I know we've been over this a million times before, but the whole "FAIL" thing really turns me off. I actually agree with the points but had to force myself to click the link because I immediately assumed the OP was a linkbating troll.
Your complaint seems to be that few people are logged on at any one time, but that's not necessary to use Wave. It isn't a very good IM system anyway, so it's pointless to try to use it that way.<p><a href="http://danieltenner.com/posts/0012-google-wave.html" rel="nofollow">http://danieltenner.com/posts/0012-google-wave.html</a>
Google Wave is not in beta. It's in public preview. Right now they're not interested in being useful to you or any other user; they're still building and designing the damn thing. The only reason they let you on is so they have a bunch of new user activity to process.<p>The very fact that people are complaining that it's disappointing means that Google is doing just fine. It might be disappointing to you, the eager early adopter, but it's not stupid on their part. The very fact that you want to have all your friends come use it (I do too) means that whenever Google <i>does</i> decide to open the tap, they will have all the users they want.<p>The network effect is crucial for getting a new communications tool off the ground. And as soon as Google wants to take advantage of the network effect, they'll give you and me some more invitations and I assure you, we won't have any problem finding folks to accept. In the meantime, we're still playing in Google's sandbox.<p>EDIT: Incidentally, as further evidence of the fact that Google is leveraging exactly as much of the network effect as they feel like leveraging: the thing it does where anybody in your GMail contacts is automatically added to your Google Wave contact list is fuckin' brilliant. It's a great way to encourage use, by making sure that as many people as I'm likely to be interested in using Wave with are directly accessible to be contacted, without my even having to say, 'So, did you get a Google Wave invite? Let me know when you're in and we'll chat!'
The deeper message "invites should go out to social circles" is spot on. Gmail's rollout policy worked because our network was already accessible (via other email providers).<p>For something inherently social without a pre-seeded network like wave, it only makes sense to roll it out to social clusters.
I agree that the invite process is all wrong, but for a different reason.
Google should be encouraging users to invite others for a practical purpose, ie working on a project together. Having a specific purpose in mind when being invited to Wave would greatly help people understand and evaluate the usefulness for collaboration.
Instead, people just clamor for invites to try out the hyped new thing by Google rather than to fulfill any real need they have, and then click around randomly, use Wave like a chat, and get annoyed when "nobody's online".
They're setting people up for disillusionment and disappointment this way.
To be honest, I am not at all surprised at the frustration most people are seeing with the Google Wave invite system. What I am surprised, is that so many people did not seem to expect it.<p>What people are forgetting is that this system is a closed proprietary system, unlike GMail.
Yes, invites to GMail were scarce, and if I remember correctly even sold for hundreds of dollars on ebay. The difference between GMail and Google Wave (GWave? yes/no? ;) is that when you were invited to gmail, you were invited to use a new "interface" of an existing and mature protocol - email. You didn't have to wait to "show off" your gmail account to your friends, you simply had to send them an email.<p>Google Wave requires mass adoption of something that is inherently closed (unless they open this protocol to other companies) and so will suffer from a slower adoption rate, and as a consequence, a lower utility rate, even if the invite system ceases to exist at all.<p>To be honest, I'm not sure if this is an issue. Many of my friends who got invites seem to think that Google Wave is going to revolutionize _chat_, but I don't think this was ever the claim. It may yet revolutionize collaboration, but in order to collaborate effectively you don't need to just sit there and wait for people to log on -- start a wave, invite some friends, and watch it evolve.<p>edit: to follow up on my 'non issue' comment. My point is that for Google Wave to be useful, only those who wish to collaborate together will really need to adopt it, not your entire google contact list. If a company signs up their domain for google wave, you can be almost certain that they will make much better use of it than I will with my group of friends on an individual level
I am always put off by the "limited supply" approach of Google. Disclaimer: I did not get a Wave invite, maybe because I did not even apply, but still. So they seem to think I am not cool enough for their product. Guess what, I don't want to kneel down and beg for an invite. I'll look for other stuff to do instead.
I got a cheap invite off eBay (about $4.50) so I could get stuck in with the D&D side of things. So far, I'm still confused, having never played a D&D, but slowly getting there.
Agreed.<p>The #1 goal of a platform is adoption. Maybe I'm reading Google Wave wrong, but it does seem to be a platform. So unless you're adjusting for scale, why would you do anything at all to slow adoption? In fact, Twitter's failures to increase capacity didn't seem to hurt it as much as not making it completely open would have.