Habari: Is it starting to suck?

Have you wondered what happened to Habari? We find out

Given that we bloggers are early adopters and fiddlers by nature it is a curious fact that the number of people enrolled in the Habari Project currently stands at 273. That is not many. About 200 plus were enrolled back in January this year. The increment since has been tiny. I think there are two good reasons for that. Habari is no where near ready for release and use by anyone who is not both a php programmer and a highly competent linux user.

There is a second reason though which is an absolute killer to any project in the early stages of development. And here it is. The install routine sucks. Badly. Guys you need to understand this: No one can be bothered to futz with this stuff. If it breaks they move on. They may fiddle once or twice but they will soon lose interest. And if you face users with chmod type things which do not work thus denying them access to the install routine they might just quit for another six months

And if those same users themselves did their best to assist in the development of the install routine and wrote most of the documentation thereto as long ago as in January 2007 and find that they still can not get the thing installed - they will certainly head for the exit.

Most people just can't be arsed. Software which can not be installed regularly and reliably simply sucks. Big time.

For end users I am downgrading Habari to *interesting software to watch*. It is no more than that. You should check it out in 12 months time.

From the developer perspective do not get me started on IRC cabals and Blueprint.css.

Comment

  1. As a non-geeky blogger I can attest to the fact that if whatever Habari is cooking up does not amount to a 5 minute trouble free install then they have missed the mark. Gone are the days when the word blogger was synonymous with geeky men who like to tweak and fart about. The Kew Institute study clarifies this for us – the average blogger today is a woman in her 40’s blogging for reasons of self expression. Yes, that’s the market for Habari products. IMO if they are producing a product that has to be tiddled and fiddled with and tweak then it just ain’t going to cut it.

    As you have such a strong rapport with female bloggers you apparently know something that the Habari crew could benefit from learning and obviously they have not listened. Consequently, IMO backing away is a good thing to do at this time.

    Best regards

    Comment by brightfeather Sep 7, 10:08 PM #

  2. I don’t know about a strong rapport with female bloggers :) I wish I did:) But you raise an interesting point about the branding of blogging software. It is inevitable that early in the life cycle the emphasis is on the serious coding. But IMHO it is still worth building the framework of messages which are going to resonate strongly with the potential user community. And ease of use would need to be right up there I would think.

    Comment by Root Sep 8, 10:55 AM #

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Habari: Is it starting to suck?

Have you wondered what happened to Habari? We find out

Given that we bloggers are early adopters and fiddlers by nature it is a curious fact that the number of people enrolled in the Habari Project currently stands at 273. That is not many. About 200 plus were enrolled back in January this year. The increment since has been tiny. I think there are two good reasons for that. Habari is no where near ready for release and use by anyone who is not both a php programmer and a highly competent linux user.

There is a second reason though which is an absolute killer to any project in the early stages of development. And here it is. The install routine sucks. Badly. Guys you need to understand this: No one can be bothered to futz with this stuff. If it breaks they move on. They may fiddle once or twice but they will soon lose interest. And if you face users with chmod type things which do not work thus denying them access to the install routine they might just quit for another six months

And if those same users themselves did their best to assist in the development of the install routine and wrote most of the documentation thereto as long ago as in January 2007 and find that they still can not get the thing installed - they will certainly head for the exit.

Most people just can't be arsed. Software which can not be installed regularly and reliably simply sucks. Big time.

For end users I am downgrading Habari to *interesting software to watch*. It is no more than that. You should check it out in 12 months time.

From the developer perspective do not get me started on IRC cabals and Blueprint.css.

Comment

  1. As a non-geeky blogger I can attest to the fact that if whatever Habari is cooking up does not amount to a 5 minute trouble free install then they have missed the mark. Gone are the days when the word blogger was synonymous with geeky men who like to tweak and fart about. The Kew Institute study clarifies this for us – the average blogger today is a woman in her 40’s blogging for reasons of self expression. Yes, that’s the market for Habari products. IMO if they are producing a product that has to be tiddled and fiddled with and tweak then it just ain’t going to cut it.

    As you have such a strong rapport with female bloggers you apparently know something that the Habari crew could benefit from learning and obviously they have not listened. Consequently, IMO backing away is a good thing to do at this time.

    Best regards

    Comment by brightfeather Sep 7, 10:08 PM #

  2. I don’t know about a strong rapport with female bloggers :) I wish I did:) But you raise an interesting point about the branding of blogging software. It is inevitable that early in the life cycle the emphasis is on the serious coding. But IMHO it is still worth building the framework of messages which are going to resonate strongly with the potential user community. And ease of use would need to be right up there I would think.

    Comment by Root Sep 8, 10:55 AM #

Add your two cents









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Habari: Is it starting to suck?

