com/ - Status: Not shut down.

Basecamp alternative: https://www.hoisthq.com/ - Status: Private beta

Free, open-source Campfire alternative: https://echowaves.com/ - Status: Not shut down.

And these are just the ones I know about (OK, I had to Google for a second to find EchoWaves).

Final nail in the coffin: If 37S was "competing" by shutting down competitors, why are they innovating their products at the pace they are? The Campfire of today doesn't look like the Campfire HuddleChat ripped off.

Re: Diaspora's Curse - Jason Fried

#104

Post by lionshare »

ubernostrum wrote: post #95
lionshare wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Than how do you explain his (successful) campaign against the free google chat that competes with Campfire? Google shut it down, basically, because it's "unfair to J.Fried". Since Google did it, nobody else dare to compete directly with Basecamp, as is. Diaspora is a paradigm shift, and it will be easier to implement a better Basecamp without single point of registration and billing.

Your comments indicate less of a reasoned argument on the topic, and more of a personal animosity toward Jason Fried, 37Signals or both. Perhaps you should step back and take a deep breath?

And you tell me, please, why there is no project management solution in Google Apss

Re: Diaspora's Curse - Jason Fried

#105

Post by lionshare »

mseebach wrote: post #103
lionshare wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huddle-chat was free. They shut it down for no reason but J Fried loud "Google is evil" complains. Techcrunch here http://techcrunch.com/2008/04/08/google-to-close-huddlechat/ Gigaom here: http://gigaom.com/2008/04/09/in-the-huddlechat-debacle-a-les... So we have to pay for Campfire. And nobody did Basecamp as is, which is not that complicated, for the same reason.

You're rambling. Basecamp alternative: http://lessprojects.com/ - Status: Not shut down. Basecamp alternative: https://www.hoisthq.com/ - Status: Private beta Free, open-source Campfire alternative: https://echowaves.com/ - Status: Not shut down. And these are just the ones I know about (OK, I had to Google for a second to find EchoWaves). Final nail in the coffin: If 37S was "competing" by shutting down competitors,…

But not in Google Apps! Google had no problem to add tasks (talk to remember the milk). But why not project management? BTW - it's fair. J.Fried is using his ammunition to protect his business. But let's just call it what it is.

Reg innovative: Huddle chat was written in weeks. We can only guess where it be now. Basecamp is great, but very similar to what it was 2 years ago

Anyway guys, we all should only hope the best of luck for this Diaspora thing instead of bashing them. That's all I'm saying. Mr. Fried could wait at least until the finance period is done.

Re: Diaspora's Curse - Jason Fried

#106

Post by loup-vaillant »

lionshare wrote: post #43
jackowayed wrote: post #17

I agree that they're probably screwed--on top of the normal how-do-you-get-enough-people-to-switch-that-users-get-real-utility-out-of-the-social-network issue, people now expect, by virtue of the fact that they've got $170k and lots of attention, that they have something ready to compete with Facebook by the end of the summer--but I don't think they would have done any better waiting. By doing it this way, they got t…

Why are they screwed? Where is it written that four probably smart and dedicated guys must fail? Because they will have a few month without financial problems? Because they have momentum and support? really. It's a nasty post to kill the finance momentum. Please: J. Fried JUST FIGHTS FUTURE COMPETITION. Facebook is a central hub. Basecamp is a central hub. That's the whole story. A project management plug-in to Diasp…

Err, jackowayed said they are (probably) screwed, despite having momentum, support, fear of failing, and no financial problems. Because the initial odds were really bad.

You may disagree with him about the initial odds, but I think you agree with his main point: the massive funding is good for Diaspora*.

Re: Diaspora's Curse - Jason Fried

#108

Post by hyp3rVigi1ant »

zalew wrote: post #41
blackguardx wrote: post #20

$170K isn't that crazy. Since when do programmers have to do the whole starving artist routine to get respect? Living close to the edge doesn't make you work any better. If it did, you would have to question companies like Google who give their employees really good benefits. $170k split four (or more) ways actually doesn't sound like much, especially when you consider their location (NYC), and their massive student…

Isn't that crazy, but they were aiming for 10k. At least that was official, maybe it was just a teaser, on purpose. Sad is, that they aren't even started and there's already lots of hype and I hope people don't get to the hate phase even before they launch. I'm totally positive about the concept, but I always thought one should get motivated on his own, start the project, and beg for money to go further. This seems i…

There's a 67 minute video on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRTzRAtDujU) where they're introducing the idea (with more details and exploring some possibilities) to a couple people (professors?) at their college and end up showing their very basic prototype. They did this before they created the kickstarter page, raised all this money, and got all this attention.

Re: Diaspora's Curse - Jason Fried

#109

Post by blhack »

Diaspora's curse is that it is a solving a problem that only exists in the eyes of people who don't need somebody to solve it for them.

Does anyone think my mom or my sisters give a damn about facebook privacy issues? NO! The only people that seem to are the types that come to HN and we all, for the most part, run our own webservers with our own blogs and pictures and soforth anyway.

Re: Diaspora's Curse - Jason Fried

#110

Post by loup-vaillant »

ubernostrum wrote: post #67
_sh wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your thirteen-year-old sister's "node" will live exactly where her email lives: on some ISP/hosting co. Using Diaspora should be no different than "downloading the facebook page to your computer and running it on your browser", for example.

Your thirteen-year-old sister's "node" will live exactly where her email lives: on some ISP/hosting co. Instead of "on some ISP/hosting co.", you mean to say "Google". If Diaspora ever takes off -- and the odds are stacked against it -- then it's a very safe bet that Google will simply host nodes for free. Which means Google will have access to all the info they already have on you, plus all the info Facebook would'v…

The usability problems of running your own node can be dealt with: just ship an already configured Sheeva plug.

The real problems are hardware price, asymmetric bandwidth, and the filtering of some ports, like SMTP. These problems will be tackled when we collectively acknowledge the importance of privacy.

It will take time (just see the success of web based mail), but I think it will eventually happen. The recent Facebook scandals are a little spark that may lit a fire. And I bet there will be many such sparks in the future.

In short, the Glorious Distributed People's Republic of Privacy won't happen tomorrow, nor next year. But 20 years from now doesn't seems unrealistic.

Post reply on HN