Posterous will turn off on April 30(blog.posterous.com)
blog.posterous.com
Posterous will turn off on April 30
http://blog.posterous.com/thanks-from-posterous
140 comments
Wordpress is for bloggers, Github is for developers. Why not keep things simple?
What about developers who are also bloggers?
Roll your own! It's fun. My site is a custom made file-based blogging platform written with Python Flask, and it's a joy to use since I made it exactly how I wanted it to be made. One feature that I really enjoy is being able to call source files into the post. This allows me to create/update code snippets extremely easily. Markdown + calling includes on my source files is exactly what I needed to efficiently produce content, so I made it myself.
What about bloggers that want to be developers?
Can you do a writeup/tutorial for your setup?
Can you do a writeup/tutorial for your setup?
> Can you do a writeup/tutorial for your setup?
Sure. I can just open source the site after I remove some private stuff and improve the documentation a bit.
I have a similar site (my old web design partnership vertstudios.com) that already has an open source mirror[0], but it doesn't have source file inclusion or tags like my joequery site.
[0]: https://github.com/joequery/Vert-Flask
The article linked in the repo has information on setting up nginx and uwsgi when it comes time to run the thing live.
Keep in mind that my site's workflow isn't perfect by any stretch, but it's perfect for me. That was my main point.
Sure. I can just open source the site after I remove some private stuff and improve the documentation a bit.
I have a similar site (my old web design partnership vertstudios.com) that already has an open source mirror[0], but it doesn't have source file inclusion or tags like my joequery site.
[0]: https://github.com/joequery/Vert-Flask
The article linked in the repo has information on setting up nginx and uwsgi when it comes time to run the thing live.
Keep in mind that my site's workflow isn't perfect by any stretch, but it's perfect for me. That was my main point.
>Can you do a writeup/tutorial for your setup?
Actually, Flask tutorial uses a blog application as example
http://flask.pocoo.org/docs/tutorial/introduction/
Actually, Flask tutorial uses a blog application as example
http://flask.pocoo.org/docs/tutorial/introduction/
I have a simple blog engine that can be readily deployed on Google App Engine - https://github.com/prakhar1989/CS253-Blag
It features Stvtle like blog post editing (distraction free), supports markdown and a draft system.
It features Stvtle like blog post editing (distraction free), supports markdown and a draft system.
I just started playing with Hyde as a blog engine, which is a static site generator for Python. So far the only blog posts are about setting it up! http://esd.io/
Flask is very cool too, though, and if you want your sites dynamic, I'd recommend it. I choose Hyde because my eventual goal is speed: I want to see how fast I can get a "real world" page to load.
Flask is very cool too, though, and if you want your sites dynamic, I'd recommend it. I choose Hyde because my eventual goal is speed: I want to see how fast I can get a "real world" page to load.
To add to the different choices, use octopress [1] with github pages [2]. I was evaluating various choices when I decided to create my own blog, and I found it was the only solution that:
1. Does not cost me anything
2. Lets me use my custom domain name
3. Gives me control over the generated HTML, but also gives me a starting point in the form of some decent looking themes [3].
4. Actually works (I'm looking at you, bitbucket).
5. Gives me control over my content. Github decides to close its service? No problem, I got all my content and its history in my local git repo, so I can migrate it to anything I think is better.
If there is another option that fulfills these criteria I would like to know.
[1]: http://octopress.org [2]: http://pages.github.com [3]: http://octopressthemes.com
1. Does not cost me anything
2. Lets me use my custom domain name
3. Gives me control over the generated HTML, but also gives me a starting point in the form of some decent looking themes [3].
4. Actually works (I'm looking at you, bitbucket).
5. Gives me control over my content. Github decides to close its service? No problem, I got all my content and its history in my local git repo, so I can migrate it to anything I think is better.
If there is another option that fulfills these criteria I would like to know.
[1]: http://octopress.org [2]: http://pages.github.com [3]: http://octopressthemes.com
Toto & Heroku
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?
Blogging engines are a simple enough concept that it might well be faster to write your own than to understand, configure and patch an unfamiliar system.
