[psawaya]

Plenty of successful tech startups have been launched by students coming straight out of college, so I think the attitude of "sorry kids, better do your time somewhere else first" is very harmful to both students and the industry as a whole.

Sure there's a lot they have to learn, but there's no reason why they won't be able to learn by doing. They clearly have all of the funding and motivation they need to get to the point of having a stable release. I'm glad the author (of this blog post) submitted a patch, and hopefully momentum on this project will continue to grow, as more experienced developers offer their advice and expertise.

edit: Also, I'm not sure if "startup" is the best thing to call Diaspora. Given the fact that they're already well funded, and working towards the public good, they might be better off incorporating as a nonprofit, similar to what the Miro guys did (http://participatoryculture.org/).

[jarin]

That first time someone just flat out mercilessly tells you your code is terrible is awesome.

Actually not awesome, because for the rest of your programming career you will realize that your code is terrible.

But awesome because that's when you leave the womb and start down the road to being a good programmer.

[EGreg]

how do you make that link clickable?

[psawaya]

Just make sure to include the http://. eg, http://paulsawaya.com