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I like the subtle nod through capitalization in the phrase "It’s been An Incredible Journey".

ocdtrekkie 8y ago
Though unlike an Incredible Journey, this is the right way to shut down: Open up your code and contribute what you did to society.
- tannhaeuser 8y ago
  I think it isn't meant so much as a gift to society as it is a best-efforts gesture to your existing users regarding their sites and investment: > We’re releasing it open source both so you can keep using it, and so we can share our ideas about how to build UI tools
  - jpochtar 8y ago
    It was both of those two things— we wanted to do right by our users who trusted us with a dependency, but also because we think we did some things differently than your average WYSIWYG builder, and wanted those ideas to help move the standard forward.
- ams6110 8y ago
  Maybe, maybe not. Did they have investors? The code is an asset. Can they sell the code/IP for any significant amount of money? If so, they should do that and pay back the investors/reduce their losses. Maybe there are no buyers, or the investors are on board with the open-source plan, who knows. But it's not always the right answer or even possible.
  - HeWhoLurksLate 8y ago
    This is a very narrow view. The code is not just a company asset, it's a customer asset as well, and their needs ought to be considered as well. Have you ever had software you were using just stop working because remote servers failed or something of the sort? What about if they never fixed that problem? Software isn't exactly like buying groceries where you can go to a different grocer and get a different, equivalent solution. Instead, it's more like a bakery, where a baker has their own (in software terms, proprietary) recipe that they use. If that bakery goes away, their recipe might go too, and that would directly affect those who buy their bread, especially if it was a joint that sold to other businesses, as software normally is. If I were that baker, and I went bankrupt, I would probably give that recipe to my customers- after all, I can't profit off of it, but they still need it. Unless I'm extremely mistaken, they haven't been bought by anyone else and won't be resuming operations ever. If they had been bought out, that would be different- their storefront would still exist, albeit somewhere else, likely- and people would still be able to get your products. I am a believer in Right to Repair, and the overall principle here is similar- documentation of products is really helpful in fixing things, and if a company goes out of business, and has no recourse or any way to deliver support, it would be amazing for customers if they publicly released as much documentation as possible. To be clear, I don't think that using an old thing forever is a good idea, but it often takes a long time to find something else that fits the bill perfectly.
ryanpetrich 8y ago
For those that haven't seen it: https://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/ https://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/ (though unlike most of the startups on that blog, Pagedraw seems to be shutting down in the most open and responsible way)
- Aeolun 8y ago
  That’s a fairly depressing read. While I think it’s understandable the founders run off with a ton of money, it’s not really a great state of affairs.
jpochtar 8y ago
Thank you! I was worried this would be too subtle :D :D
badfrog 8y ago
Is there also a hidden meaning in the second We're here: > We’re moving on, but We’re very proud of the technology we’ve built.
- jpochtar 8y ago
  lol no, I wrote that and it's a typo :P

Though unlike an Incredible Journey, this is the right way to shut down: Open up your code and contribute what you did to society.

tannhaeuser 8y ago
I think it isn't meant so much as a gift to society as it is a best-efforts gesture to your existing users regarding their sites and investment: > We’re releasing it open source both so you can keep using it, and so we can share our ideas about how to build UI tools
- jpochtar 8y ago
  It was both of those two things— we wanted to do right by our users who trusted us with a dependency, but also because we think we did some things differently than your average WYSIWYG builder, and wanted those ideas to help move the standard forward.
ams6110 8y ago
Maybe, maybe not. Did they have investors? The code is an asset. Can they sell the code/IP for any significant amount of money? If so, they should do that and pay back the investors/reduce their losses. Maybe there are no buyers, or the investors are on board with the open-source plan, who knows. But it's not always the right answer or even possible.
- HeWhoLurksLate 8y ago
  This is a very narrow view. The code is not just a company asset, it's a customer asset as well, and their needs ought to be considered as well. Have you ever had software you were using just stop working because remote servers failed or something of the sort? What about if they never fixed that problem? Software isn't exactly like buying groceries where you can go to a different grocer and get a different, equivalent solution. Instead, it's more like a bakery, where a baker has their own (in software terms, proprietary) recipe that they use. If that bakery goes away, their recipe might go too, and that would directly affect those who buy their bread, especially if it was a joint that sold to other businesses, as software normally is. If I were that baker, and I went bankrupt, I would probably give that recipe to my customers- after all, I can't profit off of it, but they still need it. Unless I'm extremely mistaken, they haven't been bought by anyone else and won't be resuming operations ever. If they had been bought out, that would be different- their storefront would still exist, albeit somewhere else, likely- and people would still be able to get your products. I am a believer in Right to Repair, and the overall principle here is similar- documentation of products is really helpful in fixing things, and if a company goes out of business, and has no recourse or any way to deliver support, it would be amazing for customers if they publicly released as much documentation as possible. To be clear, I don't think that using an old thing forever is a good idea, but it often takes a long time to find something else that fits the bill perfectly.

ryanpetrich 8y ago

For those that haven't seen it: https://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/ https://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/ (though unlike most of the startups on that blog, Pagedraw seems to be shutting down in the most open and responsible way)

Aeolun 8y ago
That’s a fairly depressing read. While I think it’s understandable the founders run off with a ton of money, it’s not really a great state of affairs.

jpochtar 8y ago

Thank you! I was worried this would be too subtle :D :D

badfrog 8y ago

Is there also a hidden meaning in the second We're here: > We’re moving on, but We’re very proud of the technology we’ve built.

jpochtar 8y ago
lol no, I wrote that and it's a typo :P