[trotzke]

The first version of Squad didn't lock people out, but after some testing we liked the lock out method for code review and help purposes.

The goggle wave everyone type at once stuff is like reverb in the 80's if you ask me. Too much.

Particularly when you are dealing with multiple tabs. What I want to do when I'm asking a buddy to take a look at or help me with code is see what he or she is doing.

The tool really wasn't designed to compete with/replace Etherpad. It was designed to make our lives as developers a little easier. I think Etherpad is awesome. I've used a ton for google docs type stuff, but never really thought of it as code editor.

[jeff18]

That's awesome that you've found a niche for you product, but it seems to me that with a weeks worth of tweaking, you could be the next EtherPad.

[trotzke]

Maybe down the road. We are only about 3 days old. :)

[jeff18]

Dude, if I were you, I'd drop everything I'm doing and try to push out a feature complete EtherPad replacement within the next few days. There are hundreds of thousands if not millions of people who used to use EtherPad and are now stranded. Their product is tried and true and just vanished off the face of the planet because it was that good.

Why would you ignore that and try to carve a small niche for yourself for code reviews when the whole pie is right there for the taking?!

This will probably be the biggest opportunity your company will ever have in terms of user acquisition.

[trotzke]

I agree that as a company we're in great position to capitalize on this opportunity. Repurposing our core real-time editing technology to create something like EtherPad may be a very good idea. But turning Squad into EtherPad isn't.

The next direction for Squad is better project handling via a tree file browser, SFTP, version control hooks, etc. not adding formating buttons or making shares embedable. I think Squad and EtherPad were diverging like say Dreamweaver and Word. That's not to say we wouldn't like to capitalize on both the Dreamweaver and Word markets. :)

Here is my suggestion, I say you (or someone else passionate about this) go over to http://sproutbox.com/apply and fill out an app for recreating something like EtherPad. If you're selected, you'd be working with the same team that built Squad. We'd donate a big chunk of real-time editing code and you'd have something up around the time EtherPad shuts down. Win Win.

But hurry, apps close tomorrow at 11:59pm.

[jeff18]

Well, I hope that works out for you. Honestly, it sounds like you are going to be left by the roadside while a more nimble dude jumps in and capitalizes on the demise of EtherPad. Good night and good luck!

[chris123]

Our by Google, when they roll out EtherPad-like features to Google Docs. Oops.