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Posterous cofounders create a replacement: Posthaven

posthaven.com

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Re: Posterous cofounders create a replacement: Posthaven

#91

Post by garry »

jmathai wrote: post #21
bradgessler wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a pledge: Our pledge to you... We'll never be acquired. We'll always keep your URL's online. We'll always keep it the best place to post. And they charge $5 per month, so the sustainability is more clear. I've talked to Garry and Brett about Post Haven and they are genuinely committed to making this work as they pledge on the website.

I can't get to the site so I'm not sure what the details are but if the following aren't in place then those are empty promises. - Open source the code - Allow users to supply their own domain - An API (not "coming soon...") If all those are in place then great :) [edit] Looks like the site doesn't support any of the 3 - facepalm

Both 2 and 3 are certainly in the plans. How could we not have an API? And custom domains?

Brett and I have discussed #1 and it's an option we want to keep on the table. First priority is to build and create a great hosted experience, however.

Re: Posterous cofounders create a replacement: Posthaven

#92

Post by tferris »

garry wrote: post #44
jbail wrote: post #31

How can anyone believe this will hold true? Especially coming from the founders of Posterous who sold out and then shuttered their service? Was Posterous created to not be sustainable? If so, then Posterous's users were duped from the get go into using something that the founders knew wasn't sustainable and would eventually disappear. That's not a good way to treat users and it surely doesn't inspire confidence in th…

When I started working on Posterous in 2008, I intended to work on it forever. It didn't work out that way, and I left in January of 2011. It was a venture-funded company by then and we were committed to super-growth, not sustainability. We never started charging for the product. Posthaven is the result of my experience with that. I know the world needs a simple, clean, well-lit, easy place to post. One that doesn't…

> When I started working on Posterous in 2008 ..

Just wondering: how can somebody start again something he worked already years on? I understand that you might learned a lot with Posterous and now you'd like to just employ that knowledge in a new blog project. But is it not a bit dangerous to stick to the same thing over years? You could loose time and after ten years looking back and you pity that you just worked only on blog systems. I don't want to talk blogs down, they are a very interesting use case and I still think there's room for improvement but in terms of spreading the bets and just the need to start something totally new I am a bit confused that you do the same thing over and over again (and I didn't see any disruptive feature or new angle with Posthaven).

Re: Posterous cofounders create a replacement: Posthaven

#93

Post by jarek »

a4agarwal wrote: post #83
garry wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I started working on Posterous in 2008, I intended to work on it forever. It didn't work out that way, and I left in January of 2011. It was a venture-funded company by then and we were committed to super-growth, not sustainability. We never started charging for the product. Posthaven is the result of my experience with that. I know the world needs a simple, clean, well-lit, easy place to post. One that doesn't…

We both wanted hyper growth. We both wanted venture funding. We both wanted a lasting company. It's not easy and I didn't quit. I built a team. Accountability and execution in the company. It's not as easy as it sounds. We made mistakes and learned. I think everyone did well and are on to great things.

Out of curiosity, where will you be moving the blog hosted at http://sachin.posterous.com/?

Re: Posterous cofounders create a replacement: Posthaven

#94

Post by benatkin »

garry wrote: post #47
fotbr wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should I trust that this will last longer, given the same people are involved? The fact that you charge $5 / month? What do I get for $5 / month versus, say, my own VPS running whatever blog software I choose for the same money (or less)?

I have run many personal servers. They all come and go. They get hacked. I lose interest. The content goes away forever, except if I'm lucky enough for it to get picked up in http://archive.org . Posthaven is like that, but you don't have to hope. It will get archived. Self-hosting is great and I don't think we'll ever replace it. But for the vast majority of personal content out there, you want a caretaker. I hope y…

Self-hosting is great and it has better solutions to these problems than the alternative.

And you absolutely do have to hope.

Re: Posterous cofounders create a replacement: Posthaven

#95

Post by benatkin »

garry wrote: post #55
webwanderings wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The world has an option to sign-up for a free blog through Google, Tumblr and even wordpress.com (though Wordpress.com's free is not free like Google/Tumblr). So what makes you think the world will sign up for $5 service?

