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Posterous will turn off on April 30

blog.posterous.com

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Re: Posterous will turn off on April 30

#101

Post by harryh »

bambax wrote: post #37

> We’d like to thank the millions of Posterous users who have supported us on our incredible journey. Yeah, right. How was that "incredible", BTW? I feel I've read that same story many many times. As a Posterous user, I'm so glad I used my own domain.

Oh come on, have some empathy! They started their own business. They gave it a go! They had a decent degree of success. Just because they didn't make it work doesn't mean it's ok to be so dismissive.

Re: Posterous will turn off on April 30

#102

Post by jfb »

booruguru wrote: post #76
spc476 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Write your own blogging engine and self hosting? That's what I do.

Why build your own blogging engine when so many open source solutions already exist?

Because it's fun? And all the options suck in one way or another?

Re: Posterous will turn off on April 30

#103

Post by brown9-2 »

dave1619 wrote: post #43

Can somebody please help me out? I'm confused here. I thought Posterous (before being acquired by Twitter) was doing quite well and was seen as the biggest competitor to Tumbler. It would seem that Posterous had a ton of users (would love to know details) and that they could monetize those users fairly simply through display ads. So, with a ton of users creating content and even more viewing that content, I would ima…

I'm curious if maybe you are over-estimating the value of placing display ads on (random) blog articles.

Re: Posterous will turn off on April 30

#104

Post by desireco42 »

Posterous might not have been as big as Tumblr, but it was big. It was obvious it's management had some lack of vision, since introducing Spaces and other confusing additions.

Even with all this, it is completely confusing to me seeing it sold to Twitter and just shutting down service.

I personally will not believe to use any service made by those guys, especially Posthaven looks ridiculous in light of how Posterous got miss-managed.

Having said all this, I am not judging founders for selling out, I think they did a good thing and it is their absolutely their right, probably could've gotten way more from someone else, but it's their decision, as online user, I just can't touch anything they make.

Re: Posterous will turn off on April 30

#106

Post by mdip »

Funny thing, I remember clicking links on HN years ago and seeing the Posterous tab in the upper right corner of my screen. But it's been a long time. It kinda brought me back to what was the not-so-distant-past.

Just one suggestion: When discontinuing a product, eliminate the link in the upper right that says "Join SPACES". It's a little thing. And nobody expects anyone to design product "un"-launches the way they design product launches.

Re: Posterous will turn off on April 30

#108

Post by [deleted] »

bambax wrote: post #37

> We’d like to thank the millions of Posterous users who have supported us on our incredible journey. Yeah, right. How was that "incredible", BTW? I feel I've read that same story many many times. As a Posterous user, I'm so glad I used my own domain.

[deleted]

Re: Posterous will turn off on April 30

#109

Post by xfax »

These sort of shenanigans make me wary of using any service that has raised a considerable amount of external funding. Believe it or not, VCs (as opposed to angels) are only in it to get a good return. This frequently forces companies to sell out at the detriment to their customers (given the lack of IPOs as a viable exit option). I get that the founders are in it to make money as well, but don't expect anyone to use your service knowing well that you could just choose to sell out tomorrow.

I wonder if we studied funded start ups over the last 10 years, whether we'll see a pattern of selling out and then discontinuing service.

Re: Posterous will turn off on April 30

#110

Post by dave1619 »

brown9-2 wrote: post #103
dave1619 wrote: post #43

Can somebody please help me out? I'm confused here. I thought Posterous (before being acquired by Twitter) was doing quite well and was seen as the biggest competitor to Tumbler. It would seem that Posterous had a ton of users (would love to know details) and that they could monetize those users fairly simply through display ads. So, with a ton of users creating content and even more viewing that content, I would ima…

I'm curious if maybe you are over-estimating the value of placing display ads on (random) blog articles.

That's why I'd love to hear from the founders of Posterous themselves and why they sold, and they state of their company/users when they sold. I'm interested in this field of blogging/self-publishing and want to know what business model can work.
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