

Shutting Down My Site - patdryburgh
http://patdryburgh.com/blog/shutting-down-my-porno-site/

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hpaavola
It always makes me a bit sad when any site is taken offline. I haven't even
heard of Simple Desks before, but it still makes me sad that it is gone.

Destroying bits is so darn easy, that people do it too much. I don't delete
emails (my spamfilter might delete, I don't). Once in a while it's nice to see
what you were up to 5 years ago.

My personal homepage is still running. I haven't updated it in many many
years, but it still there. Occasionally my friends and I check some photos
from there that I posted almost 10 years ago. And I regret that I have deleted
all previous version of my homepage.

And it was a sad day when GeoCities was taken offline.

Sure, if keeping your site up and running (even in read-only) costs too much,
it's ok to shut it down. But please, try to save as much of the current
Internet as you can so our children can see its history.

~~~
SoftwareMaven
This reply got me thinking: does the nearly-zero incremental cost of a bit
cause people to be more likely to turn into virtual hoarders? Anybody who
didn't through physical mail away ever would be looked at funny, but I rarely
delete an email, either.

Is there a psychological cost associated with virtual hoarding like there is
with physical? Or is it truly not hoarding?

~~~
reinhardt
Coming from the opposite side, I wonder if there's an "anti-hoarding"
disorder; feeling that most things (physical or virtual) in one's possession
is a liability, a weight that would be better off discarded unless they are
absolutely necessary. Almost everything I own adds to my psychological debt
and I feel a weight being lifted off my shoulders whenever I can get rid of
stuff, documents, files, emails or anything else attached to me.

~~~
johnpowell
I am like this. I am constantly looking to get rid of as much as I can and
that includes digital things too.

I just moved a few months ago and everything I own fit in the back of a 87'
Volvo wagon. And that includes my bed.

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elliottcarlson
So you shut down a tumblr hosted site that didn't cost you anything to run
except for time - and now all of us who had never heard of it before can't
even see the content that used to exist. I'm glad you are doing something
better with your time that you will find more fulfilling - but I think it's a
shame you went this route.

~~~
swah
Here is what you missed:

    
    
          __
         |  |
    

No, seriously... I enjoyed looking at those photos once, it was just like an
architecture magazine. No big deal to shut it off, just don't consider it your
life's work.

~~~
keithpeter
wayback machine has some samples from 2010. As swah says a bit like Blueprint
magazine circa 1985. I liked the older desks that had some marks on them, had
been _worked_ on. Does anyone _not_ use a Mac?

~~~
dextorious
"""Does anyone not use a Mac?"""

There's this guy in New Zealand.

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rys
You shut it down because nobody should give a fuck about it, yet you tell us
what computer you used to develop your website? I don't get it!

Also, don't you feel a bit selfish for removing something that other people
obvious find value in from the Internet?

~~~
cgag
Yeah this just feels like selfish ego-stroking bullshit.

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molecule
apparent update:

"Back, and better than ever January 20th, 2012. Many thanks to Pat Dryburgh
for his excellent work over the years. Unfortunately, he has chosen to end
this venture. We think that is a great shame, and we've decided to bring it
back, but in a different form. When we relaunch on January 20th, Simple Desks
will return with a more substantial aim: to provide food for thought on the
subjects of productivity, minimalism and design and technology (along with
some occasionally unrelated musings). We hope you'll join us. In the mean
time, we suggest you read Pat's excellent blog post (patdryburgh.com) on his
decision. We hope to avoid some of the issues he raises with the new
incarnation of Simple Desks."

<http://simpledesks.tumblr.com/>

~~~
citricsquid
and it will suck.

The idea of forcing change to revive something dead sucks, _organic_ change
(or evolution as one might call) it is great but taking a tried and tested
idea that had popularity and changing it forcefully never works.

