

Starting Over - sathishmanohar
http://www.inc.com/magazine/201202/jason-fried/starting-over-get-real.html

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jdludlow
This article says absolutely nothing. OK, there's a new Basecamp coming. Some
people are going to complain when they see it, some people are going to love
it. Can we see some details? Maybe a screen shot.

A green field "version 2" isn't exactly breaking new ground either.

Serious question. Is there a "next page" link on this article that I'm just
not seeing?

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cwe
This is his column for Inc, not an unveiling of the product. Look at the
title, he's talking about redoing a product from the ground up, and using his
experience as a parable for businesses everywhere to ponder. It's not called
"Introducing Basecamp 2.0"

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ry0ohki
Rewriting software to start fresh always SOUNDS like a great plan, especially
to engineers, but this usually ends up bad for the end user and takes 5 times
as long as planned (Netscape anyone?).

Basecamp could definitely use a refresh, but as a daily user I do worry
something will be lost if it's completely redone.

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jasonfried
1\. Rewrites are a bad idea if you're rewriting what already exists today.
We're writing something new. It's not a rewrite of today's Basecamp.

2\. Nothing changes with the Basecamp you already know and love. The new
Basecamp is an entirely different product. You can use whichever you prefer,
no one is being forced to change or switch.

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zavulon
So is your new product going to do the same thing as old Basecamp? Are you
targeting the same audience? Don't you think that's cannibalizing your own
user base and helping your competitors?

Unless you're building the whole new product that serves a different purpose,
and is only influenced by Basecamp - in that case, it makes sense.

~~~
jasonfried
It does some of the things the existing Basecamp does.

It doesn't do some of the things the existing Basecamp does.

It does new things the existing Basecamp doesn't do.

It's a new product with new ideas about what's important in a product like
Basecamp. It's not the same as today's Basecamp, but it's still familiar to
the millions who've used Basecamp.

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karterk
It will be interesting to see how they go about this. Even ignoring the whole
thing about user inertia, I have only heard horror stories on how completely
re-writing an app from scratch has caused all kinds of unforeseen problems.

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djbender
This: Second System Effect [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-
Month#The_seco...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-
Month#The_second-system_effect)

~~~
pors
And this: <http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000069.html>

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crcsmnky
Eventually, it will be interesting to see what functionality people have
gotten used to in the current version of Basecamp that doesn't make it over to
the next version and how those changes get implemented.

People don't always use tools the way they were intended to be used. Because
of that, there are non-obvious features/functionality that may not have even
been on the drawing board for the next version. Will 37signals go back and re-
implement those subtle pieces or will they put a stake in the ground and say
"this is the new way forward".

It could end up becoming an interesting study on how to bridge the gap with
two systems when the next version is a complete rewrite.

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yangtheman
_The easy thing to do is nothing. But continuing on the current path is a
time-tested formula for complacency._

I wish I heard that from the new RIM CEO.

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JoeAltmaier
It'll be bigger, slower, buggier and more expensive (all rewrites are). A hard
sell.

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mrgreenfur
This is marketing as content, zzzz.

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drumdance
Maybe this will be their version of New Coke /jk