I am not here to 'kill' those services. Previously with Posterous we were very aggressive about that. I think people should use the service that is best for them. For some it will be wordpress.com, self-hosted Wordpress, Squarespace, and others. We're making it for ourselves. It's a long-term project. If we make good software, then it doesn't matter if there are 500 users or 5 million.

> Previously with Posterous we were very aggressive about that.

LOL. I remember that. http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/22/posterous-targets-ning-in-m...

Re: Posterous cofounders create a replacement: Posthaven

#96

Post by benatkin »

garry wrote: post #47
fotbr wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should I trust that this will last longer, given the same people are involved? The fact that you charge $5 / month? What do I get for $5 / month versus, say, my own VPS running whatever blog software I choose for the same money (or less)?

I have run many personal servers. They all come and go. They get hacked. I lose interest. The content goes away forever, except if I'm lucky enough for it to get picked up in http://archive.org . Posthaven is like that, but you don't have to hope. It will get archived. Self-hosting is great and I don't think we'll ever replace it. But for the vast majority of personal content out there, you want a caretaker. I hope y…

How about a caretaker running open source software on your own domain? Like ZippyKid, WordPress.com, page.ly...

Re: Posterous cofounders create a replacement: Posthaven

#97

Post by jmathai »

garry wrote: post #91
jmathai wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't get to the site so I'm not sure what the details are but if the following aren't in place then those are empty promises. - Open source the code - Allow users to supply their own domain - An API (not "coming soon...") If all those are in place then great :) [edit] Looks like the site doesn't support any of the 3 - facepalm

Both 2 and 3 are certainly in the plans. How could we not have an API? And custom domains? Brett and I have discussed #1 and it's an option we want to keep on the table. First priority is to build and create a great hosted experience, however.

That's good to hear. You would be surprised how many services (even new) don't have public APis. I didn't see it mentioned on the site which is why I assumed it didn't exist.

By custom domains I mean user supplied top level domains. Definitely have a read on how we view URL permanence [1]. I wish more sites thought about it and glad you already are.

[1] http://blog.theopenphotoproject.org/post/10537443380/namespa...

Re: Posterous cofounders create a replacement: Posthaven

#98

Post by jwwest »

So much negativity for something that doesn't matter all that much. Does anyone believe that anything can truly be around forever? Will Posthaven be around in 5 years? Probably. 10? Looking dimmer. 20? No way.

I look at it like your favorite store. Every year the odds of something dramatic happening in which it will shut down are played against it. Everything is transient, it's life. I've bounced around a lot of blogging platforms, and personally it's not a huge deal at all. Sure, it's a bit of a pain to spend a day or so settling in and changing your DNS, but is it really that bad?

When someone says "it'll be around forever" my BS radar starts beeping like mad. And that's ok.

Re: Posterous cofounders create a replacement: Posthaven

#99

Post by jwwest »

tferris wrote: post #92
garry wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I started working on Posterous in 2008, I intended to work on it forever. It didn't work out that way, and I left in January of 2011. It was a venture-funded company by then and we were committed to super-growth, not sustainability. We never started charging for the product. Posthaven is the result of my experience with that. I know the world needs a simple, clean, well-lit, easy place to post. One that doesn't…

> When I started working on Posterous in 2008 .. Just wondering: how can somebody start again something he worked already years on? I understand that you might learned a lot with Posterous and now you'd like to just employ that knowledge in a new blog project. But is it not a bit dangerous to stick to the same thing over years? You could loose time and after ten years looking back and you pity that you just worked on…

It worked for Foursquare. If I recall correctly, they had sold Dodgeball to Google then turned around and created the exact same product.

Re: Posterous cofounders create a replacement: Posthaven

#100

Post by jeremymcanally »

garry wrote: post #13
bfe wrote: post #12

Thanks very much for making this available, garry, I appreciate it. (FYI I'm still getting the 503 for now but I'll keep checking in.)

Please visit https://posthaven.com for now. Brett and I are working on fixing the servers asap.

I can sign up but submitting payment is still throwing errors. Is that normal right now? :/
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