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The reason people have donated so much is because they are upset with Facebook's new privacy policies. How diaspora can succeed: do the same thing Facebook doe

by holdenc 16y ago

The reason people have donated so much is because they are upset with Facebook's new privacy policies. How diaspora can succeed: do the same thing Facebook does, but fix the privacy. How diaspora can fail: by making some pie in the sky social networking platform that will elude most non-technical people. Unfortunately, it sounds like it's going this direction. I truly want to see Diaspora work. And it doesn't have to be complicated...at the moment, all they need is a decent social network (one that's built with the help of a graphic designer) and chances are you'll have at least one new user for everyone who donated. Lastly, make it easy for people to move from Facebook to Diaspora. Ease of use will be the pass/fail here.

patio11 16y ago
How diaspora can succeed Get everyone I know from high school and college using it and I might sign up, but I don't want to have to send invites, and I also don't want to be invited unless everyone I know is already there. Square that circle and they win.
- jimmyjim 16y ago
  If someone such as you, a technical person, is unwilling to take the initiative in signing up for it, then it's really just a self-defeating prophecy, isn't it? My point is, adopting a creed of proactivity is for the good of us all.
  - enjo 16y ago
    In my experience 'technical' and 'early adopter' aren't always the same thing.
  - patio11 16y ago
    You mean self-reinforcing in this case, since saying this is going to fail makes it more likely to fail. Would you like me to lie to you? I'm good at lying. This project is going to wildly succeed because it solves a major pain point for millions of people. They will deliver technically impressive software, like most people right out of school do. It will naturally take less than three months. It will be so easy to host your own web server that my 52 year old aunt will not even need to ask my 14 year old cousin to do it, but my 14 year old cousin will do it anyway, because this will be so cool it will be like a boy band had a slumber party where they gave away free iPods and icecream. We will see user adoption curves more impressive than anything previously because users, having gotten a taste of viral engagement mechanisms over the last several years, are screaming "Send me more invites!!!" and companies which control viral channels are making them more open with each passing week. The New York Times will continue championing this particular company, because they are a respected news organization in it for the long haul and not desperate to prove that they get this social media thing. Indeed, their embrace of Diaspora will be as enduring as their embrace of Second Life and Twitter. People will flock to pay for social networking, because their biggest issue with Facebook was that it was so "#$'("# free. The open source community, which is overwhelmingly charity by 20-something hipsters and not work product at multi-billion dollar technology firms, will embrace this product more than they have Mozilla and Linux precisely because it solves no need for any corporation anywhere.
    - dirkstoop 16y ago
      Wow, can't believe I missed out on this. Can I still give them my 5 dollars? ;)
    - sutro 16y ago
      Bingo!
jamiequint 16y ago
"How diaspora can succeed: do the same thing Facebook does, but fix the privacy." What is the definition of success here though? A super-niche social network that privacy-geeks use? The idealism is understandable but misguided. These guys won't touch Facebook by trying to make a social network with a feature better at X - in this case privacy - thats not how giants get toppled. Facebook won social networking, Google won search. Each will be beat by their core business being displaced by something else, not someone coming along and doing what they do incrementally better. (e.g. socially shared links driving down search traffic is Facebook indirectly biting a chunk out of Google's business)
- holdenc 16y ago
  I disagree here. Facebook did a few things incrementally better than its prior contemporaries. Remember when Friendster and MySpace had more users than Facebook? Facebook won social networking because it essentially fixed a few problems that plagued its competitors. MySpace was/is a mess. And Friendster was too self-serious (forcing you to post a personal photo instead of an avatar) and restrictive. And both MySpace and Friendster got privacy wrong from the get go. One of Facebook's earliest appeals was the privacy it allowed users.
  - zeemonkee 16y ago
    Another factor was how exclusive it was - first Harvard only, then just US colleges. People were anxious to get an invite, for Facebook to open up globally. When it did happen, it was massive. Creating exclusivity can create publicity in its own right and increase expectation. It can also fail though - look at Google Wave.
lionshare 16y ago
A Diaspora project management plug-in is a Basecamp killer, and J. Fried (=J. Afraid) knows it. What is Facebook? A central hub. What is Basecamp? a central hub. He did succeed to kill google chat client to make us pay for Campfire. But it was easy PR against "evil" Google. This time it will not work.
- bandushrew 16y ago
  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.
  - lionshare 16y ago
    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: I use Basecamp and I love it
    - iamdave 16y ago
      Most successful troll in the history of HN. Give yourself a pat on the back.
      - lionshare 16y ago
        Thanks. I usually don't. Just felt it's unfair post for these Diaspora guys.
    - jacquesm 16y ago
      Thanks for playing. Slashdot misses you already, the door is --->> http://www.slashdot.org/ http://www.slashdot.org/ that way. For the record, all that Jason Frieds posting has done is give more attention to diaspora.com, and will probably result in more funding.