I originally wrote mine in 1999-2000, when there were very few options (if any). It works, so why not keep using it?
Because it's fun? And all the options suck in one way or another?
Self-host.
gitpress
Gist
Yeah, the average blogger doesn't even _know_ half of these words.
I'd be careful of using GitHub if you have things like important announcements, have had problems in the past of builds taking hours.
Real time publishing is essential if you have a competitive SEO requirement. Google has got good enough that seconds count for web publishing operations. Static page-based content management is also anathema to a content services approach, which is needed for multi-channel, reuse, and dynamic page generation (and is the emerging requirement in content management systems).
In other words, you're a spammer.
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In other words you're a troll or you don't know how web publishing works :p I'm talking about major news and media organisations. Immediacy has always been a key differentiator in news and financial data for example (look at trading co's who pay a fortune for systems that will shave milliseconds off getting figures from exchanges). A publishing system that isn't at least near real-time isn't a fit for very many use cases (most commercial publishing, anything with UGC etc).
In other words, you're talking about something totally different then this entire topic and are in reality, the actual troll.
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It's safe to say that the vast majority of Posterous users don't care about anything you just mentioned. Static HTML blogs are just fine for them.
Until they need commenting. I would think hosted wordpress is the more natural fit for most posterous users than github.
Yeah, I figured this would happen... but I had hoped that it wouldn't ( I have a couple posterous sites).
Ah well. Guess I know what I'm doing this weekend.
Ah well. Guess I know what I'm doing this weekend.
Tumblr and twitter both USV companies. Surprised they didn't just segue users to tumblr.
Posterous's output used to be just terrible to try to get into anything else. WordPress had to build its own importer or whatever.
I'd also assume that Twitter doesn't really care about what users or an abandoned blogging platform do now. I'm not saying that that's right, but it is what it is.
I'd also assume that Twitter doesn't really care about what users or an abandoned blogging platform do now. I'm not saying that that's right, but it is what it is.
Obligatory link to "Posterous launches new tools to switch from dying platforms: A new importer per day for the next 15 days"
http://blog.posterous.com/make-the-switch-to-posterous
http://blog.posterous.com/make-the-switch-to-posterous
Right! And when I wrote up that newsstand the time and noted that Posterous made it really hard to get your data out, as I recall I got a REALLY bitchy email from one of the founders.
We couldn't win either way. I got a super pissy email from David because he thought I was covering Posterous too much, as I think you recall.
Yes, the Schadenfreude
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 imagine it to be a pretty good business model.
What confuses me is that rumor has it that Posterous was sold for $10m. I really don't understand that. That basically is treating all of posterous.com users/content as worthless, and just buying the team. And it appears that Twitter did think like that (considering that posterous.com is shutting down).
But my question is how many users did posterous have? What was their traffic like? Were they doing well, or were they a sinking ship and thus they sold? Or did Twitter offer much more than $10m (maybe stock options worth 30-40m more?)?
I'd like to know because I think it would be helpful for startups to understand this space (blogging, content creation) and what kind of business models work and what kind of traffic is needed to make a successful business.
So, if there is anybody with inside knowledge on this stuff, please speak up. I'd also love to hear directly from the Posterous co-founders. Please share your experiences.
What confuses me is that rumor has it that Posterous was sold for $10m. I really don't understand that. That basically is treating all of posterous.com users/content as worthless, and just buying the team. And it appears that Twitter did think like that (considering that posterous.com is shutting down).
But my question is how many users did posterous have? What was their traffic like? Were they doing well, or were they a sinking ship and thus they sold? Or did Twitter offer much more than $10m (maybe stock options worth 30-40m more?)?
I'd like to know because I think it would be helpful for startups to understand this space (blogging, content creation) and what kind of business models work and what kind of traffic is needed to make a successful business.
So, if there is anybody with inside knowledge on this stuff, please speak up. I'd also love to hear directly from the Posterous co-founders. Please share your experiences.
I think the issue here is simply Money In < Money Out.
