Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Shutting Down My Site

patdryburgh.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 52 posts

Re: Shutting Down My Site

#11

Post by arn »

patdryburgh wrote: post #9
rokhayakebe wrote: post #4

Well since it paid, why not sell it, or give it to someone who will run it. I check Freshome almost daily. You can say looking at other people's home is pointless specially expensive ones because most readers will never live in such a house. However some people may just find it joyful. Just check your logs and see the ten most frequent visitors, ask a couple of them to run it.

This was an option I considered and discussed with a friend who is well known in the minimalism/productivity space. To me, it's actually more of a moral issue: is keeping a site like Simple Desks online good, bad, or neutral to the world. I'm sure it's different for different people, but I just couldn't shake the feeling that in the end it was detrimental to people's time. We have better things to do with our time, a…

Of course you are welcome to do whatever you want. I find taking it to the moral extreme strange though.

That leaves you little in the way of daily activities besides pure charitable work. Does your short film make the world a better place? I doubt it.

It sounds like it comes down to what you enjoy, and that's great. The best motivation. Simple Desks though seems like the kind of site that some might get great joy out of.

Re: Shutting Down My Site

#12

Post by patdryburgh »

hpaavola wrote: post #7

It always makes me a bit sad when any site is taken offline. I haven't even heard of Simple Desks before, but it still makes me sad that it is gone. Destroying bits is so darn easy, that people do it too much. I don't delete emails (my spamfilter might delete, I don't). Once in a while it's nice to see what you were up to 5 years ago. My personal homepage is still running. I haven't updated it in many many years, but…

>It always makes me a bit sad when any site is taken offline. I haven't even heard of Simple Desks before, but it still makes me sad that it is gone.

I'm very, very sympathetic to this issue, and agree that it hurts when any site goes down. However, Simple Desks was mostly a curated gallery of what already exists on the internet. A quick Google search for "Simple Desks" will turn up basically the same thing.

The other question to ask is whether permanence is a value worth holding for all things. Is it really worth holding onto all of that email? (This is a personal question, for everyone to answer, not for one person to dictate over others.)

My friend wrote a great piece on this recently (http://patrickrhone.com/2011/12/20/permanently-impermanent). It reflects on the freedom of not worrying about losing everything. He doesn't advocate being complacent, but simply acknowledging that no system is 100% sure to maintain our bits.

Re: Shutting Down My Site

#13

Post by elliottcarlson »

So you shut down a tumblr hosted site that didn't cost you anything to run except for time - and now all of us who had never heard of it before can't even see the content that used to exist. I'm glad you are doing something better with your time that you will find more fulfilling - but I think it's a shame you went this route.

Re: Shutting Down My Site

#14

Post by rys »

You shut it down because nobody should give a fuck about it, yet you tell us what computer you used to develop your website? I don't get it!

Also, don't you feel a bit selfish for removing something that other people obvious find value in from the Internet?

Re: Shutting Down My Site

#15

Post by molecule »

apparent update:

"Back, and better than ever January 20th, 2012. Many thanks to Pat Dryburgh for his excellent work over the years. Unfortunately, he has chosen to end this venture. We think that is a great shame, and we've decided to bring it back, but in a different form. When we relaunch on January 20th, Simple Desks will return with a more substantial aim: to provide food for thought on the subjects of productivity, minimalism and design and technology (along with some occasionally unrelated musings). We hope you'll join us. In the mean time, we suggest you read Pat's excellent blog post (patdryburgh.com) on his decision. We hope to avoid some of the issues he raises with the new incarnation of Simple Desks."

http://simpledesks.tumblr.com/

Re: Shutting Down My Site

#16

Post by ceol »

Link to the original site: http://simpledesks.tumblr.com/

It looks like someone has taken over. I'm glad, because it's a shame to shut something down that people enjoy, but you shouldn't feel forced to work on a side project.

I wish you luck, and here's to hoping your future endeavors bring a bit more satisfaction.

Re: Shutting Down My Site

#17

Post by swah »

elliottcarlson wrote: post #13

So you shut down a tumblr hosted site that didn't cost you anything to run except for time - and now all of us who had never heard of it before can't even see the content that used to exist. I'm glad you are doing something better with your time that you will find more fulfilling - but I think it's a shame you went this route.

Here is what you missed:

      __
     |  |
No, seriously... I enjoyed looking at those photos once, it was just like an architecture magazine. No big deal to shut it off, just don't consider it your life's work.

Re: Shutting Down My Site

#18

Post by patdryburgh »

arn wrote: post #11
patdryburgh wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was an option I considered and discussed with a friend who is well known in the minimalism/productivity space. To me, it's actually more of a moral issue: is keeping a site like Simple Desks online good, bad, or neutral to the world. I'm sure it's different for different people, but I just couldn't shake the feeling that in the end it was detrimental to people's time. We have better things to do with our time, a…

Of course you are welcome to do whatever you want. I find taking it to the moral extreme strange though. That leaves you little in the way of daily activities besides pure charitable work. Does your short film make the world a better place? I doubt it. It sounds like it comes down to what you enjoy, and that's great. The best motivation. Simple Desks though seems like the kind of site that some might get great joy ou…

Hey Arnold,

Tried replying to you through email, but the email bounced back. Used the email on your Hacker News profile.

Cheers, Pat

Re: Shutting Down My Site

#19

Post by rhizome »

patdryburgh wrote: post #12
hpaavola wrote: post #7

It always makes me a bit sad when any site is taken offline. I haven't even heard of Simple Desks before, but it still makes me sad that it is gone. Destroying bits is so darn easy, that people do it too much. I don't delete emails (my spamfilter might delete, I don't). Once in a while it's nice to see what you were up to 5 years ago. My personal homepage is still running. I haven't updated it in many many years, but…

>It always makes me a bit sad when any site is taken offline. I haven't even heard of Simple Desks before, but it still makes me sad that it is gone. I'm very, very sympathetic to this issue, and agree that it hurts when any site goes down. However, Simple Desks was mostly a curated gallery of what already exists on the internet. A quick Google search for "Simple Desks" will turn up basically the same thing. The othe…

The other question to ask is whether permanence is a value worth holding for all things. Is it really worth holding onto all of that email? (This is a personal question, for everyone to answer, not for one person to dictate over others.)

In the present case, hasn't this in fact been dictated?

Re: Shutting Down My Site

#20

Post by SoftwareMaven »

hpaavola wrote: post #7

It always makes me a bit sad when any site is taken offline. I haven't even heard of Simple Desks before, but it still makes me sad that it is gone. Destroying bits is so darn easy, that people do it too much. I don't delete emails (my spamfilter might delete, I don't). Once in a while it's nice to see what you were up to 5 years ago. My personal homepage is still running. I haven't updated it in many many years, but…

This reply got me thinking: does the nearly-zero incremental cost of a bit cause people to be more likely to turn into virtual hoarders? Anybody who didn't through physical mail away ever would be looked at funny, but I rarely delete an email, either.

Is there a psychological cost associated with virtual hoarding like there is with physical? Or is it truly not hoarding?

Post reply on HN