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This is really disappointing. I have been a paying Loom member since shortly after the service was released, it's too bad it wasn't enough to keep it an indepen

by kylec 13y ago

This is really disappointing. I have been a paying Loom member since shortly after the service was released, it's too bad it wasn't enough to keep it an independent company. After DivvyShot, Everpix, Snapjoy, and now Loom, I don't think I can trust another photo management startup again.

phillmv 13y ago
I wonder if we'll start seeing startup fatigue. Then again, a company just failing must be vastly more common. I've noticed that these days I avoid all free services and, when the information is available to me, will pick the lifestyle over the vc backed company.
bjeanes 13y ago
Really loving being on Picturelife. Last one (that I like) standing — at least for now.
salberts 13y ago
100%. Photos are here to stay while most startups are not. As much as I hate saying it,being a start-up founder myself, I'd go for Google, Yahoo, Amazon or a more backup-oriented startup.
pearjuice 13y ago
Exposure.co looks pretty good. However, looking at the history of the projects ran by the creators you might be in for a bumpy surprise... At least the service its prices are sustainable. Or premium.
- anon808 13y ago
  exposure.co is an elepath product, elepath is run by Jake Lodwick who wrote http://pando.com/2013/04/02/an-acquisition-is-always-a-failure/ http://pando.com/2013/04/02/an-acquisition-is-always-a-failu... not saying jake won't take the money and run if offered it, or shut down exposure, but given that it looks like he's fairly comfortable after collegehumor and his investment in tumblr, chances are lower that he's looking to offload exposure/elepath. but who knows.
calinet6 13y ago
This is a huge problem with SAAS in general. The ephemerality not only of our data, but of the entire service, is highly disturbing. Next time I buy a tool, I'm going to look for something I can hold in my hand (metaphorically speaking), and use until I decide not to.
- zheshishei 13y ago
  I guess it's time to go back to standalone desktop apps?
  - mpyne 13y ago
    Some of us never left...
  - bentcorner 13y ago
    Selfhosting isn't out of the question. Maybe there's a middle ground? If someone provided me with a VPS but made it really easy to self-host applications from a curated list, I'd be all over that.
    - calinet6 13y ago
      Self-hosted auto-updated service nodes, that run on your own cloud-connected server. All your data, your encryption, your permissions, everything. Then you connect to your services via any thin client (just thumbprint on any terminal anywhere and you're logged in). Any screen, any device, anywhere. Someday.
- 6cxs2hd6 13y ago
  It's a problem with unnecessarily monolithic SaaS, where everyone reinvents e.g. the storage piece of it. You should be able to tell XYZ service to work with your photos as stored on Amazon S3. Or stored on, what's that other company, starts with a D...?
slaven 13y ago
And the on-boarding process was so painful - it took me weeks to load up ALL my photos onto Everpix. After they failed, I signed up with Loom and again it took over a month for it all to upload. I feel sad as I don't envy the next startup that tries to "solve" this very real problem.
- ukd1 13y ago
  I think they're going to migrate you seamlessly to dropbox, so no worries there.
  - sp332 13y ago
    It doesn't look very seamless. If you had a Loom account, you don't automatically get a Dropbox account. You have to make a dropbox account and then link the account to "import" your photos. I guess you can put your photos into Dropbox's "Carousel" but none of this happens automatically.
    - ukd1 13y ago
      I've actually just done it - it was seemless (though, as you mentioned I had a dropbox account). I clicked the link, read the page, signed in to loom and then authed loom->dropbox. Process started instantly and photos started showing up! Plus now I have 0.5T on dropbox. It's by far the cleanest sunset I've ever used.
mason240 13y ago
I have been looking for a good open source, Picasa type photo management platform, unfortunately I haven't been about to find any good ones.
TeMPOraL 13y ago
We keep being taught the same lesson, day after day, and we never learn, but I think it's time to put this explicitly. Startups like this are lying to us, straight in the face. Simple as that. And we believe the bullshit they say every time. It's written so almost explicitly in the startup "literature". Growth. They are not building real products that are supposed to solve problems for people, they build make-believe products that are supposed to lure people in. Because that's how you prove your worth these days - by number of users you can get on board. I apologize if I hurt someone who doesn't start the company just in order to bullshit his/her way to acquihire year or two later. Maybe you're honestly building a real product to solve real problems and you actually care about your users. But then again, to quote Nick Fury, "things like this give me trust issues". I'm still waiting for someone to solve the "punching through the Internet" problem. This way I could express what I really feel, as a user, about taking "a toast" for the "next chapter" of your "immensely exciting journey".
jmnicolas 13y ago
You pay the price for being an early adopter. I never even heard of Loom before this news ...

