The Update You Never Wanted in Site Updates

:-( Thank you for creating this website. I'll miss it much.

This site, as it is right now, is better than Open Diary is currently or in the distant past. I hope this is an April Fool's thing? C'mon now.

Well hell, it was a good run! The simple fact that anonymous can't be monetized is the site killer. I'm still not going back to OD! Good luck to you man!

PLEASE tell me this is a week early.

I appreciate your honesty. Very sad day.

This might sound totally over-the-top but why not join forces with Bruce and merge sites. Double the workforce, experience, etc. ProseDiary, OpenBox (also my porn name...) Bruce couldn't sustain his site for a long period and now you are facing the same difficulties. Why not partner and be stronger together?

Please God let this be a horrible joke!!!

I can't believe you...

I have no idea what to even say right now. Sigh.

April fools?

Wow. Well thanks for the effort. This place kicked ass compared to OD (not to mention (Faceplant).

And April Fools Day is still 4 days away :(

Thankyou for all you've done. In OpenDiary's demise, you gave me a place to still vent and I thankyou. Take some much needed time off xo.

How unprofitable are we talking? I mean, if -- hypothetically -- you had, say, a Patreon for it, and a hundred patrons, each donating $5 a month, so $500/month, would that even start to cover it? Just spitballing, or as it's also known, the Bargain With God stage.

Anyway. That "had to try" moment aside, I respect your decision. I don't LIKE it, obviously, I mean, it would be weird if I did, right? I'm sure it's the last thing you wanted to have to do, too. But yeah. This is very sad news indeed.

Thank God I happen to check into Prosebox more recently.
I will be out of the state and country most of April mostly on business and I would have lost everything. I really need to try and back this up this week.
I do appreciate all of what you have done here.
Much respect for you.
I have to ask any consideration with investments into Prosebox? I asked Open Diary the same question with no response. Maybe we can all chip in if possible.

This was a place to vent for me and it is priceless. I could not thank you enough for giving me a personal space to do this.

xxx

NO!

Well, I came here when opendiary went down, and I have enjoyed connecting with the people I met here. I have been back on opendiary to retrieve my diary, but now I may have to see about staying with it. Sad.

I was happy here. I guess my on-line diary days are done. Thank you for the length of time we had Prosebox.

I was happy here. I guess my on-line diary days are done. Thank you for the length of time we had Prosebox.

Shit. This blows

i think, if its being shut down, having it up until the end of april is ideal... it gives everyone time to export their diaries. i dont have much to save, but i want to save my dads story.... and need time to do that...

i think, if its being shut down, having it up until the end of april is ideal... it gives everyone time to export their diaries. i dont have much to save, but i want to save my dads story.... and need time to do that...

You made a commitment that you don't feel like keeping.

That's what this entry says.

But, hey...you're human. Sometimes we bite off more than we can chew. Sometimes we get burned out. I get it, and I won't chastise you for it.

Just give me a week to export my diary. I'd appreciate that. Take care of you.

I'm sorry too; I am really surprised that I like the organization and simplicity of this site more than OD which i once adored. I'll certainly try to download my books late night/early morning. I shall miss the people I meet here almost daily, especially the ones not on FB or Open Diary. I have all of my thoughts from the period before my husband died, and then my journey afterward here under a different name. I hope I can download those easily.

I can help you with the performance issues if you want, I'm pretty good at that sort of thing. (Linux, query optimizations/indexing, load balancing, code optimization, I'm more of a NodeJS guy but I can adapt)

How much does it cost to keep the site running? Have you considered a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to keep it going / work on the problems? I'm sure many of us would rather give our money to you than to Bruce. Perhaps a Patreon for people who want to support the site directly with pay-what-you-can subscriptions? You have a sizeable community here - it would really be a shame to give it up to OD which is REALLY poorly engineered compared to what you've got here.

PM me if you want to chat ideas. I don't think you've considered every possible angle. (You sound fed up, I totally get it)

A tiny gut punch, but if ya can't, ya can't.

Thanks for keeping the it going as long as you could, man.

So you did this as a hobby and no longer “feel” like it?

