So, how long do you give TextAmerica.com before they auger into the proverbial cornfield?

See, they're breaking the #1 Rule of the Internet:  don't charge for something that was originally free.  TA, a moblogging service, is starting to charge $99 a year for their formerly free service, and people are leaving in droves...not least because TA says they will delete the (again, formerly free) accounts of people who don't pay up.

I, for one, won't be very sad to see them implode, because they screwed me a year or two ago.  (I first found out about them on BoingBoing, when Xeni recommended them as a good, free moblogging service.  I signed up and was thrilled to have an easy way to publish my phonecam pictures.)  Here's my story, as posted on the exTamerica Flickr group and excerpted on BoingBoing:

Why did I leave?  Actually, TA left me.

I liked 'em at first, and uploaded tons of camphone shots, starting in 2003. My photoblog was a TA Editor's Pick three or four times.

But things seemed a little squirrelly -- the third time my site was an Editor's Pick, I mentioned it on my blog and said, self-deprecatingly, that "TextAmerica must not have too many members if they're choosing me a third time."

Within an hour or two, I got a freaked-out-sounding e-mail saying that the higher-ups at TA were upset about what I'd written on my blog, and I ended up explaining my tone and editing my blog post, so as not to cause offense...but it seemed strange that they couldn't deal with something some random schmoe wrote on his low-traffic Typepad site. Thin-skinned much?

Anyway, that whole thing blew over, and I kept using TA, and liking them.

When I discovered Flickr in 2004, I started posting [there], and still uploaded phonecam shots to my TA site. Eventually, I got a digital camera that I could carry with me, and my phonecam shots dried up.

One day, I made an image with my Flickr photostream's URL, took a picture of it, and uploaded it to TA, intending to "park" my TA site and archive my old camphone shots there. I intended nothing derogatory toward TA, just something along the lines of "My new pictures can now be found at this address."  (Ed. Note:  It's the image above, which I found by doing a tag search on TA's site.)

Within hours, my entire TA site was gone -- deleted, along with all of my old camphone shots that I'll never get back. Some of which I would have wanted to hang on to -- New York blackout shots, celebrity sightings, pictures of my girlfriend, and other shots I wanted to keep for sentimental reasons. No e-mail from TA, no warnings, nothing.

I actually thought about suing TA, as I'm pretty sure their Terms Of Service don't include permanent deletion of one's site for merely mentioning Flickr. But, I decided it wasn't worth the hassle or the money. I've never been shy about telling this story, though; TA screwed me -- a loyal customer who'd talked up their site quite a bit -- for no good reason.

And, it looks like they're at it again:  as people mention on their TextAmerica sites that they're thinking of leaving, or post something expressing their displeasure with TextAmerica, TA is deleting their accounts.

Way to win friends, there:  "Pay us $99!  We won't tell you about any planned features or what added value you'll get for paying us a hundred bucks a year, but you should do it solely on our say-so and spotty track record!  And if you don't, we'll delete your blog.  And don't bother to grouse about it, because we'll delete you anyway.  So pay us now!"  (I note that a Flickr pro account costs a fourth of what TA is charging, and frankly, Flickr offers vastly better service, user interface, flexibility, convenience, and community than TextAmerica ever did.)

So let's sit back and watch 'em fall apart.  I'll bring the popcorn.

Comments

[alfie]

Hi there, I'm from moblogUK - interesting fact? The reason I set-up moblogUK with a friend was because I once way back in 2004 had a TA account, and then, for some reason I've never been able to fathom, they DELETED my account! I was so livid I approached a friend to come and set-up a better, free, creative commons licensed, *responsible* moblogging site - www.moblog.co.uk

Another defecting TA user, Defeated, wrote a nifty application which basically grabs all your entries at TA, and then re-publishes them instantly to your new moblogUK account - the software is of course free and way easy to use, and is available here:

http://www.firepile.com/software/
for anyone who would like to move to moblogUK for free moblog hosting that will *never* be deleted.

[Vidiot]

Thanks, but I'm more than happy with Flickr. (I've heard great things about your service, though.)

[alfie]

Groovy, thanks Vidiot :)