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# Marc Canter came back at me, and all I got was this lousy T-shirt
- URL: https://werd.io/marc-canter-came-back-at-me-and-all-i-got-was-this-lousy-t-shirt/
- Published: 2007-02-08T10:27:18.000Z
- Updated: 2025-06-12T11:01:05.000Z
- Author: Ben Werdmuller
- Tags: General, #ben-684a32da145d7d001be71dae, #Migrated-1749693130536, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2025-06-11 21:52

[![](http://farm1.static.flickr.com/54/143346264_a98e3c67ec_m.jpg)](http://www.flickr.com/photos/traftery/143346264/)

Whoops, [I incurred the wrath of Marc Canter](http://blog.broadbandmechanics.com/2007/02/coming-back-at-ben-werdmuller), who responded to [my post singing Elgg's praises](http://elgg.net/bwerdmuller/weblog/151663.html) with one entitled, *coming back at Ben Werdmuller*. Marc is the founder of Macromedia (formerly MacroMind, now part of Adobe), and one of the giants of modern computing, not to mention [an excellent singer-songwriter](http://youtube.com/watch?v=vbYg-dgpUAs), so I've got to confess to being a little proud to be at the receiving end of his snark.

So, some quick replies to the "missing features" he lists:

**Groups** Okay, so we call them communities. They're there, have been for years.

**Now where's that XFN and FOAF support?** Actually, we've been doing FOAF pretty much since the year dot. Trouble is, nobody actually *uses* it. Show me the consumer applications. Or, in fact, any significant applications that even produce it. It's a bit like IMS in the educational world; you can shout all you want about it, and tout it as an important commercial feature, but in reality it doesn't really make much of a difference to anything. Ditto, SCORM. Or XFN.

What I do agree is that there needs to be some kind of standard that reliably covers the sort of data FOAF was meant to represent, in a flexible way.

**Widgets.** Dashboard, anyone? Watch out for the profile in version 0.8.

**Messages and meta networks** You've got me there. I'm not really sure what you mean by meta-networks - networks of networks - but there's a portal for Elgg social networks on the cards.

**Full media galleries (video, audio and photos)** We've got a flexible system that allows anyone to create any kind of file folder. The example one we've provided is a photo gallery, and don't worry - the podcast folder, and a folder that will automatically convert videos to FLV movies you can play straight from the browser, a la Youtube, are coming soon.

**MySpace-in-a-Box** We have that, and more. Although, compared to Myspace, Elgg users are a lot less likely to show various parts of their body in their photo gallery (whether this is a good or bad thing is up to your personal preferences).

Now, what we also have is a developer community, the ability for anyone to take our software and build it into something that fits their needs *for free*, and the kind of responsiveness and flexibility that only open source software can provide.

And a promise that I will never, ever, *ever* sing for you. Probably.

**Update:** As [Dave points out](http://elgg.net/dtosh/weblog/152201.html), the real winners here are users. Choice, and competition, can only be a good thing.

*Image is by [Tom Raftery](http://www.flickr.com/photos/traftery/), and included largely because Marc put my photo on his post.*