by holdenc 16y ago

patio11 16y ago

How diaspora can succeed Get everyone I know from high school and college using it and I might sign up, but I don't want to have to send invites, and I also don't want to be invited unless everyone I know is already there. Square that circle and they win.

jimmyjim 16y ago
If someone such as you, a technical person, is unwilling to take the initiative in signing up for it, then it's really just a self-defeating prophecy, isn't it? My point is, adopting a creed of proactivity is for the good of us all.
- enjo 16y ago
  In my experience 'technical' and 'early adopter' aren't always the same thing.
- patio11 16y ago
  You mean self-reinforcing in this case, since saying this is going to fail makes it more likely to fail. Would you like me to lie to you? I'm good at lying. This project is going to wildly succeed because it solves a major pain point for millions of people. They will deliver technically impressive software, like most people right out of school do. It will naturally take less than three months. It will be so easy to host your own web server that my 52 year old aunt will not even need to ask my 14 year old cousin to do it, but my 14 year old cousin will do it anyway, because this will be so cool it will be like a boy band had a slumber party where they gave away free iPods and icecream. We will see user adoption curves more impressive than anything previously because users, having gotten a taste of viral engagement mechanisms over the last several years, are screaming "Send me more invites!!!" and companies which control viral channels are making them more open with each passing week. The New York Times will continue championing this particular company, because they are a respected news organization in it for the long haul and not desperate to prove that they get this social media thing. Indeed, their embrace of Diaspora will be as enduring as their embrace of Second Life and Twitter. People will flock to pay for social networking, because their biggest issue with Facebook was that it was so "#$'("# free. The open source community, which is overwhelmingly charity by 20-something hipsters and not work product at multi-billion dollar technology firms, will embrace this product more than they have Mozilla and Linux precisely because it solves no need for any corporation anywhere.
  - dirkstoop 16y ago
    Wow, can't believe I missed out on this. Can I still give them my 5 dollars? ;)
  - sutro 16y ago
    Bingo!

jamiequint 16y ago

"How diaspora can succeed: do the same thing Facebook does, but fix the privacy." What is the definition of success here though? A super-niche social network that privacy-geeks use? The idealism is understandable but misguided. These guys won't touch Facebook by trying to make a social network with a feature better at X - in this case privacy - thats not how giants get toppled. Facebook won social networking, Google won search. Each will be beat by their core business being displaced by something else, not someone coming along and doing what they do incrementally better. (e.g. socially shared links driving down search traffic is Facebook indirectly biting a chunk out of Google's business)

holdenc 16y ago
I disagree here. Facebook did a few things incrementally better than its prior contemporaries. Remember when Friendster and MySpace had more users than Facebook? Facebook won social networking because it essentially fixed a few problems that plagued its competitors. MySpace was/is a mess. And Friendster was too self-serious (forcing you to post a personal photo instead of an avatar) and restrictive. And both MySpace and Friendster got privacy wrong from the get go. One of Facebook's earliest appeals was the privacy it allowed users.
- zeemonkee 16y ago
  Another factor was how exclusive it was - first Harvard only, then just US colleges. People were anxious to get an invite, for Facebook to open up globally. When it did happen, it was massive. Creating exclusivity can create publicity in its own right and increase expectation. It can also fail though - look at Google Wave.

lionshare 16y ago

A Diaspora project management plug-in is a Basecamp killer, and J. Fried (=J. Afraid) knows it. What is Facebook? A central hub. What is Basecamp? a central hub. He did succeed to kill google chat client to make us pay for Campfire. But it was easy PR against "evil" Google. This time it will not work.

bandushrew 16y ago
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.
- lionshare 16y ago
  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: I use Basecamp and I love it
  - iamdave 16y ago
    Most successful troll in the history of HN. Give yourself a pat on the back.
    - lionshare 16y ago
      Thanks. I usually don't. Just felt it's unfair post for these Diaspora guys.
  - jacquesm 16y ago
    Thanks for playing. Slashdot misses you already, the door is --->> http://www.slashdot.org/ http://www.slashdot.org/ that way. For the record, all that Jason Frieds posting has done is give more attention to diaspora.com, and will probably result in more funding.