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I really want to call out the technical founders here, Chris Coyne and Max Krohn, because they've done nothing but leave a legacy of abandoned products in the h

I really want to call out the technical founders here, Chris Coyne and Max Krohn, because they've done nothing but leave a legacy of abandoned products in the hands of untrustworthy companies: in the case of OkCupid they sold to Match.com which devastated the site committing it to the same wastebasket as Match.com's portfolio of other predatory dating products. Then they created Keybase, which was fantastic, before selling out to Zoom. Development has all but stopped. This style of hit and run get what's mine is endemic to SV. Nobody takes responsibility for the lasting legacy of the things they build. OkCupid was a safe haven for people who really wanted something genuine. It had a culture-wide effect the same way that Tinder cemented hook-ups as the New Normal of dating. We need to start taking responsibility for the things we make that touch millions of people. Chris' Twitter [1] professes his love for making things. Yes but you don't love being a good steward of the things you build. [1] https://nitter.42l.fr/malgorithms https://nitter.42l.fr/malgorithms

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yissp 5y ago
Building new things is fun, maintaining what you've built not as much. I suspect most software people would agree.
- asdfasgasdgasdg 5y ago
  Leaving aside the fun, maintaining them is also often not economically rewarding compared to building the next new thing. I dare say the founders of these sites will be happy enough with their decision even if they are called out once or twice in comment threads by critics with no skin in the game.
- insomniacity 5y ago
  You could call okcupid feature complete. Keybase however still had plenty of exciting greenfield work to do (IMO) - my friend and I emailed them asking to pay for KBFS but the founders declined!
- EricE 5y ago
  And thus why most software is utter crap too. When people first talked about holding software development to the same standards as professional engineering I thought it was crazy, but the longer I've been in this the more I think it is absolutely required - for this reason if nothing else. It's called work for a reason and the un-fun stuff is often as or more important than the fun stuff.

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yissp 5y ago

Building new things is fun, maintaining what you've built not as much. I suspect most software people would agree.

asdfasgasdgasdg 5y ago
Leaving aside the fun, maintaining them is also often not economically rewarding compared to building the next new thing. I dare say the founders of these sites will be happy enough with their decision even if they are called out once or twice in comment threads by critics with no skin in the game.
insomniacity 5y ago
You could call okcupid feature complete. Keybase however still had plenty of exciting greenfield work to do (IMO) - my friend and I emailed them asking to pay for KBFS but the founders declined!
EricE 5y ago
And thus why most software is utter crap too. When people first talked about holding software development to the same standards as professional engineering I thought it was crazy, but the longer I've been in this the more I think it is absolutely required - for this reason if nothing else. It's called work for a reason and the un-fun stuff is often as or more important than the fun stuff.