[mayank]

It's great that they're getting so much open-source help, but I'm going to ask the obvious question: if a "complete overhaul" is what's needed, as the author seems to imply, and the FOSS community performs said overhaul, then what of the $250k that was given to the Diaspora guys? Is it still even "Diaspora" anymore, as opposed to a FOSS project?

[RyanMcGreal]

It's an awful lot easier for a bunch of third parties to refactor and fix something that's bad, a piece at a time, than for a bunch of third parties to create something from nothing. Diaspora is a good thing, even if it's bad: the mere fact of its existence and the enthusiasm around making it better gives it a vector of development that a mere idea would never have.

[wmf]

One could argue that it's even easier for a bunch of third parties to improve something less bad like StatusNet, OneSocialWeb, or Appleseed, but apparently Diaspora has sucked all the air out of the room.

Edit: I see jlgbecom already made a similar point below.

[jlgbecom]

And more importantly, if you're going to rewrite, why help Diaspora, and not a more mature option?

[kennedywm]

Because momentum and attention are more important than maturity. The qualities that come from maturity can be built with work; momentum and attention aren't as much of a function of hard work and are far more difficult to capture.

[jlgbecom]

Momentum can die as fast as it builds, while maturity is lasting. All these projects are in active development, and it'll be very difficult for Diaspora to catch up.

[drdaeman]

And this is what always happen. The choice between security, maturity and dancing bunnies is always skewed in a wrong direction.

[T_S_]

What more more mature option were you thinking of?

[mayank]

Here you go! There's not just one, but a whole bunch!

http://gitorious.org/social/pages/ProjectComparison

[tariq]

agreed. not sure what direction they intend to go in