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by beseku 4830 days ago
Interesting that this is written by one half of the Analog Folk/Fictive Kin co-op.

These guys are responsible for Mapalong, a (formally great) mapping service that they abandoned early last year and for which they ignore any requests for exported data (I've been asking for a .KML file for a year to move my points somewhere else).
1 comments
shiflett 4830 days ago
Mapalong is still in private beta, but it's otherwise alive and well. It's a huge bummer that you think otherwise. I'm sure you're not alone.

We have had to pause development, but not only is your data still there, you can still use it. New users can't join, but that's about it.

As soon as we're able, we want to finish it and launch it. As part of this, we'll make sure people can get their data out in useful formats. (Perhaps a GeoRSS feed per URL? A KML file per user?)

I genuinely respect you for holding us to a high standard, but I think it's a little unfair to criticize us for an unfinished app.

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beseku 4830 days ago
I'm sorry if you feel it's unfair, but it's hard not to jump to such conclusions when the Twitter account is dead and nothing (visibly) changes.

It would certainly make people feel better if, with slowly progressing software, it was made easier for these testers to feel like they could properly test such software with the full knowledge that they can get their investment out in the form of a reasonable export function - they are after all providing a service to you by testing the software and providing feedback.

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shiflett 4830 days ago
It's cool. Like I said, I'm sure you're not alone.

Also, you make a very good point. We never expected to have to pause, but we should have put more focus on making sure people never felt their data was trapped, even in the very beginning.

In fact, you've managed to convince me that proper data export should be the very next feature we add.

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