This gets weirder by the minute. Dave Winer releases a new product, that while neat, is not earth-shattering, called FlickrFan. The concept has been around for a while, in various implementations and combining different elements of source, feed, and display.

The key thing here is the he releases what he called a Manifesto — said manifesto not really encompassing much, really. Further, he temporarily replaces Scripting News with a big FlickrFan beta release page, hiding his blog and linking to said Manifesto.

Maybe I’m missing the point of a manifesto, but isn’t it the sort of thing that you think about beforehand, work out the implications, then plant yourself solidly behind? Now DW says “The tech blogosphere tends to rush to decide about things” (true), but also cops an aw-shucks-this-is-just-a-little-thing-I’m-evolving attitude:

I wanted to get a base of users going, and learn and evolve the software, so far it looks pretty good, so the next step is to evaluate, listen, fix the most serious bugs I can find, think, and then move forward.

Then damn it Dave, why did you come up with a Manifesto? Did you get your Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 personalities all mixed up?

Let me put it in pseudo-code for you:

public const Manifesto = "foo"; // unchanging
delta(Manifesto) == splinter groups + heresy + apostasy + recriminations;
evolution = -Manifesto;

I think the best thing you could do right now is to say something along the lines of “I’m really excited about this, but perhaps I went a little overboard. Forgive my exuberance.” Or, you could implicitly refuse to acknowledge the negative feedback and put up glowing links from DW hem-grabbers. Your call, obviously.

P.S. Props to hem-grabber Don Park for using the words “throbbing” and “ass” in the same hyperbolic statement of support for FlickrFan. Yes, I can be that juvenile. Nick Denton: I’m for hire!