Official announcements and happiness!
Imzy is shutting down
Hello everyone,
We are sorry to say that after nearly two years of building Imzy, it is time for us to shut down the site.
Some of you have been here since our launch into beta and some are brand new. We’ve loved getting to know all of you and seeing you build communities and make new friends. Unfortunately, we were not able to find our place in the market. We still feel that the internet deserves better and hope that we see more teams take on this challenge in the future.
Our final day of operation will be June 23rd. We want to give you time to gather any content you’ve made and exchange contact information with friends. If you have a new home for your community, I recommend creating a pinned post directing members there.
You might be wondering what’s going to happen to your data now. Well, nothing. We have always valued your privacy and we will continue to do so. You can request your data here.
The /Imzy community will open to allow everyone to post. This seems like a good place for us to gather, share memories, and say our goodbyes.
Thanks for spending your time with us. We’re really going to miss this place.
Dan
Important dates to remember:
Join our Discord server to be a part of Imzy forever!
Data export requests must be received by June 16th. We will do our best to accommodate last minute and late requests but it is not guaranteed.
The site will go read only on the 16th.
You will have access to your data until June 21st.
The site will go dark on June 23rd.




Imzy was too pure for this internet. This is a sad day for a lot of good people.
Thanks for everything you did here. I'm glad I got to work with you : )
Me too. I have a new appreciation for pigeons and all delicious birds.
Hahaha. Do not eat squab! Get the foie gras instead. kidding, i swear
Like a white tablecloth in a family style Italian restaurant
Agreed!
So sad. Bye little fellow...
That image had me actually in tears.
Hey. I used to love the videos you posted.
Oh my gosh. This is adorable : (
I'm really, really sorry to hear that this is happening. Imzy was always somewhere that felt permanently tensed with potential. I wish all the best for the team and hope to follow their respective journeys into future endeavors.
Please consider submitting a public archive of this site to https://archive.org once the end date comes, and putting what you feel comfortable up on github, etc. so that the site doesn't become just another lost webpage torn out of the history books because it was deemed too insignificant.
I learned a lot about proactive, productive community development here, and I'm glad to believe I can pass on those experiences to communities in the future.
Again, a thank you to everyone involved in the development and community of this space. Be proud of what you made here.
I'm working on contacting Archive Team to let them know.
ETA: They're working on it. :-)
I back the archive proposal. imzy should delete the robots.txt file and send off a .zip of all the public info to the internet archive
Yes, that would be great. It is so sad when all traces of wonderful communities are lost as soon as one site shuts down. I hope that Imzy will prevent this.
I'm always glad when I find sites from the early 2000's on the Wayback Machine and can explore some of the discussions that were happening then, and I hope that Imzy can become part of this – either officially, by archiving themself, so to speak, or inofficially by dropping the protection quietly, letting others save what they can.
uh, what?
I think we kind of feel that way around here too : (
yeah, I'm so sorry for you guys, I loved this place hugs everyone
[Content deleted by author]
Another bottom feeder using this to advertise.
I'm not really looking for a new site that could close down
No worries. Not my intention to bottom feed. Just a firm believer in building awesome communities.
It's ok to fail. Thanks for trying.
Thank you : )
This comment actually means a lot to me right now, thank you.
You're right. It's okay to fail. Easy to forget sometimes. Thanks for reminding me.
Wastebook/Twatter dominate the public space, Reddit has dominated the more semi-anonymous space and Voat/4chan are their sick demented psychopathic cousins.
Non distributed social networks are a difficult market to enter. Voat recently had a massive fund raising drive to support their nearly $6k/month hosting costs. I'm sorry to see Imzy go. Maybe you guys could open source it and let people try to use it as a base; integrating the open-social protocol used by GNUSocial/Mastedon to create another distributed social networking web app?
The cost of entry to this market with traditional business goals (aka making money) is pretty difficult. Ads don't pay out as much because no one wants a repeat of the 2001 bubble.