Awesome. It’s a super good thing thousands of people weren’t counting on you for anything.... oh wait...

WHAT?????????? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! :(
Happy to contribute financially if someone can help with/take over running the site?

As I scrolled down these notes, I found myself being grateful for your simple layout. There were/are a lot of things here that were very nice - the note replies - the ease of the site's operation, the clean look of it.
I wish life lasted forever - or at least parts of it. I mourn OD, the oddness of Photobucket, the craziness going on at FB, and now this place is ending too.

NO.....PLEASE NO! Say it isn't so. I've lost so many friends from opendiary and now this? Please find a way to continue this awesome site you've created. PLEASE???

Am I totally opposed to passing the torch on to someone else with the proper qualifications? No, I’m open to discussions.

Then why post an entry like this? If you're willing to explore other options, then do so, and hold off on posting stuff like this until you've exhausted those options.

The tone in this entry doesn't sound like you at all. I hope you are ok.

Oh, balls.

Very sad to hear this news, but I understand how life can happen. Appreciate you creating this site, and for all of the work you have put into it.

so very saddened to hear this but I do understand the amount of work you have been putting in. Thanks for giving us a couple of weeks warning so we can make other plans at least. A few of us are doing cross/posts with the new Open Diary but prefer this site now too...OD is not as good. Still it will have to suffice. I hope your life without PB goes better for you and yours. cheers for the years p

Well shit :(

Mr. SimpleMind thanks very much for what you did.

Thank you for running this site for years. It has been a real help to me through some difficult times. I met friends here and it has been a good part of my life. So sorry you have to let it go like this (as opposed to selling for a profit). Best wishes in your new ventures. I never expected being the volunteer website operator for all these years would be a life sentence to you. Go on and enjoy your life.

Thank you for being here for us. I would also totally be up for the few/several month's outtage required to fix it all. Just so you know.

Ah bummer. Hope you're alright. Good luck with whatever you're doing.

See you space cowboy... :(

😭

It's all open diaries fault!!

Anyways, I found a cool site called Goodnight Journal. Looks pretty but the white hurts my old eyes.

Ok. It’s a shame but I’ll be back where I started. OpenDiary.

Ok. It’s a shame but I’ll be back where I started. OpenDiary.

Hey, I'm a software engineer and while I don't think i could manage the site on my own, do let me know if i could help a team maintain it.

I'm sad :( :(
But I want to say thank you to Simple Mind. You've given us a home for the last few years, without us paying anything in return. Thank you <3

I genuinely got a cold chill reading this.

I just wanted to stop by and say thank you for everything. This place has been an absolute lifeline for me during some of the hardest times of my life. I've been able to do a lot of healing here. More than you could possibly know. It's been my voice and platform when I couldn't speak (figuratively and literally).

Thank you, you really saved me.

I'm so sad to read this - I totally appreciate the hard work that goes into running a membership site but people have been saying for years that we don't mind paying and that helps you to want to continue.

What you created was a very good site populated by a real community.

I'd love to see someone take over, and I would be happy to put some cash behind it...

Thank you for creating this home for us when our other home went away. Thank you for being such a great DM. Thank you for being an all round brilliant person. xXx

Interesting how OD ( which I love) comes back and all of a sudden this place is dissolving

Interesting how OD ( which I love) comes back and all of a sudden this place is dissolving.

Interesting how OD ( which I love) comes back and all of a sudden this place is dissolving.

Interesting how OD ( which I love) comes back and all of a sudden this place is dissolving.

Sell the site on somewhere like Flippa.com or outsource the maintenance. You've done such a good job of building this site it seems sad to let it go.

Thank you for this place. It’s been a godsend. I’m sorry you feel you need to let it go, but I understand xx

I love this place so much, I've carried over a lot of friends from OD and made a lot of new friends too. I would be gutted to lose some or even all of them. I'm halfway through documenting my pregnancy and would hate to have to leave before the baby is born! I don't have any technical skills, but I echo the sentiments of the people who have said they would be happy to pay if it would help at all. I see a few people have offered their technical skills to help run the site, I hope this can work out.