[jacquesm]

> I looked over the web and I found the same thing that I'm sure you found: several projects without much steam behind them.

Maybe they found socknet too ?

That wiki was filled on may the 19th, well after the diaspora stuff hit the media, or it hasn't been updated in ages before then.

http://socknet.net/wiki/index.php?title=Special:RecentChange...

That money the diaspora guys raised has one definitely negative side effect, there will be quite a few people that may try to get a share of the cake.

[TrevorBramble]

http://socknet.net/wiki/index.php?title=Special:RecentChange...

There's the same page with the limit changed from the default of 7 days (May 19) to 30 (April 26).

And of course Google's been caching stuff there for awhile:

http://www.google.com/search?q=site:socknet.net

I know the Socknet guy via some trusted former coworkers and I've watched this project for a year or two. He's earnest and hasn't looked for any attention.

I posted his open letter here because I think he deserves some attention for his hard work, whereas the Diaspora team made a cheeky video and deserve to have their goals questioned (do they really intend to do something progressive or is this about personal reward?)

edit: grammar

[jacquesm]

Two years ? That's precisely what I was getting at.

He's definitely looking for attention here, otherwise why post an open letter ?

If he wasn't looking for attention he could have easily mailed the diaspora people, by making this an open letter he is trying to get a slice of the media attention.

Nothing wrong with that, but I wouldn't interpret it in any other way, even if he's serious.

To me he's not just serious, but also very slow.

The sourceforge project was registered on the 15th of may, this is not a project that has been in mainstream development for two years. It may have been in development for two years but not with the kind of push behind it that you need for a successful launch of a web application.

It looks like someone's pet project that did not gain much traction that they're trying to breathe new life in.

[mindcrime]

> The sourceforge project was registered on the 15th of may, this is not a project that has been in

> mainstream development for two years. It may have been in development for two years but not with the

> kind of push behind it that you need for a successful launch of a web application.

Not sure what it matters how long it's been in development. If he's worked X years and gotten N amount of work done, he's still N amount of work ahead of where he'd be if he just started today, or the same day as the Diaspora guys. If that work amounts to anything, it could be a considerable advantage, if he does get some attention and gets some other people onboard. If not, he's still no worse off than if he hadn't done anything and decided to launch a new decentralized social network project today.

> It looks like someone's pet project that did not gain much traction that they're trying to breathe

> new life in.

Yeah, I know the feeling. I started a project with similar goals a while back ( https://openqabal.dev.java.net ) but got distracted and didn't get very far with it. Now I've changed the focus of my project to something different and am restarting development, but it's kinda moved away from the Diaspora / decentralized social network thing.

That said, I do think that everybody working on a decentralized social network (or any social network, really) should get together (virtually anyway) and collaborate on the underlying protocols and techniques for federation. No reason one shouldn't be able to run a Diaspora server and exchange data with a site running a $WHATEVER server (allowing for privacy restrictions, etc., which kinda kick-started this whole discussion).

[jacquesm]

Fully agreed, no need in duplicating the effort. But an open letter is a pretty bad way to go about that, it screams 'you can't ignore me, I'm addressing you' because you are afraid that you will not be answered.

Open letters are good for joe public to reach the town mayor or Ty Coon when all other avenues of trying to reach them have been exhausted.

They're not exactly the best avenue to contact the people that run a competing open source project about a possible collaboration.

I think it matters how long they've been at it because that is how they describe other projects, as having 'too little steam' behind them. I can't really tell the difference between those other projects with too little steam behind them and this one.

Also he words it as though the Diaspora guys should get 'behind' his project, whereas the best way to ensure that there would be collaboration would be to leave it up to them to 'get behind' his code or to integrate bits & pieces as they see fit.

All this is completely ignoring the merits of what's been produced, I have no idea how good it is, for all I know it could be stellar.

[mindcrime]

> Open letters are good for joe public to reach the town mayor or Ty Coon when all other avenues of trying to reach them have been exhausted.

> They're not exactly the best avenue to contact the people that run a competing open source project about a possible collaboration.

Agreed.

> I think it matters how long they've been at it because that is how they describe other projects, as having 'too little steam' behind them. I can't really tell the difference between those other projects with too little steam behind them and this one.

Well, "steam" in this regard can - IMO - come and go. You can start a project, do little or nothing to publicize it, tinker on it for a while, drop it, then restart it and you haven't really lost anything... if you step in two years later and start working on the project, committing code, doing releases, and publicizing it, I don't know that anybody will care about the "lost years." Or maybe I'm wrong, who knows?

[TrevorBramble]

He's definitely looking for attention here, otherwise why post an open letter ?

No doubt. I stated that badly. It would have been better stated as "hadn't looked for any attention" or "hasn't looked for glory".

To me he's not just serious, but also very slow.

Some of us are out in the world trying to provide for ourselves and our families while tending to our passions as time allows. To me it has spoken of admirable dedication. =^)

[jacquesm]

You mixed up the thread :)

I understand that he may have different responsibilities, but that's exactly what I mean. He starts off by talking about finding other 'stale' projects, and how he decided to do it better, on his own time, with a small group.

Now, two years on, from where I'm sitting his project looks indistinguishable from the ones that he is disparaging, so effectively he is undercutting his own project.

If there was any life to this there would be a bit more than this http://foolishmortal.org/list and a guy working his butt off to wean as many users away from facebook, flickr and whatever else there is.

Two years and not yet released to the general public is as good as dead.

The diaspora guys have the opposite problem, so maybe there is a good match here, that's not my call to make, but I'd find it hard to distinguish between this 'slow' project and the 'mostly dead' ones out there.

I understand that laying a solid foundation takes time, but it would have been better to iterate a bit faster and get some user feedback, maybe a designer on board and some more programmers.

[TrevorBramble]

You mixed up the thread :)

I'd swear there wasn't a reply link under your post at the time.

[jacquesm]

Ah, that's when you're too quick. HN only shows the reply link after a couple of minutes. To discourage flamewars. The workaround is to click the 'link' link on the comment, there is another reply box there.

[JaretManuel]

Diaspora "Dudes": Keep truckin, don't hate the players or the game, as you caught some luck, and there is no shame in that, nor is there any room for complainers.

Cheeky got them buzz. There is plenty of eye balls on them now to deliver I agree. Good luck to all!

[Volscio]

QQ