Kudos for trying and keeping this going for two years. Nothing is every really a failure. You try, see what happens and learn from it for the next time you try. As a software engineer myself, hats off to Imzy.
Thank so much for being a part of it : )
(I don't know anything about open source so I'll leave that to someone else)
Thank you for providing the site for as long as you have. Even if it never really kicked off, I really enjoyed my stay here.
I'm really glad you enjoyed your time here. It means a lot to us that it was meaningful to some people.
Well, crap.
And here I was enjoying a place to talk that wasn't filled with rudeness by default. :(
Where will we all go now? I don't particularly feel like going back to Reddit.
No idea where I'll go. Definitely not back to reddit, though.
It feels really weird to reference another website in this post so...I'm sorry if this steps on toes but I've found dreamwidth.org to be pretty cool. They've got an awesome diversity statement. It's blogging with a social aspect though, which isn't that similar to this. It does have some communities.
Its totally okay to offer places for folks to go 💚
I'm flogging this about the comments a bit, but there's an Imzy-in-exile community now: https://imzy.dreamwidth.org/
And yeah, the Dreamwidth folks are pretty great.
Except Dreamwidth is run by ex-members of the infamous LiveJournal Abuse Team. Some of us haven't forgiven them for things like Nipplegate.
What was Nipplegate? If it was a nudity censorship thing, IIRC DW is fine with adult content...
Not these particular LJ Abuse Team members, though.
Ancient history...ancient ancient history my friend.
They set up Dreamwidth because they were dissatisfied with how things were done at LiveJournal. They turned down Paypal payments because PP wanted them to censor user content.
I'm so sorry, @Dan. Nobody can say that you and your team didn't try to make this work. Thanks for everything you did.
Oh shit. Well thanks for giving us a space to connect with some really great people I have enjoyed meeting everyone.
Good luck to you all both staff and community members in your future ventures.
Anyone who wants to keep in touch with me please check my community at /lizardqueen for contact info.
Wait, what? :( I know I complained about shouting into a void sometimes but really, shutting down the site...? NO! :( I'm really sad now. :(
We're sad too : (
Thank you for being here, though!
Thank YOU for providing this wonderful site! I honestly enjoyed it a lot here, I ran two communities here and I very much liked doing so.
SAD FACE
Thank you for being here, MrPicard. You were always a wonderful user and your presence was appreciated. I'm gonna seriously miss a lot of folks here.
I'll miss Imzy so much, and you as well, greenie, I always enjoyed reading your comments and replies - you always stayed polite no matter what. Oh I'm so sad now. I know I'm repeating myself but I AM SAD THIS IS SO UPSETTING. :(
sad
This is really disappointing. Two years doesn't seem like enough incubation time to find your place in the market. I've generally been a lurker for a year or more on any new platform before becoming an active participant. I joined twitter in 2008, but only started tweeting in the last two years. A five year plan would have been my goal for Imzy.
Is there no chance of saving Imzy? Subscription drive? Kickstarter? Sacrificial goat?
I am not even a technology obsessed person (I have never even been to the reddit site) so I am surprised that this news literally brought/is bringing tears to my eyes. I guess with the current political landscape and ugliness in the world I, for once, wanted to see the "little guy" win one, and I am beyond sad that isn't going to happen in this case. In a more practical sense I am also very worried for the wonderful and kind people that work at Imzy and how they will be able to support themselves in a less than vibrant economy.
I have been a member since beta and honestly enjoyed having a place where I was never afraid or hesitant to post something. I can't say that about ANY other site. I have had people who don't like something I said (and not even nasty because I try very hard not to be "that guy") do a paid background check on me and use the information to harass me. I've also just had people be a real jerk for no real reason and be very sexually explicit, vulgar, and gender specific in their replies to the point that I am literally sick to my stomach before I post something wondering what the backlash will be. Imzy was a safe place where I NEVER had to feel that way.
