There's a subtle difference here that isn't being highlighted: Releasing often does not mean giving in to feature creep. Feature creep and lack of coherent direction was the failure, not release timing nor release frequency.
Releasing often is about gauging user feedback to evolve features, seeing how user's really use things and discovering what nobody foresaw. That, however, does not mean that you're supposed to give in to each and every feedback request from users. Most of all, releasing early does not absolve you of the responsibility to consider the effect the feature will have, in either its requested form or your translation thereof, on the direction of your product.
To expand on that, your users will have ideas for features that would take your product in a direction that you do not want to go. Releasing often does not mean that you have to go that way. It's perfectly fine to say, "You know what, we're not going to build that," and still keep releasing changes every couple days. Users provide feedback, but ultimately, you control the direction of the product.
So the question becomes:
(1) Do you embark on this journey as a ship, taken by the winds and currents of user feedback wherever they may roam? Or,
(2) Do you get out some oars and influence your path.
Remember, it was your vision that caused you to start this. You shouldn't discount that just because users want things you're not providing. That's not to say that you shouldn't listen to user feedback, just that you have to decide upon your philosophy and either stand firm with your product direction, be comfortable with having the direction swept out from under you when the site begins to grow, or drift somewhere in between.
I don't think we were the prey of feature creeps. The human factor of wanting to release often caused us to lose our vision. In a perfect world, it wouldn't happen but we're not part of this world.
Releasing often is about gauging user feedback to evolve features, seeing how user's really use things and discovering what nobody foresaw. That, however, does not mean that you're supposed to give in to each and every feedback request from users. Most of all, releasing early does not absolve you of the responsibility to consider the effect the feature will have, in either its requested form or your translation thereof, on the direction of your product.
To expand on that, your users will have ideas for features that would take your product in a direction that you do not want to go. Releasing often does not mean that you have to go that way. It's perfectly fine to say, "You know what, we're not going to build that," and still keep releasing changes every couple days. Users provide feedback, but ultimately, you control the direction of the product.
So the question becomes: (1) Do you embark on this journey as a ship, taken by the winds and currents of user feedback wherever they may roam? Or, (2) Do you get out some oars and influence your path.
Remember, it was your vision that caused you to start this. You shouldn't discount that just because users want things you're not providing. That's not to say that you shouldn't listen to user feedback, just that you have to decide upon your philosophy and either stand firm with your product direction, be comfortable with having the direction swept out from under you when the site begins to grow, or drift somewhere in between.