

Farewell, neighbors - tswicegood
http://blog.everyblock.com/2013/feb/07/goodbye/

======
adrianh
I am super bummed about this. :-(

I wrote some thoughts on my blog: <http://www.holovaty.com/writing/rip-
everyblock/>

Adrian (EveryBlock founder)

~~~
knowtheory
So where to from here Adrian?

Do you know whether the current team is staying on at NBC or are they looking
for new gigs?

And it'd be interesting to hear what you and the other founders have been
working on as well.

~~~
clicks
> And it'd be interesting to hear what you and the other founders have been
> working on as well.

I'm not Adrian, but I'll answer for a small part: Adrian released a guitar
album, and made <http://www.soundslice.com/> (a guitar tab site, that plays
tabs to Youtube videos)

~~~
whyaduck
Ok...soundslice is fantastic! What a great tool!

------
todd3834
For anyone interested, the Knight Foundation helped fund EveryBlock with a
grant that required them to open source their code.
<http://code.google.com/p/ebcode/>

The grant required that they open source it at the end of the grant period so
I wouldn't be surprised if the source code was not current but for anyone who
would like to keep it alive, this would give you a major head start.

Also, it appears someone already did something with the source @
<http://openblockproject.org/>

~~~
tmcw
The source was dumped with no version history once in 2009. So, yes, out of
date.

That said, I know nothing of the conditions around this, what their plans
were, and so on - so not judging. And a site like EveryBlock is less about
source code and more about execution and moderation, which they did quite well
for a time.

~~~
cedrichurst
But this code is GPLV3. It's really curious _how_ the source code became out-
of-date. Isn't that a violation of the license?

~~~
juan_juarez
Just because this code is released under GPLv3 it doesn't mean that the main
codebase is GPLv3. They have complete ownership of their own code & can do as
they will with it. The GPL only controls the rights of other people that want
to use it.

~~~
cedrichurst
Thank you for the clarification. I've humbly been schooled in the nature of
opensource copyright law.

At any rate, I've started a petition to open up the source code and user-
generated content to the public domain:

[https://www.change.org/petitions/msnbc-open-source-the-
every...](https://www.change.org/petitions/msnbc-open-source-the-everyblock-
codebase-content)

I was on the site nearly every day and poured hours of my life writing
community posts, updating information, etc. This may not mean much to people
outside of Chicago, but stuff like the epic debate between Eddie Carazana and
Jim DeRogatis on the future of the Congress Theater, gone forever?

[https://www.google.com/search?q=carazana+dirogatis+everybloc...](https://www.google.com/search?q=carazana+dirogatis+everyblock&oq=carazana+dirogatis+everyblock&aqs=chrome.0.57.6059&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#hl=en&tbo=d&spell=1&q=carranza+derogatis+everyblock&sa=X&ei=FQUUUYuwEqnpygHun4HYDw&ved=0CCwQBSgA&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.&fp=9b8dc8b2d2a28807&biw=1280&bih=1264)

It's a part of history. And the fact that a media conglomerate erased it from
the web with zero notice is, frankly, troubling.

~~~
anthonyb
[https://www.google.com/search?q=carranza+derogatis+site:ever...](https://www.google.com/search?q=carranza+derogatis+site:everyblock.com)
might work a little better...

------
brador
Startups, please don't do this.

Users can become surprisingly dependent on your site, give a week warning
before closing out if you can. It's not too much to ask and gives users time
to prepare, move data, swap contact details, backup and such.

~~~
brk
Users, please don't become highly dependent on "free" sites with no obvious or
proven business model.

~~~
geoffw8
Why should a user know about a sites business model? To an average joe you
letting me sign up and do stuff is all I know. While "giving a week" isn't a
rule, it sure sounds like it might be the nicer thing to do.

You spout your answer like its the obvious and "derrr" response, but in all
reality its not the users responsibility to provide longevity.

