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Typepad is shutting down

everything.typepad.com

21–30 of 94 posts

Re: Typepad is shutting down

#22
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no doubt that it wasn't vc profitable, but my assumption (without any inside info) is that the real issue is that they were using some hacked up version of Movable Type that they couldn't upgrade. It's frustrating though because imho it's arguably still the best blog platform to this day.

Movable Type is, perhaps shockingly, still being actively developed; version 9 is coming out later this year. I’m not sure who the customer base is at this point—some years ago, they dropped the open source version and personal pricing and went to a very enterprise-ish $499/yr model—but I guess somebody is still giving them money.

> very enterprise-ish $499/yr model

$500 ÷ 12 = 41.67 per month.

For a personal/fun publishing platform that might be a bit pricey, but that's less than what many people pay for their cell phone plan.

Re: Typepad is shutting down

#23
post #8

Was this just not profitable? Or not vc extra growth profitable?

Does anyone read blogs anymore? Social media seems to have completely replaced them.

I’d make a guess almost 50% of front page posts on HN are to blog posts, so I imagine so.

Re: Typepad is shutting down

#24
post #8

Was this just not profitable? Or not vc extra growth profitable?

Does anyone read blogs anymore? Social media seems to have completely replaced them.

I still read a ton of blogs. Try this for size:

https://github.com/kilimchoi/engineering-blogs

Re: Typepad is shutting down

#26

They're using the phrases "deactivated" and "not available to you" a number of times. No mentions of "delete" or "removed" on the page.

I was thinking the same thing. "Deactivated" is different from "deleted."

I’m not a customer, but in today’s world, I would actually prefer that when the service shuts down, all accounts and published data are destroyed. Just wiped completely. Otherwise, what are the odds that customer PII gets sold off and the service owner licenses the previously hosted posts and comments to an AI company?

Re: Typepad is shutting down

#27
post #8

Was this just not profitable? Or not vc extra growth profitable?

Does anyone read blogs anymore? Social media seems to have completely replaced them.

You read blogs and scroll through social media posts. One is not a substitute for the other. So yes, I and many others still read blogs.

Re: Typepad is shutting down

#29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Movable Type is, perhaps shockingly, still being actively developed; version 9 is coming out later this year. I’m not sure who the customer base is at this point—some years ago, they dropped the open source version and personal pricing and went to a very enterprise-ish $499/yr model—but I guess somebody is still giving them money.

> very enterprise-ish $499/yr model $500 ÷ 12 = 41.67 per month. For a personal/fun publishing platform that might be a bit pricey, but that's less than what many people pay for their cell phone plan.

That’s fair; it just makes it pretty steep at the low end compared to many other hosted solutions like Ghost, WordPress, or Squarespace. It gives the strong impression that they’re not looking for new customers as much as trying to keep existing commercial ones on board for as long as possible.

Re: Typepad is shutting down

#30
post #8

Was this just not profitable? Or not vc extra growth profitable?

Does anyone read blogs anymore? Social media seems to have completely replaced them.

So I've been recently just skimming through (next post -> next post etc) Kagi Smallweb and it's been a lot fun. Good way to discover new stuff easily. I actually wish they had more content though.
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