dylanjt3 said:

“The minute I heard about cloudapp (sometime before October ‘09 I think) I followed them on twitter and eagerly awaited by invite. Did it ever come? No. Never.

I’ve been waiting and waiting and starving and thirsting for this beautiful application. And I still don’t have it.

SIDENOTE: If other outsiders are as lustful as I am for this app, cloudapp already has one heck of a userbase who haven’t even used it yet.

NOW, getcloudapp.com has hibernated, leaving only their logo, name, and a nearly completed yet unchanging progress bar on the homepage.

My lust has turned into frustration. I’m using Droplr now, and if cloudapp doesn’t reward by blind dedication soon I think I’m going to stay with Droplr.

Comments? Insults? Screenshots to make me more jealous?”

I share this sentiment mostly. I feel like with the increasing amount of “beta buzz” being generated since the intro of social networks that generate word of mouth advertising for pre-release apps, there are lessons to be learned.

First and most importantly, you should have a release date in mind. Strike while the iron is hot. In this case, I was following @getcloudapp because the people I follow were testing it and loved it. I anxiously awaited my beta invite that never came and updates on development became fewer and further between. Eventually I stopped hearing about the app altogether. I would occasionally check up on the website and the twitter feed and see vague hints and nothing more. It’s been months since the last time I checked these things. They lost momentum.

Second, you have some kind of a proof of concept on the website for people to base their excitement on. At first it’s ok to be vague, but to show progress and demonstrate value outside the buzz (D.E.N.N.I.S system reference anyone?) along the way can be invaluable. Beta testers aren’t the only ones with great feature requests and ideas.

So now we have a large group of people who would’ve been cheerleaders for cloud app and are now turning to other pieces of software that do the same thing. These other apps might not be as good at doing these things as cloud app, but how do we know? The developers never showed us more than buzz and it takes more than that to make a solid app.