As an outside observer, it's easy enough to realize that Posterous could have monetized but that doesn't really answer the question of whether they could have monetized _enough_ to pay their ongoing costs.
Most likely they were bleeding money at an extremely fast rate and probably running out, fast, which is why they sold for $10 million and over time under Twitter's wing weren't able to figure out a monetization strategy that would be worth the ongoing costs of running the business. The case is even more convincing once you consider the opportunity cost of keeping high-quality talent away from Twitter.
As an outside observer, it's easy enough to realize that Posterous could have monetized but that doesn't really answer the question of whether they could have monetized _enough_ to pay their ongoing costs.
Most likely they were bleeding money at an extremely fast rate and probably running out, fast, which is why they sold for $10 million and over time under Twitter's wing weren't able to figure out a monetization strategy that would be worth the ongoing costs of running the business. The case is even more convincing once you consider the opportunity cost of keeping high-quality talent away from Twitter.
From where I'm sitting, you hit the nail on the head.
They COULD have monetized, theoretically, but not once the die was cast.
Yes, lots of people have built CMS platform businesses where they charged money. But Posterous was probably, as you say, bleeding money, because they were not designed from day 1 to subsist on $12-49/mo subscriptions.
The choice of the "grow big or go home" model of startup results in a catch-22 when you cannot grow big, nor do you want to go home. The only thing you can fall back on is (if you're lucky) a 7 or very low 8 digit acquihire. Which is what this always has appeared to be:
http://unicornfree.com/2012/the-startup-graveyard-continues-...
They COULD have monetized, theoretically, but not once the die was cast.
Yes, lots of people have built CMS platform businesses where they charged money. But Posterous was probably, as you say, bleeding money, because they were not designed from day 1 to subsist on $12-49/mo subscriptions.
The choice of the "grow big or go home" model of startup results in a catch-22 when you cannot grow big, nor do you want to go home. The only thing you can fall back on is (if you're lucky) a 7 or very low 8 digit acquihire. Which is what this always has appeared to be:
http://unicornfree.com/2012/the-startup-graveyard-continues-...
I don't think I have ever viewed any content on Posterous. I didn't even know what it does until I started reading these comments. On the other hand, I get sent Tumblr links daily. Multiple times a day.
If Posterous is the biggest competitor to Tumblr, it seems that says Tumblr has no real competition.
If Posterous is the biggest competitor to Tumblr, it seems that says Tumblr has no real competition.
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.
I doubt they would say anything publicly, but it seems like the reported sale price Twitter would be an answer of it's own.
They have around 10800000 sites. Some users have more than one.
You can't compare Posterous to Tumblr in terms of user base. Tumblr is in top 50 websites in the world. I doubt that Posterous even cracked top 500.
Sure, but if they were able to get into the top 500 shouldn't that be a business worth more than $10m? Especially since it's user created content, and if they do it right they could keep rising in the ranks of top sites.
I'm curious if they were experiencing a growth stall or even negative growth before selling. Because if they were growing, I don't understand why they would sell and abandon their product unless the offer was ridiculously high.
I'm curious if they were experiencing a growth stall or even negative growth before selling. Because if they were growing, I don't understand why they would sell and abandon their product unless the offer was ridiculously high.
Posterous could have been growing but if the users were never going to generate any revenue it was inevitable they would have to shut down or be acquired later on. The sale could have been as much for the team (who wants to work on a product that isn't really going anywhere?) as it was for the investors. Keeping Posterous open could have just been delaying the inevitable.
As an aside, Tumblr is apparently having financial troubles (this seems to be speculation based on supposed leaked investor feelings) and Tumblr is huge compared to what Posterous is (especially when you look at how Tumblr cornered the social side of micro blogging and Posterous hadn't).
Having 10 million users is appealing to investors because there's the chance that they might turn into revenue in the future but for a company like Twitter that already has most of those users using their service they're probably not worth very much at all.
Posterous could have been stuck in the stage before becoming a proper business, it could be a fantastic service that tens of millions of users loved but if there's no way to move those users into revenue generating users their most valuable asset could have been the team.
