I agree that the arguments in the article were not well formed. One big thing they seemed to have overlooked (or consciously ignored) is the timing of the proje

I agree that the arguments in the article were not well formed. One big thing they seemed to have overlooked (or consciously ignored) is the timing of the project. I think its obvious by the amount of donations that they received that the announcement of Diaspora certainly had good timing (or luck). Now the rest really is in the hands of those four to actually deliver. It'll be interesting to see what the reaction is when they "finish" in 3 months. I think its possible that even if they deliver on every promise interest in actually using the product will be limited to the set of those who donated to the project. A lot can happen in 3 months. Depending on how Facebook reacts to the recent privacy criticism, everyone might not care about these issues in 3 months. How many people were still complaining about the news feed 3 months after that was released?