Back to campfire, I guess.
Mibbit is an option ;)
Grove.io shutting down
51–60 of 205 posts
Re: Grove.io shutting down
#52This is why I refuse to use external services hosted by small/tiny companies that haven't open-sourced their tech. Even in this moment, they still don't seem to be bothering to open source any of it. There's a lesson to be learnt here in terms of gaining buyer trust when you're small. I continue to use our own setup for IRC.
Its a self-fulfilling prophesy. You can't get big without customers, but customers won't use you because you're small. How do we overcome this? (Edit: I was asking a rhetorical question to counter the parent. But great discussion below.)
Did you miss the "that haven't open-sourced their tech" part in the parent?
Re: Grove.io shutting down
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
Its a self-fulfilling prophesy. You can't get big without customers, but customers won't use you because you're small. How do we overcome this? (Edit: I was asking a rhetorical question to counter the parent. But great discussion below.)
Sell software and a service. Make it so I can install your code and run it indefinitely. Provide your source to paying customers. See Atlassian for an example.
Open source with a service is an exciting model, a lot of network effects but also greater up front investment. We are doing this with getfwd.com
Re: Grove.io shutting down
#54I have never used IRC. How is it better than Google Chat?
Re: Grove.io shutting down
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
Its a self-fulfilling prophesy. You can't get big without customers, but customers won't use you because you're small. How do we overcome this? (Edit: I was asking a rhetorical question to counter the parent. But great discussion below.)
No NO.. it's not because they're small. It's because tech start-ups have a history of shutting down or selling, and leaving their users in the dust. The list is long. Another recent example was Sparrow. I broke my rule about buying/licensing software from small companies (unless I got the source) with Sparrow. I didn't just buy 1 copy, I (we) brought 15 (for the office). And of course, I got burned. Again. It will no…
It is not only tech start-ups that do that. Big tech companies regularly kill or sell off divisions or product lines. Most times, a start-up might still be on its first product line, which makes you think selling off their single product line or single division in this instance the whole company to be different from what the tech giants do when they sell or kill off product lines or divisons.
Start-ups with more than one product line, sometimes sell off one product and keep the rest acting thesame way big companies do. So, Yext a start-up sold their Felix product line to IAC eg:
http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/20/iac-buys-yexts-pay-per-call...
An example of a giant doing thesame thing:
http://techland.time.com/2012/04/26/google-sells-sketchup-wa...
I have shown above, an example of start-ups and giants selling a product line. You can Google around for example of tech giants and start-ups with more than one product, killing off a product line.
Re: Grove.io shutting down
#56Great move writing a Python export script.
Re: Grove.io shutting down
#57This is why I refuse to use external services hosted by small/tiny companies that haven't open-sourced their tech. Even in this moment, they still don't seem to be bothering to open source any of it. There's a lesson to be learnt here in terms of gaining buyer trust when you're small. I continue to use our own setup for IRC.
Its a self-fulfilling prophesy. You can't get big without customers, but customers won't use you because you're small. How do we overcome this? (Edit: I was asking a rhetorical question to counter the parent. But great discussion below.)
You overcome it by offering something valuable for users that they can't easily setup themselves.
As far as I can see, Grove.io didn't do this. They didn't have any easy means to grow quickly.
Also perhaps they're paying a lot for hosting (At rackspace). I don't know, but there's no reason they shouldn't be making some profit if they have a few paying customers. Shame they can't build on that.
Re: Grove.io shutting down
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
Its a self-fulfilling prophesy. You can't get big without customers, but customers won't use you because you're small. How do we overcome this? (Edit: I was asking a rhetorical question to counter the parent. But great discussion below.)
No NO.. it's not because they're small. It's because tech start-ups have a history of shutting down or selling, and leaving their users in the dust. The list is long. Another recent example was Sparrow. I broke my rule about buying/licensing software from small companies (unless I got the source) with Sparrow. I didn't just buy 1 copy, I (we) brought 15 (for the office). And of course, I got burned. Again. It will no…
Did you really get burned with Sparrow though? You bought software, not a service. Them being bought, and shut down, by Google has zero effect on you given that you can continue to use their software. Forever.
Re: Grove.io shutting down
#59Why shut down if you have paying customers? Just let it run. Servers are dirt cheap, there's no way they are losing money at their prices.
Re: Grove.io shutting down
#60It's getting a little difficult to trust stuff by Leah Culver. Everything (that I know of) that she has done so far has either shut down or been acquired and shut down. That said, no hard feelings. It's hard out there. I've never tried to run a company, so I can't judge.
Leah is out there creating things, writing code and spending valuable time on new ventures, despite the risk and opportunity cost. I admire her courage and creativity and I can't imagine why you would say something like this. I'm sure she would have loved to have all of her projects succeed. Grove.io is a high quality service. We love using it at Leftronic and are very sad to read this news. I wish Leah and her team…
I'm not sure what I said that was so terrible. I think Leah is great and I really hate hear news like this. I also agree that the service was good. My sole point is that companies that use this service also get hurt by this shutdown. When it happens several times as it unfortunately has in her case, you start to worry about new ventures disappearing too.
It is in no way a shot at Leah or her work. It's just a recognition of history.