As an aside, Tumblr is apparently having financial troubles (this seems to be speculation based on supposed leaked investor feelings) and Tumblr is huge compared to what Posterous is (especially when you look at how Tumblr cornered the social side of micro blogging and Posterous hadn't).
Having 10 million users is appealing to investors because there's the chance that they might turn into revenue in the future but for a company like Twitter that already has most of those users using their service they're probably not worth very much at all.
Posterous could have been stuck in the stage before becoming a proper business, it could be a fantastic service that tens of millions of users loved but if there's no way to move those users into revenue generating users their most valuable asset could have been the team.
When adding a single user add more costs than revenue, all growth is negative growth. That's part of the problem with many companies. Page views, traffic, and especially "users" do not necessarily translate into money.
The handwriting was on the wall for this when Posterous built data export: http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/12/28/twitter-own-postero...
I do give them a lot of credit for providing a means to export data (albeit a somewhat clunky one), because way too many services simply shut down without providing a reasonable way to get your data out.
Will also be interesting to see what the "key initiatives" that Posterous will be doing at Twitter are: http://blog.twitter.com/2012/03/welcoming-posterous-team-to-...
I do give them a lot of credit for providing a means to export data (albeit a somewhat clunky one), because way too many services simply shut down without providing a reasonable way to get your data out.
Will also be interesting to see what the "key initiatives" that Posterous will be doing at Twitter are: http://blog.twitter.com/2012/03/welcoming-posterous-team-to-...
We want to make sure our users can move to other sites easily. If you have suggestions for our exporter, please let me know
The XML file in our export can be uploaded to Wordpress.
The XML file in our export can be uploaded to Wordpress.
What are the rough operating costs of posterous?
If you want we could discuss keeping it alive rather than shutting it down (like what I've been doing with http://www.Reocities.com/).
I don't like large gaping holes in the web.
If you want we could discuss keeping it alive rather than shutting it down (like what I've been doing with http://www.Reocities.com/).
I don't like large gaping holes in the web.
Instead of setting up a longer living backup for each case, it would be interesting to setup a generic storage mirror and a corporate foundation that can keep these sites alive.
When a startup shuts down a product, they can donate the domain name or point it to the mirror to keep it alive.
Something like archive.org, with some donated servers and a couple of people working on it.
Twitter and other acquirers usually only want the team, and this is happening more and more. We are losing large parts of the web. I wouldn't be surprised if less than 1% of Posterous is exported and goes to live on in other forms. Either way the URLs and links all die.
When a startup shuts down a product, they can donate the domain name or point it to the mirror to keep it alive.
Something like archive.org, with some donated servers and a couple of people working on it.
Twitter and other acquirers usually only want the team, and this is happening more and more. We are losing large parts of the web. I wouldn't be surprised if less than 1% of Posterous is exported and goes to live on in other forms. Either way the URLs and links all die.
I've been keeping reocities alive out of pocket. It costs a few hundred every month in hosting costs and another few hundred in machine write-offs. I got about .37 in bitcoin donations, so I'm a bit short still :) But I think it is well worth doing. I assume hosing posterous would cost a lot more than that so I'd have to find some funding but I'm pretty sure this could be done.
I'd be more than happy to help out if Twitter are willing to do it with Posterous. Register a non-profit and then go out and approach some of the larger co's for funds and/or resources to keep it running forever.
Make static backups of these sites using their sitemaps[0] and then ask them to donate or point their domains
[0] https://posterous.com/sitemap.xml (warning: 1.5MB)
Make static backups of these sites using their sitemaps[0] and then ask them to donate or point their domains
[0] https://posterous.com/sitemap.xml (warning: 1.5MB)
Hm, that sitemap seems to be limited to 10K entries and it isn't clear how it links to the next level sitemap. I'll get to work on this.
Sachin - are you aware of any transfer tools to Posterous's most obvious peer, Tumblr?
Tumblr is not profitable, has a very high burn rate, and has been losing employees. Speaking as a Tumblr user, I really wouldn't move to Tumblr.
