When I started the INeedCoffee redesign, I recognized that the monthly e-zine model was becoming less sustainable. The number of new contributors was dropping and so was the quality of the new submissions. So I decided the redesign would publish more like a blog. Instead of relying on outside contributors, those posts would mostly be written by me. I had found a way to honor the commitments of the past and go forward in a new direction. Or so I thought.
After months of work, I came to the realization that it wouldn’t work. The past and future have two different offers, two different missions and are incompatible with each other. The new version of INeedCoffee needed to have the freedom to find its footing, succeed or possibly fail. I didn’t see a way I could keep the commitments to those 100 contributors that helped build INeedCoffee over the past decade and go forth in a new direction.
Last week I was struggling with this problem and the solution came to me.
On April 4, 2009, INeedCoffee will end. After 10 years, it is time to move on. The site will still exist for readers, but there will be no more new contributions. Between now and April 4th, I will be cleaning up the site. Then it is over. I will continue to pay the registrar and hosting fees as long as it continues to get traffic. No content links will break. How many sites can say they have gone a decade without having a single content link break? I will keep my commitment to those that contributed to the site that their articles, tutorials and recipes will still be there.
INeedCoffee Mascot by Bob Therrien (April 1999 – December 2000)
Now lets talk about the future.
At some point this spring, I will launch a new coffee web site. It will just be me at first. I may post a few times a week or once a month. No promises. At some point, I may extend invitations to my favorite contributors from INeedCoffee should they wish to post. Or maybe I won’t. No promises. It may or may not succeed. Let’s find out.
Sad to see INC frozen in time, but hey, all good things have to come to an end sometime.
I am looking forward to whatever comes next from MAS, and hope to be a part of it in way or another.
Thanks Michael. It was a great pleasure to send articles to ineedcoffee.
May be the well deserved break, will help you reinvent yourself. We lookforward for new ideas and creativity which is your hallmark.
warm regards and best wishes.
ATP & GNP
I highly recommend the book “Total Design” (http://www.amazon.com/Total-Design-Integrated-Successful-Engineering/dp/0201416395) by Stuart Pugh and have a copy you can borrow if you want. You may even change your mind about the INC redesign
[...] Although I welcome any last articles from existing contributors for the final March release, the site will be sealed in April. On April 4, 2009, INeedCoffee will end. After 10 years, it is time to move on. The [...]
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