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Posterous cofounders create a replacement: Posthaven

posthaven.com

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Re: Posterous cofounders create a replacement: Posthaven

#121

Post by davewiner »

Garry, thanks for doing this new project. We need services that are sustainable long-term. We need a solid ad-free place that people can post their thoughts and have a decent chance of having them stick around as long as the web exists.

Also suggest that you think about a pre-paid plan, for say $1000, to purchase lifetime hosting, assuming you can find a way to invest the money that pays a return that sustains the service.

Also consider partnering with some long-lived institutions, like universities, that might play a role in guaranteeing the "forever" part of the proposition.

Another possibility -- sell stock to your users. There's no reason you can't make a fortune doing this. But if you go with VC money that's going to put you on a path that isn't sustainable. If you sell stock to the public with the clear up-front understanding that this is to be a sustainable business, that might strengthen the company, not weaken it.

Re: Posterous cofounders create a replacement: Posthaven

#122

Post by davewiner »

davewiner wrote: post #121

Garry, thanks for doing this new project. We need services that are sustainable long-term. We need a solid ad-free place that people can post their thoughts and have a decent chance of having them stick around as long as the web exists. Also suggest that you think about a pre-paid plan, for say $1000, to purchase lifetime hosting, assuming you can find a way to invest the money that pays a return that sustains the se…

BTW, I received my Posterous archive and linked to it from this piece, in case anyone wants to explore.

http://threads2.scripting.com/2013/february/posterousArchive

Re: Posterous cofounders create a replacement: Posthaven

#123

Post by OGC »

qeorge wrote: post #54
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…

the founders of Posterous who sold out and then shuttered their service Seriously? Just gonna throw 'em under the bus like that? Friends like these.. Its time to stop trotting out this meme that the alternative to an "aquihire" was a sustainable business. Sometimes you've got to fish or cut bait. Ad hominem aside, trust should never be required for a good agreement. PostHaven has made a great start by killing any acq…

What the hell are Wikimedia, the EFF or archive.org going to do with a blog hoster?

Idk, but people really need to stop hyping this. It's just some company hosting _blogs_ get over yourself.

Re: Posterous cofounders create a replacement: Posthaven

#124

Post by visualcsharp »

Why are all these startups making the same mistake?

Forever is a looooong time, folks. As a business, you are completely stupid to use words like "forever," "ever," and "never." Things change, people change and users change.

Honestly, these "we'll never sell out!" pitches sound juvenile, nieve and ignorant of the realities of business and the world itself.

Re: Posterous cofounders create a replacement: Posthaven

#125

Post by Jplenbrook »

garry wrote: post #65
jbail wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the one hand, you have street cred for building an awesome product which inspires confidence that your next product will be awesome too. I don't doubt it will be awesome. But on the other hand, you did accept VC funding for Posterous (I'm assuming nobody was holding a gun to your head and forced you to do it), and for whatever reason you then left and moved onto other projects. Now you are saying you will never se…

Thanks jbail -- I don't want to dig up the past, but the truth of the matter was I didn't agree with my cofounder on the direction of Posterous, but I also wanted to support him in his pursuit of the direction he believed in. It was one of the most painful experiences to have to walk away from my baby. I think we're put on this earth to create things of great lasting value that are good for others around us. Many thi…

garry, I hope you wont let armchair quarterbacks deter you in any way from pursing your ideas.

Re: Posterous cofounders create a replacement: Posthaven

#126

Post by photorized »

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.

Multiple domains names per blog, too?

Re: Posterous cofounders create a replacement: Posthaven

#127

Post by coldtea »

tferris wrote: post #117
garry wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks jbail -- I don't want to dig up the past, but the truth of the matter was I didn't agree with my cofounder on the direction of Posterous, but I also wanted to support him in his pursuit of the direction he believed in. It was one of the most painful experiences to have to walk away from my baby. I think we're put on this earth to create things of great lasting value that are good for others around us. Many thi…

> I also wanted to support him in his pursuit of the direction he believed in Support him? By bailing out? Was it easy for your cofounder to replace your skillset? Would love to hear the whole story if you don't mind, it could help help others who are in similar situations. It's sad that cofounders who once created something together are not able to find a common understanding in later stages. Sad that both parties r…

>Support him? By bailing out?

Support him BEFORE he bailed out. Ie. he supported the VC thing, although he didn't like the direction.

As for the "skill-set", it's not as if building a web service, and such as simple one as posterous (or twitter, or tumblr) is rocket science.

Scaling it is a little harder, but still, thousands of companies and websites do it on their own. So what What ireplaceable skillset?

Re: Posterous cofounders create a replacement: Posthaven

#128

Post by coldtea »

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…

>But is it not a bit dangerous to stick to the same thing over years?

Hhh? Most people work on the same thing their whole life.

And it's not like this will be the exact same thing as Posterous was.

Re: Posterous cofounders create a replacement: Posthaven

#129

Post by Bill_Dimm »

Terretta wrote: post #109
tedunangst wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on your style guide. Sometimes the apostrophe is preferred for abbreviations because it separates the s. ie, it's not something I'd correct somebody for unless we had specifically and previously agreed to a particular style guide.

Because many people using HN are learning English as a second language, one should avoid dispensing bad writing advice. The apostrophe is for possessives and contractions. Pluralization is neither. Wrong: Greatest Hits of the 90's / The 90's' Greatest Hits / 1990's' Greatest Hits Right: Greatest Hits of the 90s / The 90s' Greatest Hits / 1990's Greatest Hits It's easy if you think of the difference between the plural…

...one should avoid dispensing bad writing advice

I think you are being a bit hard on tedunangst since his statement "Sometimes the apostrophe is preferred..." applies in situations different from your examples.

For example: "The Times (and some other publications, including the Chicago Manual of Style) do call for using an apostrophe in the plural of abbreviations that include periods."

http://afterdeadline.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/13/faqs-on-st...

You can find more discussion here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acronym#Representing_plurals_an...

Re: Posterous cofounders create a replacement: Posthaven

#130

Post by fotbr »

chrischen wrote: post #41
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)?

Well for one you wouldn't have to maintain the VPS or blog software...

Instead, though, you have to deal with moving all your content, repeatedly, as your chosen "forever" or "lifetime" company goes under, folds up, gets sold and shuttered, changes terms of use and claims rights to your content, or any of the other bad things we've all seen over the years.

Vigilance is going to be required whichever solution you choose, but having said that, a properly set up, locked down server based on a stable server-oriented OS distro, is going to require very little maintenance, if you subscribe to the old ways. Don't fix it if it isn't broken, and keep installed software to the absolute bare minimum required. Analyze upgrades to see if they're actually necessary (the answer is usually "no"). Pick your blog software carefully, from projects with proven track records for stability and security, and apply the same practices of keeping modules and add-ons down to the bare minimum, and you'll find there really is not much you have to keep up with.

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