And lets face it, we (startups) would be totally f'd if users didn't become
entirely dependent on our services early doors, perhaps even pre-biz model.

~~~
brk
_You spout your answer like its the obvious and "derrr" response_

You make a good point, and I did not mean that as the "obvious" response, I
meant it as a simple counter-response. As I kind of mentioned in my other
comment, I think there can be many cases where the startup that is shutting
down is going to be unable to afford a graceful wind-down, for various
reasons.

Startups and Users are basically at-will employers and employees in a sense.
Either can leave the other unexpectedly at any time, and I think it would be
wise to approach things with the understanding that neither should expect the
other to "just be there".

------
alberth
For all those complaining that Everyblock should have given more notice, this
obviously came as a surprise to the team.

Just look at their blog history.

Exactly 1 month ago (Jan 7th), they announced [1] a new Neighborhood Ad
service for Business.

People don't announce new paying services and then completely shut the doors 4
weeks later unless someone way up the NBC management chain axed this
unexpectedly.

[1] <http://blog.everyblock.com/2013/jan/07/neighbor-ads/>

Update: Fixed typo

------
antoko
User comment from the linked blog post found this article that gives more
insight. NBC recently took full control of msnbc.com which was the parent of
everyblock. I was aware of this but hadn't made the connection in this
context.

[http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/203437/nbc-
clos...](http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/203437/nbc-closes-
hyperlocal-pioneer-everyblock/)

------
JeffKnol
This seems like a great opportunity for someone to acquire basic contact
information from those former EB power users posting on this blog entry, each
of whom will likely be able to rally hundreds of former EB users to help you
populate an EveryBlock clone you swiftly roll out. Your site could easily take
off now that the niche is completely empty again.

Stop whining, start coding.

~~~
anon1385
Creating yet another centralised web app on a shoestring budget is hardly the
solution here. No doubt it too would lose money and get shut down or get
bought out and get shut down. Unless somebody with resources is prepared to
fund/maintain it, but even then you are reliant on the goodwill, energy and
money of a single person. Even charging users doesn't solve the problem of the
owner just pulling the plug for whatever reason.

The centralised web model is broken when it comes to any kind of services that
stores significant user data (and it turns out that most things involve
storing user data). If you are going to order people to start coding, at least
tell them to start coding on solutions to the real problem.

------
uptown
I'm really stunned by this news - I've always been inspired by what Paul and
Adrian created - but I think a news organization was a misaligned parent-
company for this kind of site. My "side project" has been working on something
in a similar space, so I hope somebody publishes a post-mortem.

Truly sorry to see everyblock go.

------
ChuckMcM
The whole free/not-free/kinda-free issue is raised in a couple of ways in this
thread. NBC mentioned the challenge of creating a business model (caveat
recent advertising efforts)

The question I have been following (and Dan Gillmor as well) is this, "Is
there a 'self supporting' model for local journalism?"

For that to work the revenues generated have to cover the cost of running the
site. And my experience is that this has to mean both keeping the cost of
running the site as low as possible as well as finding revenue. We can see by
example that without such a model these sites disappear.

Three possible models come to mind, although I'm sure there must be more;

1) Visitors to the site pay for access. Historically this is challenging, but
with the experience of 'free' sites vanishing due to money problems perhaps
there is a core set of consumers who could create a viable market for this.

2) Advertisers on the site share the costs of operating it amongst themselves.
This is the current model for free 'weeklys' where advertising funds are the
largest revenue model. The 'value' of net advertising however is much lower
than paper advertising thanks in part to Google and others. So this is made
harder by that and people more easily avoiding the advertisements.

3) A civic fund, basically spending some of the community's tax dollars on
funding a local news portal/site.

Given the way that everyblock got created perhaps a migration where its tax
funded at first, then advertising funded later? Sort of a private/public
partnership. Clearly every city has communication issues with their citizens
so they could use this sort of channel to reach out to folks who don't keep
flyers around (Sunnyvale for example has a flyer which says which days of the
year are free for bringing in hazardous waste to the dump)

I certainly agree with the general sentiment that this is a useful service.

------
sjs382
I doubt this repo is current, but the code for everyblock is open source:
<https://code.google.com/p/ebcode/>

Also, a fork: <https://github.com/openplans/openblock>

~~~
cedrichurst
The fact that this code is _not_ current is extremely surprising, actually.
It's GPLV3-licensed, so my somewhat uninformed expectation is that MSNBC would
be obligated to open-source any derivative works? Unless they did a complete
rewrite of the codebase at some point.

I created a petition asking MSNBC to open-source the latest codebase and also
release the user-generated content to the public domain:

[https://www.change.org/petitions/msnbc-open-source-the-
every...](https://www.change.org/petitions/msnbc-open-source-the-everyblock-
codebase-content)

~~~
genwin
From GPLV3: "One of the fundamental requirements of the GPL is that when you
distribute object code to users, you must also provide them with a way to get
the source."

Presumably MSNBC didn't distribute object code to users, in which case they
have no obligation to open-source any derivative work.

~~~
jlev
And that's why you should use the Affero GPL for web services.
<http://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.html>

MSNBC really screwed the pooch on this one, from their initial "open source"
via zipfile, to the zero-day shutdown. Not what the Knight Foundation intended
to fund with their open source requirements.