I grew up in an abusive/neglectful home that turned into mult foster homes and then independent living at 16 so for me the holidays have always been a MAJOR downer. I totally get why suicide rates go up significantly that time of year. For the first time, maybe in my life, thanks to Imzy, I actually felt the "Spirit of Christmas" this year. For once I actually enjoyed the holiday season. I basked in the warmth of holiday cheer and in turn saw it so much more around me even in my daily life and interactions. I felt what it was like to actually have a "family" that loves you and gets you a thoughtful gift, and it's not the gift part that I loved, it was truly the thought. I felt cared about. I LOVED reading and seeing what others got and could feel in my heart what it must be like to have a family that gathers around the tree and opens gifts that were bought with care and well wishes in mind. How can I even express to all of you what that means to someone who has no family and the only taste I got of it was dysfunction, violence, and abandonment? It's worth the 37 years I had to wait to feel it, even for a few months.
So Imzy staff and founders, I hope you have time to read this among the MANY responses and know how GUTTED I am at hearing that this site will be gone. How safe and cared for your creation made one random person feel, and how amazingly significant that was for me because whether deserved or not I have had a pretty shitty life and you all are the flowers that finally grew from it. I wish that I was a billionaire so I could give you the funding you need to keep the site going. I hope all of you are able to quickly find jobs you enjoy. Mostly I just want to thank you. I'm trying to stay positive (because I feel like that is the Imzy way) and Dr. Seuss it by not being sad it's over, but happy it ever happened. I choose to not think of Imzy as dying, but transition to another plane because if something/someone is loved and remembered by the people it touched, then it's immortal. ♥
I saw your name here and started tearing up even before reading the comment.
It was an honor to be matched as your secret santa, and thank you for being on the site.
God. Damn it.
This is a suckerpunch of a humpday.
This has been a homebase to me for a while now and I've met some amazing people. Very sad to see all of this go.
I guess... I go back to posting on my old blogspot blog...
If anyone wants to keep checking in:
http://crypt-orchid.blogspot.com/
https://www.hitrecord.org/users/Zork/records
I'll miss your Imzysaurus gifs and art and everything else you've done here. Thanks for everything!
Thanks for being here Zork. I will never forget watching Mad Men season 1 with you!
Yes! That was so much fun.
hi zork. 💚
Thanks for the gif. I think your gifs are one of the things I'll periodically find myself missing.
@Zork I joined hitrecord. :3
Well, fuck. :-(
I know : (
I'm glad I got to know you though!
Ditto :-(
This place is too good for what the Internet has become, a paved-over strip mall of blandness.
Thank you for being here. I will seriously miss your posts.
You're so kind, and ditto.
I'll be updating my personal blog, https://apostateisland.com/, more often...
Please open source this great application :)
I had high hopes for Imzy, and I think that there was soooo much potential here and that given more time and promoting, it could've really taken off. The site has just started to take shape and gain features that people expect in a social network. Still, you guys put a lot of love, hope and attention into the site, so I know it hurts you guys more than anyone to make this decision, and therefore, I'm sure you guys truly feel that it's time for Imzy to go.
The general feel of this place has been lovely, and I've liked everyone here so much. I'm sorry that this place won't continue to grow with the people here.
Thanks so much for being here, legit. And thank you for the kind message.
Thanks so much, @greenie. I thanked you in another comment, but you've always been so helpful. I hope your future brings amazing things with it!
I'm really sorry to hear this. I've been rooting for you, but I know this is a tough market. Thank you for trying to make the best community site you can! I really appreciated it.
I know I told you this elsewhere, but thank you so much for your help with your amazing bug reports. Its deeply appreciated.
This is all kinds of wrong and unfair; thanks for the 2 great years though.
thanks for being here!
I'll be sure to treasure my Imzy shirt and plushie: a reminder of the good times.
Even though I wasn't a frequent poster here I felt an appreciation from the Imzy peeps that I've never felt from another site; that my criticism didn't leave me being shunned but taken on-board and assimilated into other ideas.
Thanks, Scott.
