zsombor's lair

HaloScan.com – Weblog Commenting and Trackback:

HaloScan provides a free, easy to use commenting and trackback service for weblogs and websites, allowing visitors to leave feedback, share their opinion, or comment on the subject at hand.

Nicely put no? Gives you that warmth feeling of reassurance that this is “free service”. Well for once if you claim to  be something better be that something. And if there are interpretable items better address them in in clear and visible manner.  The Signup page would be good candidate, the Terms of Service page will suffice, or perhaps the Comments Faq page?

Apparently Haloscan did not think so. And while I fully understand that somebody has to pay for my “free” enjoyment, I’m less sympathetic with aggressive tactics to squeeze your users. That’s how I felt when after a year of happy usage, I realized the reason why old comments kept on disappearing from my blog. You see Haloscan will “archive” your comments after four months.

A policy certainly not advertised on their front page, not showing comments older than four months does not sound like “Free Commenting” at all. Archived? How about inaccessible to everyone till I upgrade my account. Talk about  honest business  practices.

They also have an “Export” feature the kind you implement for your users to feel a clear message: you are not using a closed system, you can leave us at any time, no harm done data is yours. Reasonable? Again apparently not, since I need an upgraded account or else export is just teaser menu-item. Where is my clear opt-out?

To top it off they have a donate page, that clearly explains the advantages of becoming a “premium” member, without detailing the disadvantages of not doing so.

With this post I can say that one year of blogging had passed. It was a good year, looking over my first posts it’s clear: my writing had improved. Next year will be more interesting cause I’m taking the leap with my new job, diving head first into the intimidating prospect of being an actual risk taker rather than an employee.

Sounds scary? Well it is, not gonna lie to you by saying how brave I am. On the other hand I feel lot of excitement too: we will have the opportunity to do what we know, in a way that we have chosen. Accurately feeling all mistakes that we (will) make, and living out successes with greater joy.

You would think that by now, after countless research and numerous degrees emitted each year in human psychology, organizations would accept that it is not wise to mistreat employees. True you might end up saving a buck or two in short run, but you will end up waisting a lot more in lost opportunity. Organizations that are oblivious at management level to this fact will not acknowledge waist in their balance sheets, and as such `cost effective` solutions will be used ever more frequently.

Question is why work for them? Surely there must be other more satisfying opportunities out there. Companies with a more people oriented approach, without Furniture Police or whatever devilish idea long refuted for their efficacy in Tom DeMarco’s Peopleware.

No wonder that Seth’s article appeared to me as inspiring, since I spent a lot of time thinking more about life and prospects in large company with all of its shortcomings lately. Sure small companies have theirs disadvantages also, especially with uncertainty looming around you. But at least you have the chance of being something more than an insignificant cog spinning in huge lifeless machinery.

Small means agility to change when circumstances require it. This is how mammals survived and dinosaurs don’t, why Japanese manufacturers came to dominate markets previously ruled by big stock piling companies. Small means that you are more preoccupied with growth and opening possibilities rather than defending turf that probably cant be defended for long anyway. Where you are more concerned about being good rather than waisting energy to maintain internal status quo.

I have found strength in myself to move towards the small. I hope to find strength also to keep thinking big when I will have to face adversities coming from being an entrepreneur rather than an employee. Till then there are some days left to think and to prepare.

IT has its faults for sure, but another problem is internal company politics. Too many bosses pushing too many needles constraints around in order to satisfy their continuous thirst for power. This is why software ends up replicating organizational structure, with assigned permissions of whom can do or see what.

Software’s true essence is lost amids the crust of needles decorations designed to enforce policies. Then you end up with an uniform rigidity, coming from countless constraints that rarely add value. Soon every aspect that could be handled by simple and direct communication will grow to something artificial.

There is nothing to be gained by going down this route. Applications like Basecamp and Backpack are living proof of this. Just do the bare thing that software needs to do and let people sort out the rest. It’s not enterprise features you should shop around, its the solutions to problems faced that needs to be addressed.

Cut the red tape, seek out the essence, solve the problem!

I don’t think so, but it’s an intriguing title for Paul Grahams’s insightful article. Definitely worth reading. What are you still here? Go and be encouraged!

Buying startups also solves another problem afflicting big companies: they can’t do product development. Big companies are good at extracting the value from existing products, but bad at creating new ones.