The Ultimate Dev Resource: Users

I’ve been on Pownce since I was able to get an invitation back in the invite only days, so when the iPhone app store launch I got the Pownce iPhone app right away.  To be honest I’ve struggled with actually using Pownce regularly, and that’s been for a few reasons.

Pownce started out very small intentionally, but since it went public it still has yet to <em>really</em> blow up, at least from my perspective as a user.  Another reason Pownce never really took off for me is that I didn’t really have a way to differentiate it from my use of twitter, and I’ve never felt inclined to send the same updates to every service I have an account on that has a status account (This is mainly because not every service I have has the same expectation. I can write more about this in another post).  That said Pownce did quickly differentiate itself from twitter with it’s filesharing feature (link sharing and events as well, but I can copy and past links, and facebook has events).  For me though, the file sharing feature was too limited to catch on as a winner feature, both by “hard” restrictions (the original free file share size was 10mb) and by “soft” restrictions (initially and still today) pownce as a relatively small user base compared to other social networking sites.

While I didn’t intend to reiterate the history of my personal experience with Pownce this does allow me to highlight things Pownce has addressed over time.  The current free file sharing size has been upped tenfold to 100 mb, and the site itself as well as the iPhone app are a great example of utilizing user suggestions and feedback as a part of your development cycle.

Recently while I was using the Pownce iPhone app and created a note about images not being displayed properly.  I didn’t really think too much of it but was just making an observation and figured it would be fixed in due time.  Shortly after sending the note, I got a response from Mike Malone, a developer at Pownce.  Here’s the note itself:

Pownce Response from Mike Malone

Never before have I experienced the creator of a product using that product itself to contact me directly and display concern for not only my thought as a user, but his committment as a developer.  This single response in itself I found quite impressive.  A few days later Mike outdid himself and sent out a note asking all Pownce users what features they would like to see in the coming update of the Pownce iPhone application.

Pownce is a lot of fun, and as time passes it keeps improving and the service just gets better as its users grow with it.  Pownce still has a lot of potential and that potential only grows as the user base does.  I think Mike, Leah, Daniel, and company have shown amazing dedication to their users and their product. Everyone benefits from their hard work and devotion, and as far as I’m concerned that’s an excellent way to make software.