I will take Meteor seriously when it is acknowledged and supported by the existing node.js community and the leadership. There is a large group of module authors who are cranking out beautiful, useful modules for both the browser and server at 1000x the rate of a normal human being. I am not going to list names here but check github or npm repository, etc. It is this team that makes node.js special, not simply 'javascript on the server'. If Meteor can gain support from this _established_ community I will start taking it more seriously.

Why not use the 11M in funding to hire one of these node.js leaders full-time? Outside of Meteor, what contributions has the Meteor team made to node.js and the ecosystem of modules? The founding team has no presence in the development community and yet their technology stack is built on top of it. I need to see that people I trust in the node.js community are driving and influencing the direction Meteor is headed. In fact, its almost a warning sign if Meteor can't staff any of the node.js leadership full-time as they certainly have the cash to do so. I will be watching who they are hire next very closely.

The lack of node.js leadership in their organization is already evident in the product decisions they are making which wouldn't stand a chance if they had a true representative of the node.js community on their team. A glaring example is the decision to build their own package management solution instead of adopting npm or working with npm to drive it forward if its missing useful features. Meteor is leveraging the output of the node.js ecosystem yet not recognizing its existence in their own product. They seem to be segregating themselves.