Comments on: Availability is a Feature http://dancres.org/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Comments+on+Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dancres.org%2Fblitzblog%2F2007%2F03%2F25%2Favailability-is-a-feature%2F%23comment-&seed_title=Availability+is+a+Feature Mon, 02 Jan 2012 08:22:24 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Dan Creswell http://dancres.org/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Comments+on+Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dancres.org%2Fblitzblog%2F2007%2F03%2F25%2Favailability-is-a-feature%2F%23comment-73&seed_title=Availability+is+a+Feature/comment-page-1/#comment-73 Dan Creswell Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:05:40 +0000 http://www.dancres.org/blitzblog/2007/03/25/availability-is-a-feature/#comment-73 Hi John, "Ok I couldn’t help but comment. I view a feature and availability as a classic chicken and egg problem....." I think that "make it work, make it maintainable" is acceptable when you start off but particularly in the case of websites I think this bias changes over time. Once you have a bunch of paying users you want to keep them - availability can have a significant impact on this as has been documented in respect of MySpace. I'd like to explore this more so let's consider this example - once I have a database with all the features I require, how much do I value reliability and availability? Do these things become more or less important as the amount of data (value) in the database grows? Do these things become more or less important as I gain more dependencies on the database? Hi John,

“Ok I couldn’t help but comment. I view a feature and availability as a classic chicken and egg problem…..”

I think that “make it work, make it maintainable” is acceptable when you start off but particularly in the case of websites I think this bias changes over time. Once you have a bunch of paying users you want to keep them – availability can have a significant impact on this as has been documented in respect of MySpace.

I’d like to explore this more so let’s consider this example – once I have a database with all the features I require, how much do I value reliability and availability? Do these things become more or less important as the amount of data (value) in the database grows? Do these things become more or less important as I gain more dependencies on the database?

]]> By: John http://dancres.org/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Comments+on+Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dancres.org%2Fblitzblog%2F2007%2F03%2F25%2Favailability-is-a-feature%2F%23comment-72&seed_title=Availability+is+a+Feature/comment-page-1/#comment-72 John Mon, 26 Mar 2007 02:25:55 +0000 http://www.dancres.org/blitzblog/2007/03/25/availability-is-a-feature/#comment-72 Ok I couldn't help but comment. I view a feature and availability as a classic chicken and egg problem, but I think the feature always wins. This profoundly bugs me, because I work on availability, but I've rationalized it to this: Availability can still sell at a 'good enough' where good enough can be astonishingly bad. Features though, don't seem to have that luxury. On some level it has to offer something good enough to sell. My son plays all kinds of online games with his friends that validates this in my mind time and time again. The first guy that I had that taught me how to develop still resonates with me ... "Make it work, make it maintainable, make it reliable, make it fast. Repeat." Ok I couldn’t help but comment. I view a feature and availability as a classic chicken and egg problem, but I think the feature always wins. This profoundly bugs me, because I work on availability, but I’ve rationalized it to this: Availability can still sell at a ‘good enough’ where good enough can be astonishingly bad. Features though, don’t seem to have that luxury. On some level it has to offer something good enough to sell. My son plays all kinds of online games with his friends that validates this in my mind time and time again.

The first guy that I had that taught me how to develop still resonates with me … “Make it work, make it maintainable, make it reliable, make it fast. Repeat.”

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