Why don't they stick with what it was? :|

~~~
gburt
If we're taking the organic model, what it was died. It clearly wasn't
profitable/rewarding enough for the old owner, perhaps if you don't change it
that will be true for the new owner.

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notJim
I can relate to this so well. I've mentioned previously on this site that
frankly I find much of the beauty and inspiration you can find on the web
completely empty and meaningless. Technologists love to talk about the social
impact the web is having and how it's going to change the world for the better
(things which are undoubtedly true), but so much of it is so superficial that
I can't help but think about what we're losing at the same time.

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__david__
So I appreciate that it's your site and you have the right to do whatever you
want with it, but isn't it a tad arrogant to judge what other people may or
may not get out of it? To call it "porno" is to make a big assumption of what
people are using your site for. And even if most people _are_ just gawking at
pretty pictures, isn't it a bit much for only _you_ to decide whether it's a
net positive or negative on the world?

It reminds me of the whole "_why" thing. It's totally your right to stop
hosting content, but it's also a bit rude.

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JacobIrwin
You can still see all the work via google images:
[https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=simpl...](https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=simple+desks+on+tumblr&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=16979l20448l1l20522l13l9l2l2l2l0l182l985l2.6l11l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.,cf.osb&biw=1520&bih=683&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=_7YAT-e2JMqQiAL1h4WkDg)

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cjfont
I'm glad you found something more fulfilling to do with your time, but that
doesn't mean the Simple Desks idea was trivial, or on par with a porn site.
I'm certain that many people can appreciate the ideal workspace setups of
others, and yet it's not like something we would be fapping to. Honestly, I'm
sad I didn't get a chance to really see the site before it got taken down.

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ceol
Link to the original site: <http://simpledesks.tumblr.com/>

It looks like someone has taken over. I'm glad, because it's a shame to shut
something down that people enjoy, but you shouldn't feel _forced_ to work on a
side project.

I wish you luck, and here's to hoping your future endeavors bring a bit more
satisfaction.

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rokhayakebe
Well since it paid, why not sell it, or give it to someone who will run it. I
check Freshome almost daily. You can say looking at other people's home is
pointless specially expensive ones because most readers will never live in
such a house. However some people may just find it joyful. Just check your
logs and see the ten most frequent visitors, ask a couple of them to run it.

~~~
patdryburgh
This was an option I considered and discussed with a friend who is well known
in the minimalism/productivity space.

To me, it's actually more of a moral issue: is keeping a site like Simple
Desks online good, bad, or neutral to the world. I'm sure it's different for
different people, but I just couldn't shake the feeling that in the end it was
detrimental to people's time.

We have better things to do with our time, and much more beautiful works of
art to get enjoyment from.

~~~
arn
Of course you are welcome to do whatever you want. I find taking it to the
moral extreme strange though.

That leaves you little in the way of daily activities besides pure charitable
work. Does your short film make the world a better place? I doubt it.

It sounds like it comes down to what you enjoy, and that's great. The best
motivation. Simple Desks though seems like the kind of site that some might
get great joy out of.

~~~
patdryburgh
Hey Arnold,

Tried replying to you through email, but the email bounced back. Used the
email on your Hacker News profile.

Cheers, Pat

~~~
arn
odd. might have hit up against a spam filter. I added an alternate email to my
profile if you want to try again.

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patdryburgh
Sorry, the title was censored.

~~~
fooandbarify
That blog post really resonated with me. Thanks for writing it.

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dan1234
Oh well, I guess there's always <http://www.deskography.org/> for everyone
else's desk-porn fix.

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jyap
What Do you mean here? "I kept it up because, baby, it paid."

You just put Google Adsense ads on the Tumblr page?

~~~
patdryburgh
No, the site was a member of Fusion Ads starting in January 2011. Before that,
a company that made hardware for managing desk clutter sponsored the blog.

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RexRollman
Too bad. I liked the Simpledesks site.

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erikb
Well, I have no idea who you are and what pages you are shutting down. Of
course I wish you the best for your future. That being said:

"The real question is, who gives a fuck?"

~~~
raganwald
I belong to a Facebook group for mountain biking in Ontario. People will
propose rides on there, and of course the other folks who want to join in will
use the comments to indicate that they’re coming, discuss the timing, carpool,
and so on.

And then there are always a few folks who chime in with “Sorry, can’t make it”
and “Sorry, not interested.”

What we’ve discovered is that such messages do absolutely nothing to help the
group with anything. Unless someone has already said they are interested, we
discourage saying you’re not interested. It simply adds noise to an otherwise
productive discussion.

That’s my anecdote in response to what appears to be a declaration that you
are not interested in this post.

~~~
jaredsohn
Going a bit off-topic, this happens on Facebook because when you decline an
event it shows a text box asking to "say why you can't go". If Facebook would
remove that textbox from the dialog, this would likely happen much less
frequently.

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sktrdie
How much did it pay? If I may ask.

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hnwh
why does this post exist?

