Nice Tic-Tac-Toe game! :)

[Update: Added a mini interview to the post.]

It disconnects me every 7 seconds and after looking at their forum i found that I'm not alone.

This AppJet thing is awesome.... an IDE/ hosting combo for server-side Javascripts that (get compiled and transparently) run on backend JVM spewing out standard html stream in return. Lots of potential indeed, well done. I like the no-lock-in clause especially:
http://appjet.com/docs/faq#lockin

Try this for a sample app;
http://shoutbox.appjet.net/

Ok, I will be a critic.
There is really no reason for EtherPad's existence. The website is crowded – yes crowded, the logo is lame, information is not secure, the website disconnects every few seconds and it's features are like the beta stages of Google Docs.

I did think that the actors of EtherPad's 90-Second Screencast are better then that of yaoti.com :)

Hi! Wondering if you have ever seen METANOTES ? it's real-time too – you can see other users moving notes in real time. http://www.metanotes.com – would love to know what you think :)

The idea for EtherPad comes from SubEthaEdit, a mac program that does the same thing. There's also Gobby which is similar and cross-platform.

James, IMO the idea itself of having several people edit the same document (with color codes) isn't too special, but bringing it into the browser in fast & working fashion – with no log-in required --, now that's more special. Having everyone be able to use it on any OS without any installation can make all the difference... after all it puts the platform from "share with a very limited portion of users" to "share with a massive portion of users." (But I'm not even saying EtherPad is the first *web app* to do this. Google Spreadsheets, to name just one, offers similar functionality. But... sometimes subtle changes in product and idea evolution can make big differences in what something is used for.)

There's also MoonEdit, which works on the Windows and Linux platforms.

I'm pretty excited about EtherPad. There may be other programs that let you collaboratively edit, but EtherPad is the first one that hasn't required you to hope and pray the fellow you want to collaborate with is smart enough to download and install that software and get it to connect properly (and heaven help you if your firewall blocks the port it wants to use!).

All you have to do with EtherPad is share the URL and bang, you're both there.

I've already written two stories with it (I started a pad while they were still open, before they closed the beta) for an on-line fiction site. It worked great. I hope they hurry up and open it up again (or at least let me into the beta!).

Being web based is extremely important, and if EtherPad can provide faster collaboration than Google Docs that is a valuable feature. More of the features like saving files and importing or exporting would make EP really useful. AppJet is a wonderful website & server framework, and this is a nice example of its capabilities :)