I'm not sure that's a good idea. Cork'd is known as being a part of Gary's awesome empire. If it were to be sold, many folks would miss that memo, and still assume it was associated with him. If the new buyers made any missteps, that could reflect badly on Gary, even though he's no longer associated to them.
I'm more surprised about the current strategy to let the site sit there and rot. I'd think shutting it down, while still allowing folks to log in and export their data for a year or so, would be a better option.
Presuming he has shareholders other than himself, he would be obligated to salvage that value over some theoretical effect on his legacy based on customers not understanding a sale. I certainly wouldn't work with or invest someone that shut a site down that had value for those reasons and without coming to some agreement with shareholders (and perhaps he has).
Unsurprising (and admittedly sad). I remember the old Corkd because it was (among other things) a design reference, and at least a very good example of how an "ancient" industry could benefit from an upgrade and an exploration in the world of social media. Then it was acquired and things kinda fell apart. I'm not a wine guy, but I was sad to see Corkd being abandoned, and I'm now sad to see it shut down.
I do know other people working in this space and doing interesting things, so this is bound to make someone's day a little better too, I guess.
Sidenote: I love how Gary pulls great communication even when delivering shitty news. He used to be about flair, but he's ultra tight on video these days (not that he was any bad years ago when he first started, obviously). It shows how dedication makes you good at something.
I'm a big wine fan and always wanted to really like Corkd but it never really did what I wanted in a way that worked for me. I never found it a great place to find new wines, or store my library or find out if a wine was very good For example a lot of wines are scored, but a lot of times only by one user, I'd love to see a more robust scoring system.
Maybe I didn't give it enough of a chance and perhaps its gotten better, but it always left me wanting more. I think there is still a gap here to be filled. This is a passionate community that I think is still underserved online.
I'd like to know if this was a case of being stretched too thin, or the model just not working. I'm not a wine guy, but I found myself visiting because of the design and because of Gary. It seems like with the right person at the helm, this could've gone further than it did.
I was there from July '09 until I left to launch Forrst in March '10 -- really sad to see things come to this, but I hope there is still a happy ending in store for all involved.
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.
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[ 5.6 ms ] story [ 69.8 ms ] threadAny reason another wine startup wouldn't buy them just for the traffic?
I'm more surprised about the current strategy to let the site sit there and rot. I'd think shutting it down, while still allowing folks to log in and export their data for a year or so, would be a better option.
I do know other people working in this space and doing interesting things, so this is bound to make someone's day a little better too, I guess.
Sidenote: I love how Gary pulls great communication even when delivering shitty news. He used to be about flair, but he's ultra tight on video these days (not that he was any bad years ago when he first started, obviously). It shows how dedication makes you good at something.
Maybe I didn't give it enough of a chance and perhaps its gotten better, but it always left me wanting more. I think there is still a gap here to be filled. This is a passionate community that I think is still underserved online.
"Cork’d couldn’t have found a better home." Maybe it could have?
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.