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Pownce we hardly knew ye

Monday, December 01, 2008 by Dave Winer.

A picture named ackbar.gifI was a Pownce user. (Ack it can't find my page -- and I was a premium, paying user! Oy. When did that happen?) Permalink to this paragraph

There were some things I liked about it, but I agree it's time to pull the plugPermalink to this paragraph

I stopped using it when: Permalink to this paragraph

1. Twitter got its act together and stopped acting like a Norwegian parrot pining for the fjords.  Permalink to this paragraph

2. FriendFeed occupied the space above Twitter, as the messaging system with more (than Twitter). FriendFeed has never had trouble staying up. Permalink to this paragraph

The biggest problem with Pownce was: Permalink to this paragraph

1. It couldn't handle even a modest load. It would get very very slow when anything interesting started happening, therefore keeping anything interesting from happening. Permalink to this paragraph

The one thing Pownce got right was: Permalink to this paragraph

1. It had payloadsPermalink to this paragraph

Three things that slowed adoption of Pownce beyond the inability to handle a load: Permalink to this paragraph

1. It was in private beta for a long, long time. Permalink to this paragraph

2. It took forever for it to get an API. Permalink to this paragraph

3. When the API finally came it wasn't compatible with anything. Permalink to this paragraph

Net-net, there were interesting things about Pownce, and we'll remember it with a certain amount of fondness.  Permalink to this paragraph

Hopefully Leah can take what she's learned and turn out something great at SixApart. Permalink to this paragraph

I'd recommend: Twitter-Plus-Plus. (With lots of interop, and do the payloads thing again, they need a kick in the ass over there at Twitter to get it into their product.) Permalink to this paragraph

A picture named pounce.jpg Permalink to this paragraph




     

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A picture named dave.jpgDave Winer, 53, pioneered the development of weblogs, syndication (RSS), podcasting, outlining, and web content management software; former contributing editor at Wired Magazine, research fellow at Harvard Law School, entrepreneur, and investor in web media companies. A native New Yorker, he received a Master's in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin, a Bachelor's in Mathematics from Tulane University and currently lives in Berkeley, California.

"The protoblogger." - NY Times.

"The father of modern-day content distribution." - PC World.

One of BusinessWeek's 25 Most Influential People on the Web.

"Helped popularize blogging, podcasting and RSS." - Time.

"The father of blogging and RSS." - BBC.

"RSS was born in 1997 out of the confluence of Dave Winer's 'Really Simple Syndication' technology, used to push out blog updates, and Netscape's 'Rich Site Summary', which allowed users to create custom Netscape home pages with regularly updated data flows." - Tim O'Reilly.

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Last update: 12/16/2008; 5:22:12 PM Pacific. "It's even worse than it appears."

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