Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.
scriptingNews outline for 5/3/2000
Author: Dave Winer Posted: 5/3/2000; 6:06:40 AM Topic: scriptingNews outline for 5/3/2000 Msg #: 16916 Prev/Next: 16915 / 16917
Twinkies
Business Week: "So is Idea Keeper a word processor? Well, not exactly. The program is a hybrid: part word processor, part outliner, and part information manager. With Idea Keeper, you can build complex outlines, create documents, and keep and organize notes of all kinds."
Yesterday's USA Today piece might have asked What If Microsoft had truly been innovative? That's not exactly what they asked, but it's close. If they had been visionary enough to invent something like HTTP and HTML, we would have had good writing tools from day one. Look at how long it's taken to get the tools in place, and even now, they're lacking features people would reasonably want. Same with Apple, btw. Both companies spent huge amounts of money on R&D in the 90s, and where did it get us, as developers and users? Did they solve any of the problems we want them to solve?
Bottom-line, with the benefit of hindsight, both companies got routed around.
Cheeseburgers
PC Week: "The day before CI Host's system crash, Sievers' company had just been profiled on the front page of a local newspaper. Sievers expected a rush of online business from customers looking to purchase her product, decorative foam balls for car antennas. Instead, Sievers got an apologetic call from O'Brien trying to explain why the service was down."
Flounder
The Flounder thread had a positive outcome, as far as I'm concerned. One of the ETP editors claimed we had altered content on his site, which is something we never would do. That goes right to the core of our integrity. Such challenges must be made carefully and responsibly. We won't host sites that are reckless with our integrity. We will exercise our right to opt-out when this happens.
Another issue was raised, one that comes up from time to time. Rogers Cadenhead said "Dave routinely deletes messages from the [UserLand] discussion group that are critical of him or disagree with something he has said."
Hmmm. I deliberately make strong statements so I can hear from people with different views. However, I don't allow personal statements on our discussion group. If you want to trash someone on a personal level, and that includes me, do it in your own space where it reflects on you. I must have said this 10,000 times, but some people just don't want to hear it.
In one of the messages on the Flounder site I suggested that we form a Board of Advisors for sites we host. A place where people can have their complaints addressed by people who use our services.
Jeff Cheney volunteered to start such a group. I trust Jeff, if you can convince Jeff that we screwed up, I totally want to hear about that.
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