5 ms·

The moral of the story here is that you shouldn't invest your time and emotional energy into things that actually belong to other people. You didn't own a webs

The moral of the story here is that you shouldn't invest your time and emotional energy into things that actually belong to other people. You didn't own a website here. You didn't write code, you didn't set up servers, and you didn't sit around worrying about whether you were monetizing well enough to keep the site from imploding under its own popularity. You volunteered to be the curator of an entry in a database owned by a multi-billion-dollar company, you took an abnormal amount of pride in your work, and after a few years they decided your services were no longer needed. You are owed nothing. Be more careful with how you invest your time from now on.

ryguytilidie 14y ago
I actually came to write that the big takeaway for me was to care about things that actually exist. Pouring your life into a fan site that can one day disappear seems incredibly depressing. In that time others have built companies, relationships and a happy life and you have built: a collection of fan art for an obscure tv show. Isn't there something better one could be doing?
- jquery 14y ago
  A more Zenlike takeaway would be to realize that everything has an end and to accept that. There is nothing that can't be taken away from you.
  - pilgrim689 14y ago
    Precisely, I thought the "Feel free to enjoy nothingness for a minute:" quite apt. :x
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  - a3_nm 14y ago
    Accepting that everything has an end and nothing can't be taken away from you is fine, but this doesn't mean you should not focus more on things that can't be taken away from you easily (i.e. until you die).
  - GoodIntentions 14y ago
    I read that as "there is nothing that can be taken away from you" Same frame of mind I think, slightly different way of expressing it. :P
    - danabramov 14y ago
      “Music is the space between the notes” – Claude Debussy
- tikhonj 14y ago
  It seems harsh to judge somebody like that. It is, after all, a hobby, and it's not like it keeps him from doing other things (like having a relationship) as well. Besides: your company? It'll probably fail before having more than a couple thousand customers. This page? It certainly had more people interested than that! So it's not just a viable hobby, but one at which the author was relatively successful.
- famousactress 14y ago
  Wow. Not only is this totally insensitive, and completely fucking rude.. it's also widely naive. He obviously built value for a lot of people. In addition I'm sure developed some very portable skills. Helping to curate a site that brings that many people joy? We should all be so lucky. The idea that the rug could be pulled out is indeed a significant lesson, but it's frankly one that both sides of the coin need to learn. Platform sites that encourage users to invest in and create content for will suffer if that content isn't taken good care of, in the long haul.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
DeanCollinsNYC 14y ago
looks like it is back but with only 750 likes :( i agree with the comment about how dont biuild on other peoples platforms. I started a sports fan site ( http://www.LiveFanChat.com http://www.LiveFanChat.com ) and even though we have 14 fan pages for each of our sites have made sure to keep generic names eg http://www.LiveBaseballChat.com http://www.LiveBaseballChat.com is http://www.Facebook.com/LiveBaseballChat http://www.Facebook.com/LiveBaseballChat and there is nothing the MLB can do about it.
tdorrance 14y ago
I don't think the point here is how time was spent but rather how the process was conducted by facebook. There should be a better way for this to handled.
mindstab 14y ago
Or any of the IP. He was fine with the actual IP owner also coming and taking it away from him. But either way he has no claim to any of it.
DannyPage 14y ago
The same argument could be flipped on you! I believe you post a lot on Hacker News, but you don't own the code, servers, etc. You are a volunteer commenter. What if someone blocked and deleted all of your comments? Wouldn't you feel the slightest bit of loss?
- ghshephard 14y ago
  I would feel freedom. At that moment, my involvement in HN would come to an end, and I would find another way to use the 2 hours or so a day I spend on it. Think about what I could do with 700 hours/year. Indeed, I would embrace that deletion.
  - phwd 14y ago
    That's good for you, but most likely the average HN user would cry foul and over zealous moderation.
  - throwaway54-762 14y ago
    This is why I create a new throwaway account whenever my HN karma gets too high. No attachment, no loss.
  - MBlume 14y ago
    Er, you can have that freedom now, if you want it.
    - ghshephard 14y ago
      That's like telling an alcoholic they don't have to drink. There's a reason why I've _never_ even glanced at Reddit. And I also took the plunge and deleted my Facebook Account. I lost three months of my life to Tribal Wars. I keep my time on HN to a couple hours a day - and it is my principal news source (No Techcrunch/engadge/verge/gizmodo - unless they are linked) - but if a moderator came and said "Deleted, return never again!." - I would embrace it. Not saying that's true for anyone else. I am implying that someone who spent the better part of two years managing a sherlock fan site, only to have it go "poof!" - shouldn't feel bad whatsoever.
justindocanto 14y ago
I hate not to sound empathetic but, this is a very good point. You basically just built a sand castle on somebody else's private beach for 2 years and are now crying that it's gone. It's sad & I'm sure it's depressing, but... you owned absolutely nothing you were creating.
egonschiele 14y ago
I feel the exact opposite. The trend in SV seems to be building communities around your product. This is an example of a product that did it very well...someone was so entrenched in the community that it became a huge part of their life. To take that away seems to go against the idea of community.
- justindocanto 14y ago
  And what was his product? Somebody else's trademark? show? product?
rhizome 14y ago
The funny thing is that this reminded me instantly of the Twitter API cutdowns. It's the extreme case where really, at the end of the day, the site decides what goes where, a business version of "the government has a monopoly on the use of force."
cubicle67 14y ago
I don't downvote often, but I've downvoted your comment here because it's just sanctimonious empathy-free wankery that adds nothing at all to the conversation.