This is going to ravage blog links on search engines. Not sure why this wasn't announced a year back (although it was widely known this would happen eventually).
> 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.
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.
They are the ones lacking empathy! Did you read the OP?
They left their users out to dry, and instead of telling them (us) that they are sorry and that maybe they understand our situation of being burned yet again, they sound like they're very happy with themselves, "building features to help [us] discover and share what’s happening in the world – on an even larger scale".
I don't even know what that means.
You may argue that the world doesn't end with Posterous shutting down, and you'd be right. But the tone of that post is not ok.
They left their users out to dry, and instead of telling them (us) that they are sorry and that maybe they understand our situation of being burned yet again, they sound like they're very happy with themselves, "building features to help [us] discover and share what’s happening in the world – on an even larger scale".
I don't even know what that means.
You may argue that the world doesn't end with Posterous shutting down, and you'd be right. But the tone of that post is not ok.
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As a product I was always impressed by the just email, no setup approach.
With the current trend towards people posting one-off or irregular essays instead of full-featured blogs, it seems as if they veered away from the simple email posting route too soon.
What was once an interesting approach to blogging was pivoted into a samey metaservice with nothing notable for me.
With the current trend towards people posting one-off or irregular essays instead of full-featured blogs, it seems as if they veered away from the simple email posting route too soon.
What was once an interesting approach to blogging was pivoted into a samey metaservice with nothing notable for me.
"they veered away from the simple email posting"
IMHO, as a product, this is where they lost their way. This is when I stopped caring. Yet maybe this is where they had to go for a successful exit (read $$$). I don't know.
IMHO, as a product, this is where they lost their way. This is when I stopped caring. Yet maybe this is where they had to go for a successful exit (read $$$). I don't know.
It was a great, innovative platform. Media handling was excellent.
I'm sorry to see them go.
I'm sorry to see them go.
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This is yet another reminder of how important it is to own your content, and why a blog is best hosted at a domain you control.
I distinctly remember reassuring myself when I created my blog one year ago that there is no way Twitter would leave out the option to download your data if they decided to kill off Posterous. It would just be way too bad PR.
This has only been mentioned once in the thread, but if Jekyll seems like too much work to setup, I highly, highly recommend Octopress:
http://octopress.org/
It's based off of Jekyll but handles a lot of the boilerplate, including rake tasks to deploy to Github pages. I've been following the github/octopress project for awhile and have seen a lot of activity in the past few weeks, so hopefully version 2.1 is just around the corner.
edit: Also, as a Tumblr user (for my photoblog), I would not recommend using Tumblr for those who are into technical/indepth writing. The set of HTML you can use is limited...for example, I don't think tables are allowed. Its social network of sharing is also more suited toward visual blogs, not ones of deep content.
http://octopress.org/
It's based off of Jekyll but handles a lot of the boilerplate, including rake tasks to deploy to Github pages. I've been following the github/octopress project for awhile and have seen a lot of activity in the past few weeks, so hopefully version 2.1 is just around the corner.
edit: Also, as a Tumblr user (for my photoblog), I would not recommend using Tumblr for those who are into technical/indepth writing. The set of HTML you can use is limited...for example, I don't think tables are allowed. Its social network of sharing is also more suited toward visual blogs, not ones of deep content.
I like the idea of Octopress and Jekyll, but the few times I've tried them, it seems that they don't easily scale. My blog has over 2900 entries. Build from scratch. chug chug chug That I understand. Now add a new entry and try to get an incremental rebuild in less than 30 seconds.
Has anyone tackled this in either project??
Has anyone tackled this in either project??
I use a makefile. Only rebuilds the pages that have been added / modified (which, of course is the point of a makefile in general).
I'm a bit unclear. Do you use a makefile instead of Jekyll/Octopress? Or somehow in combination with it?
Yes, I do remember that years ago I read about a static web management system that was makefile-centric, but think it lost popularity as more advanced CMS's came out.
