You have to understand something about Flock. Nothing is permanant. We’re hungry. Destruction is a form of expression. It’s a form of existing, of creating, of saying, we exist.
So if we have to, we will destroy Flock. Not in the way you think. Not in that stupid, insipid, “yes it ends here way”. No. In that, “nothing worth doing happens the first time around.”
We will destroy it because the ideas are weak, the promise less than what we desire, less than what we are capable of. We will kill it because it needs to be killed. Because evolution is inevitable.
We’re hungry. What this country gives us doesn’t feed our need to create, to produce, to solve and to connect. With all due respect, fuck you, we will create in the same action that destroys. We don’t believe in what we’re given; there is something better.
Damn you, I’m not kidding.
Factory Joe 
Chris,
Just let the users decide but make it to version 1.0 first….
Keep up the good work.
Bastiaan
To truly harvest the goods you seek I agree that you have to cut away the dead crap that only inhibits growth. As the various components of flock fight for survival I believe you are right to let the weaker die of but the whole remains, and the whole is stronger. Sometimes it gets bloody(as shown) but the the whole survives. I love the idea and the product. Hope you find the food you seek before someone loses a finger.
Cheers.
Little bit of an emo entry here eh?
I don’t like the idea of destroying flock, it hasn’t reached it’s full potential yet.
Once it hits 1.0 and more people get involved. Once the flock home page has been used to it’s fullest extent to draw more people in. And once flock gets reviews from big people.
Then, if need be, move on.
Chris, I see what you mean. The ideas are bigger than that what actually materialized. A wise investor once said: “Take your loss as early as possible.” Sound advice indeed. The ideas are still very very valid. The actual thing… Kill it. Burn it. And rise reborn from the ashes like a Phoenix.
From what I saw in termie’s photos it looks like you were just remodeling, taking out a few walls. Whats the big deal?
Dude! The blood is freaking me out! If you need to bond, what happened to a shot of whiskey?!
Whoa! Tone it down Captain Insane-o! We’re all waiting for version 1.0 to come out and by me I mean me and this guy on my right, and even he waffling right now. But yes, wait till you get a solid version out and then feel free to rip it apart.
AHHHHHHH!
what did I miss?
You so need to see “24 Hour Party People.”
In fact it should be required viewing for all web2.0heads.
So Flock is finally dead? I always thought that it was a bad idea, being that it doesn’t do anything that a few good Firefox extensions couldn’t. Now those extensions are appearing, and they’re scrapping Flock. Good idea. This is what happens when you try to make some cash off of something that should be free. (http://www.decrem.com/bart/2005/10/creating-sustainable-value/) Stick to making the thing that is established (Firefox) better, instead of branching out. When it’s you against the world, bet on the world. Sorry if this sounded a bit negative, but it’s my not-so-humble opinion.
Anonymous comments carry about the same significance as the amount of beer we spilled last night tearing down the wall.
How can you claim that your opinion isn’t humble when you’re not even willing to own it?
Personaly I prefer Flock over FF. I dont want it to die. but it sounds more like the are thinking of kiling the current setup.
Emo fags.
Creative Destruction. Shumpeter. To destroy the old creation. Life + Birth. The last of 2005. He will rise. He will come again, in the living and the dead. I dont like that my delicious login comes up everytime i sign in, and i still find my standard firefox home page which defaults to a firefox branded google search (defaulted to australia) more useful than the “13 things” and big is small is good seth/37 signals influenced typography. Attitudinally, i fukn love th blood and razor symbolism, except it looked a bit like a 14 year old girl suiciding who cuts the wrong way and doesnt really want to die, more a call to help, a signal, but also a fuck u. At least you werent on that plane from Scoble man, did you hear about that crazy, make’s Coppola’s stretch in ‘Nam seem like nothing. Altitude loss dude, to win is hard. As Cuban says “you only have to get it right once” – I’ve not got it right yet, its fkn hard. OK back to the double barrelled mac set up (imac + ibook for me : powerbook + powermac for you).. I would have liked to seen more females in the comments crying and laying flowers etc… I guess I was early.. Happy NYE and 2006 will rock. Ben
About time those pathetic dweebs came to terms that not only is Flock dead, but it
never stood a chance. Hopefully now they will pull the plug before they really embaress themselves.
Typical Flock hype: “I can’t remember the last time I got so wet over a some half-thought-through marketing concept as I am over Flock. Wow. A browser. Like firefox (well a bloated cruddy buggy version of firefox). And extensions to do neat rounded-corner-pastel-big-font-Web2.0-Metrosexual-chinbeard things Amazing. Tags. Clouds. Marketing. Mental-masturbation. Annoying. Grammar. Sort of stuff. Yeah. Just what we need.”
It still amazes me that the VCs were stupid enough to pony up the dough for this one.
What’s Flock?
FactoryJoe, anyone can put any random website in. As you see, I am now from “your” website. It can not be proven that any people that make comments here and put websites in actually own those websites. Heck, I could say that my name is FactoryJoe, and for all intensive purposes I’d be you. All posts here are essentially anonymous. So your comments reguarding my comments have about as much significance as this reply. Endless cycle, anyone? Seriously, though, the Flock people could have done everything with a few Firefox extensions. Instead they decide they’d rather take money from Firefox and give it to themselves. Pretty selfish, and rather poorly executed too.
