Crowdfunding the creation of the next version of LFGSS

Nah, I'm working from home as I needed the printer and scanner for the last of the paperwork.

And the business cards are gone. Ordered.

They are the essence of no-brand. Just a san-serif font, basic info, encouragement to take notes on the back.

The brand isn't done, so I haven't applied one.

I guess some would consider that a brand in it's own right, but it's not.

I guess some would consider that a brand in it's own right, but it's not.

Uber meta boss-man... Vey hipster

Our landing page has changed: http://microcosm.app/

It had to, we're off to the USA in a couple of weeks.

We may add an option for others to reserve usernames for a fee if there is a demand, otherwise the reserved username list is now complete and will be the only list of reserved usernames ahead of the product launch.

On the product, we've got a decent chunk of the API done, but we're well aware that it's fairly unusable as we haven't yet added authentication stuff to it... but it is great seeing content appear in the database and watch the API function... it's improving at a good pace.

Shit, didn't find any money in time.

Alright... very clever.

It is still possible to reserve a username via http://signup.microcosm.app/

But literally only until midnight tomorrow night.

Except for investors... they get theirs whenever they want.

Now?

I keep forgetting to email you.

Now?

I keep forgetting to email you.

Investors should email me, reply to the email I sent.

Those who wish to be a patron have 1 day to visit http://signup.microcosm.app/

^^Repost

^^ Is the guide for the visit included?

Woot, my mum put more money in my bank than I asked for, have my second to last fiver, you deserve it.

Investors should email me, reply to the email I sent.

Those who wish to be a patron have 1 day to visit http://signup.microcosm.app/

not had an email

not had an email

Jan 10, 10.35am, to the address you supplied Seedrs, your gmail one.

Check the spam folder and get back to me.

I had emails from Thomas Davies that day from seedrs but not from you.

Sorted and fixed.

Bump. How are things going?

Really well.

Received the money on Jan 9th

A week or two to settle into a rhythm between Matt and I and to know where we were starting and priorities

Left for San Francisco at the end of Jan with a basic implementation of polls, events, conversations in the API

2 weeks in San Francisco, 1 week of which was spent figuring out Silicon Valley, bringing in ideas, explaining what we're working on to people... and then 1 week coding, networking, and speaking to potential customers (sffixed.org for example)

Arrived back 2 days ago, and the pace of change is now astonishing on the API... it's been majorly re-factored internally, a first pass at authentication has been added, and we're hoping to have most of the API finished next week... with a view to creating an ugly first draft of the web app within 2 weeks of that date... meaning that we're currently under the belief that a very broken and ugly working version might be ready by the second week in March

In other words... we're storming along and feeling very positive about it.

The biggest differences between SF and London? SF has a pay-it-forward culture where people help without expecting a direct and immediate benefit. SF has boundless optimism, even if people don't believe in the validity of what you're doing it doesn't change the support they give you. SF has a venture culture, in that people expect new things to come from them investing their money into the startup scene... but mostly they invest in people who can do things rather than specific products.

Also, things in SF work at warp speed... but it's not actually faster, they just do 18 hour days in the first year of a startup. Living and breathing the product. We may not do that, but we both felt we can do more... so expect 12 hour days... 8 hours in the office, 4 hrs at home afterward for example. Just whilst we get the MVP produced.

We will very soon need design help, and within a month we'll need help with HTML hacking (what we produce will be extremely basic and ugly for a little while).

Oh, and it's 4:25am and my coding window is already open.

Crazy.

Good work Sir!

ah I was wondering why you were up! Sounding good :)

Sounds very exiting.

ah I was wondering why you were up! Sounding good :)

Well, that's partly the timezones throwing my clock off. But if I have to be awake I might as well be coding.

... with a view to creating an ugly first draft of the web app within 2 weeks of that date... meaning that we're currently under the belief that a very broken and ugly working version might be ready by the second week in March

Does this mean LFGSS will be the Guinnea pig in March? With some live hacking and updating.

No, not at all.

We'll run a basic version without the ability to import whilst we test a few things and refine it into a far more plausible and quality product.

Then we'll run a private beta for a while for a few small communities who would like to test the software and are willing to start from fresh.

Once we've done all of that, only then will we start writing the importers for things like vBulletin, Vanilla and phpBB.

LFGSS doesn't get migrated over until it's a stable and quality piece of software, and the point of releasing early is to find flaws, test assumptions and rapidly improve the product into something the market (you guys and other forum admins) want before we launch it.