It's just lovely to see something done because it's a good idea, because it's "something you want to see", and not because it's cool or might make you rich... I think that's cool, and I hope it makes you rich :P
It's not for me either (simply because I'm hacking about with my own CMS and if I want fullscreen posts I'll just add that :), but I like the idea of making it simpler a lot.
Can you please come up with a business model, maybe premium accounts, and then refuse to be aquired, ever? :)
Maybe you could still leave it up to the author? i.e. just list inactive blog entries, for how long they've been inactive, and a quick way to delete some/all of them.
"Creating a need" is certainly an often employed strategy.
I love technology. I'm not very good, I'm not very clever or a great coder, but I'm still more geeky than non-geeks. Now, There are plenty of people who are not deeply fascinated with it, but use technology to make their lives easier.
Why can't we just built good things for them, and everybody can go home knowing they haven't been ripping off or been ripped off -- ??
This focus on profit and fads, it's doing my head in. When I was a kid I was ashamed because computers weren't cool, now I'm ashamed because they are, and because of what is done with them without blinking. They're just tools, but he haven't improved much, so we just use them to do BS faster. Come on, there has to be more. /rant
Yes, it's cool that it's possible. I'm German, but I love English and I think everybody owes it to themselves to learn it. Also I love hearing people on the street talk English or Spanish etc. It makes me very happy to be here (moved here a few years ago, not even aware of the hype ^^). Berlin is the best, and part of that is that it's international and rather unlike other German cities :)
That said, if someone hasn't picked up a bit of German even after years, they're either extremely busy, or doing something wrong IMHO. On holidays, say in Spain, I always kind of disliked Germans sticking only to Germans, and speaking German all day. Surely you know what I mean? There's not having much time to learn the language, and there's being selfish that way.
I kind of feel the same way about this "it's a great, cheap place" stuff. This way it's not going to stay cheap, or cool, for long. It's already kind of suffered, if locals are to be believed. So let's leave it at least as nice as we found it? :)
The best thing about Berlin is the soul and the heart, not the commodities. I mean yeah, startups boom, but Tacheles is struggling - what's up with that? When in Rome, do as the Romans.. well then, if you move to Berlin, start learning German by listening to some Ton Steine Scherben :P
All of this wasn't meant as an attack. As a slight snark maybe. But not more, because generally, I'm super happy for people coming here and making it even better, I'd be a hypocrite otherwise. I'm just missing the voice of Berlin in all this. I mean that. Berlin is more funky, more beautiful and more clever than booms and VC give it credit for. To move to Berlin and not smell those particular roses strikes me as a tragedy.