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The Last Goodbye
- eganist 8y ago[mis-stated comment edited out too late to be deleted]
- rajaganesh87 8y agoYou mean Journey app? It doesn't allow sharing
- ceejayoz 8y agoSpeaking of dead social networks, http://peach.cool/ http://peach.cool/ is, somehow, still up.
- newscracker 8y agoIt started as a good idea while social networks hadn't yet reached the level of adoption and engagement that they would later, but getting users to start using anything new is very difficult. The limit on the number of contacts (that one could have) may have further impacted the network effect. It's a bit unfortunate that the first thing that comes to my mind when Path is mentioned is the address book upload by the app without asking users. I don't think there's no space for such an app now, since more people (relatively speaking) are aware of and are concerned about large networks like Facebook and their impact on privacy and society. Coming back with a privacy focused offering that targets those who want more meaningful interactions with a limited number of people might get some traction, even if it remains niche.
- skookumchuck 8y agoI'd be interested in a peer-to-peer one, rather than one with a centralized server and database.
- jarfil 8y agoThere's Diaspora, since 2010 no less, but it's hard for it to really take off when most people would rather use a centralized service, and centralized services would rather lock people in.
- wishinghand 8y agoWhat did they do? Their home page doesn’t give it away and their about page is just the farewell letter linked by the OP.
- jey 8y agoThis provides more context: https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/17/rip-path/ https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/17/rip-path/
- arbie 8y agoCrazy that they turned down a $100M+ offer from Google in their first year.
- hguhghuff 8y agoHindsight is 20/20. I remember when zuckerberg turned down $1B from yahoo and I couldn’t believe how stupid and greedy he must be to turn that down.
- danieltillett 8y agoIs his life that much better than if he had taken the money and run? I am a big believer that the best life is found at the upper, upper middle class level where you have enough money to do almost everything you want, but where you can walk down the street without bodyguards.
- cityzen 8y agoHe didn't want money, he wanted power.
- overcast 8y agoIf someone offers you personally $1B, you take it, and go live the rest of your life comfortably without any worry of ever having to work a day ever again. Do you really think having $3B vs having "only" $1B matters in the grand scheme? I surely would prefer a billion over a potential xBillion. There is more to life than working your ass off. Zuckerberg wanted power, not more money.
- MarkMc 8y agoPath was very popular in Indonesia when I visited a few years ago. I guess people just switched to other social networks like Instagram. I wonder whether people will have moved on from Instagram in 10 years.
- ObsoleteNerd 8y agoI heavily believe social networks will always be cyclical, as people always want excitement. A new social network launches, everyone gets excited for something new and different, it grows to the point where your grandma and your teachers or kids are on it too, you lose the excitement and start looking for the next "entertainment". The world is moving faster than ever with entertainment and attention spans. Facebook is already showing signs of fizzling out. I don't believe it will die, just like MySpace and Digg are still going, they're just not the hot shit they once were. I think we're pretty much hitting the point now where Snapchat and Instagram are "hotter" than Facebook, and Facebook is running on momentum for a fair while longer before being "just another social network". Instagram and Snapchat are in their peak right now. Everyone under 30 has both, and most over 30 at least have an account to follow their kids, friends, whatever. I think 10 years is even optimistic, I wouldn't be surprised if another transition happened within 5. When Instagram and Snapchat lose their excitement, the next thing will come along. There's hundreds of startups already working on trying to be the next big social network. It's a given it'll happen eventually. (I'm not in the industry and don't know stats, I don't use social networks other than following people on Twitter for updates, this is just the ramblings of someone watching it all for 20+ years)
- fs111 8y agoYou make it sound as if instagram is unrelated to facebook. Facebook owns them and they have so much money that they will buy the next thing and the one after that as well. Facebook, the company, will do just fine.
- ObsoleteNerd 8y agoYes, that's my point. Facebook (the company) knows that Facebook (the social network) won't be the king forever, so buys up the competition like Instagram to make sure they (the company) are still around. I was purely referring to the social networks. Who owns them is irrelevant for this point.
- ugochiowo 8y agoRemember Ello? The invite only social network that blew up in 2014. I was on it for a week then I had to say Oodbye as well. https://ello.co/ https://ello.co/ https://www.cnet.com/news/meet-ello-the-social-network-that-wants-to-be-the-anti-facebook/ https://www.cnet.com/news/meet-ello-the-social-network-that-...
- Dramatize 8y agoEllo hasn't shut down?
- ugochiowo 8y agoThey "rebranded". Artists & creatives only
- dredmorbius 8y agoEllo is still operating, though its social aspect is fading. The founders' initial plan was to create an artists' and designers' platform, and they've pivoted hard back in that direction over the past couple of years.
- ugochiowo 8y agoThought their initial pitch was an ad free social network?
- village-idiot 8y agoIt was. Turns out that’s really hard to do.
- Deimorz 8y agoEspecially when you take a bunch of venture capital: https://ar.al/notes/ello-goodbye/ https://ar.al/notes/ello-goodbye/ Note that that was written when they had taken $435,000 in VC, and now they're up to $11M: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/ello-inc https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/ello-inc
- glibgil 8y agoTime to retire either my day or night iPhone
- tommoor 8y agoNever even left beta…
- kacy 8y agoI think this was for the web version. They were mobile first for a long time, and a lot of the core team left years ago before the web version was complete.