ryguytilidie 14y ago

I actually came to write that the big takeaway for me was to care about things that actually exist. Pouring your life into a fan site that can one day disappear seems incredibly depressing. In that time others have built companies, relationships and a happy life and you have built: a collection of fan art for an obscure tv show. Isn't there something better one could be doing?

jquery 14y ago
A more Zenlike takeaway would be to realize that everything has an end and to accept that. There is nothing that can't be taken away from you.
- pilgrim689 14y ago
  Precisely, I thought the "Feel free to enjoy nothingness for a minute:" quite apt. :x
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- a3_nm 14y ago
  Accepting that everything has an end and nothing can't be taken away from you is fine, but this doesn't mean you should not focus more on things that can't be taken away from you easily (i.e. until you die).
- GoodIntentions 14y ago
  I read that as "there is nothing that can be taken away from you" Same frame of mind I think, slightly different way of expressing it. :P
  - danabramov 14y ago
    “Music is the space between the notes” – Claude Debussy
tikhonj 14y ago
It seems harsh to judge somebody like that. It is, after all, a hobby, and it's not like it keeps him from doing other things (like having a relationship) as well. Besides: your company? It'll probably fail before having more than a couple thousand customers. This page? It certainly had more people interested than that! So it's not just a viable hobby, but one at which the author was relatively successful.
famousactress 14y ago
Wow. Not only is this totally insensitive, and completely fucking rude.. it's also widely naive. He obviously built value for a lot of people. In addition I'm sure developed some very portable skills. Helping to curate a site that brings that many people joy? We should all be so lucky. The idea that the rug could be pulled out is indeed a significant lesson, but it's frankly one that both sides of the coin need to learn. Platform sites that encourage users to invest in and create content for will suffer if that content isn't taken good care of, in the long haul.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]

DeanCollinsNYC 14y ago

looks like it is back but with only 750 likes :( i agree with the comment about how dont biuild on other peoples platforms. I started a sports fan site ( http://www.LiveFanChat.com http://www.LiveFanChat.com ) and even though we have 14 fan pages for each of our sites have made sure to keep generic names eg http://www.LiveBaseballChat.com http://www.LiveBaseballChat.com is http://www.Facebook.com/LiveBaseballChat http://www.Facebook.com/LiveBaseballChat and there is nothing the MLB can do about it.

tdorrance 14y ago

I don't think the point here is how time was spent but rather how the process was conducted by facebook. There should be a better way for this to handled.

mindstab 14y ago

Or any of the IP. He was fine with the actual IP owner also coming and taking it away from him. But either way he has no claim to any of it.

DannyPage 14y ago

The same argument could be flipped on you! I believe you post a lot on Hacker News, but you don't own the code, servers, etc. You are a volunteer commenter. What if someone blocked and deleted all of your comments? Wouldn't you feel the slightest bit of loss?

ghshephard 14y ago
I would feel freedom. At that moment, my involvement in HN would come to an end, and I would find another way to use the 2 hours or so a day I spend on it. Think about what I could do with 700 hours/year. Indeed, I would embrace that deletion.
- phwd 14y ago
  That's good for you, but most likely the average HN user would cry foul and over zealous moderation.
- throwaway54-762 14y ago
  This is why I create a new throwaway account whenever my HN karma gets too high. No attachment, no loss.
- MBlume 14y ago
  Er, you can have that freedom now, if you want it.
  - ghshephard 14y ago
    That's like telling an alcoholic they don't have to drink. There's a reason why I've _never_ even glanced at Reddit. And I also took the plunge and deleted my Facebook Account. I lost three months of my life to Tribal Wars. I keep my time on HN to a couple hours a day - and it is my principal news source (No Techcrunch/engadge/verge/gizmodo - unless they are linked) - but if a moderator came and said "Deleted, return never again!." - I would embrace it. Not saying that's true for anyone else. I am implying that someone who spent the better part of two years managing a sherlock fan site, only to have it go "poof!" - shouldn't feel bad whatsoever.

justindocanto 14y ago

I hate not to sound empathetic but, this is a very good point. You basically just built a sand castle on somebody else's private beach for 2 years and are now crying that it's gone. It's sad & I'm sure it's depressing, but... you owned absolutely nothing you were creating.

egonschiele 14y ago

I feel the exact opposite. The trend in SV seems to be building communities around your product. This is an example of a product that did it very well...someone was so entrenched in the community that it became a huge part of their life. To take that away seems to go against the idea of community.

justindocanto 14y ago
And what was his product? Somebody else's trademark? show? product?

rhizome 14y ago

The funny thing is that this reminded me instantly of the Twitter API cutdowns. It's the extreme case where really, at the end of the day, the site decides what goes where, a business version of "the government has a monopoly on the use of force."

cubicle67 14y ago

I don't downvote often, but I've downvoted your comment here because it's just sanctimonious empathy-free wankery that adds nothing at all to the conversation.