Thoughts, findings and ideas all about digital media.

I was really excited to see the launch of Fever yesterday – a new web-based application from the uber-talented Shaun Inman.

Let me start by saying that this is neither a critique of Shaun or his new app. Shaun is both a very talented web designer and an innovative developer, and his work is held in high regard – and rightly so. Fever looks like a really great app which looks to be a beautifully conceived idea which opens up all sorts of new ideas.

What really struck me though was how the launch and subsequent fire-fighting played out in the public eye, and it got me thinking about the potential perils of transparency and honesty when running a small venture.

(Fire-fighting is what we used to refer to as the unpredictable period of time prior to the launch of a big website release – when you think you’ve tested thoroughly and covered all eventualities, only to realise that you haven’t. It’s a frantic time of desperately trying to patch bugs and fix overloaded systems whilst your new code is out in the wild causing mayhem.)

Shaun has been very open and honest in describing the little gremlins which crept into the system post-launch, which I think is great: much better to have an honest, human reason for a problem than the standard “technical issues”.

to everyone awaiting an Activation Key, server is getting pounded, PayPal sluggish.

what a wonderful time for a unanticipated spontaneous server configuration change.

Gah! Firefox doesn’t allow you to submit a form to an iframe and instead opens it in a new window? wtf?

also, loving the understanding and patience of early adopters as I work out the un-beta-able kinks.

These kind of insights are not only informative, they’re also an interesting look inside the workings of an app as it launches.

Here’s where I think it gets dangerous though: when this kind of dialogue becomes personalised and opinionated.

Don’t get me wrong – being personal and opinionated are great things, and are what make our global digital culture the wonderful, throbbing democracy it is. But if you’re going to use Twitter et al to self-promote a product or service, then do you need to apply a bit of a filter to your musings? Does being too transparent mean that people might get to see things you otherwise wouldn’t want them to?

As I mentioned earlier, Fever looks like a great app, and I would have absolutely considered paying out for it. My main problem is that it is a self-hosted application – you need to install and run it on a PHP/MySQL server. It’s totally up to Shaun how he packages and licenses the app – I“m not here to start criticise someone for their business model. I did post this comment on it though:

http://feedafever.com/ looks great, but doubt I can be bothered installing it on a server. Surely @shauninman is missing a trick?

Then I read this tweet from Shaun later:

To all the self-hosted app haters: People said the same thing about Mint. Different strokes and all.

That got to me a bit. I know he’s not refering to me directly, but to be refered to as part of a group of ”haters“ made me feel a bit… put off. This came across as a little bit defensive and confrontational, and probably bought on by stress and tiredness. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned about posting things when stressed or tired, and it’s that you just shouldn’t do it. You can come across as incredibly condescending and insulting without even realising.

Then it started getting a bit ugly:

Waiting for my Fever (http://www.feedafever.com) license to compare against Feedly. Hurry the fk up Inman!

.@nevercertified what a wonderful thing to wake up to. I don’t do business with people who curse at me. Expect a refund shortly.

A little shrift I thought, and a bit uncomfortable, like watching a fight at a wedding. But again, this is Shaun’s venture, so he’s perfectly entitled to do business with whomever and however he likes. But as a potential buyer, it made me think ”do I really want to give this guy my cash?“ Particularly when I read this:

I have no patience for impatient people. So we have something in common people.

So what am I trying to get at here? Well, it made me think of three things:

1. Can transparency and honesty go too far when you’re using Twitter for business? Shaun seems to be using it for three things: to post his musings, promote his products and provide product support (in the form of status updates). When personal and professional threads start to mix, it can start to get confusing from an observer’s point of view, and maybe even potentially hazardous to the reputation of you and your services.

2. I’m all for honesty and transparency, and advocate them as central virtues to the way that my own business is run. But I wonder whether honesty and transparency can give way to being casual and flippant sometimes? I guess this comes down to whether you can be open and honest whilst still maintaining a certain amount of professionalism.

3. I won’t be buying a license for Fever. Sorry Shaun, as lovely as it looks and as talented as you are, I’ve been put off.