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Farewell, neighbors

blog.everyblock.com

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Re: Farewell, neighbors

#41

Post by ericabiz »

charlieok wrote: post #31

So if I want hyperlocal news, is there anyone right now doing that?

Reddit has some great city/state subreddits (obviously depends on how tech-friendly your city is.) http://www.reddit.com/r/austin is a pretty thriving place, for example.

Neighborhoods, in some cases, will have private groups. For instance, when I bought a house in my current neighborhood in Austin, the neighbors let me know about a private Yahoo group for this neighborhood. My neighborhood's population is just over 6,000 people. The Yahoo group has 1397 members and averages over 30 messages per day (!) Anything from "Can you recommend a plumber?" to "I have extra firewood" will show up there. The neighborhood association also prints a hard-copy newsletter that they deliver every month, which is sponsored by local businesses. (Note: We are not an HOA neighborhood--we just happen to have a pretty active population.)

Re: Farewell, neighbors

#42

Post by cryowaffle »

brk wrote: post #11
brador wrote: post #7

Startups, please don't do this. Users can become surprisingly dependent on your site, give a week warning before closing out if you can. It's not too much to ask and gives users time to prepare, move data, swap contact details, backup and such.

Users, please don't become highly dependent on "free" sites with no obvious or proven business model.

What a silly statement. What about sites that we charge for, they feel free to die? How are we supposed to know someone's business model?

Re: Farewell, neighbors

#43

Post by danso »

FireBeyond wrote: post #40
danso wrote: post #9

What a shame. Six months ago when Adrian Holovaty left, he told The Verge that he saw EveryBlock living for a "long, long time" and that MSNBC.com were "taking the long view on it": http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/16/3245325/5-minutes-on-the-v... And there was little reason to doubt him...I didn't use EB very much but it was an incredibly well executed site, in terms of its mapping and data-aggregation...it obviously…

Has Adrian written on why he left possibly as soon as he was able (assuming that Everyblock was acquired in "summer 2009", and many founders are tied to two year agreements to stay, and he left in August two years later)?

Yes, he blogged about his leaving: http://www.holovaty.com/writing/goodbye-everyblock/

FWIW, he left in August 2012, which would be three years after a summer 2009 acquisition. Also, he founded it back in July 2007...so when he says he "developed an uncontrollable itch to do something new", he probably meant it.

Before Everyblock, he's been a pioneer in utilizing data and non-traditional journalism with news sites, most notably at the LJWorld.com...so he's been in this local online news business for quite a while. I don't think this is your usual case of a founder jumping ship just out of profit motive.

Re: Farewell, neighbors

#44

Post by officemonkey »

charlieok wrote: post #31

So if I want hyperlocal news, is there anyone right now doing that?

There are thousands of independent blogs, subreddits, and local paper websites that do that everyday.

In Chicago, we have a neighborhood blog called "Uptown Update" which covers a lot of interesting news.

I can't imagine a big site being able to capture that market, unless they created a platform for bloggers/reporters to monetize their own work.

Re: Farewell, neighbors

#48

Post by brk »

mnicole wrote: post #35
brk wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Users, please don't become highly dependent on "free" sites with no obvious or proven business model.

Getting tired of this response. I'm dealing with this issue right now with Snip.it. They were clearly in talks with Yahoo! about being purchased (and potentially others as they were putting out surveys every few months about usage and purpose that I filled out each and every time), but didn't inform any of us that the site would literally be shut off late one day and we would be unable to retrieve (or even look at in…

Getting tired of this response.

Understood, but the problem seems to be growing lately in the sense of "shoestring funded" startups going for broke. When it finally becomes apparent that the business can't continue there are not always a lot of resources left for a graceful shutdown.

My opinion is that the "you owe it to your users..." idea is dangerous. That line of thinking could eventually lead to a class action lawsuit over something like "lost images" from the next failed social pic app. Which increases the costs and risks associated with trying new ideas, which discourages that innovation.

I think that users need to better understand the web-things that they grow "attached" to, and not just continually expect all web sites to be free magic unicorn tears from the sky. This "fremium" model is honestly not scaling very feel, yet people are becoming more expectant that simple sites are free. The ad-supported avenue isn't working out all that great for advertisers, site owners, or users either.

Re: Farewell, neighbors

#49

Post by mbrubeck »

knowtheory wrote: post #19

I'm curious how many of the people reading this thread have ever actually used Everyblock (and if so how often)?

I use it -- I subscribed years ago to an RSS feed for my neighborhood and it's been feeding me useful little tidbits ever since.
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