
Bump and Flock discontinued - davidlowjw
http://blog.bu.mp/post/71781606704/all-good-things
======
jyap
Acquisition announcement blog post from September 16, 2013:

[http://blog.bu.mp/post/61411611006/bump-
google](http://blog.bu.mp/post/61411611006/bump-google)

"Bump and Flock will continue to work as they always have for now; stay tuned
for future updates."

3 and a half months later the discontinuation announcement. In retrospect the
statement "stay tuned for future updates" sounds quite sinister. The casual
wording makes it sound like things will work out but in actuality it is far
from the truth.

If you read any product acquisition announcement and it does not state any
explicit plans to keep the product around then be fully prepared that it will
be shut down.

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PhasmaFelis
I really think we need a word for that thing where a successful startup sells
itself to a major corporation which promptly kills it and leaves the user base
out to dry.

I'm struggling for some kind of reference to Microsoft's "embrace, extend,
extinguish," but it's not really the same thing.

~~~
bengtan
How about assimilated?

~~~
xacaxulu
Assassinimilated?

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adam222
this is the major reason, i have stopped using new and shinny services poping
up every other day.

I have shifted to using open source products and installing them on my own
servers wherever possible.

And this is what big guys want to as well, they want to discourage users to
put trust with small guys. perhaps I am wrong, but it's kindda apparent.

~~~
usaar333
Are services shuting down at greater rates that in the past decade?

As far as I can tell, the "we're out of money and are shutting down" has
become "we got acqui-hired and are shutting down". Same result for the users.

~~~
onosendai
> Are services shuting down at greater rates that in the past decade?

Probably not, but the model has shifted and there's a greater offering of
services nowadays. Given the choice available and all the niches covered, it's
very easy to start using one of them and coming to rely on it for some facet
of your life/work, only to have it shut down with little prior notice and
leaving you out to dry.

The parent's point is that if you use locally running software without any
dependencies on external services you're much more secure in the event you
need to migrate away from them, since you can do it at your own pace and with
much more control over the entire process. Also, if you're using FOSS, it
makes it less likely the support will just cease since, if there's enough
interest, someone else (even you) can carry it forward.

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xacaxulu
Thanks for helping us get here but, uhh, well we got bought so fuck off now.

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macspoofing
Who hasn't seen that one coming after the Google acquisition.

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TeMPOraL
I don't blame Google. I blame the Bump founders. Their users were their
responsibility, and it was their decision to shut the service down.

I only wish there was a way to incentivize people away from the "get
acquihired and shut down" model. In this cloud reality we (the users) are
repeatedly being led to depend on services that subsequently get shut down at
random (with all the nice messages from CEOs that basically say "fuck you and
thanks for all the fish"), and we have no way of fighting back.

That's one of the main reasons I hate the SaaS trend and wish it to die in a
fire.

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ForFreedom
Bump has never been successful since its inception.

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belluchan
I don't know what to use instead of bump anymore. Kind of sucks it never took
off. :(

~~~
macspoofing
You actually used it? It was a clever hack, but it was always just a bit too
much hassle. If I wanted to share something with someone (via mobile or
otherwise), I found SMS/email/IM was faster, easier, and understood by
everyone. And no extra apps to fumble with!

~~~
belluchan
You never have to type anything with bump, and you get the entire contact
info, image and everything. No way does SMS or typing out an email do the same
thing. Even typing in bump into the app store and starting it for the first
time to send a contact is less work than writing an email. Touch app store,
touch search "bu.." there it is, install, share address, touch phones boom
done. It probably takes about as many touches just to get into the email
composer.

~~~
ChronosKey
On my Nexus 5, if I'm on the right screen, it takes 1 tap (Gmail widget). But
I agree that bump is way more convenient for sending this type of data and is
well worth the effort.

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erichocean
Anyone know of any open source alternatives?

