Adding to what Peter just said, I couldn't agree more. I don't even know what to call "laconi.ca" and I don't know where to discuss the future of microblogging. I'll follow that discussion wherever it is sent, though. I also like some of ther ideas of openmicroblogger, is anyone watching what they are doing?
Here's my opinion FWIW. The openmicroblogging movement can be, no will be huge, when it gets easier to install (like say, phpBB) and has a name without a dot in it. There's only room for ONE identi.ca so I think some name should be found for 'laconica' that is memorable. If you're (whoever decides this stuff) in love with the sound and feel of "Laconica", I suggest writing it exactly like that and drop the dot. Ease of install. Ok, it isn't a huge deal to install it, but there are a few known oddities that should be better explained (of better yet fixed). One is the db schema thing that catches almost everyone the first time. Is it that big a deal to fix that with a decent organization of those variables? Doc. It's funny, but a simple formatting of the README would help a lot. Developers somehow aren't part of the rest of the world, or don't see the importance of a clear explanation formatted with things like bold, italics, TT font, whatever it takes to join the 20th century visually. Personally, I find the plugin idea of OpenMicroBlogger to be very promising. I only chose laco... because it works with Twhirl. Concretely, I would suggest reaching out to TweetDeck if they ever do multi accounts, because their client is very popular. Back to Twhirl. In the real world of potentially large user base, a client like Twhirl is golden. I think lac.... is potentially the best system out there to create what I call microforums, communities like TWIT Army are the ultimate example of these. So concretely, I suggest you find and brand a name. Fix the silly little things that make it hard for some people to get it running. It's all up to you (whoever 'you' are beside Ev) to get this thing to fly. (If that is what you want it to do.) On Fri, Nov 21, 2008 at 11:14 PM, Peter Flodin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I think there are some fundamental branding issues that need to be > addressed before Laconica can hit critical mass. Or rather > OpenMicroBlogging can hit critical mass. > > The obvious comparison is to twitter, and even the Australian PM > (KevinRuddPM) understands what it means to "follow someone on > Twitter", a brilliant measure of success if there ever was one. > > However twitter is both a platform, product and a service, the > branding is easy for a user to understand. > > What is required is that branding of an OpenMicroBlogging service is > so obvious that anybody on identi.ca, twitarmy, etc just know that > they can subscribe to each other, not by looking at some list, but by > brand recognition. > > Jabber is probably a good comparison (even though it hasn't quite hit > KevinRuddPM level of mainstream), "Do you have a Jabber account?", and > the answer in my case is my Google Talk details, the fact where my > account is held is not important. The world before SMTP dominance (for > the older ones in the audience) is another example, it wasn't > sufficient to ask if somebody had email, you needed to know if your > mail system could email the recipient's system. > > > So what I see is needed is a brand name for OpenMicroBlogging > compatible services, (I'll just call that brand OMB for now), as you > should be able to say something like "Did you see that the Australian > PM is using OMB?", "Did you see what Leo Laporte posted on his OMB, it > is at http://army.twit.tv/leo";. "Follow me on OMB:service/user". Where > I have my account, Whether it uses Laconica is not important, can't be > important - at least not if KevinRuddPM is ever going to use it. > > Hmm, maybe laconica-dev is not the right place for this, as it is far > removed from the source-code of Laconica, I am sure you will let me > know...:-) > > Pflodo > Peter Flodin > _______________________________________________ > Laconica-dev mailing list > [email protected] > http://mail.laconi.ca/mailman/listinfo/laconica-dev > _______________________________________________ Laconica-dev mailing list [email protected] http://mail.laconi.ca/mailman/listinfo/laconica-dev