This is really sad. Im working as a Software Engineer and im not good with people. Don't have many friends. Even in Imzy i haven't post anything but i enjoyed looking at communities and answering the polls, and checking the results of them and got amazed by their results all the time! This was a great place for me. More like a close friend to me. Thank you all.
I feel the same. I'm lousy with people myself, but I finally found some - I hope you find more and really good ones!
Several of your comms have provided a bright spot during a time when it was dearly needed for me, and your platform will be much missed. Thank you for all your hard work.
Thank you!
I'll miss it too, Dan.
Thanks for everything and especially for trying to make the internet a better place.
(If anyone has any ideas about what now, please let me know.)
I've set up a discord server for imzynauts, if you want to join us there https://discord.gg/BxNpyf6
I'm super bummed now Greenie, but thanks, I'll check it out when I get home.
Yeah we're bummed too. I'm sorry.
we've also got the LGC one https://discord.gg/XjJB2Dt
I won't be using it since I have hearing problems, but thanks for setting that up greenie.
And for putting up with me constantly bugreporting the one issue with recommended communities. (which was still going on, but I was trying to collect info to figure out some pattern before bothering you for the dozenth time...)
The discord server is primarily text chat. We technically have a voice chat room, but it hasn't yet been used.
Your email talks about "hope that we see more teams take on this challenge in the future". Do you have any advice for these potential teams? Is there lessons that you've learned from this experience that you may wish to pass on to others?
As for finding your place in the market, what's the strategy for this? Do you see a niche that needs to be filled? ...or create something new and see where it goes?
What will you guys do after you shut down? And do you think there is anyway that the Imzy community could work together to help try and keep the site alive?
Thanks Dan and team, I'll miss this site dearly.
Thanks for everything you did, Stephen : )
While this is sad, I want to say congratulations and thank you to the Imzy team for trying.
A great community was built here. A community I will miss.
Thank you to the staff for making everything awesome!
Thank you to the users for making it fun!
Thank you to the leaders for keeping it that way!
And thank you to everyone for everything!
I'll miss you all, and I hope you find all the best in the future!
Thank you so much for being here, Salaam. And thank you so much for these kind words.
Aw, damn. I really should've done more here.
That's how I feel. I started a couple of communities and joined even more, but I've been more a lurker than anything else. It's all on me that I often felt I'd be sticking my unwelcome nose in conversations but yeah, now I do regret I didn't get more involved. This does make me sad and I will miss this site a lot.
I wanna send a thank you to the Imzy team for all your hard work. Sad to hear it's come to an end now. I wish all the best for you all.
Thank you.
Thanks for being a part of it all, Caleb : )
Can I have any left over stickers and swag ? I'm really sad about the site
Stay tuned in the next few weeks, we'll be doing a ton of giveaways.
What kind of giveaways?
Not gonna lie: I kinda feel like crying right now.
Me too!
me too
Yeah.
can you put it on github?
Big disappointment. This was the only site providing reasoned discourse by intelligent people. All others were less than satisfactory and not worth the time for various reasons. You will all be missed, especially Greenie. She (or he) was the absolute best. Thanks.
Have you considered monetizing the site via a modest monthly membership subscription and/or grants (think Silicone Valley)?
s
aw, thank you! I'm really glad that folks found this place valuable. It means a lot.
I saw it in my email, my first thought was ha ha, April Fools. My second thought was "look at the calendar, idiot". B-(
Words fail me, I've never been good at dealing with loss, even less so at expressing my feelings. I will miss Imzy. I will miss the people here. I am sad, but understanding. I thank you for letting me be a part of the experiment. I'm not leaving entirely (well, come June 16th I am) but I think I'm going to stay away for a couple days and sort my thoughts. Right now the way it translates in my mind is Imzy is leaving, that other site is actually getting more and more evil by the day. So I need a couple days to process the idea that evil won.
