I agree with the others: prepping marinades for some days to come!
I’ll force the co-founders of my current endeavor to read this too. It’s a hyper-relevant story for anyone trying to build a peer-to-peer sharing platform, in our case, to share access to one’s garden with travellers (though our platform is plenty different from Buy Nothing).
I see both the extreme irony in turning “Buy Nothing” into a business, as well as the well-intentioned desire to control the values and mission of your ideological offspring, and wanting to earn a living off hard work supporting tens of thousands of its followers.
Thank god you were brought in!!! You’re doing an amazing job and I will be sending a donation ASAP! Thanks for all you are doing to keep this afloat - while still working another job!
Thank you Pegeen! I appreciate this very much, as well as your continued
championing of Readup & its community. Being fair, Jeff is also due much of
the credit for keeping this afloat!
Sooooo much to dissect. Going to need to marinate on this for awhile as a Facebook-group-buy-nothing-lover myself.
Gut reaction is that trying to squeeze money out of this idea, and spending so much of it in the process is antithetically wasteful. I was under the impression that the concept and guidelines for Buy Nothing groups were shared by an originator and that all offshoots were self-managed and decentralized.. definitely going to check out the app out of sheer nosiness.
Not gonna lie; I see parallels with Readup. Founders who want to do something good for users, then receive backlash and dwindling user numbers. Let's hope both are on a sustainable track now!
I was going to comment: great posts like this one from turtlebubble are partly why I don’t want Readup to shut down!
I see those business lifecycle parallels too, but Buy Nothing is also so different:
If the movement ended up splintering into an unaccountable mess of local variations—and Rockefeller and Clark didn’t make a cent in the process—maybe that was the most fitting ending possible.
This line struck me. At its core, Buy Nothing is a simple and powerful idea that can be implemented in any local social (digital) space, which is why it spawned a thriving multi-million people movement, despite the app & business being mostly a flop until now. Those local chapters can keep the original idea alive & kicking regardless.
But Readup is centralized, not local, and not a simple idea either. Would it, in us, leave behind a related movement if it shut down? Maybe an online cult of finishing articles, /r/BestLongForm or #IReallyReadIt? I think likely not… I feel the kind of community Readup has only makes sense on Readup.
I agree with the others: prepping marinades for some days to come!
I’ll force the co-founders of my current endeavor to read this too. It’s a hyper-relevant story for anyone trying to build a peer-to-peer sharing platform, in our case, to share access to one’s garden with travellers (though our platform is plenty different from Buy Nothing).
I see both the extreme irony in turning “Buy Nothing” into a business, as well as the well-intentioned desire to control the values and mission of your ideological offspring, and wanting to earn a living off hard work supporting tens of thousands of its followers.
Correction: millions of its followers
^what kinda links you gonna use?
I want to see a screen recording of you doing this
The same way you brought me in! Article link (Readup link). And then ask about it repeatedly.
Thank god you were brought in!!! You’re doing an amazing job and I will be sending a donation ASAP! Thanks for all you are doing to keep this afloat - while still working another job!
Thank you Pegeen! I appreciate this very much, as well as your continued championing of Readup & its community. Being fair, Jeff is also due much of the credit for keeping this afloat!
Sooooo much to dissect. Going to need to marinate on this for awhile as a Facebook-group-buy-nothing-lover myself.
Gut reaction is that trying to squeeze money out of this idea, and spending so much of it in the process is antithetically wasteful. I was under the impression that the concept and guidelines for Buy Nothing groups were shared by an originator and that all offshoots were self-managed and decentralized.. definitely going to check out the app out of sheer nosiness.
Wow. Yup. The whole piece screams with familiarity. Lots to marinate on. Glad I read this.
Not gonna lie; I see parallels with Readup. Founders who want to do something good for users, then receive backlash and dwindling user numbers. Let's hope both are on a sustainable track now!
Let’s not give up! I love the community - so interesting!
Amen. I’ve been enjoying Readup. I’m happy to be back. Everything… works
But yeah- It’s way more lonely in here now. I guess a lot of people left around when I left.
This thing is hella sustainable, that’s for sure.
Welcome back, by the way. :-)
I was going to comment: great posts like this one from turtlebubble are partly why I don’t want Readup to shut down!
I see those business lifecycle parallels too, but Buy Nothing is also so different:
This line struck me. At its core, Buy Nothing is a simple and powerful idea that can be implemented in any local social (digital) space, which is why it spawned a thriving multi-million people movement, despite the app & business being mostly a flop until now. Those local chapters can keep the original idea alive & kicking regardless.
But Readup is centralized, not local, and not a simple idea either. Would it, in us, leave behind a related movement if it shut down? Maybe an online cult of finishing articles, /r/BestLongForm or #IReallyReadIt? I think likely not… I feel the kind of community Readup has only makes sense on Readup.
Fascinating story. Really gave me an insight into the many difficulties of navigating an altruistic vision via Facebook. Dire.