Brian from Instapaper here. We have no plans to shut the app down, and a big part of the value the app provides (parser improvements, aggregate information on links) requires the ongoing operation of the service.
[0]: https://signalvnoise.com/posts/2777-what-happens-after-yahoo... [1]: https://readability.com/
Pinterest receives value from the ongoing operation of Instapaper in the form of continued parsing improvements and aggregate information about links on the web, and that value is enough to justify our relatively small operating costs.
free supervision of extractors for web page content (people complain if the scraper doesn't work)
some notion of link quality
I see it as an insurance for us users: as long as a significant amount of users are paying keeping the service as-is is a valid alternative for the owners.
When it becomes free I fear that someone suddenly starts looking at it as a cost center, I mean: all the benefits you mention seems to be possible without operating an end-user service.
Disclaimer: not a paying Instapaper customer, but I am a paying lastpass customer and a paying google docs customer etc etc.
I can't honestly say that the paid-for services I use are more likely to remain available than my non-paid services.
The key factor appears to be a viable business model, but that's impossible to evaluate from the outside (and sometimes from the inside).
This is a pretty empty claim without a minimum time frame. It would also be more convincing if it came from Ben Silbermann...
Hope you forgive the skepticism but I've seen too many start ups being acquired and happily singing the "Our buyer has full confidence in us and will let us operate with 100% independence" cliché quickly followed a few months later by "We are sorry to announce that we're shutting down".
> "..I just got something for free and .."
What you're saying is now that they got it for free they have no right to complain about the fear of it being unstable. Which is EXACTLY why people are having an issue here. They are fearing that the fact that it is free means it also won't be able to be relied upon and you just proved why they are saying that. If you pay for something you have some recourse. If it's 100% free for everyone and shuts down, well shit. Guess all of your stuff is gone and you have to go elsewhere.
Thanks
Thanks so much for dropping into this thread. Would Pinterest be willing to open source non-competitive pieces of Instapaper's tooling, considering the user base is what is of value (monitoring parser and link quality)?