by kylec 13y ago

phillmv 13y ago

I wonder if we'll start seeing startup fatigue. Then again, a company just failing must be vastly more common. I've noticed that these days I avoid all free services and, when the information is available to me, will pick the lifestyle over the vc backed company.

bjeanes 13y ago

Really loving being on Picturelife. Last one (that I like) standing — at least for now.

salberts 13y ago

100%. Photos are here to stay while most startups are not. As much as I hate saying it,being a start-up founder myself, I'd go for Google, Yahoo, Amazon or a more backup-oriented startup.

pearjuice 13y ago

Exposure.co looks pretty good. However, looking at the history of the projects ran by the creators you might be in for a bumpy surprise... At least the service its prices are sustainable. Or premium.

anon808 13y ago
exposure.co is an elepath product, elepath is run by Jake Lodwick who wrote http://pando.com/2013/04/02/an-acquisition-is-always-a-failure/ http://pando.com/2013/04/02/an-acquisition-is-always-a-failu... not saying jake won't take the money and run if offered it, or shut down exposure, but given that it looks like he's fairly comfortable after collegehumor and his investment in tumblr, chances are lower that he's looking to offload exposure/elepath. but who knows.

calinet6 13y ago

This is a huge problem with SAAS in general. The ephemerality not only of our data, but of the entire service, is highly disturbing. Next time I buy a tool, I'm going to look for something I can hold in my hand (metaphorically speaking), and use until I decide not to.

zheshishei 13y ago
I guess it's time to go back to standalone desktop apps?
- mpyne 13y ago
  Some of us never left...
- bentcorner 13y ago
  Selfhosting isn't out of the question. Maybe there's a middle ground? If someone provided me with a VPS but made it really easy to self-host applications from a curated list, I'd be all over that.
  - calinet6 13y ago
    Self-hosted auto-updated service nodes, that run on your own cloud-connected server. All your data, your encryption, your permissions, everything. Then you connect to your services via any thin client (just thumbprint on any terminal anywhere and you're logged in). Any screen, any device, anywhere. Someday.
6cxs2hd6 13y ago
It's a problem with unnecessarily monolithic SaaS, where everyone reinvents e.g. the storage piece of it. You should be able to tell XYZ service to work with your photos as stored on Amazon S3. Or stored on, what's that other company, starts with a D...?

slaven 13y ago

And the on-boarding process was so painful - it took me weeks to load up ALL my photos onto Everpix. After they failed, I signed up with Loom and again it took over a month for it all to upload. I feel sad as I don't envy the next startup that tries to "solve" this very real problem.

ukd1 13y ago
I think they're going to migrate you seamlessly to dropbox, so no worries there.
- sp332 13y ago
  It doesn't look very seamless. If you had a Loom account, you don't automatically get a Dropbox account. You have to make a dropbox account and then link the account to "import" your photos. I guess you can put your photos into Dropbox's "Carousel" but none of this happens automatically.
  - ukd1 13y ago
    I've actually just done it - it was seemless (though, as you mentioned I had a dropbox account). I clicked the link, read the page, signed in to loom and then authed loom->dropbox. Process started instantly and photos started showing up! Plus now I have 0.5T on dropbox. It's by far the cleanest sunset I've ever used.

mason240 13y ago

I have been looking for a good open source, Picasa type photo management platform, unfortunately I haven't been about to find any good ones.

TeMPOraL 13y ago

We keep being taught the same lesson, day after day, and we never learn, but I think it's time to put this explicitly. Startups like this are lying to us, straight in the face. Simple as that. And we believe the bullshit they say every time. It's written so almost explicitly in the startup "literature". Growth. They are not building real products that are supposed to solve problems for people, they build make-believe products that are supposed to lure people in. Because that's how you prove your worth these days - by number of users you can get on board. I apologize if I hurt someone who doesn't start the company just in order to bullshit his/her way to acquihire year or two later. Maybe you're honestly building a real product to solve real problems and you actually care about your users. But then again, to quote Nick Fury, "things like this give me trust issues". I'm still waiting for someone to solve the "punching through the Internet" problem. This way I could express what I really feel, as a user, about taking "a toast" for the "next chapter" of your "immensely exciting journey".

jmnicolas 13y ago

You pay the price for being an early adopter. I never even heard of Loom before this news ...