Instapaper is going independent • Hacker News Board

Re: Instapaper is going independent

#21

Post by chmars » Mon, Jul 16, 2018, 5:03 PM UTC

bumholio wrote: post #6

rjvbk wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it still blocked? It works here, but some geo DBs locate me in Russia because my ISP bought the IP address I use from there recently.

Still blocked for me. C'mon now, I get it as an emergency measure, I get it when LA Times does it since they aren't interested in European visitors; but this here is just plain lazy.

Nobody is really GDPR-ready, however, data privacy law is about being good enough. Yep, there isn’t full compliance ever. Instapaper looks very desperate with its GDPR-lockout of EU users. I guess the EU market is mostly lost …

Re: Instapaper is going independent

#22

Post by fastbmk » Mon, Jul 16, 2018, 5:03 PM UTC

dejv wrote: post #18

chipotle_coyote wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I admit I'm rather hoping they go back to something like the pre-Pinterest "Premium" model, or perhaps better yet, just charge everyone a modest amount across the board.

+1 Instagram is (well it was) my everyday core app, something I can't really live without. I am paying like 30 USD/year for RSS reader and I would gladly pay same amount just to be sure the app is going to be alive in few years.

What RSS reader do you use?

Re: Instapaper is going independent

#23

Post by toomuchtodo » Mon, Jul 16, 2018, 5:03 PM UTC

dfabulich wrote: post #11

bthdonohue wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi Brad, Brian from Instapaper here. Just want to reassure you that's not the case here, we intend to operate Instapaper for the foreseeable future. We made this decision because we believe it’s best for both Pinterest and Instapaper.

Why is this better for Pinterest and/or Instapaper? In the 2016 blog post announcing the acquisition: http://blog.instapaper.com/post/149374303661 > All of these features and developments revolved around the core mission of Instapaper, which is allowing our users to discover, save, and experience interesting web content. In that respect, there is a lot of overlap between Pinterest and Instapaper. Joining Pinterest pr…

Synergies can turn out to not materialize post acquisition. Not a bad thing if the acquisition can be unraveled. Kudos to Pinterest for not just nuking Instapaper.

Re: Instapaper is going independent

#24

Post by soneca » Mon, Jul 16, 2018, 5:04 PM UTC

subpixel wrote: post #14

I can only imagine they dropped the $2.99/mo fee when Pinterest bought it b/c the numbers were inconsequential. Now that they will need income, they must be betting on the numbers being robust enough to support a team of 5. But I'm genuinely not sure if I'd pony up when they start charging again.

I used to be a free plan user and happy with it. The paid features (search I guess) were fine, but unnessential.

If they come back with the same feature distribution I would keep being a free user.

Re: Instapaper is going independent

#25

Post by dejv » Mon, Jul 16, 2018, 5:08 PM UTC

fastbmk wrote: post #22

dejv wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 Instagram is (well it was) my everyday core app, something I can't really live without. I am paying like 30 USD/year for RSS reader and I would gladly pay same amount just to be sure the app is going to be alive in few years.

What RSS reader do you use?

Bazqux: https://bazqux.com/

Terrible name, great little product.

Re: Instapaper is going independent

#26

Post by paulcole » Mon, Jul 16, 2018, 5:10 PM UTC

whalesalad wrote: post #7

brad0 wrote: post #4

From what I’ve seen this is usually what happens when the parent company wants to close the service down. First they spin off the service into its own company then the company shuts down because of a lack of income. Is that what’s happening here? What’s the name of this process?

Instapaper is an anomaly. It's been passed around like a stepchild since birth. I think there is a perceived-value fallacy around the number of people who use it or the intelligence that can be gleaned from knowing what people are bookmarking... but it looks like no one has been able to crack that nut. Every few years it gets passed to someone else. Nothing really ever changes... it just gets a new owner.

> It's been passed around like a stepchild since birth

Didn't Marco create it and run it independently for over 5 years?

Re: Instapaper is going independent

#27

Post by Illniyar » Mon, Jul 16, 2018, 5:11 PM UTC

brad0 wrote: post #4

From what I’ve seen this is usually what happens when the parent company wants to close the service down. First they spin off the service into its own company then the company shuts down because of a lack of income. Is that what’s happening here? What’s the name of this process?

Is it? Usually when a company wants to shut a service down they just do it.

It's a lot of work to spin the company and losing talented people that they might want to keep.

Re: Instapaper is going independent

#28

Post by microtonal » Mon, Jul 16, 2018, 5:13 PM UTC

brad0 wrote: post #4

From what I’ve seen this is usually what happens when the parent company wants to close the service down. First they spin off the service into its own company then the company shuts down because of a lack of income. Is that what’s happening here? What’s the name of this process?

From what I’ve seen this is usually what happens when the parent company wants to close the service down.

Not always. Fastmail was bought (back) from Opera by employees and they are doing fine.

Re: Instapaper is going independent

#29

Post by corobo » Mon, Jul 16, 2018, 5:13 PM UTC

Excellent news!

Not been able to use it since GDPR came into play, assumed it was down to slow large company -itis.

Peeved by it the point I was planning out my own replacement product for Instapaper. Hopefully everything is back on track soon

Re: Instapaper is going independent

#30

Post by clapsclaps » Mon, Jul 16, 2018, 5:22 PM UTC

marbletiles wrote: post #2

Was GDPR so terrifying that they had to sell it off?

I was a hardcore Instapaper premium user from the early beginnings. Nothing stopped me for continuing using the app, BUT the GDPR.

When you have duties of protect user's data and you don't comply with it, I'm done. Months ago I changed to Pocket (Mozilla owned) and I'm ok with that. I missed little stuff like the text render and other minimum things.

Just wanted to say that because protecting user's privacy is also a business model.