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> Expectations are too high Jason's third point is, I feel, the strongest. People aren't contributing to Diaspora because of Diaspora, they're contributing as

> Expectations are too high Jason's third point is, I feel, the strongest. People aren't contributing to Diaspora because of Diaspora, they're contributing as an act against Facebook. The enemy of my enemy is my friend and all that. I'm not sure if that's a good thing. It's one thing to get in front of a movement and ride that to success. It's another to get in front of a movement that's predicated largely on hate. Diaspora would have to turn this into something positive (Internet users for privacy!) as opposed to just letting the anti-FB vibe run its course. PS: not related, but here's a thought: why is it necessary to have a special node system? Won't a super-simple, super-private social network work just as well? Facebook's problems isn't so much with the tech as it is with the company philosophy - they seem to want to do everything in their power to screw you over for their benefit. Change the philosophy and Facebook becomes a much harder target to hit.

loup-vaillant 16y ago
> PS: not related, but here's a thought: why is it necessary to have a special node system? Won't a super-simple, super-private social network work just as well? No, it won't. Sure, central hubs can be private and simple, but they can't guarantee that they will stay so. Only distributed system could give you such guarantees.
lionshare 16y ago
nice comment from Fried blog (by Mark Pesce): "Jesus fscking Christ. What these kids need is a little support, not some idiot tearing them down because they suddenly find themselves in exactly the right place at exactly the right time with exactly the right idea. Jealous much? If you want to see Diaspora* succeed, then you’d better work very, very hard coming up with solutions to every one of the very real problems you just raised. Otherwise, you’re just a hater, and you’re only making the problem worse."
- rick_2047 16y ago
  I don't think that the author has ever tried to undermine what diaspora is trying to do in any one word of the short article. What he has tried to tell everyone is what is essentially the best advice those people can ever get. Somebody has to put a reality check on things. I seriously believe that a reality check has to be put on the dream run the diaspora team is getting. Essentially they are getting money just for an idea. And that too, not even a half baked one. I would have been more supportive of them getting around 1700% of there expectations if they had at least a spec out before. Edit: Changed kids to people as I am younger in intellect and age and it felt silly when I read it again.
  - lionshare 16y ago
    The reality check can be taken one day after the finance period is due. It's not a reality check, it's a deliberate attempt to stop the finance momentum. They have basic specs, and it doesn't look like a rocket surgery (as Steve Krug calls it), certainly not for 4 dedicated CS grads working hard. And although my comments are demoted here, the truth is that distributed "nodes" is a threat to the "central hub" owners, including J Fried, especially when your customers are geeks who can easily install and config the distributed thing. Paradigm shifts can wipe out other companies very quickly, and Fried knows it.
    - rick_2047 16y ago
      If you are paid $170K for this spec http://joindiaspora.com/project.html http://joindiaspora.com/project.html then it is easy to be rich. There are far too many better things that people can spend there money on. Cool things, even on kickstarter, are going underfunded. After all they just $10000 dollars, what is the need to give a 1730% funding to something.
      - lionshare 16y ago
        1. A common seed stage is 250K-750K and they are currently way below it. Since they are going open source, there is no better way to achieve it. 2. 250K+ for 4 people will give them the opportunity to focus and advance fast without financial side effects. 3. Since when the J. Fried camp is so worried about specs? They want to build a tool to scrape the data, store it local and make it avail. via standard protocol. Nothing to invent, all the tools are in place, but a lot of hard work on the boring integration/config details and testing. And to the point again: if such thing work I guess it will not be that hard to include a tasks and project management layer that will hurt Basecamp.
        rick_2047 16y ago
        1) I am not speaking on the behalf of J. Fried. I don't care who that is. 2) I have said that before and will say it again. Sure seeding is way above that. But those seed money go to startups which make money. The VCs make more money off it. Nobody is getting money from this.
- ErrantX 16y ago
  Jesus fscking Christ. What these kids need is a little support, not some idiot tearing them down because they suddenly find themselves in exactly the right place at exactly the right time with exactly the right idea Bullshit - what they need is tearing into now (just like this; politely) so they realise that they can't wing it on the good vibe. They gotta produce something good off this money; otherwise it's a potential disaster! Call it a reality check.
  - lionshare 16y ago
    fair, but let them finish the finance properly. This is not a reality check, it a move to stop the finance from a potential competing tool
    - shadowsun7 16y ago
      What potential competing tool? You've been taking a rather ridiculous stance, lionshare. In order for your arguments to hold true, justify the following: a) that Diaspora (an anti-Facebook) is a Basecamp competitor, which implies that b) Facebook is a Basecamp competitor; c) the rise of node systems == the fall of centralized server systems d) that Jason Fried isn't just weighing in as a 3rd-party startup founder.
lionshare 16y ago
"It's another to get in front of a movement that's predicated largely on hate" 37 signals, Getting real: "Have an enemy - pick a fight": http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ch02_Have_an_Enemy.php http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ch02_Have_an_Enemy.php Apparently Mr. Fried just picked them both. To his behalf, he picked the right one. In a way, Basecamp is "Facebook for project management", and Diaspora distributed paradigm can threaten both.
joubert 16y ago
Perhaps the node thing is a question of economics. Instead of a company forking out millions and millions and needing to generate revenue through ads or subs, distributing the cost (running a node) thinly amongst users might make more sense economically. Not sure how they plan on convincing non-geeks to do this though (google native client perhaps?)
- lionshare 16y ago
  great point
rue 16y ago
> Jason's third point is, I feel, the strongest. People aren't contributing to Diaspora because of Diaspora, they're contributing as an act against Facebook. For a hypothetical open project it might be good to distinguish between "contributing" (code/docs/whatever) and "donating" (money).