We're going to miss it too. Thanks so much for being here. I'm actually staying hopeful that the other place will sort itself out and become better again : )
Words fail me as well. I'm sorry. 💚
That's a real shame. :( But, weird as it sounds to say it, I appreciate you actually shutting the site down cleanly rather than leaving it to limp on for ages unattended and/or eventually disappear without warning, as has happened to a lot of long-defunct sites I used to hang out on. I feel like it's much better to have a clear and defined end.
Aw man, that is the worst news ever. Back to the choice between not having communities for your interests and having communities full of assholes, I guess. I'm gonna miss this place...
Thank you all for your hard work and dedication to this project. I'm glad something new started up but sad to see it go away. Hopefully some will learn from this endeavor and try and continue on what Imzy has started elsewhere. I'm glad to have met all of you on Imzy and hope to talk to you all again soon on other platforms and projects.
Thanks again......
It's really really sad to see this message in my mail, I was using Imzy during its 1st year, probably @Dan will remember me, though I stopped using Imzy because I'm not really into social media like facebook and twitter, I hoped it would carry on. Good luck Dan and Jack or Jake (I always forget his name) on future projects! Don't forget to invite me as well ;)
I totally remember you. Thanks for coming back for this post.
I remember you too greenie ;) Thanks to YOU guys for making such a great site
Gunna miss you @INFILTR4T0R ! You were a huge help when we built this thing and I appreciate you being there!
Gunna miss you too @Jake , been a pleasure helping you out and would gladly do that again whenever possible!
damn, that is sad to hear, especially considering all the hard work you put into this project. I wish it would have worked out.
Thanks Dan, Greenie, and everyone else at Imzy for all the work you did and all the effort you put in.
Thanks for being around, Jo. It was good to have you here.
Can you share anything about what you feel was the reason why Imzy didn't come together the way you wanted to?
I'm sorry it's come to that. I know I haven't been as active as I wanted to be, and I'm sorry for that. I hope what you guys learned in terms of community structure goes with you to your next jobs, and continues to influence how we think about social networks, privacy and community responsibility.
Thank you for your efforts, and for showing us that this kind of place is possible. The time may not be now, but it will come.
I wish you all the best in your professional futures <3
Thanks!
Thank you : )
Pretty much what this comment is saying.
So sorry guys :(
can i sitll get an imzy plushie some how? I've always missed my opportunity to get one :(
I tried my best to be as active on Imzy as I could. Hope yall have a successful next endeavor.
Dan mentioned giveaways in the coming weeks so keep your eyes peeled. They're really cute. 💚
Gonna miss you TheLizardQueen - you were my fellow synthwave connoisseur! :D
I'll keep a look out - my girlfriend loves plushies, always wanted to snag her an Imzy one.
Just in case go and copy down my email from my post on /lizardqueen okay? I might be able to assist if you're unable to get one.
Can do - and followed on your Social Media too :D Wishing you a great rest of the week this week
Fantastic bud. Nice meeting you.
I'm feeling the distinct lack of a plushie now too...I am going to treasure my tshirt and stickers and such but I think a plushie would be the holy grail. I feel like I had hardly had a chance to get started here and I am saddened by this news and need a soft, cuddly token to remember the site by :(
Well that sucks. I had a bunch of content queued to be posted.
I guess I'll be putting my stuff on Tumblr again. Everyone can find me there.
Also, I've made Cocoa a tumblr to continue posting reviews. https://www.tumblr.com/blog/cocoamacaw
Well this ruined my week.
Mine too : (
I'm incredibly sad to hear this. Thanks for all the hard work, Dan and the rest of the Imzy gang!
Still delighted to have won an Imzysaurus for last year's Halloween costume - she'll continue to have pride of place as my desk mascot. Love to all -
Damn. :(
Wow. Is there anyway we could see a chart with the user statistics over time? Because this group has 69,000 members, but this post only has about 200 comments so far. I subjectively feel like the site has become a ghost town, but I'd love to see a chart to show just how bad it was.
Well that's some sad news. :(
It's going to be a shame not having this site around anymore. I really appreciated having a place where I could go and feel like I could have a conversation with people instead of just sifting through memes and arguments. Even if things didn't work out I just want to say thank you to the Imzy staff for trying. I hope things go better for you all in the future.