Also I have trouble thinking about how a makefile can help you manage the 'Prev' and 'Next" attributes on a page. This is, not only make HTML from the page I just generated, but also go back to the previous writeup and update it to add a 'Next' link to it.
Yes, I do remember that years ago I read about a static web management system that was makefile-centric, but think it lost popularity as more advanced CMS's came out.
Also I have trouble thinking about how a makefile can help you manage the 'Prev' and 'Next" attributes on a page. This is, not only make HTML from the page I just generated, but also go back to the previous writeup and update it to add a 'Next' link to it.
I just have a hacky Python script that reads each file, runs it through Jinja and spits it out. That is then managed with a makefile. I don't have any dependencies between pages (next, prev links) so there's no need to touch old pages on build. I've literally never used those features on any blog I've ever read, so I don't care about them. The makefile also generates an index file using the Python script.
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.
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.
I really dislike that startups are acquired so often just so they are discontinued by larger companies. It feels very disingenuous. As if the only point is to be acquired and get a sizable amount of money.
It seems it is the only point in many cases. As an example, consider the vast amount of superfluous twitter-helper apps that were endlessly sprouting up a couple of years ago. I don't think many of them were seriously intending on starting a legitimate business out of a web application that helps twitter users keep track of the followers that didn't follow them back.
I don't mind striking it rich with technology.
But I think a part of me would hate to see my blood, sweat and tears poured down the drain by a large company intent on remaining where they are (not that Twitter did exactly this but you get my meaning).
But I think a part of me would hate to see my blood, sweat and tears poured down the drain by a large company intent on remaining where they are (not that Twitter did exactly this but you get my meaning).
Services that don't get traction shutdown. Services that get traction and become successful eventually shutdown anyway. I wonder whats the point of investing my time in a free service.
Not a surprise. I saw posterous as a better option for Tumblr, but after they create the "spaces" version I felt like lost. The original idea it was simple and worked, but after they got traction I think they lost the vision, and after twitter bought them they totally mess up. Well, good luck at twitter.
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.
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.
>> If you want to move your site to another service, WordPress and Squarespace offer importers that can move all of your content over to either service. Just remember: you need to back up your Spaces by April 30.
Oh the irony. Karma's a bitch, huh?
Oh the irony. Karma's a bitch, huh?
I went the static site route (shout out to Blogofile (http://www.blogofile.com) because I didn't trust anyone but me to run my server and I got tired of running Wordpress and Drupal myself. I paid NearlyFreeSpeech.NET $20 a year ago to host the static files and have about half that still credited to my account.
OK, it's not for everyone. Initial setup certainly wasn't for the faint of heart. But it was fun and replacing my host is as easy as finding another cheap host for text files and jpegs. It was worth it to me.
OK, it's not for everyone. Initial setup certainly wasn't for the faint of heart. But it was fun and replacing my host is as easy as finding another cheap host for text files and jpegs. It was worth it to me.
anybody looking to offload Posterous blog into Tumblr - try http://www.import2.com/tumblr
Free alternative?
When Posterous emerged I had high hopes for it.
But I quickly understood that their service wasn't meant to improve at all. Every problem I reported to them was dismissed (directly or indirectly).
I thought about the idea of posting via (plain-text) mail seriously, but they weren't sharing my mindset.
I left posterous long time ago and I see it was a wise decision.
But I quickly understood that their service wasn't meant to improve at all. Every problem I reported to them was dismissed (directly or indirectly).
I thought about the idea of posting via (plain-text) mail seriously, but they weren't sharing my mindset.
I left posterous long time ago and I see it was a wise decision.
This isn't fair at all. Posterous was very responsive to user feedback and reported bugs. Posterous engineers spent much of their time answering support emails directly and finding solutions for users. As a matter of fact, support emails go directly to engineers inboxes. Perhaps the problem was that there just weren't enough engineers.
Posterous may not have found a way to make money but the site was definitely meant to improve IMHO. Email, Groups, Spaces, slideshows, sharing to multiple social networks -- the list goes on.
