News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Cork'd to Shut Down by rwhitman on Wednesday January 12, 2011 @05:16PM (#2097955)
I think every product shutdown should be accompanied with a video. Granted, Gary is a pro, but it feels very personal and comforting to have the founder explain why it was shut down.

Every time Google or Yahoo close down a product, they should have the team lead explain what happened in a video. It would soften the blow to the community and give a nice face to what often seems like a harsh move.

Re:Cork'd to Shut Down by dotBen on Wednesday January 12, 2011 @09:02PM (#2098524)
I'm not a user of Cork'd but I didn't find Gary's explanation at all 'comforting' - it seemed full of contradictions and along with Gary's unusual nervous body language (remember, he's a pro speaker and practically masterful in front of the camera when he is feeling confident) I went away feeling he wasn't really explaining the real reason(s) why they are closing Cork'd at all.

Which leads me onto your second point - that's exactly the reason Yahoo or Google don't do a video when they shutter a servie. They have no intention of telling you the real reason for shutting a service down (eg "it wasn't making enough money", "it's not strategically important any more") and if they gave a BS video we would all know it.

Which leaves me to conclude if you are not going to be straight forward about why you a closing a service (the rights or wrongs of that are beyond scope for here) then perhaps it is best to say little/nothing in a nondescript blog post or press release - and certainly not a video.

Re:Cork'd to Shut Down by boltofblue on Thursday January 13, 2011 @12:27AM (#2098963)
I found his video a little "managerial".