Thank you so much : )
Thanks for the nice words!
Sorry to hear this! Are there any details on what suddenly led to this decision since you all just raised a bunch? Or were there certain usage trends that weren't encouraging?
I'm gonna miss having a place like /reads to post stuff I think other might like.
I love reads too : )
Thank you for all the wonderful stuff you posted there. That was the first community I created when I joined the site, before they offered me a job, or I even thought I would end up working here. It was pretty special to me that other folks posted there too.
So sorry to hear that. Like others I haven't been as active as I would have liked and never did figure out how to generate activity in my communities, but I really valued what you were trying to do here and hoped it would catch on.
Coincidentally I'm also in the midst of helping to shut down the organization I work for so I really feel for the staff and founders of Imzy. One thing I'd like to share that's been helping me get through my own transition is that just because something didn't last, that doesn't negate all the good it did while it was here. Looking through these comments I see friendships that have been formed, communities that have been developed, and people who've been inspired to carve out a kinder space on the internet as a direct result of your work here. That legacy won't just disappear when Imzy does.
Best of luck to all of you in whatever you do next, and thank you for sharing this great experiment with us.
:( this makes me sad. Imzy isn't perfect, but it was getting there.
I feel like we should at the very least have, like... a mailing list or something so that Imzyers-in-exile can tell each other about promising new communities.
EDIT: Hey, so anyone else use Dreamwidth? There's a community now: https://imzy.dreamwidth.org/
Let's keep in touch, post about interesting communities we find that are in the spirit of Imzy. Or whatever, really. :-)
I did set up a discord server, though I'm not sure if you use discord. It is much more irc/ventrillo/slack style, versus euphoria chat.
I don't have room for another social media site right now, but I'd still like to have some sort of connection to all these great folks. I was imagining a really low-activity mailing list or something so that I'd get a ping every once in a while about some neat new site someone found.
Dan, I'm sorry to hear it, and I appreciate all of the work your team has put into this platform.
I was excited about Imzy when I first heard about it, and threw myself in with gusto. I ran out of steam quickly when I found that it didn't fundamentally replace anything for me, and when I couldn't get enough of my friends to join to kickstart my communities.
I have a helluva lot of respect for both you personally, and your team, and wish you great success in future endeavors.
It's been a heck of a ride. Thank you to everyone at Imzy for the fabulous effort to create a happy place on the Internet.
Thank you for being here : )
Thanks for being here!
It's been a pleasure. I definitely met people I never would have crossed paths with otherwise. Thank you team for giving us a space that was truly beautiful. I'm sad to see it go.
I feel horroble :(. I never posted too much but I always enjoyed the community. This makes me sad. Goodluck to everyone here, thanks for trying to make the internet a better place.
FUCK! Just when i had found my internet family :( I guess all good things must come to an end....i'll miss you all, but at least we still have discord. If anyone wants to stay in touch, contact details are over on /Daredevil
Hi @Daredevil22 - maybe just maybe Pinguin could become your new internet family? Bit.ly/pinguininvite
I tried to make a post in the community, but for some reason I can't make a new post in /imzy lol. Anyway, I joined imzy not too long before it was out of the beta stage and have enjoyed the community. I'm sad to see it close, so I want to give a warm thanks to @greenie as imzy starts to wind down. I've often found myself praising you to fellow imzy users for your quick answers and the time you've spent talking us through our issues on the site. I've also enjoyed seeing you pop up in various communities and join on on discussions. Is there anywhere else that people can follow you? I'm sending you and your fellow imzy employees lot's of love! <3
This! @greenie has dealt with so much of my whining and so many of my questions. XD Thanks so much!
💚
Thank you so much for this comment. This project has really been a "labor of love" as they say, and something we all worked so hard on. It means a lot that it was appreciated.
I'm on twitter and I started that Discord server, which I intend to continue to be available on.
