Posterous, the Tumblr challenger that wasn't, shutting down April 30
It was only a matter a time before Twitter pulled the plug on the blogging service it acquired one year ago.
For all five of us who stuck with Posterous and chose the blogging service over Tumblr, today is a mournful day. Sachin Agarwal, founder of the now Twitter-owned service, announced that Posterous will shut off the lights come April 30.
The news comes as little surprise. Posterous was picked up by Twitter in March of last year and we've barely heard a peep from the team since then. At the time, Agarwal and Twitter both insisted that they'd leave Posterous "up and running without disruption." The promise was partially fulfilled -- the service was left unattended without any form of disruption, product updates, or otherwise. It was only a matter of time before the powers that be decided to just pull the plug already.
Posterous, soon to be long forgotten, was pretty darn appealing when it first launched in 2008. The product made blogging as simple as sending an e-mail. In fact, in the early days, the only way you could post to Posterous was to send an e-mail to post@posterous.com. Posterous was to blogging what Twitter was to, well, blogging, so the argument went. Over the years, the product evolved in odd directions, opting for groups appeal over mobile interfaces and apps as simple as its original purpose.
Some of us, this reporter included, chose to stick around anyway. So, if you join me in feeling a little discarded, know that you're not alone -- in your dismay or your choice. Posterous launched with the support of Paul Graham's prestigious Y Combinator incubator and quickly became the preferred place for inside-baseball types such as Michael Arrington and Guy Kawasaki to post their little missives.
Not all is lost. Posterous members can download their content or port their stuff over to WordPress or Squarespace. Alternatively, you can pay $5 a month and use Posthaven to keep your links intact. The site, created by Posterous co-founder Garry Tan who left to join Y Combinator, is already having issues staying up, so hedge your bets.
Perhaps now that my Posterous, which I made my Web home at one point, is headed to the graveyard, David Karp, chief executive at Tumblr, will finally forgive me for all the ink I spilled on Posterous, a product he once told me was "junk."