We're the unix of collaborative bookmarking.

In unix you can do incredible things by typing a few letters and tapping tab a bit. I don't think the analogy holds.

I shudder as I type this, but we are more like Windows...

After browsing through it for a few minutes, Posterous seems like a boring site to me, but that's my attitude toward most pure blogs. As you mentioned, some users (and certainly those who maintain the website) will probably love the simplicity, and it's always cool to see people trying new ways of doing things, but I wouldn't have any use for it.

At first glance, it doesn't appear to be an environment that could foster any sense of community. If you're going to compare that site with MemeStreams, I think you have to consider its ability to facilitate the sharing of information and social networking. Posterous reads more like a collection of personal diaries.

Decius wrote:
I like the simple design concept.

Simplicity is usually a good thing to keep in mind (especially if you're the one who's going to be maintaining the website in question), but some designs can be too simplistic, not allowing enough features, interactivity, communication, or control on the part of the end-users. I think it's more important for a design to be intuitive for the end-users than anything else, and some software developers and webmasters still fail to get that.

Decius wrote:
This is one of the core mistakes that we made with MemeStreams. It's too complicated.

What attracted me to MemeStreams in the first place is that it's a good blend of a blog, a message board, and a news site, incorporating the strengths of all three. Plus, to a degree, it keeps me connected with the broader 2600 community, as I don't spend a lot of time in IRC, and I can attend only a couple of conventions each year. Perhaps MemeStreams could be made simpler, but that certainly wouldn't be worth the loss of functionality.

Considering what you guys know now, what would you and Rattle have done with the initial design of MemeStreams to make things less complicated from your end? I use some features more than others, but from a user's perspective, MemeStreams isn't that complicated... well, except for that login bug, but that's been corrected. ;)

Stefanie wrote:
Considering what you guys know now, what would you and Rattle have done with the initial design of MemeStreams to make things less complicated from your end? I use some features more than others, but from a user's perspective, MemeStreams isn't that complicated... well, except for that login bug, but that's been corrected. ;)

Well, I have been working on simplifying some of the interfaces although I haven't had time to code since about March or so. We've made strides I think in making the circles and memebox interfaces more sensical. But look at delicious. Doesn't offer the featureset but its way more popular. People find it easier to get, as a concept. MemeStreams is too complicated to boil down into a simply slogan, so it doesn't spread well. People don't use it because of the software. They're here for the other people who are here...

Stefanie wrote:
After browsing through it for a few minutes, Posterous seems like a boring site to me, but that's my attitude toward most pure blogs. As you mentioned, some users (and certainly those who maintain the website) will probably love the simplicity, and it's always cool to see people trying new ways of doing things, but I wouldn't have any use for it.

At first glance, it doesn't appear to be an environment that could foster any sense of community. If you're going to compare that site with MemeStreams, I think you have to consider its ability to facilitate the sharing of information and social networking. Posterous reads more like a collection of personal diaries.

Stefanie, thanks for your note about Posterous. Just wanted to say we wanted to get out the most basic functionality as soon as we could and iterate with feedback from real users.

And you're absolutely right That's what the users want: Great community. We just launched last week but we're going to be adding features fast.

We think Memestreams could be a great ally in that in the future-- we could push content to Memestreams so that it's as easy to post to Memestreams as it is to use email. This is a part of our long term vision of being able to get anything I want online in the communities I participate in, FAST. I don't want to upload a photo to Memestreams, Flickr, Facebook, and my Wordpress Blog 5 times. I want to send one email attachment and have it show up everywhere.

Best regards,
Garry
Cofounder, posterous.com

Garry Tan wrote:
Stefanie, thanks for your note about Posterous. Just wanted to say we wanted to get out the most basic functionality as soon as we could and iterate with feedback from real users.

And you're absolutely right That's what the users want: Great community. We just launched last week but we're going to be adding features fast.

We think Memestreams could be a great ally in that in the future-- we could push content to Memestreams so that it's as easy to post to Memestreams as it is to use email. This is a part of our long term vision of being able to get anything I want online in the communities I participate in, FAST. I don't want to upload a photo to Memestreams, Flickr, Facebook, and my Wordpress Blog 5 times. I want to send one email attachment and have it show up everywhere.

Best regards,
Garry
Cofounder, posterous.com

Cool. I'll be sure to check it again, after the additional features go live. As straight blogs go, it looks good (just as Delicious looks good for simple bookmarking), but for me, the interaction among users is a key ingredient in an online community. The reason MemeStreams holds my interest (and other sites don't) is the communication and mix of functionality... and, as Decius noted, the fact that some of the members here know each other offline doesn't hurt.

Being able to post content to multiple sites at once would be pretty slick, though. Do you anticipate that other sites will be open to that?