Every article about diaspora I see this being trotted out, a bunch of other projects that are claiming that they somehow deserve attention and probably more than the diaspora guys.
If they want that attention then they should do a better job of marketing themselves! That does not mean using articles about diaspora to claim their share of the eyeballs, but to independently create events and stuff worthy of mentioning in the press.
Most of these projects are old enough that they should be able to stand on their own legs by now instead of trying to piggy back on related PR like this.
Diaspora has a bunch of things going for it, and one of their major assets is that they seem to understand marketing and playing the press and the public much better than their counterparts, no matter how far along. So copy a leaf from that book instead of claiming those projects 'deserve attention'.
Why do they deserve attention? Because they have better, more mature code-bases and more experienced programmers developing them. Other than publicity, what does Diaspora have going for it, and why do they deserve attention just because of their marketing? This is open source we're talking about, not startup companies, and open source works best when it's meritocratic. And if we're talking about which open source project to build a startup with, then we're talking about merit, nothing else.
> Because they have better, more mature code-bases and more experienced programmers developing them.
So then maybe they should divert some of their attention to getting the word out.
> Other than publicity, what does Diaspora have going for it, and why do they deserve attention just because of their marketing?
A great story, good timing and the ability to engage the community.
> This is open source we're talking about, not startup companies, and open source works best when it's meritocratic.
In an ideal world, yes. But in this one, no, not really. Open source works best when there is momentum behind a project, not because it is 'the best project' or has 'the most qualified people' working on it. See PHP.
> And if we're talking about which open source project to build a startup with, then we're talking about merit, nothing else.
Open source projects have to market themselves just as much as commercial entities do.
We wouldn't be having this conversation if that were not the case.
Why do they deserve attention?
Every article about diaspora I see this being trotted out, a bunch of other projects that are claiming that they somehow deserve attention and probably more than the diaspora guys.
If they want that attention then they should do a better job of marketing themselves! That does not mean using articles about diaspora to claim their share of the eyeballs, but to independently create events and stuff worthy of mentioning in the press.
Most of these projects are old enough that they should be able to stand on their own legs by now instead of trying to piggy back on related PR like this.
Diaspora has a bunch of things going for it, and one of their major assets is that they seem to understand marketing and playing the press and the public much better than their counterparts, no matter how far along. So copy a leaf from that book instead of claiming those projects 'deserve attention'.