[toomanybits]

This smacks of being heavily one-product-focussed to me. Being a Kafka user it's hard enough managing and understanding one system, nevermind three or four joined together.

Maybe it's a bit faster or a bit more elastic, or whatever, who knows. What I really care about is whether I get called at 3am and in that regard the argument seems pretty weak. Kafka for all its woes is a solid system you know you can count on.

I'd much rather see someone come up with a truly innovative alternative that actually pushes the boundaries, rather than just copying what's there already, and adding a few window dressings.

[Jedd]

What kind of (lower level) surrogate metrics would you be interested in that could translate to '3am phone calls' when comparing messaging systems?

[toomanybits]

Being used by at least one company of significant size that (a) i've heard of and (b) isn't directly connected to the project would be a good start.