Chris, thanks for clarifying. I completely agree with your view. Its time that companies come out of the closet, listen to their customers and change even if it kills the original concept/idea/vision or for that respect people!
BTW: the HYPE is not killing Flock, it only makes it stronger…. 🙂
I’d hate to think you stabbed thr wrong hand. Is it meant to be the left or the right?
Aren’t you supposed to pluck out your eye when you sin?
I never tried Flock and I love trying new softaware, I usaully do it on a daily basis. It had 0 appeal to me, I will say that if Firefox had not existed, than i would have tried and liked Flock, but that’s not the way it is. I’m actually more interested in IE7 as a (laugh) new product than I ever was interested in Flock.
I feel bad though, because I can appreciate the amount of work and effort that has gone into it.
Sorry guys (& gals). Now get the Flock out of here and put your knowledge into making Firefox even better. A speech engine would be cool.
Hey FactoryJoe, what do you smoke? do you have some left?
I find it a bit stupid for people to comment on something that they had never actually tried or tested or at the most seen…
I use FF, but when Flock emerged, gave it a try and found it good too. You might say that it’s a FF clone – true; you might say that with some FF extensions you get the functionality of Flock – true again. So why use it?
Keeping the same line of thought, there are thousands of different cars from different manufacturers and doesn’t they all offer the same thing – A means of transportation? So why have more than one type/brand of car?
The same reply that each of you answer for that question applies to software. You’ve got choices, you’ve got variety and it’s up to you to choose. There are people owning more than one car, so why not have more than one browser? Everything has a concept to exist, and if that concept is not revealed instantly, it doen’t mean that it is not good. Brilliant wine takes ages to mature to it’s fullest taste, each one of us took 9 whole months to amalgamate together and get born, so why all this shit about a software that’s still maturing?
And also, no one’s that perfect that can create something flawless at the first try. It’s good to create, then destroy, to perfectionate the new creation as you learn from the mistakes. We are evolving beings therefore we create evolving products!
Pretentious wanker.
I enjoyed trying out Flock – thanks. Looking forward to seeing future creations. Trust the process.
Well, look. I’ll be the first to admit that Flock was much sorrier that hype that the website and my imagination had conjured. The concept was so good and there was so much potential, but it really got released too soon. If you’re going to leak a product, make sure it blows people away. I was giddy when I first downloaded it, but I was soon underwhelmed. I can really appreciate all the hard work put into it; but that doesn’t negate the importance of well-thought and usable.
Wow, is it time to bust out “The Gambler” by Kenny Rogers? “You gotta know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em . . .”
Sad to see an opensource app go out like this, not because its opensource though, because you dudes went nuts. If you see that a product doesn’t work the way you want it to, you don’t brag about how nuts you went and posting a picture like THAT (fake or otherwise), you sit down and start from stage one again and if you don’t find anything there, you should have never devoloped any product in the first place.
Man, should I put a cap in this thread or what? Flock ain’t dead, it ain’t goin’ away, and that wasn’t the point of this post.
If you’re not going to read the post, don’t comment. It doesn’t say Flock is dead. It says that if something isn’t good enough, destroy it and make something better in its place.
Man, don’t they show Fight Club in high schools anymore?
You better off ‘locking’ the post, cause your post just seemed confusing
“Man, should I put a cap in this thread or what? Flock ain’t dead, it ain’t goin’ away, and that wasn’t the point of this post.”
destroy = kill = dead. sounds like flock is dead to me. but, if you’re going to turn it into a phoenix, i can’t wait to see what you all come up with next.
“Man, should I put a cap in this thread or what? Flock ain’t dead, it ain’t goin’ away, and that wasn’t the point of this post.”
What was the post really about then?
Sorry, but from what I’ve read, you are planning on destroying Flock, meaning flock is gone, and something might rise up to take it’s place. If not, please, explain to those confused (check out all your ping backs and comments) and explain what you meant.
Don’t act so surprised that we all think flock is going away, this whole thread is kinda freaky with the blood and all.
My Gosh FactoryJoe!
Most people can’t read ( the whole post ).
Maybe frightened off by the scary scars 😉
Powerful. I am feeling that. Too many people “mail it in” on everything in their lives. It’s good to see you (and your Flock compatriots) show passion for your work. You actually care about the expression, time and effort that you put in. Respect due.
It takes guts not to give in to inertia.
@evan
“destroy = kill = dead. sounds like flock is dead to me. but, if you’re going to turn it into a phoenix, i can’t wait to see what you all come up with next.”
You can’t turn it into a phoenix. that was already done, but then someone pointed out that ‘phoenix’ was already taken, so it morphed, first into ‘firebird’, then into ‘firefox’. Oh, hang on … that sounds familiar :-p
What a swindle.
drunk posting is bad for business
I tried it once but didn’t use it again. It was too much effort to test it out when there was a properly working alternative.
If I’m right, the purpose of Flock was to make blogging and such easier. But they are already pretty easy as it is. Maybe Flock is trying to help with things that aren’t all that difficult.
I think this post is about something similar as I described on my blog under the title “Kill your darlings”:
http://www.fleck.com/blog/2006/03/kill-your-darlings.html
As Factory Joe pointed out to me in the comments there…
i understand what you are saying. but even you are unconvinced by your own words and dont like that you said them.