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A comment on Sandstorm is returning to its community roots. Parent comment

Re:Sandstorm is returning to its community roots by chipotle_coyote on Monday February 06, 2017 @06:30PM (#13585370)
This was largely RethinkDB's plan, and it worked about as well for us as it did for Sandstorm. One can argue Sandstorm executed it a bit better than we did. (Disclosure: speaking as a former RethinkDB employee, but not for anyone else, and I have no "inside information" to speak of about the finances.) I think this can work, but I think the unpleasant truth is that the developer tools market--which is certainly what RethinkDB was in, and which Sandstorm was certainly at least adjacent to--is a mostly lousy place to be in.

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Re:Sandstorm is returning to its community roots by naasking on Monday February 06, 2017 @07:34PM (#13585823)
> I think this can work, but I think the unpleasant truth is that the developer tools market--which is certainly what RethinkDB was in, and which Sandstorm was certainly at least adjacent to--is a mostly lousy place to be in.

I think it is difficult to convince devs to pay for tools given the plethora of free options available. It's a stupid mindset even I suffer from, and I think only heavy marketing will work to convince devs of the advantages of a particular paid tool. I was convinced for Sandstorm, but didn't have a project I could use it for just yet, but I hadn't even heard of RethinkDB until a week before they announced the shut down.

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