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Why Diaspora will fail

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Re: Why Diaspora will fail

#11

Post by TallGuyShort »

randallsquared wrote: post #6
NathanKP wrote: post #3

That is one highly negative, pessimistic viewpoint, but I have to agree that he does have some valid points. I can't see that many people will have the technical skill to install Diaspora. They don't know what a server is and think that the internet is somehow magically inside their computer. Unless Diaspora finds some way to make running the server extremely simple people won't adopt it. Also they would have to educ…

Each server is single-profile? If so, I agree that that's a terrible design. I'd assumed that it was more jabber-like in that anyone could start a server, rather than having to have one.

Someone suggested to me a peer-to-peer file sharing kind of structure, where your friends get a copy of your diaspora instance and can host it to your other friends while you're offline, etc...

Re: Why Diaspora will fail

#13

Post by NathanKP »

randallsquared wrote: post #6
NathanKP wrote: post #3

That is one highly negative, pessimistic viewpoint, but I have to agree that he does have some valid points. I can't see that many people will have the technical skill to install Diaspora. They don't know what a server is and think that the internet is somehow magically inside their computer. Unless Diaspora finds some way to make running the server extremely simple people won't adopt it. Also they would have to educ…

Each server is single-profile? If so, I agree that that's a terrible design. I'd assumed that it was more jabber-like in that anyone could start a server, rather than having to have one.

It sounds like each server is single-profile, though perhaps the server could be shared for a household. But if you want the true privacy of Diaspora then yes you would need to host your own Diaspora server.

Re: Why Diaspora will fail

#14

Post by what »

stevenbrianhall wrote: post #7

I happen to agree with most of the press about Diaspora being doomed to fail. According to phrases and ideas all of us throw around, it's doomed to fail. If I were the Diaspora team, I'd print out every piece of negative press and post it up on the wall in front of me. Then I'd make a pot of coffee and get to coding, using my "bad press" wall as my motivation to beat the hell out of the naysayers with a fantastic pro…

> If I were the Diaspora team, I'd print out every piece of negative press and post it up on the wall in front of me. Then I'd make a pot of coffee and get to coding, using my "bad press" wall as my motivation to beat the hell out of the naysayers with a fantastic product a few months down the road.

They're too busy making flyers: http://www.joindiaspora.com/2010/04/24/awesome-flyers-are-he...

Re: Why Diaspora will fail

#15

Post by devinj »

what wrote: post #9
GiraffeNecktie wrote: post #2

Yeah there's no way a bunch of university students can compete with a big, established social networking site! Oh wait ...

I don't think the article argued that they can't compete because they're university students. It mentioned that this idea has been tried in the past and failed. Also that the average Joe won't want, likely even know how, to set up their own seed. People probably don't want to pay to host their own seed. Not mention you're going to go where your friends are. People aren't going to leave Facebook in droves because a co…

It emphasized that the creators were "kids" who had "high school English". If he didn't state it outright, he implied it.

Re: Why Diaspora will fail

#16

Post by waterlesscloud »

what wrote: post #14
stevenbrianhall wrote: post #7

I happen to agree with most of the press about Diaspora being doomed to fail. According to phrases and ideas all of us throw around, it's doomed to fail. If I were the Diaspora team, I'd print out every piece of negative press and post it up on the wall in front of me. Then I'd make a pot of coffee and get to coding, using my "bad press" wall as my motivation to beat the hell out of the naysayers with a fantastic pro…

> If I were the Diaspora team, I'd print out every piece of negative press and post it up on the wall in front of me. Then I'd make a pot of coffee and get to coding, using my "bad press" wall as my motivation to beat the hell out of the naysayers with a fantastic product a few months down the road. They're too busy making flyers: http://www.joindiaspora.com/2010/04/24/awesome-flyers-are-he...

Those flyers are the biggest negative indicator I've seen for their success.

Only the "You Own You" is any good, the rest of them show a serious lack of understanding in how to approach the wider markets.

Hide the technical stuff or fail miserably.

Re: Why Diaspora will fail

#17

Post by cubes »

The reasoning in this article is pretty specious and circular. Some of the author's arguments can be summed up as:

* Diaspora will fail because it sounds similar to something someone else tried one time that failed.

* Nobody will use Diaspora because it will fail.

* Diaspora will fail because nobody will use it.

* Nobody will use Diaspora because it will never ship.

* Nobody will want to pay for Diaspora because nobody will want to pay for it.

* Diaspora will fail because the creators are young.

I don't know whether or not Diaspora will succeed. The old school cypherpunk in me wants to see Diaspora, or something similar, succeed. I would be more curious to see a well reasoned article on the obstacles Diaspora has to face with getting traction, and finding a viable business model.

Re: Why Diaspora will fail

#18

Post by neurotech1 »

randallsquared wrote: post #6
NathanKP wrote: post #3

That is one highly negative, pessimistic viewpoint, but I have to agree that he does have some valid points. I can't see that many people will have the technical skill to install Diaspora. They don't know what a server is and think that the internet is somehow magically inside their computer. Unless Diaspora finds some way to make running the server extremely simple people won't adopt it. Also they would have to educ…

Each server is single-profile? If so, I agree that that's a terrible design. I'd assumed that it was more jabber-like in that anyone could start a server, rather than having to have one.

OneSocialWeb (http://onesocialweb.org/) is XMPP/Jabber based,I haven't evaluated their offering yet.

Also, TechCrunch did a story on them recently; http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/13/onesocialweb-were-ahead-of-...

Re: Why Diaspora will fail

#19

Post by jeiting »

I imagine this could work if a third party steps in as a seed hosting service. Perhaps how domain registrants or OpenID services work. "I have my seed through SeedFactory" but it shouldn't really matter who's seeds are through whom, much like the way DNS works today.

The article is correct. Not even nerds are going to install their own nodes, if that is the model they are relying on.

Re: Why Diaspora will fail

#20

Post by melling »

If we could only channel all the pointless effort that went into writing this article, and others like it, into some way to contribute to projects like Diaspora, we could actually accomplish a lot.
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