~~~
cedrichurst
Per another thread of discussion, apparently the rules of the GPL do not apply
to the licensor, only the licensee. If MSNBC accepted OSS community
contributions to the Everyblock codebase, they might be in violation. But if
it was a one-way offering, they can apparently still retain full rights. I
imagine the initial Mozilla-Knight foundation grant makes this a bit more
complex, but IANAL.

~~~
jlgaddis
The key is distribution.

Anyone can take a piece of GPL'd software and modify it as much as they'd like
for their own use. There is absolutely no requirement to publish or
"contribute back" those changes. (Think, for example, about Amazon customizing
or modifying Xen for EC2. They do not have to publish their modified code or
share it with "the community".)

If, however, you share binary/compiled/etc. forms of your modifications, you
are then required to make the source code available.

------
knowtheory
I'm curious how many of the people reading this thread have ever actually used
Everyblock (and if so how often)?

~~~
danso
I think the last time I checked it was six months ago, when Adrian left and I
was curious to how the site actually looked. To my surprise, the site seemed
to have thrived in _appearance_...the navigation had been cleaned up, more
data sources had been added, and users were participating in discussions.

I signed up as a user but didn't stay around...I think the site failed to
become a "sticky" place. There was not enough of the psychological reward in
returning to the site/refreshing the hoomepage...the site seemed content with
just delivering a raw stream of datapoints rather than filtering out key
stories and weighting their importance (which is another argument for how
successful Facebook has been with their Top Stories feed, even though people
_think_ they just want items in chronological order).

EveryBlock seemed very lackluster in its promotion. If I wasn't in the online
news business and had been aware of the Knight News challenge, Adrian's early
journalism work, or of Django, I don't think I would've ever heard of
EveryBlock.

Their Twitter account had fewer than 4,000 followers, which seems
incomprehensibly low for an online community news site 5-years-old. Reddit has
a thriving community of city-based subreddits...there's no reason why
EveryBlock's rich information shouldn't have been a staple on them, but it was
hardly ever linked to:

<http://www.reddit.com/domain/everyblock.com/>

I wish I could offer some link examples of the things I thought EveryBlock did
well, but apparently its owners see no value in its long tail archival traffic
and have effectively blanked out the site.

~~~
sage
EB may have suffered from a lack of discoverability of its best features.

The feature I found most useful was the ability to define an area on a map,
then get email updates when other users posted news in that area. I think that
should have been the primary focus of Everyblock instead of the raw stream of
data.

------
pdovy
This is really too bad, this was a great site and there doesn't really seem to
be anything else like it out there. I'm surprised they couldn't come up with a
way to make this profitable - and the closure is pretty sudden, wonder what
the back story is there.

My neighorhood in Chicago used this pretty extensively and it really helped
keep people connected and aware of what was going on. Sad to see that go.

~~~
bhousel
Where I live (northern NJ) everyone knows about and uses Patch. Even non-techy
people. I'm really impressed by how quickly they've become the go-to source
for local news.

~~~
smackfu
Yeah, Patch hit on a pretty big gap in the news market. The bigger newspapers
cut and cut on local reporters, to the point where a daily newspaper might
have a half-dozen local stories covering their very large coverage area. Patch
can start a micro-site, have someone write an article or two about that town
each day, and be much more interesting to people.

------
quomopete
This is amazingly(!) ham-fisted on the part of NBC. everyblock.com was pretty
vibrant from what I could tell. And being forced to shutter overnight is about
as unprofessional as it gets (again, I understand this as, without a doubt,
some NBC exec throwing a temper tantrum and not realizing the value of their
own assets when hitting the nuke button).

I saw a lot of connecting going on there, in a way that is much more valuable
than other social websites in that people could use it as a way to promote and
share local/in the flesh resources and information and it brought a lot of
value to the people who used it. That there was no warning, no way for people
to reach out to others they'd like to stay in touch with after the shutdown is
reckless decision making. Just a full-on, ridiculous implosion. Social capital
is a real thing, and it's too bad that NBC does not consider that in their
ledger.

------
danso
What a shame. Six months ago when Adrian Holovaty left, he told The Verge that
he saw EveryBlock living for a "long, long time" and that MSNBC.com were
"taking the long view on it":

[http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/16/3245325/5-minutes-on-
the-v...](http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/16/3245325/5-minutes-on-the-verge-
with-adrian-holovaty-founder-of-everyblock)

And there was little reason to doubt him...I didn't use EB very much but it
was an incredibly well executed site, in terms of its mapping and data-
aggregation...it obviously lacked a strong editorial focus, but that was
ostensibly something that MSNBC would've brought to it.

Another thing to note: it's relatively routine to bash online startups who
give less than two months warning that they're closing shop and taking all
their data with them (either through a buyout or failure)...EveryBlock's
owners, apparently, didn't think a day's notice was needed. Was there really
no middle ground between immediate shutdown and keeping the site in low-
maintenance mode? It's not like those maps and geodata go out of date quickly.

\----

Edit: Just one month ago, EveryBlock had developed a new form of advertising
targeted at the neighborhood level:
<http://blog.everyblock.com/2013/jan/07/neighbor-ads/>

I understand that a new ad service isn't just free money, per se (you need a
sales staff, or at least a tech person to manage the system)...but shouldn't
they wait more than 30 days to see if that is a promising, maintainable form
of revenue?

