"Absorb what is useful, Discard what is not, Add what is uniquely your own" - Bruce Lee
The basic concepts of forums are nothing new - I realize that as much as anyone. I was running a BBS discussion board over my parent's home phone line with a 14.4k squealing modem back in high school - one user at a time - a loooong time ago! I also developed a forum (more like a ticketing system) inside of Nortel corp in the late 90s (Intranet use only); and I was a developer on a commercial bulletin board software while working in San Francisco that was licensing for (gasp!) $35k, circa 2000. Forum offerings have sprung up like pando trees since. [Thanks, Sarah Lacy]
It has already been done, but "It" is a generic concept.
So why has Launch.forum been something I've wanted to do since early in my days leading the vBSEO team?
We're not inventing something completely original - and that's not our goal. It's not on that scale of innovation. What we're evolving is as much about what to take away as what to add. While that may be an underappreciated design philosophy, if we're honest it's been one of the most important factors in the success of the Web 2.0 movement with leaders including guys like Jason Fried of 37Signals.
You have look at what is out there, and ask yourself honestly if you're satisfied. If the sticking points you find are something thousands (or even millions) of others will also run up against, then there is an opportunity. Launch.forum represents the opportunity we see, to provide a powerful but uber-easy to use community software. Although there are some great apps out there now, we don't think it's been done completely right... yet.
We take the basic concept of a discussion board, and we "absorb what is useful, discard what is not". We plan to borrow the best bits from other startups (of all types) with concepts as simple as the "Like" feature or the Facebook connect login - these features are valuable no-brainers.
In fact, although it's very difficult to add anything that hasn't already been done somewhere in some way, we do have some stuff coming up that will be "uniquely our own". We've cracked that nut "like water"! ;)
What works? Let's keep it.
What's unnecessary? Let's discard it.
What's too difficult? Let's rework it.
What unique features can we add to make LF a more powerful forum platform for our users? Let's solve it.
"Less is more" doesnt' mean stripped down to nothing. It means focusing on the most powerful features that matter. It's a carbon fiber mentality. It's a Bruce Lee deal.
Now all we need to seek is the speed of Bruce Lee... and suddenly we can hang with the Chuck Norris types in the forum world. That is the part, we bootstrapped brethren, need to work on! =)
Image Source: Motifake.com
