I guess this message should really have been tacked onto one of my previous Pownce shutdown posts (Goodbye Pownce, I Hardly Used Ya, Pownce export feature now available) but there you go. Preserved for posterity:
Sorry to hear things didn’t work out for the Pownce team. Good luck at Six Apart guys.
Categories: internet
The Pownce export notice on the Settings page
Shortly after I blogged about the demise of Pownce (Goodbye Pownce, I Hardly Used Ya), I received an email in my inbox (as opposed to receiving an email in my dishwasher) from the Pownce folk that they’re shutting down. I already knew about this obviously, but what I didn’t know was that they were kind enough to offer an export feature so our data won’t become dust in the wind when they finally go offline:
We are sad to announce that Pownce is shutting down on December 15, 2008. As of today, Pownce will no longer be accepting new users or new pro accounts.
To help with your transition, we have built an export tool so you can save your content. You can find the export tool at Settings > Export. Please export your content by December 15, 2008, as the site will not be accessible after this date.
Please visit our new home to find out more:
http://www.sixapart.com/pownceOur thanks go out to everyone who contributed to the Pownce community,
The Pownce Crew
It’s not as clear cut as they say; unlike del.icio.us which takes a few hours to generate an exported file, Pownce claims it will take several days to process. Still, once it’s done they will send you an email along with a file which you can use to import into Movable Type, as well as a generic XML file which should be easy enough to import into most other blogging applications.
As I said previously, other than a handful of messages my Pownce posts were just automatic duplicates of posts I was sending to Twitter from my desktop client. Still, the electronic archaeologist in me likes the idea of having a backed up archive of my Pownce account for posterity once it goes offline. Who knows, perhaps my grandchildren will be doing a school report on Kevin Rose at some point in the distant future and I’ll be able to provide them with material from the short lived, mythical Pownce site. Yes, you’d better believe it.
Categories: internet
My Pownce profile with the closure notice
I admit to shamelessly copying the title for this post from Om Malik’s latest blog post on GigaOm; it was just too clever to pass up!
It’s official, Pownce has been bought by Six Apart and will promptly be shut down by the middle of this month. Pownce was another clone of the Twitter microblogging social network that had a few more extra collaborative features, but it just wasn’t better or different enough to justify most people moving over.
I used Pownce (http://pownce.com/rubenerd/) for a period of time earlier this year, but only because my desktop Twitter client at the time also allowed you to simultaneously post to it. I thought the interface was a bit cleaner and more interesting, but at that point I already had several hundred followers on Twitter as well as all my friends. When I moved over to TweetDeck for my desktop Twittering (I’ve changed Twitter clients, again I ceased updating my Pownce profile.
For what it’s worth, I was never quite comfortable with the idea of having all my shared media part of a closed or gated site like this; it’s the same reason I don’t put anything of value or substance on my Facebook profile either. A Twitter approach which keeps the underlying messaging infrastructure simple with links you post yourself to media you want to share makes much more sense, and is infinitely more flexible. Brightkite (which I reviewed back in October) is a perfect example of this kind of "ecosystem" approach where multiple sites and services are used together to create something wonderful.
I wonder how Jaiku is going under Google these days? I had a Jaiku profile (http://rubenerd.jaiku.com) which also used to be updated with the same Twitter desktop client software I used in the past too, but since moving to TweetDeck which only posts to Twitter I let that wither as well. It makes you wonder whether Identi.ca stands any chance at all.
Categories: internet
I’ve been direct messaged on Twitter a few times by people wanting to know how to set up Twhirl to send tweets to Jaiku properly. They’ve already got Pownce set up just fine with their username and password, but their messages aren’t getting through to Jaiku.
The problem is, unlike the Pownce password field, Jaiku needs your API key, not your password. To find out what your API key is, login to Jaiku and click the API link at the bottom of the page. The page that appears will have your API key.
Enter your Jaiku username and the API key into the two text boxes in Twhirl, then enjoy having your tweets appearing on more than one site! This means you can keep in touch with people on three separate services, plus it makes you look like you’re putting even more effort into your Web 8.0 life, or whatever version the 1337 media people have decided to assign to the intertubes now.
These are my profiles if you’re interested on Twitter, Jaiku and Pownce.
A cappuccino of Mac, BSD and other whatnot by Ruben Schade from sunny Singapore and Adelaide, South Australia
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