
Reform Revolution, a Pinterest clone? - tbassetto
http://scriptogr.am/suprb/post/reform-revolution-a-pinterest-clone
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Terretta
Shoddy "journalism" on Sarah's part. Sad that even when called on it she still
didn't have the intellectual curiosity to figure out from wayback exactly when
the design iterations happened.

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uptown
Unfortunately, there's little incentive to do so. In fact, Mashable is likely
better off if this generates a mini-controversy bringing more people to their
site and generating more ad impressions. If, at some point, it were to become
a problem, just slap an update on the post, and cash the check from the
traffic.

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true_religion
Hmm, but if Mashable is immune to this its only because they can disavow the
actions of their journalists.

Sarah sadly has likely just made Hackernews readers, and the next couple
batches of YC companies wary of ever cooperating with her in the future.

For a journalist, a taint to your personal integrity can be a career killer.

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dwynings
From what I've seen, YC startups have never favored Mashable for launching –
the exclusive is usually given to TechCrunch

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zeynalov
When I saw pinterest first time, I said to me, "Why they call this
revolutionary? reform revolution and dropular already did this layout. wtf is
going on. this is rip-off"

I saw it only early 2011, Because they got some venture capital. That says a
lot.

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kmfrk
I started using Pinterest recently, and I think it's an interesting medium -
with some extremely boring users, mind. It's a different way of sharing and
storing your data, and I think its biggest problem is the lack of interesting
profiles/pinboards to follow.

I've started using it to store my "bookmarks" for different products that
would otherwise have been stored as text-based bookmark links that break, when
the URL changes, or the site is taken down - as was the case with a lot of my
bookmarks I transferred to Pinterest. It also makes them an order of magnitude
faster to browse.

I don't know if the popular content is anything to judge it by, but all of it
is basically _awful_ : cookies, cats, dogs, inspirational weightloss quotes,
hot dudes, etc., etc. That doesn't mean that it can't be used for something
else. If I were a fashion brand, I wouldn't hesitate to display my collections
on the website with links to the products, if available. It looks startlingly
similar to the shops at <http://goodsie.com>, and it could be used as a social
version of such.

Right now, Pinterest is in dire need of big names and brands to promote their
content for it to be remotely interesting, but, like Twitter in its earlier
days, I don't think it's very useful to criticize it for the inanity most
people post to it, but how it differs as a digital medium. Twitter messages
already existed before Twitter as "status updates" in IM messages, and image-
only posts already exists as, say, Tumblr posts, but with the complete focus
on images (and videos), the browsing experience is vastly difference.

One problem with Pinterest is also that there isn't a big incentive to use it
as a fashion blogger, because it's extremely difficult to monetize compared to
a regular blog that can be advertised on in a number of ways. Why should a
fashion, style, and trendspotter blog migrate to Pinterest? Maybe they can, I
don't know, but it seems unappealing right now. In a blog, it's much easier to
lock in fans, because the content is not so easily shared. The same can't be
said for Pinterest where it only takes a repin to wrest away control of your
pin.

If I were Pinterest, I would take some time to:

    
    
        1. Think about the ways in which Pinterest can be used
        that are completely new and not just repetitions of
        what we see at Tumblr and imgur.
    
        2. Attract high-profile celebrities and brands.
    
        3. See if it can be used to disrupt the photo-hosting
        industry, particularly to be used with sharing on
        Twitter. These pictures are usually really difficult to
        browse, and Pinterest takes care of that.
    

The perception of Pinterest as a soccer mom demographic is really hurting the
adoption of the website, and the sooner Pinterest addresses this, the better,
because it's basically a taboo for men to sign up at the site at this point.
(I'm a guy, FWIW.)

Right now, people, myself a few days ago included, regarded the service as
Tumblr photo-sharing in one site, but I don't think it's a good idea to look
at sites like these as spin-offs from existing types of content creation.
Tumblr is not just a Wordpress spin-off, and Twitter is not just an SMS/IM
spin-off, and the sooner we look into the ramifications of Pinterest and its
popularity the better.

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girlvinyl
There are a lot of high profile celebrities and brands on Pinterest. You might
not be familiar with them if you aren't interested in high profile celebrities
and brands to begin with.

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mitchty
So I have to ask, as someone that hasn't used pinterest, have any suggestions?
I'm a guy but whatever, I just want to see some of the interesting stuff that
drives certain people to it.

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kmfrk
There really aren't any interesting superbrands nor celebrities there -
especially for guys - but I found a great Pinterest profile that tries to
track all the major brands and celebrities present on the site:
<http://pinterest.com/pinterestpower/>.

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aen
Andreas. I posted a response to your post on my blog.
<http://aentan.com/design/pinterest-rip-off/>

I was in fact one of the early adopters of the fluid grid layout after being
deeply inspired by Grid-a-licious. I got really upset when I saw you being
accused by Mashable.

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suprb
Cheers man! Much appreciated.

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cstefanovici
Pinterest layout is certainly not something that was just invented. Not sure
why it's being attributed to them so much. Only because they are the most
prominent example of it. I wrote a piece on raising money for web projects
through crowdfunding in order to compete with the big guys and to validate
ideas: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3687835>

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moreorless
"I want all of you to enjoy really shitty journalism and research at one of
the most respected tech news blogs around, Mashable."

I have to hand it to Andreas Pihlström for being so civil, but I absolutely
disagree with his assessment of Mashable being a respected tech news blog.
Mashable might have a decent well researched and insightful article once every
blue moon and the rest of the time it is pure dribble of liquid feces.

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jamesu
I find that while people put a lot of emphasis on making an "original"
product, a lot of the more successful products tend to be clones. After all,
if you come up with something completely original you need to do a lot of
explaining to get people to understand it; Whereas if it's based on something
they already know, it's much easier for them to comprehend.

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loceng
There are a few metrics Pinterest has that others similar don't have.

In no particular order,

i) The name is a genius combination of the primary action, and the primary
purpose behind it + it's highly brandable / memorable

ii) The facade of exclusive club via requiring an Invite / being able to
Request an Invite

iii) They're scraping the web's content, and putting on their own site,
thereby reducing / eliminating traffic leaks; I'm undecided if I think it's
fair, something doesn't feel right about it - because where some may benefit
from their content being copied (you could argue copied->stolen, and probably
show damages), many more I believe will not benefit and those are merely
feeding the Pinterest ecosystem.

... a few more that I understand but keeping to myself. :)

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level09
That is just another wordpress blog, using jquery masonry :
<http://masonry.desandro.com/> .. played with it long time ago, here is my
version of the clone : <http://wallizzle.com>

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sspeier
pathetic. reckless journalism threatening the livelihood of independent
developers. she should atleast have the balls to redact the statement.

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shingen
It's embarrassing what passes for journalism these days.

Worse, this is slander on Sarah's part. The notion that he's a rip-off artist
has a distinctly negative impact on his name and good standing as a developer.

Particularly when it's the exact opposite case. Pinterest is more of a clone
than Reform.

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wmeredith
Is anyone here under the impression that Mashable is journalism? It's a
muckraking tech fire hose on par with many tumblogs. Yeah, they have a bigger
staff, but I don't think I've ever seen anything come out of Mashable that
wasn't editorial or commentary.

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no-espam
Interesting, I just did a grid layout in Twitter's Bootstrap framework and
thumbnails look exactly like that. Looks like Bootstrap thumbnails is a Reform
Revolution clone :) Oh wait, this reminds me of Polaroids ...