- gesman 8y agoCool domain name though
- simonswords82 8y agoThe domain is probably the most valuable asset they own following the demise of the service.
- matkins 8y agoNever forget this about Path's founder: http://jesuschristsiliconvalley-blog.tumblr.com/post/46539276780/a-cunt-and-his-iphone http://jesuschristsiliconvalley-blog.tumblr.com/post/4653927... Also, I don't remember how much he had to pay for the path.com domain, but it was a laughable amount (I can't find it rn)
- hguhghuff 8y agoCan someone explain what this is about?
- delta1 8y agoIt seems to be somebody making fun of an interview he gave.
- def_ConGame 8y agoBahhahaha! I'm so glad someone posted this! I had been trying to find my way back to this link ever since the first time I saw it! This was part of one of the first threads I had ever read on HN, on or around the day it appeared: 3/23/2013. Actually, I think I discovered HN in late April or early May, but anyway, the user that shared it then, as much as now, also quickly got flagged and hellbanned. For a brief moment I felt like I was reading a site that had some truths to speak to, but that illusion was dispelled as soon as it was [censored] and the flames were stamped out. Ah well... Five years later, and I know better. This site is a tightly controlled mouthpiece, and an echochamber in service to microcorporations in search of early retirement paydays and acquisition cashouts, but hey, work-safe reading material, am I right?
- matkins 8y agoIt's a shame it was flagged, but that's the way of this site. Everybody pretends to be a goody two-shoes. For those who can't see it, go to your profiles and switch "showdead" to on.
- tosh 8y agoPath in its day was way ahead in ux and detail compared to other social networks. Stickers and reactions on facebook came later and even then/now never were as 'finished' compared to what Path had. A great example of how the better product doesn't always win. There are just too many factors (like timing and network effects in this case).
- sneak 8y agoPath was not better. They got busted repeatedly playing fast and loose with user privacy, and iirc their bad behavior was the proximate cause of Apple adding contacts permissions to iOS. Good riddance to these jerks. https://www.theverge.com/2012/2/7/2782947/path-ios-app-user-information-collected-privacy https://www.theverge.com/2012/2/7/2782947/path-ios-app-user-...
- drcongo 8y agoYeah, my memory of Path is that they spammed all my contacts in the first week of having it installed and then I uninstalled it and never went near it again.
- ulfw 8y agoThat's exactly how long it stayed installed on my phone and those of my friends who I helped originally sign up for it. I don't think they ever recovered from that incident. https://www.theverge.com/2012/2/7/2782947/path-ios-app-user-information-collected-privacy https://www.theverge.com/2012/2/7/2782947/path-ios-app-user-... I can't believe they somehow trotted along for another six years. Never seen anybody use it since.
- whywhywhywhy 8y agoHard to find a mobile app these days that doesn't demand contact access, try using WhatsApp without providing it and it's a rough ride, I'm super reluctant to upload mine but that one was basically unusable without doing so. How times change.
- prawn 8y ago- 9.17.2018 : Notice on Path service discontinuation - 10.1.2018: Unable to download/update the app in iTunes and Google Play - 10.18.2018: Termination of the Service (Unable to access to Path) - 11.15.2018: Path related customer service will be closed Seems like a fairly abrupt wrap-up of the service? I remember a friend used it years ago with her partner as a private social network of sorts which I thought was interesting. Then that was the last I ever heard of Path until now.
- sytelus 8y agoI don’t understand when startups just closes down. Isn’t minimum established unit of success is aquihire these days?
- skinnymuch 8y agoThey did get bought out by KakaoTalk.
- __exit__ 8y agoI remember Path back in college. It was not that popular but its mobile app was beautiful, top-notch in terms of UI design and animations back then. Sadly it did not take off, which on the other hand is comprehensible, having other options such as Facebook and Instagram where most of the friends and connections are.
- daniel_iversen 8y agoI’m sure they did lots wrong, including being deceitful with peoples private address books.. but also, wasn’t one of the novelties of Pty that you could only have 20 “friends” or something like that? That seems like a huge gamble and makes it that much harder to build, grow and sustain a network doesn’t it! ;-)
- robotsquidward 8y agoPath has been used by my girlfriends family for the past six years as their familial social network. They all just follow each other and because they don't use it for anything else it's a perfect little community for sharing memories. It was hard for them to cope with the fact that it's all getting shut down after six years using it. Makes you wonder why smaller family or close-friends type social networks don't work. I guess the value isn't there to build it because it can't sprawl in the same way as other social networks.
- GuiA 8y agoMakes you wonder why smaller family or close-friends type social networks don't work. Because they are run by for profit companies, operating in a capitalistic framework. That is one of the core pillars of free software as envisioned by Stallman - software that can truly serve the needs of the people, because it is not subject to those pressures. A world where your girlfriend’s family could painlessly deploy their own such service for just a few users and not have to worry about a company shutting it down whenever they feel like it would be wonderful.
- pikzel 8y agoYeah, I'm sure they would be able to deploy the service, have it secure and updated, having apps up to date on their new devices. Or maybe that takes time and effort, and people need to pay their bills.
- eberfreitas 8y agoIt takes much more time, effort and labor to secure high profit margins...
- fauigerzigerk 8y agoThe profit margins need to be high enough to justify investing in the product before you know whether anyone will ever want to buy it. The margins of successful products also need to fund all the failed attempts at making stuff that ultimately no one wants. I think innovation without speculation is impossible and speculation has a cost.