3 ms·

Typepad is closed for business

65 points by saaspirant 1y ago

swiftcoder 1y ago
Is there an explainer somewhere as to why they closed down?
- FinnLobsien 1y ago
  I don't think there's a convincing one but I think it's pretty obvious, no? -These days, people are pretty unlikely to pay just to have a blog when there are tons of free alternatives -Blogging itself has experienced massive decline with social media & short-form video -Even if they did want to pivot into a more contemporary model, migrating a stack that old and with that many dependencies would be extremely difficult Of course it'd be nice to preserve, but I imagine the business was on life support and mainly supported by holdovers and with close to zero new customers. At some point, you need to close down.
  - spwa4 1y ago
    I wonder how much the death of advertising on the open web has to do with it. I mean, it's funny how things are going. Google, Twitter and even Facebook started with really open websites, but then started closing off more and more of "their" portion of the web. And now their dream has paid off: the open web is more or less gone. And the winner is (or might very well be) Tiktok and ChatGPT. Well done, guys. Brilliant strategy. Perhaps you should get a big bonus this year.
- riffic 1y ago
  it's a newfold brand (EIG). that's all I needed to see to explain the shutdown.
justinator 1y ago
and, livejournal.com is still around.
- hnarn 1y ago
  single-handedly financed by ad revenue from people refreshing GRRM's not-blog for updates on the Winds of Winter
  - kristianp 1y ago
    That moved to a wordpress site in 2018. See https://grrm.livejournal.com/ https://grrm.livejournal.com/ and https://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/ https://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/
- pttrn 1y ago
  Just went there to check it out, it opened the front page in Russian(?) for me, even though English was selected in the top right. I re-selected English, it refreshed the page... in Russian. Close tab.
  - justinator 1y ago
    I can go to my own and it's a time machine from 2012. I'm not saying use it, but it is still there.
  - r721 1y ago
    Livejournal is owned by Russian company now ("Rambler Media Group"). There's a US-based fork: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamwidth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamwidth
ChrisArchitect 1y ago
Some discussion on the shutdown a month ago: Typepad is shutting down https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45041807 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45041807
gregjw 1y ago
RIP

65 points by saaspirant 1y ago

swiftcoder 1y ago

Is there an explainer somewhere as to why they closed down?

FinnLobsien 1y ago
I don't think there's a convincing one but I think it's pretty obvious, no? -These days, people are pretty unlikely to pay just to have a blog when there are tons of free alternatives -Blogging itself has experienced massive decline with social media & short-form video -Even if they did want to pivot into a more contemporary model, migrating a stack that old and with that many dependencies would be extremely difficult Of course it'd be nice to preserve, but I imagine the business was on life support and mainly supported by holdovers and with close to zero new customers. At some point, you need to close down.
- spwa4 1y ago
  I wonder how much the death of advertising on the open web has to do with it. I mean, it's funny how things are going. Google, Twitter and even Facebook started with really open websites, but then started closing off more and more of "their" portion of the web. And now their dream has paid off: the open web is more or less gone. And the winner is (or might very well be) Tiktok and ChatGPT. Well done, guys. Brilliant strategy. Perhaps you should get a big bonus this year.
riffic 1y ago
it's a newfold brand (EIG). that's all I needed to see to explain the shutdown.

justinator 1y ago

and, livejournal.com is still around.

hnarn 1y ago
single-handedly financed by ad revenue from people refreshing GRRM's not-blog for updates on the Winds of Winter
- kristianp 1y ago
  That moved to a wordpress site in 2018. See https://grrm.livejournal.com/ https://grrm.livejournal.com/ and https://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/ https://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/
pttrn 1y ago
Just went there to check it out, it opened the front page in Russian(?) for me, even though English was selected in the top right. I re-selected English, it refreshed the page... in Russian. Close tab.
- justinator 1y ago
  I can go to my own and it's a time machine from 2012. I'm not saying use it, but it is still there.
- r721 1y ago
  Livejournal is owned by Russian company now ("Rambler Media Group"). There's a US-based fork: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamwidth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamwidth

ChrisArchitect 1y ago

Some discussion on the shutdown a month ago: Typepad is shutting down https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45041807 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45041807

gregjw 1y ago

RIP