The Slow Web
I built Strangers for Dinner[1] and edgeyo[2] around the slow web idea.<p>The idea is that people should have lives. If you are running a startup, you want to be out there writing your app, you want to be out there courting your customers. You don't want to be writing reports to investors or spending your time writing a pitch deck, presenting and in all probability, fumbling and failing. You shouldn't be frantically worrying about notification on twitter and facebook and angel.co.<p>The main philosophy is that you shouldn't have to do that. You should be doing what you're best at doing, and everything else should just be background noise that can be easily ignored.<p>I think this is the reason why people have so much trouble with email. When everything goes to your inbox, nothing gets done. The idea is to limit what goes into your inbox, not to invent a new smarter inbox.<p>Jack sums it up as "Timeliness. Rhythm. Moderation". On the note of Rhythm, my personal experience with rhythm on edgeyo wasn't too good. Rhythm has caused the equivalent of ad blindness for edgeyo emails, so when I created Strangers for Dinner (since we had to pause work on edgeyo for a bit), the idea slowly swapped out to sending sporadic notification emails sent out in fibonacci sequences over time (think a ciccada's lifecycles). Yes, I realize it's a dark pattern and probably shouldn't do it too often.<p>The fast web has caused us to be feedback junkies. It's a problem both my sites are facing, and I was wondering if anyone knows how to solve it. It's quite difficult explaining to people that you don't have to stick around the website; instead, the service comes to you - at moderated intervals.<p>p/s: I also own aslowweb.org which I originally intended to lay out a doctrine of the slow web philosophy. Thanks for motivating me to put love into that.<p>[1] - <a href="http://strangersfordinner.com" rel="nofollow">http://strangersfordinner.com</a><p>[2] - <a href="http://edgeyo.com" rel="nofollow">http://edgeyo.com</a><p>EDIT: I actually own the aslowweb.org, not .com