This is why I want Foursquare to start handling reviews. (Foursquare lets people "check in" at a bar, restaurant, or other venue and notify friends.)
Foursquare's developers say they're working on winnowing out false checkins with GPS, which should give them a good idea of where their users are actually going, and when. I'd trust reviews written on the spot more already.
I'd also trust reviews from my friends. And since Foursquare is a social network first, I've built an actual collection of real-world friends, not a network of people I only know through a web site. These are people who largely share my taste in venues.
It's obvious that a lot of people want an alternative to Yelp. I'd try out others, but I particularly want one that verifies reviewers were actually there, and one that pays attention to what I already like and my friends like.
I'd argue that Tumblr, by focusing on the social, has opened itself to a wider variety of possible revenue sources. They could succeed at social advertising where Facebook has failed. (Not that Facebook doesn't make money, just that they do it while looking like idiots to users who see mismatched contextual ads.)
I'm coming at this as another blogger who makes a living off of writing out my opinions, and from that angle, you're not trolling, just offering a strong opinion. You truly believe Tumblr is kicking Posterous's ass (the mildest possible "swear word"!) and you present your case with evidence, not appeals to emotion or coolness. And now you're perfecting the article based on feedback, which is one of the coolest aspects of blogging and interacting with your readers.
So because of this piece, I'm following your blog. Please continue to rock.
I only use them for Twitter, which is why I don't get the proliferation of six-character domains like bit.ly and goo.gl when bit.ly already offers j.mp. Why would anyone choose anything but the absolute shortest domain, if j.mp won't go under unless bit.ly goes under? And why wouldn't Google wait until they had a four-character domain instead of their six-char one? Is brand ID really more important here than an optimal product?
The one time I've been able to keep up a breakneck pace was at Gawker (I'm Nick Douglas, its founding editor), and that was after they almost fired me. It took me a few months to steadily crank out 12 blog posts a day (plus features). The editors at Gizmodo use reader submissions and researchers to help them fire off 36 or more posts per editor per day (I know Joel Johnson did that much, and I think Brian Lam's done 48 per day for some stretches).
What I learned from this was:
1. Set microgoals. (Or, in my case, have them set for you.) When you break down a project into steps, you can do each one in one go, not allowing yourself any distraction during a step. Better to take breaks between them. I don't know a thing about programming, so I don't know if you can find any hour-long steps, but that's what I'd recommend.
2. Try to do an insane amount of those micro-steps each day. Like, four times what you're used to. The danger is discouragement, but:
3. Save an easy task for the end of the day. As a freelancer, I face a lot of rejection. That's normal (but honestly my pitches are particularly bad). So I try to save some simple, non-failable task for the end of my work time, so I don't finish with a sense of failure.
4. Find someone who loves the shit out of what you're doing. There will be someone. You just might have to find an amateur who's really impressed with what you're doing. If your work is technical, talk to some journalists or other creative types. Vice versa is true too. Explaining things to an interested noob is satisfying, builds your self-esteem, and will probably lead to brainstorming. You don't need someone who can point out flaws. That's for later.
I don't know where Biz Stone went to college, but his co-founder Evan Williams went to the University of Nebraska before making Blogger and Twitter. Twitter's inventor, Jack Dorsey, did go to the prestigious Missouri S&T before going to NYU.
So how do you give directions? I know you must have a system, but I'm not sure exactly how it works. "Head down to Block 16, take a left and turn right at block 22"?
While this sounds cute, I'm not sure what the incentive is for anyone to actually buy something they wouldn't have, or pay more than they otherwise would. Maybe it'd be more fun to participate if the idea were very clever. This seems about as witty as dressing up as a "non-participant" for Halloween.
The Fitbit looked very fun, but the site didn't mention an alarm function. I'm already envisioning a long slog toward convergence, because some day I want my phone to do calorie-counting and smart-alarming. After all, I already keep it near me all day and night...
Foursquare's developers say they're working on winnowing out false checkins with GPS, which should give them a good idea of where their users are actually going, and when. I'd trust reviews written on the spot more already.
I'd also trust reviews from my friends. And since Foursquare is a social network first, I've built an actual collection of real-world friends, not a network of people I only know through a web site. These are people who largely share my taste in venues.
It's obvious that a lot of people want an alternative to Yelp. I'd try out others, but I particularly want one that verifies reviewers were actually there, and one that pays attention to what I already like and my friends like.
I want a Pandora for places.