> To better focus our efforts and to align them with the needs of our global member base, we will be retiring the public API program
What a sad statement, there is no need for this corporate-drone talk. "We're shutting it down because it doesn't make us money, and we think we will be better off being a closed platform" would have ringed much better, not necessarily in these words. Honesty is always appreciated.
I disagree. In my time on Hacker News I've rarely seen people react positively to casual language in a press release unless the news itself is good/respectable (e.g. an apology, an announcement for some beneficial initiative, etc). I think they're better off using the language they used, and forcing the savvy to read between the lines.
I agree but wouldn't say it is anything specific to Hacker News. Honesty and plain language for these types of releases is generally only appreciated when there is an ability to work in a self-deprecating angle, or cast the message into the form of a reasonable request for forgiveness (which is, essentially, asking people a favor). eg:
"Sorry, we fucked up by doing this, that and the other thing. We will try not to fuck up again. Please bear with us."
People like that.
"We're taking away access to something you might use and like because we don't make any money from it."
People don't like that. Since the nature of the message isn't in-line with asking for forgiveness or asking for a favor (which people love, see: the Ben Franklin effect), the bluntness reads like "Fuck you, because we can".
Well, nobody wants to be the bearer of bad news. Being honest about these things usually means it will be seen as bad news. So you try to shift the focus to make it seem like the opponents (customer in this case) need was the trigger instead. Keeping some of the applications was a nice touch in addition to, apparently, announcing some kind of partner program.
They should read through the http status code list again though. 404 means that the server is currently unable to find the resource requested. 410 means that the resource is gone and never expected to return. Sure, I'm being picky but if they are refocusing their development efforts it doesn't seem to much to ask that they read up on http status codes and use them correctly.
> What a sad statement, there is no need for this corporate-drone talk.
I've always wondered if PR-types think that people "buy" stuff like this. It's somewhat expected from "old" companies but you would think a company like Netflix would be different.
But it does make them money, just indirectly (users using the apps to enjoy the service more). Look at those apps they listed, none would exist without the api, meaning their users wouldn't be using them, and many continue their subscription to netflix because they exist.
How many users would that total to? How much money?
Additionally, it's cheap marketing and cheap growth. Both good things for a subscription model company.
Taking the api offline is short term thinking and might hint it's time to sell.
What a sad statement, there is no need for this corporate-drone talk. "We're shutting it down because it doesn't make us money, and we think we will be better off being a closed platform" would have ringed much better, not necessarily in these words. Honesty is always appreciated.