Have you wondered what happened to Habari? We find out

Given that we bloggers are early adopters and fiddlers by nature it is a curious fact that the number of people enrolled in the Habari Project currently stands at 273. That is not many. About 200 plus were enrolled back in January this year. The increment since has been tiny. I think there are two good reasons for that. Habari is no where near ready for release and use by anyone who is not both a php programmer and a highly competent linux user.

There is a second reason though which is an absolute killer to any project in the early stages of development. And here it is. The install routine sucks. Badly. Guys you need to understand this: No one can be bothered to futz with this stuff. If it breaks they move on. They may fiddle once or twice but they will soon lose interest. And if you face users with chmod type things which do not work thus denying them access to the install routine they might just quit for another six months

And if those same users themselves did their best to assist in the development of the install routine and wrote most of the documentation thereto as long ago as in January 2007 and find that they still can not get the thing installed - they will certainly head for the exit.

Most people just can't be arsed. Software which can not be installed regularly and reliably simply sucks. Big time.

For end users I am downgrading Habari to *interesting software to watch*. It is no more than that. You should check it out in 12 months time.

From the developer perspective do not get me started on IRC cabals and Blueprint.css.

Comment

  1. As a non-geeky blogger I can attest to the fact that if whatever Habari is cooking up does not amount to a 5 minute trouble free install then they have missed the mark. Gone are the days when the word blogger was synonymous with geeky men who like to tweak and fart about. The Kew Institute study clarifies this for us – the average blogger today is a woman in her 40’s blogging for reasons of self expression. Yes, that’s the market for Habari products. IMO if they are producing a product that has to be tiddled and fiddled with and tweak then it just ain’t going to cut it.

    As you have such a strong rapport with female bloggers you apparently know something that the Habari crew could benefit from learning and obviously they have not listened. Consequently, IMO backing away is a good thing to do at this time.

    Best regards

    Comment by brightfeather Sep 7, 10:08 PM #

  2. I don’t know about a strong rapport with female bloggers :) I wish I did:) But you raise an interesting point about the branding of blogging software. It is inevitable that early in the life cycle the emphasis is on the serious coding. But IMHO it is still worth building the framework of messages which are going to resonate strongly with the potential user community. And ease of use would need to be right up there I would think.

    Comment by Root Sep 8, 10:55 AM #

Add your two cents









Textile Help

Habari: Is it starting to suck?

Have you wondered what happened to Habari? We find out

Given that we bloggers are early adopters and fiddlers by nature it is a curious fact that the number of people enrolled in the Habari Project currently stands at 273. That is not many. About 200 plus were enrolled back in January this year. The increment since has been tiny. I think there are two good reasons for that. Habari is no where near ready for release and use by anyone who is not both a php programmer and a highly competent linux user.

There is a second reason though which is an absolute killer to any project in the early stages of development. And here it is. The install routine sucks. Badly. Guys you need to understand this: No one can be bothered to futz with this stuff. If it breaks they move on. They may fiddle once or twice but they will soon lose interest. And if you face users with chmod type things which do not work thus denying them access to the install routine they might just quit for another six months

And if those same users themselves did their best to assist in the development of the install routine and wrote most of the documentation thereto as long ago as in January 2007 and find that they still can not get the thing installed - they will certainly head for the exit.

Most people just can't be arsed. Software which can not be installed regularly and reliably simply sucks. Big time.

For end users I am downgrading Habari to *interesting software to watch*. It is no more than that. You should check it out in 12 months time.

From the developer perspective do not get me started on IRC cabals and Blueprint.css.

Comment

  1. As a non-geeky blogger I can attest to the fact that if whatever Habari is cooking up does not amount to a 5 minute trouble free install then they have missed the mark. Gone are the days when the word blogger was synonymous with geeky men who like to tweak and fart about. The Kew Institute study clarifies this for us – the average blogger today is a woman in her 40’s blogging for reasons of self expression. Yes, that’s the market for Habari products. IMO if they are producing a product that has to be tiddled and fiddled with and tweak then it just ain’t going to cut it.

    As you have such a strong rapport with female bloggers you apparently know something that the Habari crew could benefit from learning and obviously they have not listened. Consequently, IMO backing away is a good thing to do at this time.

    Best regards

    Comment by brightfeather Sep 7, 10:08 PM #

  2. I don’t know about a strong rapport with female bloggers :) I wish I did:) But you raise an interesting point about the branding of blogging software. It is inevitable that early in the life cycle the emphasis is on the serious coding. But IMHO it is still worth building the framework of messages which are going to resonate strongly with the potential user community. And ease of use would need to be right up there I would think.

    Comment by Root Sep 8, 10:55 AM #

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