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

Farewell, Periscope

periscope.medium.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 80 posts

Re: Farewell, Periscope

#41

Post by bonoboTP »

kelnos wrote: post #36
ChuckMcM wrote: post #23

This, I suppose, is unexpected. It reflects a similar fate of a lot of technology plays that grew fast. I would like to reflect however on this comment in the article -- "The truth is that the Periscope app is in an unsustainable maintenance-mode state, and has been for a while. Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen declining usage and know that the cost to support the app will only continue to go up over time."…

> If you are an engineer and you start moving up into senior leadership roles, understand that this is your job Product wants new features and new products, and they want them now. Sales wants new features and new products, and they want them yesterday. Finance people want everything to be cheap, but since most engineers have no idea how to prove to them with actual hard data that it's cheaper in the long run ship fe…

> Interesting that you mention Google, since it has a reputation for being more engineering-focused that most companies. From what I read on HN (perhaps not a representative sample, but...), it seems like Google has a culture of "build something cool to get promoted and then stop caring about what you built because maintenance doesn't get you promoted any further". If true, I think that very easily explains Google's "hot messes".

Countering my Gell-Mann amnesia here (many times I read about my area of expertise I see snappy criticisms trickle into the mainstream when the reality on the ground has long moved ahead and the supposedly insightful HN criticisms are cliches being routinely addressed within the expert circles, think "deep learning is just X, it doesn't address Y!" or "physicists are obviously boneheaded and got stuck at assumption Z!").

So, with the above in mind, I wonder if Google is actively countering this. If random people know this as a stereotype (and I read this often, and hear it as a stereotype of Google also in real life), then perhaps leadership is even more aware and either decides not to change or has already implemented things they think would help. Any current Googlers to chip in?

Re: Farewell, Periscope

#42

Post by bonoboTP »

draw_down wrote: post #26
ChuckMcM wrote: post #23

This, I suppose, is unexpected. It reflects a similar fate of a lot of technology plays that grew fast. I would like to reflect however on this comment in the article -- "The truth is that the Periscope app is in an unsustainable maintenance-mode state, and has been for a while. Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen declining usage and know that the cost to support the app will only continue to go up over time."…

> how is it that you go 5 years after acquisition and NOT retire the technical debt? That seems like the most simple thing in the world to me- you just ignore it. Have you ever talked to a product manager about "technical debt"? Newsflash- they don't give a shit. I don't know how things are run at Twitter but in general, people want to do "impactful" things and get promoted/get raises. Paying down technical debt is t…

People should be thinking more in terms of game theory, incentives, iterated games or one-off games, the effects of imperfect information, lemon markets, delayed effects and the difficulties of credit assignment, job hopping and the lack of long-term reputation the way we evolved to have in close communities we stayed in for our lives in the ancestral environment, etc.

Re: Farewell, Periscope

#43

Post by TT3351 »

bonoboTP wrote: post #38
zestyping wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most plausible explanation, to me, is that operating the product was not considered the primary purpose of the acquisition.

To be less subtle: it's to eliminate competition. If my neighbor has a nice big cow, it's not crucial for me to obtain that cow for myself; it suffices that it die, while my cows live.

Nitpick but this implicitly requires I buy-in to a zero sum system

Re: Farewell, Periscope

#44

Post by bonoboTP »

TT3351 wrote: post #43
bonoboTP wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be less subtle: it's to eliminate competition. If my neighbor has a nice big cow, it's not crucial for me to obtain that cow for myself; it suffices that it die, while my cows live.

Nitpick but this implicitly requires I buy-in to a zero sum system

It's enough that you understand that others have that view. You don't make the rules. The view of others shapes the incentive landscape.

Things aren't zero sum, but our psychology has developed for a more or less zero sum environment. There was no exponential growth or constant innovation in every generation in those times.

It is valuable to learn what drives people and what interpersonal forces elevate some strategies and suppress others.

Re: Farewell, Periscope

#45

Post by [deleted] »

zestyping wrote: post #24
ChuckMcM wrote: post #23

This, I suppose, is unexpected. It reflects a similar fate of a lot of technology plays that grew fast. I would like to reflect however on this comment in the article -- "The truth is that the Periscope app is in an unsustainable maintenance-mode state, and has been for a while. Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen declining usage and know that the cost to support the app will only continue to go up over time."…

The most plausible explanation, to me, is that operating the product was not considered the primary purpose of the acquisition.

[deleted]

Re: Farewell, Periscope

#46

Post by tpoacher »

Let's hope that active periscopers will see this as an opportunity to explore other, better mediums, like e.g. peertube, rather than simply return to youtube.

(I'm looking at you Scott Adams!)

Re: Farewell, Periscope

#47

Post by ChuckMcM »

chambo622 wrote: post #27
ChuckMcM wrote: post #23

This, I suppose, is unexpected. It reflects a similar fate of a lot of technology plays that grew fast. I would like to reflect however on this comment in the article -- "The truth is that the Periscope app is in an unsustainable maintenance-mode state, and has been for a while. Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen declining usage and know that the cost to support the app will only continue to go up over time."…

Per the announcement, the live video infrastructure that powers Periscope will continue to power live video on Twitter. Costs to support a standalone app are more than just infra and CDN costs - think support, moderation, legal, comms, QA, etc.

I had read that, and so the 'cost' is the marginal cost of "support", "moderation", "legal" (assuming no features QA is probably not huge). So is it possible to operate a feature that has user generated content at at a positive margin? One without compromising privacy or incurring an untenable liability? I accept that this may not be possible, but it seems like that is where the engineering work is.

And yes, I know product managers are "we need new stuff" to push all the time. And sales is constantly trying to sell something you don't make. But those are execution issues that good management will moderate.

Re: Farewell, Periscope

#48

Post by minikites »

TT3351 wrote: post #43
bonoboTP wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be less subtle: it's to eliminate competition. If my neighbor has a nice big cow, it's not crucial for me to obtain that cow for myself; it suffices that it die, while my cows live.

Nitpick but this implicitly requires I buy-in to a zero sum system

Many things are in fact zero-sum systems.

Re: Farewell, Periscope

#49

Post by cowpig »

TT3351 wrote: post #43
bonoboTP wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be less subtle: it's to eliminate competition. If my neighbor has a nice big cow, it's not crucial for me to obtain that cow for myself; it suffices that it die, while my cows live.

Nitpick but this implicitly requires I buy-in to a zero sum system

It doesn't; it requires you buy into the economics of monopoly.

Your neighbor doesn't want your cow to die, it's the megacowcorp trying to charge four times the equilibrium price for milk.

Re: Farewell, Periscope

#50

Post by spullara »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #23

This, I suppose, is unexpected. It reflects a similar fate of a lot of technology plays that grew fast. I would like to reflect however on this comment in the article -- "The truth is that the Periscope app is in an unsustainable maintenance-mode state, and has been for a while. Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen declining usage and know that the cost to support the app will only continue to go up over time."…

My bet is that it doesn't make sense as a separate product when every other platform has live streaming. As simple as that.
Post reply on HN