Scott Sanders from FeedLounge responded to my rant from yesterday. Which is nice of him.
He feels that his company is doing the best it can, given a bootstrapped mentality. I can’t argue that, since I don’t know FeedLounge the way I know some of the other Web 2.0 companies. In fact, yesterday was the first time I remember going to their site, so I really can’t say I know them at all.
He says their process was much healthier than my rant claimed:
1. Build a webapp, see if the features are compelling to a set of users, keeping a design in mind that is capable of scaling
2. Overrun the shared server that you are using, switch to dedicated server, so you can properly measure the effects of the application.
3. Add more users, adding requested features from the users, measuring the load in a fixed, known environment, and start work on “Distributed” part of ladder. The is where the build portion of the scalability starts.
4. Now that you believe you have something that has value, invest in the hardware and software development necessary to scale. Continue working on priority based tasks towards release of your product.
While I’m not entirely sure that the app kept in mind a scaleable design from day one, I really can’t argue. And, truth be told, I don’t want to. As long as companies are thinking about scaleability I’m happy.
My rant probably shouldn’t have been so directed at FeedBurner. However I’m running into these scenarios too often where companies suddenly can’t meet the demands of their users and, as a user, it pisses me off. Because, really, there’s no reason for user performance to EVER suffer if all users of your service need to sign up in order to use it, unless you have rogue users. As long as you can turn off user sign up, isn’t it best in the long run for your current users to be happy while you fix issues?
Maybe it’s been too long since I had to build a company from the ground up. But in my mind, if your users come first, then your users need to come first.
It’s slightly harder on folk like Technorati and Feedster who provide open services. And it’s even more challenging for ad networks (who I’ve also spent considerable time with) because if they allow one new publisher in, it can add 30% to the average load overnight.
I guess the low-down is that if you’re a company that provides a service, you either need to be ready to scale or you need to be ready to limit access to your service. Users shouldn’t suffer. But if they do, at least communicate. Thankfully, that’s something FeedLounge does really, really, really well.
I guess they’re made of different stuff than most of the companies I deal with. Best of luck to you guys, and sorry my rant put you in the crosshairs 
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