I Want Sandy and Stikkit to Close on December 8
November 26th, 2008 (2:16am) Judi Sohn 23 Comments
This is the risk of falling in love with free services. We’ve written positively about I Want Sandy and Stikkit in the past, two simple but effective productivity web apps. The company behind the apps, Values of n, has announced that both services will go offline for good on December 8.
This isn’t your typical “startup ran out of money” story. Rael Dornfest, the brains behind Values of n, accepted a fulltime job with Twitter. Rather than pass the web apps on to someone else or keep them going under Twitter’s roof, the services will just go away, leaving their user base high and dry.
While I’m happy for Mr. Dornfest and I’m looking forward to seeing how Twitter improves with the infusion of his technology and expertise, this should serve as another wake-up call to all who rely on free services by small companies. Often labors of love built during off hours, there’s nothing to stop developers from moving in other directions on short notice.
Did you use I Want Sandy or Stikkit? How will you replace these services in your life? Read further analysis on GigaOm.
Tags: deadpool, I Want Sandy, Rael Dornfest, Stikkit, twitter
23 Comments Post your own comment
Gubbi says: November 26th, 2008 3:48am
I have been using Sandy quite a bit and it was sad to see her leave. I am looking at remember the milk for now.
I don’t understand why they would halt the service altogether.
Wednesday lunch buffet « Authsider says: November 26th, 2008 4:29am
[...] linking to an interview with Guy Kawasaki. Guy admitting a mistake he made a few years ago when asked to [...]
Chris Routledge says: November 26th, 2008 4:36am
This is a great shame. Sandy has been a wonderful way of making notes while away from my desk. I too am surprised the service has been killed off altogether; I would have paid for this one.
Jon says: November 26th, 2008 5:10am
WHAT!?
Well, this ruined my morning. I Want Sandy is such a fantastic service for reminders. I’ve tried everything (the closest I’ve gotten is the Remember the Milk plugin in Gmail), but nothing compares to actual emails as a reminder. I actually didn’t even have to use any of the other features because that one worked so well.
I understand it is his intellectual property, but it seems kind of selfish to shut it down like that with such a dedicated user base, and not do anything about it.
Jake Stride says: November 26th, 2008 6:01am
It kinda sucks – I use remember the milk, but tried it out when I saw the announcement about IWS and Twitter. No bother to me really, but I liked what I saw of it so a shame for it to go.
chrisindallas says: November 26th, 2008 6:09am
I really like how I Want Sandy integrated with Twitter. I guess I’ll have to move to Remember the Milk.
COD says: November 26th, 2008 6:15am
I think I’m going back to Backpack for now.
Renata says: November 26th, 2008 6:17am
wow! I’m depressed! I want sandy was so helpfull to me. Althoug, I use ical + actiontastic in my daily basis. I want sandy was my connection work home “out there”. I’m so sad! And it worked perfectly
by the way it would be nice to see an article about actiontastic.
Keith says: November 26th, 2008 7:27am
Technically, Values of n was purchased by Twitter, mostly to get Rael on board. Twitter has stated they may integrate one or both of those products into Twitter sometime in the future.
Judi Sohn says: November 26th, 2008 7:37am
Keith, true, but I don’t think we’ll ever see either product looking much like they are now. And I’m sure each had plenty of users who do not have Twitter accounts and had no plans to get one. Right now, I don’t think the knowledge that a little bit of Sandy may pop up here and there is much comfort to those that relied on the service.
From the closing post:
Troy Peterson says: November 26th, 2008 7:40am
At least put the site up on Ebay or Sitepoint. Maybe someone could keep it going.
alexismichelle says: November 26th, 2008 8:26am
I used Sandy an awful lot, what a shame. I like Troy’s idea– could someone keep it going?
Anthony Russo says: November 26th, 2008 8:56am
I am a Remember The Milk/Google Calendar user myself. The combination pretty much does all I need. I know RTM is a small company so might make me more apprehensive about relying on it too much.
Anthony Russo
Conferencing Consultant
Great America Networks Conferencing
Anthony Russo says: November 26th, 2008 8:57am
Stikkit I used in the past, but have since moved on to Evernote.
JD says: November 26th, 2008 9:09am
It’s sad to just leave users high and dry like that. However, the Sandy functionality is easily covered by RTM, Gmail/gCal, or Jott. I am sure there are other services like Stikkit out there, but it is interesting to see in the comments that most people use Sandy.
Raymond Brigleb says: November 26th, 2008 10:10am
Lame. Disappointing.
WebWorkerDaily » Archive 5 Applications and Services For Which I Am Thankful « says: November 27th, 2008 8:01am
[...] thankful he is a Web Worker. With the announcement that popular apps I Want Sandy and Stikkit are to close, I thought I would take a moment to list the acknowledge the tools or services that I am most [...]
Sandy Quits « Nazley’s Weblog says: November 27th, 2008 7:55pm
[...] The creator of Sandy explained why he’s pulling the plug on iwantsandy.com here, but I guess by the 8th December, the link will be switched off as well. More about the end of Sandy’s career at WebWorkerDaily.com. [...]
freelance samurai says: November 28th, 2008 6:29am
There’s right now effort in bringing back a service similar to Sandy.
you can check the blog: http://sandysback.blogspot.com/
and the twitter account: http://twitter.com/mysandy
if you guys would like to see new features added just send a twit or comment on the blog.
oh, it will also be open source, so you’ll be able to run your own Sandy. :)
Podcast Zeitgeist, Nov. 28 « Palafo says: November 28th, 2008 11:59am
[...] Obscure bug. Don’t run your MacBook without its battery. Twitter hires the developer behind I Want Sandy and Stikkit, free services that will now die. A mercifully brief Audible ad. The week’s picks: Besides the new version of Andy’s [...]
You Are Paid » 5 Applications and Services For Which I Am Thankful-Entpreprenuers, Small Business Ideas, Make Money Online says: December 1st, 2008 12:34am
[...] thankful he is a Web Worker. With the announcement that popular apps I Want Sandy and Stikkit are to… This entry was written by admin, posted on December 1, 2008 at 3:22 am, filed under affiliate [...]
WebWorkerDaily » Archive Time to Think Twice About Free « says: December 1st, 2008 11:00am
[...] 1st, 2008 (11:00am) Mike Gunderloy No Comments As we covered last week, free services I Want Sandy and Stikkit are closing shortly, joining a growing list of [...]
NatalieMac says: December 3rd, 2008 4:49pm
Well, I guess Sandy forgot to mention that in the emails she sends me every morning. :-( Everything I have to remember is with Sandy. I feel like my personal assistant just quit.