There is nothing like a launch.
So much depends upon it. So much work goes into it. Their is nothing quite as lasting as a first impression, so the way a company launches, even in these days of perpetual betas and soft launches makes a great deal of difference.
The most important part is, of course, the product. It has to be remarkable and it has to be ready for people to have a good user experience.
I've been addicted to the roller coaster ride of first launches since about the time the wheel was launched. I wasn't involved and I like to think if I were, you'd know the developer's name.
Scrapblog has given me quite a rush over the past few days. I didn't mind the rolling and the coasting, but there were a couple of hairpin turns that scared Hell out of me. The worst was when the site went down for about five hours yesterday, as the phone company would say, "due to the unusually high volume" of bloggers trying to get in at the same time. This now seems to be fixed and we are reasonable certain it won't happen again.
There's also some sort of glitch with Wordpress. You cannot post directly from scrapblog.com. You have to grab the EMBED code and paste it into your blog editor. One irony is that Scrapblog’s blog is powered by Wordpress, and that they have to take this slightly cumbersome etra step themselves to post. Fixing this will require some help from the Wordpress folk and we are not sure just when we will be able to make the problem go away.
About 100 bloggers have posted about Scrapblog so far. They have pointed out several little anomolies, which the company has fixed. The general feedback is overwhelming and positive. The product is working as it should work. Bloggers are telling us they think it is as good as we think it is, and we are planning to go live to the general public in just a few days.
I am always surprised by the speed and zeal bloggers have in helping people. I have seen it work for helping Scoble and me write a better book, in reporting on tsunamis and terrorism, but particularly n helping companies like Riya and Scrapblog build better products.
In a week dominated by ugliness in the Blogosphere, it was nice to have such a positive experience in another end of the neighborhood.