Posterous may not have found a way to make money but the site was definitely meant to improve IMHO. Email, Groups, Spaces, slideshows, sharing to multiple social networks -- the list goes on.
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Any solid alternatives HN could recommend?
Wordpress.
That might sound obvious, but it works and it's easy to setup. I left Posterous after they launched Spaces and went back to hosting my own Wordpress install. I host about 20 low traffic sites on a single Bluehost.com shared server that costs under $100 per year. Never had any issues. One click Wordpress install via SimpleScripts. It really doesn't get any easier.
That might sound obvious, but it works and it's easy to setup. I left Posterous after they launched Spaces and went back to hosting my own Wordpress install. I host about 20 low traffic sites on a single Bluehost.com shared server that costs under $100 per year. Never had any issues. One click Wordpress install via SimpleScripts. It really doesn't get any easier.
I am using my own web site since the late 90's, never repented it.
Hosting companies come and go, do whatever they please with your data.
Nothing like having as much control as possible.
Sadly this is not possible for non-technical users.
Hosting companies come and go, do whatever they please with your data.
Nothing like having as much control as possible.
Sadly this is not possible for non-technical users.
Ctrl+F, type plugin
A quick skim shows a lot of applications that use PHP and some libraries available with or for PHP. What does this have to do with WordPress?
Seconded.
My first regularly updated site in 96 was updated by hand; then I created a daily news site that was custom-roll; then I moved to Movable Type; then I custom-rolled again; somewhere in there I tried Drupal (for a year or so, not just a dalliance); then I used whatever RoR blogging engine was popular; then I got real and moved to Wordpress several years ago and haven't regretted it for more than a couple seconds, here and there. And those seconds of regret were more than made up for by the lack of crap I had to do myself. (And, naturally, nobody can shut MY wordpress blog down since I ran it on my own server and now WPEngine.)
My first regularly updated site in 96 was updated by hand; then I created a daily news site that was custom-roll; then I moved to Movable Type; then I custom-rolled again; somewhere in there I tried Drupal (for a year or so, not just a dalliance); then I used whatever RoR blogging engine was popular; then I got real and moved to Wordpress several years ago and haven't regretted it for more than a couple seconds, here and there. And those seconds of regret were more than made up for by the lack of crap I had to do myself. (And, naturally, nobody can shut MY wordpress blog down since I ran it on my own server and now WPEngine.)
I did the same after the acquisition was first announced. It took about an hour to get it running, and fully monitored by my Nagios installation.
Posthaven. If you liked Posterous, I promise you will like Posthaven. I was one of the cofounders of Posterous and wrote much of the site. Brett joined us as a cofounder and we really enjoyed working on it.
The difference this time is that we'll be 100% sustainable, and we are pledging to keep the site online forever. It's just me and Brett coding it right now.
http://posthaven.com
The difference this time is that we'll be 100% sustainable, and we are pledging to keep the site online forever. It's just me and Brett coding it right now.
http://posthaven.com
"Electric word life, it means 4ever and that's a mighty long time"
Forever is longer than a lifetime and we've seen how well just simple "lifetime" hosting promises go.
Forever is longer than a lifetime and we've seen how well just simple "lifetime" hosting promises go.
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Getting a 503 Service Unavailable.
I'm moving here, looks awesome and love what Garry's doing with it :-)
Does it have posting by email like Posterous?
I paid the $5. You better not disappoint, Garry! :)
Use a static site generator and then deploy to any low-cost static host (e.g., CloudFront). Odds are that you really don't need a dynamic backend when you can just deploy new static files for each update.
Jekyll with https://github.com/bhollis/maruku for markdown on steroids.
I wrote about different ways to set up a reliable blog about a year ago. The post is still relevant, except I'd add SquareSpace as a good option and obviously remove the part about Posterous.
See http://www.maxmasnick.com/articles/bulletproof_your_blog
See http://www.maxmasnick.com/articles/bulletproof_your_blog
octopress on github pages
Not really a direct alternative as it's only for single posts, but I better plug Pen.io
According to that blog post, WordPress & SquareSpace have importers.
