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Comment by andrewljohnson | Hacker News Reader

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andrewljohnson

This is one of the worst shutdown announcements I've seen on HN.

* no reasons/details

* no apologetic tone

* short timeframe to move your data

Suck it users!

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And when Batch was acq-hired by Airbnb in July they said (TechCrunch):

"An Airbnb spokesperson told me that if plans change in the future, Dailybooth and Batch users will be given ample notice before those services are closed."

Hilarious.

I would disagree. What reasons are needed? It's a startup: we know they ran out of money. The rest is probably personal or not worth delving into. Apologetic tone? Save your PR spin. Eight days to migrate? Well, the users probably all have copies of the photos anyway. I liked the note. Short and to the point.

They were acquihired and will be working on other things, probably worth including that. Maybe something about the product, why it failed to catch on and what they think users should use in its place.

Will not surprise me at all that many users will miss this announcement. Turn off new accounts today, but give them 6 months and remind those that haven't signed in monthly.

Agreed, though I'd add one other thing: one could argue the issue with Batch failing was the idea itself, or the execution. Perhaps the crappy "shutting down" message is a symptom of poor execution/management.

Also not even one sentence describing what the product was.

It kind of makes sense. It's a page targeted at their users, not hacker news commenters.

Although it's not a very good page for their users, either.

If you needed to know, you would have already known.

Imagine if you just started a 10 day vacation, aren't checking emails and such. You get home and find everything deleted. Ridiculous.

"It's been real"

In a situation like this, if you can't say anything professional, then don't say anything at all.

Well, no. I hate it when I look back on an experience and realize it's been complex, or, worse yet, imaginary...

hm, looks like they've edited that bit out

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