~~~
FireBeyond
Has Adrian written on why he left possibly as soon as he was able (assuming
that Everyblock was acquired in "summer 2009", and many founders are tied to
two year agreements to stay, and he left in August two years later)?

~~~
danso
Yes, he blogged about his leaving: <http://www.holovaty.com/writing/goodbye-
everyblock/>

FWIW, he left in August 2012, which would be three years after a summer 2009
acquisition. Also, he founded it back in July 2007...so when he says he
"developed an uncontrollable itch to do something new", he probably meant it.

Before Everyblock, he's been a pioneer in utilizing data and non-traditional
journalism with news sites, most notably at the LJWorld.com...so he's been in
this local online news business for quite a while. I don't think this is your
usual case of a founder jumping ship just out of profit motive.

~~~
adrianh
Yes, I don't mess around or BS on my blog. Take it at face value, cause that's
how I meant it.

I'd been working on EveryBlock full-time for five years, and I'd maintained
chicagocrime.org (the precursor) for two years before that, so I was ready to
do something _not_ related to local data or news. My new thing (Soundslice) is
completely different.

------
mippie_moe
<http://www.nextdoor.com> will make a good replacement.

~~~
kfury
Our neighborhood uses Nextdoor (about 950 homes) and it's fantastic for
community building. It focused more on personal interaction than hyperlocal
news aggregation, but in my opinion that made it more useful.

Neighbors in our community who have lived on the same block for 20 years
without speaking are now getting together for block parties and sharing info
about babysitters and local crimes. It's actually very useful.

------
mshron
Everyblock was a great way to find out about what was going on in my
neighborhood. I wish they had given a little more warning; I would have gone
back and read some things before they closed their doors. Then again, hard to
complain about such an excellent free service.

They lost their founder only a few months ago. I have no inside information,
but I can't imagine that this is unrelated.

I wish the whole team the best of luck! They did a great job with Everyblock.
I hope they do something else amazing soon.

------
carlosreyes
Founder's been gone since August of 2012. I wish they'd given more of an
explanation behind closing. As of this blogpost:
<http://www.holovaty.com/writing/goodbye-everyblock/> it seems they were
optimistic. Sad to see his writing about acquisitions within today's context.

------
codegeek
This is disappointing news. When I found out everyblock, it was exciting. I
really liked the idea and in fact, had a few ideas in my own head for
something similar.

I really really think we need a good way to connect better with neighbors and
our neighborhoods. Would love to know more details why Everyblock failed.

------
prawks
This concept sounds awesome, I'm saddened that I only heard about it once it
was closed.

------
itsmeduncan
It is interesting to read the secret shout-outs at the bottom of the current
homepage.

~~~
mountaineer
nice and thoughtful touch in an otherwise morbid page

------
charlieok
So if I want hyperlocal news, is there anyone right now doing that?

~~~
ericabiz
Reddit has some great city/state subreddits (obviously depends on how tech-
friendly your city is.) <http://www.reddit.com/r/austin> is a pretty thriving
place, for example.

Neighborhoods, in some cases, will have private groups. For instance, when I
bought a house in my current neighborhood in Austin, the neighbors let me know
about a private Yahoo group for this neighborhood. My neighborhood's
population is just over 6,000 people. The Yahoo group has 1397 members and
averages over 30 messages per day (!) Anything from "Can you recommend a
plumber?" to "I have extra firewood" will show up there. The neighborhood
association also prints a hard-copy newsletter that they deliver every month,
which is sponsored by local businesses. (Note: We are not an HOA neighborhood
--we just happen to have a pretty active population.)

------
pcl
Does anyone have any idea what the ASCII art in the HTML of their homepage
(<http://everyblock.com>) is meant to represent?

~~~
alaskamiller
It's a sad blob fish.

(<http://www.upalong.org/archive_full.asp?id=232>)

------
kill9
I would have paid for an everyblock subscription. Sad to see NBC News shut it
down.

------
jacoblyles
Was this a Patch competitor?

~~~
cedrichurst
Patch was a competitor to Everyblock. EB pretty much pioneered this space.

