Campfire Redux

15 March 2006

Have a look here – 37signals have made some slight but significant changes to Campfire, their online chat application.

Most interesting, I think, is the move changing the 30 day trial into a more standard “free” account. This changes Campfire so it matches the model of 37signals other apps, but does mean that people now have less reason to upgrade. It also means that it’s highly likely that they’ll get more people using Campfire – even if they’re not paying.

So is more users better then fewer users, but more that pay?

I also find their upgrade of “color picker” strange, but then I find the colour picker odd in all 37signals apps (the colour picker, for those uninformed, lets you customise the colour of your pages in Campfire/Backpack/etc) – for a company that prides itself in simplicity and a minimal feature set, it seems to be a completely unnecessary feature.

Their rapid development of Campfire is to be applauded, though I still haven’t found a situation I’d use it in.

From: Articles

15 March 2006