Bearbook goes live as of midnight tonight.

[allanh]

I've been beta-testing a bearish version of Facebook, called Bearbook. It's got some potential, although it'll take a while to achieve critical mass

Comments

[fj]

Their description raises a couple of red flags for me ("we built everything ourselves" is actually not a good thing to this former Software Engineer), but the worst is that it is simply primitive looking. Like 1999 visually primitive. Like they were too cheap to ask a Graphic Design student to try it as a portfolio freebee project. The logo design is fun but good god the site is just a visual mess.

[allanh]

You've just summarized all of my highly detailed feedback during the beta testing. And I gave a large amount of of GUI feedback, most of which was ignored.

Even more frighteningly, this IS an improvement from what was first presented.

[fj]

Well hey, if you really want detailed feedback about flows and which elements need to be on the same page, there's nobody better to ask than someone on the Aspie / Autie spectrum, so at least they asked one right person!

[allanh]

The original logo and background colors were so badly selected that everything was mostly unreadable.

In ANY browser.

[bigjohnsf]

IAWTC

Pay-only in this day and age is the model for promoting 'exclusivity' -- which isn't the stated goal.

[fuzzygruf]

My pre-registration never did get a promo code emailed to me today, so thanks for letting me use your referral to get set up.

[abqdan]

I hope they're not attached to the name. Facebook have just been awarded a trademark to the word "Face" in the title of any kind of social site; and they are currently applying for the same protection for the word "book".

I am aghast that these decisions are handed down - there used to be general consensus that generic words could not be copyright or trademark protected; but of course Microsoft started the rot when they successfully defended their rights to the word "windows".