Maciej Ceglowski writes about running Pinboard, a bookmarking service, along with hosting, social web, and startup lessons.
HN links it for posts like 'Don't Be A Free User' and the Delicious acquisition; commenters check whether the service is still active.
I'm a solo founder and have been working on Sifter (http://sifterapp.com) for going on 4 years now. It's been live for about 3 of those years, and I've been full-time for a little over a year. My salary is about 80% of what I was making working full-time elsewhere, maybe a little lower when you factor in health insurance, but the work is exponentially more fulfilling. I do my best to share my thoughts on the ups and downs on my blog. (http://garrettdimon.com)
I technically have what some people might consider a co-founder, but he's more of an investor/advisor as I've been the only person that's involved day-to-day.
I also created a presentation recently that summarized what the experience has been like and what we've done right or wrong for our situation. (http://bootstrapping.sifterapp.com)
Finally, I'd also recommend Maciej Ceglowski of Pinboard as a good source. He discusses a little bit of his experience on the Pinboard blog. (http://blog.pinboard.in/)
This seems like a perfectly reasonable way to end a service. The server died, and the effort to bring it back up seems high.
This is a reminder to pay for services you depend on. Per the Pinboard founder's post:
> I love free software and could not have built my site without it. But free web services are not like free software. If your free software project suddenly gets popular, you gain resources: testers, developers and people willing to pitch in. If your free website takes off, you lose resources. Your time is spent firefighting and your money all goes to the nice people at Linode.
> Like a service? Make them charge you or show you ads. If they won't do it, clone them and do it yourself. Soon you'll be the only game in town!
https://blog.pinboard.in/2011/12/don_t_be_a_free_user/
Apple may be spending a lot on research but they've recently become too obsessed with mobile profits over holistic prosumer experience. I don't think I'm the only heavy Apple user considering leaving the reservation if they choose to focus on mobile consumption above everything else. If they don't fix the MPro[1], I've lost one of the major reasons I use Apple products at all, I thought the agreement was I pay Apple a nice fat 30% profit margin and in return they ensure I'm using the hands-down best computing devices on the market.
The Airport Extreme disappearing is another disappointment.
https://blog.pinboard.in/2016/10/benjamin_button_reviews_the_new_macbook_pro/ (not replacing my 2013 MPro until they fix all the issues with the current generation that I'm forced to use at work)
Yes, it does. We all collectively pay for the economic and social costs of advertising. Advertising makes nothing free for anyone: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8585237
Maciej Ceglowski (idlewords) also calls for an "anti-free-software movement" in Don't Be A Free User: https://blog.pinboard.in/2011/12/don_t_be_a_free_user/
There are better ways to screen out unwanted callers.
As Jeff Hammerbacher, fmr. Manager of Facebook Data Team, founder of Cloudera says, "The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads. That sucks."
It's definitely a rational response. Not all rational responses make for successful, profitable companies, though. Ads are often a poor business decision, as they can cheapen both your product and your business's image.
As to your "fuck 'em", if that's your attitude, why bother servicing them at all? Providing ads is simply a way of enabling free users. Stop the ads and the free users, you'll be better off. There's been a lot of links about that, here's one: [1].
And I love those quotes.
[1]: http://blog.pinboard.in/2011/12/don_t_be_a_free_user/
I see quite a few people in this thread blaming the high cost of AWS. I don't understand, why is this a problem with AWS - isn't it a problem with freeloading? Yes, moving hosting may save you some bucks, but fundamentally isn't the problem the large number of freeloaders?
If even 5% of the 6 million users paid $20 a year, Soup would have $6 million a year - more than enough to run a small company on.
FInally, i'll point to my favorite post on the subject, Don't be a free user by idlewords: https://blog.pinboard.in/2011/12/don_t_be_a_free_user/