loup-vaillant 16y ago

> PS: not related, but here's a thought: why is it necessary to have a special node system? Won't a super-simple, super-private social network work just as well? No, it won't. Sure, central hubs can be private and simple, but they can't guarantee that they will stay so. Only distributed system could give you such guarantees.

lionshare 16y ago

nice comment from Fried blog (by Mark Pesce): "Jesus fscking Christ. What these kids need is a little support, not some idiot tearing them down because they suddenly find themselves in exactly the right place at exactly the right time with exactly the right idea. Jealous much? If you want to see Diaspora* succeed, then you’d better work very, very hard coming up with solutions to every one of the very real problems you just raised. Otherwise, you’re just a hater, and you’re only making the problem worse."

rick_2047 16y ago
I don't think that the author has ever tried to undermine what diaspora is trying to do in any one word of the short article. What he has tried to tell everyone is what is essentially the best advice those people can ever get. Somebody has to put a reality check on things. I seriously believe that a reality check has to be put on the dream run the diaspora team is getting. Essentially they are getting money just for an idea. And that too, not even a half baked one. I would have been more supportive of them getting around 1700% of there expectations if they had at least a spec out before. Edit: Changed kids to people as I am younger in intellect and age and it felt silly when I read it again.
- lionshare 16y ago
  The reality check can be taken one day after the finance period is due. It's not a reality check, it's a deliberate attempt to stop the finance momentum. They have basic specs, and it doesn't look like a rocket surgery (as Steve Krug calls it), certainly not for 4 dedicated CS grads working hard. And although my comments are demoted here, the truth is that distributed "nodes" is a threat to the "central hub" owners, including J Fried, especially when your customers are geeks who can easily install and config the distributed thing. Paradigm shifts can wipe out other companies very quickly, and Fried knows it.
  - rick_2047 16y ago
    If you are paid $170K for this spec http://joindiaspora.com/project.html http://joindiaspora.com/project.html then it is easy to be rich. There are far too many better things that people can spend there money on. Cool things, even on kickstarter, are going underfunded. After all they just $10000 dollars, what is the need to give a 1730% funding to something.
    - lionshare 16y ago
      1. A common seed stage is 250K-750K and they are currently way below it. Since they are going open source, there is no better way to achieve it. 2. 250K+ for 4 people will give them the opportunity to focus and advance fast without financial side effects. 3. Since when the J. Fried camp is so worried about specs? They want to build a tool to scrape the data, store it local and make it avail. via standard protocol. Nothing to invent, all the tools are in place, but a lot of hard work on the boring integration/config details and testing. And to the point again: if such thing work I guess it will not be that hard to include a tasks and project management layer that will hurt Basecamp.
      - rick_2047 16y ago
        1) I am not speaking on the behalf of J. Fried. I don't care who that is. 2) I have said that before and will say it again. Sure seeding is way above that. But those seed money go to startups which make money. The VCs make more money off it. Nobody is getting money from this.
ErrantX 16y ago
Jesus fscking Christ. What these kids need is a little support, not some idiot tearing them down because they suddenly find themselves in exactly the right place at exactly the right time with exactly the right idea Bullshit - what they need is tearing into now (just like this; politely) so they realise that they can't wing it on the good vibe. They gotta produce something good off this money; otherwise it's a potential disaster! Call it a reality check.
- lionshare 16y ago
  fair, but let them finish the finance properly. This is not a reality check, it a move to stop the finance from a potential competing tool
  - shadowsun7 16y ago
    What potential competing tool? You've been taking a rather ridiculous stance, lionshare. In order for your arguments to hold true, justify the following: a) that Diaspora (an anti-Facebook) is a Basecamp competitor, which implies that b) Facebook is a Basecamp competitor; c) the rise of node systems == the fall of centralized server systems d) that Jason Fried isn't just weighing in as a 3rd-party startup founder.

lionshare 16y ago

"It's another to get in front of a movement that's predicated largely on hate" 37 signals, Getting real: "Have an enemy - pick a fight": http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ch02_Have_an_Enemy.php http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ch02_Have_an_Enemy.php Apparently Mr. Fried just picked them both. To his behalf, he picked the right one. In a way, Basecamp is "Facebook for project management", and Diaspora distributed paradigm can threaten both.

joubert 16y ago

Perhaps the node thing is a question of economics. Instead of a company forking out millions and millions and needing to generate revenue through ads or subs, distributing the cost (running a node) thinly amongst users might make more sense economically. Not sure how they plan on convincing non-geeks to do this though (google native client perhaps?)

lionshare 16y ago
great point

rue 16y ago

> Jason's third point is, I feel, the strongest. People aren't contributing to Diaspora because of Diaspora, they're contributing as an act against Facebook. For a hypothetical open project it might be good to distinguish between "contributing" (code/docs/whatever) and "donating" (money).