
Flickr far superior to SmugMug? - bootload
http://blogs.smugmug.com/don/2006/11/19/flickr-far-superior-to-smugmug/
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mattjaynes
Really great response.

I had often lumped SmugMug and 37Signals into the same category, but I have to
say that after the past few months I've come to see them in a different light.

37Signals while brilliant in much of what they do, has seemed to acquire the
curse of hubris and it's embarrassing to see. Some of their recent responses
to criticism in particular seem quite petty, abrasive, and defensive.

SmugMug on the other hand seems much more mature and even self-deprecating in
their approach. After meeting Don McAskill it's easy to see why - he is one of
the smartest and nicest guys I've ever met. He hosted a geek lunch recently
and I was really impressed with him and how genuine he is.

Anyway, it's really great that there are some good examples to follow in our
little startup world.

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brett
That's a damn good response to a critical writeup. My favorite part of the
"we're not targeting the same audience" defense is that no matter what the
company says the subtext is always "until we are and we take all their users
away".

~~~
brlewis
Smugmug had 200,000 paying users last I heard. It's not a public company, so
not obligated to unlimited growth. If they're making money and having fun with
their current customer base, there's no need to target everybody else.

They can simply add features either as they become important to their current
customers, or as they feel like it would be fun to do (e.g. OpenID). They'll
grow organically just fine and still leave plenty of room for everybody else.
There are millions of people out there who should share photos online but
don't.

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bootload
_'... We don`t make it as easy to get your photos AND metadata back out of
SmugMug ...'_

This one sucks in _my view_. But I dont think it matters as much as it does
with flickr which seems to attract a geekier crowd. Instead of beating
themselves up over something that doesn't matter to users they concentrate on
more useful things like openid ~ <http://blogs.smugmug.com/release-
notes/2007/02/23/new-features-february-23rd-2007/>

~~~
far33d
Instead of spending 10 pages describing why it's actually OUR fault that
metadata isn't well supported (we have an open API you could write it
yourself) a la 37 signals, he admits the problem and says they will address
it. Class act.

~~~
bootload
agreed. I wasn't aware that 37 is really more than just a software company
until I listened to some podcast on the layout of the company. It's really a
_product_ company that conceives, designs, market & ships bits as well as
atoms. Are they stretched too thin?

What I really liked with _SM_ was the way this lack of an API didn't become an
issue that clouds over more important things. SM I think really get the
development process - _things are going to fail all the time_ \- _make small
incremental improvements_ and then make _major releases_ to make major
adjustments.

The blog is now added to my must reads.