Scriptogr.am
Nooooo! Why so many simple useful products, that I would be happy to pay for are simple closed after aquihires.
I know that this may be good for founders, but it let me against trying new companies which doesn't have a clear monetization strategy.
I know that this may be good for founders, but it let me against trying new companies which doesn't have a clear monetization strategy.
Is it possible to get a backup of the YC posterous.. or are they moving it?
Yes, I hope that the pages that were on YC Posterous find another home online, with a redirect sent to search engines before Posterous shuts down.
We're moving to Posthaven.
They should probably update this header:
This is where we post about new features on Posterous Spaces. You can get a Posterous Space just like this by emailing [email protected] or signing up for a new account.
This is where we post about new features on Posterous Spaces. You can get a Posterous Space just like this by emailing [email protected] or signing up for a new account.
This is probably one of those times when we can thank the Internet Archive for preserving the internet that's no longer with us, or, in this case, the part of the internet that's about to go dark.
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Regardless of where you physically host your blog, or email, or other service, use your own domain name. That way acquisitions don't matter for your readers and correspondence, just move and no one's the wiser.
If I Was CEO of Posterous (written in 2010)
http://www.tawheedkader.com/2010/06/if-i-was-ceo-of-posterou...
Simple solution for developers who are bloggers https://substancehq.com/
I'd suspected as much based on the decline in performance and the vanishing of the previously wonderful customer support.
Nooooooooo. My blog! http://blog.jmoz.co.uk
Best replacement, wordpress?
Need to 301 everything :/
Best replacement, wordpress?
Need to 301 everything :/
Any wisdom on how to import posterous content into tumblr? Posterous's auto post is not working for me anymore.
Wow, I never saw that coming :(
true dat, it was just a matter of time! but i think its their loss, you create a brand and service that was really liked, i think selling it out to someone else to develop would be the most beneficial!
Shame, lots of good posts on Posterous blogs.
crap.
http://sloblog.io/ - simple, responsive layout, Markdown everywhere, syntax highlighting, BrowserID/Persona-based signup, native comments + subscriptions, JSON export.
Coming soon: full API (someone's already building an iOS app on it), anonymous posting, authenticating against Twitter (not just Persona), Flattr integration.
No ads _ever_, monetization through Flattr, and I may eventually do a full open-source release. (My business is in training and consulting, not in running websites.)
Enjoy.
Coming soon: full API (someone's already building an iOS app on it), anonymous posting, authenticating against Twitter (not just Persona), Flattr integration.
No ads _ever_, monetization through Flattr, and I may eventually do a full open-source release. (My business is in training and consulting, not in running websites.)
Enjoy.
Everyone knew a year ago when they were acquihired that Posterous would be discontinued. Why do I say this? Well, Twitter's bread and butter is in 140 characters, if they wanted to look at branching out into micro-blogging they wouldn't need to acquire a company, of whom the majority of their customers already use Twitter. (It was borderline a zero-value gain for Twitter if you take out Posterous' talent)
As it stands now, Tumblr clearly won (Although there has been a few emerging startups of insignificant size. Soup.io is one that springs to mind that is currently in an accelerator). If you are looking for hosted solutions for your startup's blog (or you are at all technical), I'd genuinely think about using GitHub. Start to pull your posts from Posterous and use a static content generator. Jekyll / Punch / Middleman / Hyde / Korma / nanonc / Frank + (any of the other 10 static generators)..
The operative point from using services that generate static content is that you are always in control of your plain-text content. Just push your new post and GitHub will handle your site. If you are worried about traffic on your site or extended build periods (I believe GH does rate limit static sites, and as a comment below mentions, on infrequent occasions builds can take upwards of several hours) then you can still use any other solution... Push to Amazon S3 and proxy through Cloudfront, then you will have probably one of the fastest, geographically distributed blogs on the internet.
This was always happening... Especially when you consider that for the last 12 months I haven't seen a single new feature since they were acquired. I've logged in, see the same "Posterous has been acquired" header for the last 12 months.
Move on, and safeguard your future content.