5 ms·

This is a funny tweet, but in some sense it kind of was. It was a mostly universal, fun, communal experience that existed for a short period of time outside the

by jtr1 5y ago

This is a funny tweet, but in some sense it kind of was. It was a mostly universal, fun, communal experience that existed for a short period of time outside the pressures of the profit motive. It was valued for its use and not its exchange, it was free to everyone, and that made it a kind of small commons. I think everyone knew that couldn’t last. It was either going to fade away or get bought. I don’t personally know anyone who begrudges the developer for cashing out (I would if I were in his shoes), but I’m still a little sad to see the fences start going up around it.

inimino 5y ago
It could have put up a donation page, like Wikipedia.
- lukifer 5y ago
  I don't blame the dev at all, I'd've probably taken the same deal, but an Exit To Community would have been a baller move: https://www.colorado.edu/lab/medlab/exit-to-community https://www.colorado.edu/lab/medlab/exit-to-community
  - jtr1 5y ago
    Wow, I love this idea
omnicognate 5y ago
It's a completely client side implementation. You can download it and point any static webserver at it and it works. I.e. making a perfect clone of it is a minute's work and practically free to host. So I don't agree that "couldn't last" is true. I mean zombo.com is still around, with essentially the same ongoing maintenance burden.
- jtr1 5y ago
  The code is trivial to download or even build your own, but the value of playing the same puzzle as everyone else is what’s getting paywalled. For a lot of people, the fun of wordle was solving the same puzzle and comparing notes with friends and strangers.
  - omnicognate 5y ago
    Agreed, I'm pretty annoyed with nyt for unnecessarily destroying that (and I do think they are in the process of destroying it). I was just pointing out that the idea it would have failed/died if they hadn't bought it is wrong.
- greenyoda 5y ago
  > You can download it and point any static webserver at it and it works. You don't even need a web server. It works fine if you just save the HTML file to disk and open the file from the browser.

by jtr1 5y ago

inimino 5y ago

It could have put up a donation page, like Wikipedia.

lukifer 5y ago
I don't blame the dev at all, I'd've probably taken the same deal, but an Exit To Community would have been a baller move: https://www.colorado.edu/lab/medlab/exit-to-community https://www.colorado.edu/lab/medlab/exit-to-community
- jtr1 5y ago
  Wow, I love this idea

omnicognate 5y ago

It's a completely client side implementation. You can download it and point any static webserver at it and it works. I.e. making a perfect clone of it is a minute's work and practically free to host. So I don't agree that "couldn't last" is true. I mean zombo.com is still around, with essentially the same ongoing maintenance burden.

jtr1 5y ago
The code is trivial to download or even build your own, but the value of playing the same puzzle as everyone else is what’s getting paywalled. For a lot of people, the fun of wordle was solving the same puzzle and comparing notes with friends and strangers.
- omnicognate 5y ago
  Agreed, I'm pretty annoyed with nyt for unnecessarily destroying that (and I do think they are in the process of destroying it). I was just pointing out that the idea it would have failed/died if they hadn't bought it is wrong.
greenyoda 5y ago
> You can download it and point any static webserver at it and it works. You don't even need a web server. It works fine if you just save the HTML file to disk and open the file from the browser.