The Old Reader To Close Public Site In Two Weeks (Unless It Doesn't) 93
An anonymous reader writes "When Google first announced Google Reader would be shut down, the news kick-started a very competitive race to create the best alternative. At least one service, however, did not welcome the change, and is now planning to close up shop next month: The Old Reader. In fact, if you navigate to the service's homepage now, you'll be greeted by this sad message: "Unfortunately we had to disable user registration at The Old Reader." In two weeks, the public site will be shut down and a private one, available to a select few (accounts will be migrated automatically), will take its place." An update on the story says "We have received a number of proposals that we are discussing right now. Chances are high that public The Old Reader will live after all," so a reprieve may be possible.
Too late for me. (Score:5, Informative)
I've been using The Old Reader ever since it was first announced that Google Reader was shutting down. I checked out all the options I knew about and decided to go with The Old Reader as they seemed to support my needs the best. My needs are basic; I follow a few blogs and their comments. That's it. This past weekend, they had major hardware issues and ended up being down for nearly three days. No problem, I thought. Growing pains. I'll stick with them. Yesterday, they had a couple of intermittent problems as well. No problem, I thought. I'll stick with them. Then comes the announcement on their blog. In a nutshell, "We're going private. If you're not one of our buddies, didn't sign up before March, and didn't pay, you're out." They didn't even try to retain their user base.
I don't know if I signed up before March. There's nowhere I could find my account creation date. The banner at the top of the site tells me my account won't be retained. Like I said, I joined when they first announced that Google Reader was going away. I could've sworn that was before March, but who knows?
I didn't know they were soliciting donations. You log into an RSS site and you start importing your feeds. I guess that's on me; I didn't really look beyond getting my feeds set up. Unfortunately, they didn't give me the option after the fact either.
This is a site that prided itself on being a replacement for Google Reader. They catered to the Google Reader crowd. Apparently they got quite a bit of it. Their need to upgrade their hardware is a sign of success. The hardships they outline in their blog post are growing pains. These things happen. You work through them and move on, better than you were before. When your knee-jerk reaction is to announce you're dumping the majority of your user base, I don't really care what you say after the fact nor do I care what you ultimately decide. I've already been tagged as expendable. I don't want to find myself without an RSS site the next time one of their staff has a bad day. The Old Reader is/was a decent site. I liked the interface. I wouldn't have minded contributing if that would help. I have no qualms with being a supportive part of a community that I find value in. Unfortunately, my perceived value to The Old Reader is next to nothing and now I have no interest in supporting a site that clearly doesn't support its users.
A few of the comments on their blog directed people to inoreader.com. I easily exported my OPML from The Old Reader and was up and running on InoReader in minutes. I don't plan to go back. As near as I can tell, InoReader wants you to spread the word. They want popularity. They want users. I can't find any requests for donations.
So, yeah, out with the Old and in with the new. Devaluing your user base (or at least making it appear that way to your users) is not decent for business or your reputation.
Re:Amateur Hobbyists (Score:4, Informative)
I was on The Old Reader around the same time period as you, but didn't stick through it.
The main reason though was that I wasn't really a fan of the "Old" Google Reader. I liked the "New" Google Reader better, so when I found InoReader http://www.inoreader.com/ [inoreader.com] - I was thrilled.
InoReader is also kind of a hobby project for someone, but has far fewer downtime issues than TOR, open sign up all the time, has issued a Google Reader-compatible API, and has a very responsive and helpful development/support crew.
Disclaimer: I am not affiliated at all with InoReader, other than being a happy user. You might like to give it a try and see if it is for you too.
Alternative for Users (Score:4, Informative)
If you're a user of The Old Reader wondering if you really have to go back to Feedly - the answer is no, you don't. Head on over to http://www.inoreader.com/ [inoreader.com] and feel welcomed by the superb developers/support crew that are more than happy to take your feedback to create a better product.
Nobody should have to stay through a series of "We're quitting! Wait... Maybe ... No ... If only... Probably... Flip a coin" announcements about whether or not they can continue to use their RSS reader.
Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with InoReader other than being a happy user.
Re:Too late for me. (Score:5, Informative)
I'm increasingly glad that I didn't stop looking after I landed on The Old Reader. I enjoyed it while I was with them, but there was always a lack of polish, not to mention a lack of speed, that kept me wanting. I eventually ended up going with Feedbin [feedbin.me] and absolutely love it, since it feels like a native client, except it's on the web. Plus, a lot of other native clients on desktop, iOS, and Android are plugging into their API, meaning that you aren't locked in to whatever app they happened to make for your platform of choice.
At this point I sound like I'm shilling for them, but I really do love it, and the fact that it's for-pay makes it obvious how they're supporting the service, so I'm not as concerned with it suddenly going under sometime soon (not to mention that they recently went through the growing pains that The Old Reader is facing, but they dealt with them by upgrading their servers significantly). I got lucky and got in the day before they raised the prices from $2/mo to $3/mo, but it's easily been worth it already. They also don't make it clear until you go to sign up, but you can import your feeds and trial the service for three days before getting charged, and they really do honor that, so you can get a feel for if it's for you or not.
Anyway, just one alternative to consider.