When I first saw the title, I tried to figure out how Jason Fried was Diaspora's curse. :-)
Diaspora's Curse - Jason Fried
111–120 of 145 posts
Re: Diaspora's Curse - Jason Fried
#112Expectations for Diaspora are too high? Diaspora has a curse? I got the feeling from Kickstarter that people without expectations give money to a cause. When I donate money to Kiva, I know fully well that that money may never come back to me, and I am 100% ok with that notion.
Re: Diaspora's Curse - Jason Fried
#113Diaspora's curse: They don't actually have a working product to show off -- or any product at all. This whole farce has been amazing. I can't believe anyone actually thinks they're going to produce -anything- that can actually be run or used.
Re: Diaspora's Curse - Jason Fried
#114Diaspora'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.
When I tell non-technical people that Google is doing semantic analysis on their e-mail, (1) they believe me, and (2) they find that scandalous.
Unfortunately, this is not enough for them to switch. But if setting up and configuring a personal mail server at home took 5 minutes and no help, they would switch.
Now, we need someone to make Eben Moglen's "freedom box", to make is as sleek, as usable, and as cool as the iPhone. Then, people will buy it. Maybe not over privacy concerns, but at least, privacy will become a selling point instead of the major technical hurdle it currently is.
Re: Diaspora's Curse - Jason Fried
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
Running a Unix machine in your pocket also seems impossible—oh wait, 100 million sold you say? You just need to unlearn what you have learned.
The Unix machine have been packaged in such a way that the user don't know it or care what it is running on. Everyone knows how to buy something. That seems rather different here where users are asked to do things that in them selves are not obvious. The users don't know how to download a node and the idea that someone you trust is going to run the node for you just isn't a very convincing idea IMHO.
> The Unix machine have been packaged in such a way that the user don't know it or care what it is running on. Everyone knows how to buy something.
What has been done with pocket computers can be done with servers. An already set up Sheeva plug is all it takes. And it can be bough instead of downloaded.
Re: Diaspora's Curse - Jason Fried
#116I think another issue is their solution to the problem is flawed. Most users don't have a desire or the ability to run their own server. Running a basic application on a web server seems trivial to nerds, but to average users it seems impossible.
Do you need to run your own mail server because you have an email address? Diaspora should have a similar model. You can use a hosted node, or one your ISP provides you when you sign up, just like they provide you with an email address.
> Do you need to run your own mail server because you have an email address?
We don't, but we should, eventually. What you describe is only the first step. The ideal world clearly lies in easy, ubiquitous self hosting.
Re: Diaspora's Curse - Jason Fried
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
If they did fail miserably, I'd still hire them like a shot - they've shown they've had the chops to try and the initiative to think out of the box. The experience they would get through failure - whether the failure is technical. marketing or finance - would be an invaluable lesson for their future careers, far better than some internship at big company X. An employer who would negatively judge a teenager on the fai…
> they've shown they've had the chops to try and the initiative to think out of the box. Really? Are there any serious geeks that haven't hashed out a basic architecture (napkin-level) for a distributed Facebook-replacement over a beer or some coffee? I know I have, twice. The difference between me and them? A pretty website, a video and (probably the kicker) patronage by the NYT. I agree that it shouldn't reflect ne…
I would assume they've gone a little further than something on a napkin, and that by the end of the summer they will have something to show for their work and investment, and haven't spent the money on partying.
Let's judge their results then. If it's a failure despite their best efforts, I certainly wouldn't count that against them, if they've learned from their mistakes and have written some good code in the process.
Depends on how you define success/failure of course - I very much doubt they will make a dent on Facebook but if they come up with an open standard for distributed social networks others can build on, that counts very much a success in my book.
Re: Diaspora's Curse - Jason Fried
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
Think Wordpress. Fried just doesn't want you to have that option for project management. It's not about Diasopora, it's about Basecamp.
Well, wordpress.com isn't a player in the e-mail space, which was the analogy. And regarding Basecamp/Diaspora: I can already get most of the same functionality I can get from Basecamp in plenty of other products, both hosted and open-source. Basecamp is popular because it's really, really good, not by a long shot because they are the only option. A project management application on the Diaspora platform would have z…
nope, he is trying to block the finance momentum. they are going to need every $, which he and his provocative blog will not
What's the rush to bash Diaspora and make backers back off? so people put about 20$ each for seed round in an important project for seemingly honest guys. It's not that he has to stop a Maydof scheme.
The rush to disturb it, the strong word ("curse") are the result of deeper interest to stop them.
Re: Diaspora's Curse - Jason Fried
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
LOL Given that Diaspora has yet to be written, I doubt that J. Fried is particularly quaking in his boots regarding the hypothetical creation of a hypothetical plugin using a hypothetical API to provide a hypothetical service that would hypothetically be so great as to kill Basecamp. Disclaimer: I dont use basecamp, have never used basecamp and have absolutely no idea why someone would want to kill it.
If you asked MySpace/Friendster few years ago what they think about this student Zuck hacking something in the Harvard dorms, they would probably respond: LOL. What matters is the trend, and Fried is smart enough to see it. What unfair here is that he spoils it in the middle of the finance period. They got traction, they look like smart and honest guys. He can bash them one day after the finance is done. Disclaimer:…
Most successful troll in the history of HN. Give yourself a pat on the back.
Re: Diaspora's Curse - Jason Fried
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, wordpress.com isn't a player in the e-mail space, which was the analogy. And regarding Basecamp/Diaspora: I can already get most of the same functionality I can get from Basecamp in plenty of other products, both hosted and open-source. Basecamp is popular because it's really, really good, not by a long shot because they are the only option. A project management application on the Diaspora platform would have z…
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.
You are not trolling, are you?
I am sorry, but do you think that Jason can "shut down" something that Google makes, just with his writing?
And seriously, the idea of Diaspora competing with BaseCamp takes some imagination! At such an abstract level, almost any web app could be said to compete with any other web app.