Experience Project #TBT

Did anyone on here use to use Experience Project? I used it all the way until the bitter end. I used to love that app. I use apps like these as an online diary/blog. I have so many posts on there that are literally gone. I hate that they don't even have reader mode anymore. They completely abandoned/deleted the site. I understand though. They had their reasons. Just wanted to know if any of you are familiar with it. I found this site about five years ago when I was looking for something similar (no pun intended) to replace Experience Project with. I only wish I could read some of my old posts. I was still in high school at the time, and I want to have a look at my younger mind lol. Now I am almost 26 wanting to see the gradual shift in my mentality lol.

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jackson55 · M

I was on EP for 7 years and the day they flipped the switch.

PatKirby · M

@jackson55

I joined in 2009. Wasn't online the day they went out. How did it go out, in a blaze of glory or more like pffft and quietly fade away?

jackson55 · M

@PatKirby EP posted that it would be shutdown at noon pacific time. Many had already gone. A few and myself stuck around till the end. For awhile you could get on the site but there was no activity. Then there was a period that you could transfer your content to another site or delete it. Then it was gone.

PatKirby · M

@jackson55

So it was like that, huh? I get the sense from what everyone has said here about how EP went out that the creator (Armin) was not fully aware how much they affected others. They didn't have any last day celebration, or final day goodbye fanfare - nothing.

Or maybe that rumor about a lawsuit against them was more serious than everyone thought and Armin just wanted out.

What I do remember of that time was that Armin mentioned something about going out because they noticed that social networks were moving from their "long form" to the "short form" of expression. If you look at most social networks today you'll notice this to be partially true, as it developed from the ground up and has now become the de facto form of social networking people prefer.

Either way it does sound a bit funny how for all the groundwork EP laid down there was no proper goodby equivalent that matched it or paid appropriate farewell. They could have at least had a nice week-long party type of send off, or something but nada. Oh well, I guess you can't have everything.

jackson55 · M

@PatKirby The law suit may have had some effect ? The feds wanting access to some of the content. EP said no. I’m sure there was pressure. I went to a user party in SF in 2011 I think ? They wanted to know if we, the users, thought there should be changes and what they might be ? There were some changes then the shutdown in 2016. I was told it was a experiment and the 10 years it was on it had run it’s course. Lots of speculation on the net why it shutdown.. We may never know the real reason.

PatKirby · M

@jackson55
Agreed. I think in the end it was a mix of different factors. I must say that I do think that Armin must've known (and probably still does) that it formed the basis of other successful sites to come using that format. As it remains successful today.

For example, would you come back to EP if they all of a sudden brought the site back up with your profile now active? I know I would, and expect millions of others would do the same. Armin must know this and have been reminded of it by the system administrators and most definitely by the business administrators at the company. So the decision is ultimately his. Although he did make a statement on the farewell graphic that they're 'taking a break' and look forward to 'meeting again soon'...

...apparently there's been no real indication that it ever will. It just seems like there's something in the background that's not evident, or being told. That's a lot of potential money dangling in the air on their coming back, if ever. Those are my 2¢ anyway.