<3 <3
I'm sorry to read this! Though, given how FB, Twitter, et al have already dominated the social space, I am not surprised. Best of luck in all your future endeavors!
It's a shame, but I'm glad you tried. The internet does deserve better, and so does anyone who tries to make it so.
Thank you for creating Imzy!!!!!!. I which I used it more, although I have noticed how nice this community is compared to others. I'm sad that something created with hard work and great intentions is shutting down but as others, I wish you guys the best for your next project!! <3
Oh, once I joined here, I created an Imzy mascot with HTML & CSS. I'll try to finish it and share it with everyone later.^^
<3
I'm so sorry to hear this. I was never as active as I wanted or intended to be, but I loved scrolling through my feed every morning to see what was going on, and I'm really going to miss this place. Thank you so much for all your efforts in building a welcoming and sensible community, and I wish all of the team the best of luck in whatever you do next - you deserve it. ♡
!!! ??? EVERYONE PLEASE CHECK OUT MY POLL IN THE POLLS COMMUNITY IT'S VERY IMPORTANT THANKS FAM ??? !!!
https://www.imzy.com/polls/post/say_someone_were_to_throw_together_site_like_imzy_
I've joined the Discord group and I'm down for whatever is next.
Nice!
I always secretly enjoyed your username and the confusion it created : )
😛
Samesies.
My heart goes out to Imzy team for their efforts. All the Best for your future ventures! I know these are strong words to use but today's announcement made me guilty for not having contributed to this community.
Well, shit.
Very sorry to hear that. I think this is a great quote:
https://twitter.com/kickme444/status/867423102082220032
"We believed, and still believe, that the internet deserves better. I hope more entrepreneurs will take on this challenge."
At Discourse we're not solving the exact same problems, but for those communities that would work on our platform, I encourage you to get in touch with me about migrating at erlend@discourse.org.
Oh hey. I've always really liked what you folks have done over at Discourse. Both your reputation system and badge system are really well done and thought out, as is your site in general. I've totally used it as a reference when thinking through product stuff before.
Can't say I didn't see it coming. Wish you all the best. Good luck in the future.
I am not going to forget what I figured out about communities and community management here. It matters a great deal to me, and to how I view online interaction.
I will miss the Imzy staff very much, but I hope that all of you will take what you learned here at Imzy and apply it to where ever you end up. You guys made such a credible and effective effort at social engineering the dysfunction out of communities, and I hope you can spread that to other sites.
What did you learn?
I'm referencing a couple of discussions I had with Imzy staff last summer/fall. We covered some interesting ground, which really helped me clarify some things about online interactions that I'd been thinking about for a long time.
I don't really have time or inclination to write it up, though, sorry, Magness.
I'm going to miss you a ton, Id_Drip! Thank you so much for all your help. I loved chatting with you about stuff. I really hope to see you around elsewhere in the future.
I hope to see you around again, too. You're a great moderator, and you were absolutely a contributing factor in why I stuck around.
Feel free to stop by the discord server sometime :)
Sad! I enjoyed this site, and I was really looking forward to the next Imzy Christmas exchange!!! :(
Yes, this! I was really looking forward to the next exchange in particular as well.... :(
Man, this sucks! I was just really getting into Imzy and telling a lot of people about it, since I have the pins and the Imzysaurus mini Squishable on my backpack. Ugh, I'm not a fan of Reddit at all...! Why???
No. I really liked this site :(
So sad to hear about this. I have had a lot of great times on the site, and have made some good friends while here.
I hope people can find ways to stay connected to the friends they've made here. I'm glad you enjoyed it here : )
I am heartbroken as I never had the chance to really get started here. My friend Logospilgrim invited me to join a few months ago, but due to my work schedule, I've done little more than join a few communities. By trade I am a professor of astrophysics, but my passions lie in writing and photography, especially capturing the Aurora Borealis. You can see my work on Instagam: (AmbienDreams), Twitter: (EnslavedByFairy), Reddit: (Enslaved_By_Faeries), Tumblr: (enslavedbyfaerie) and Pinterest: (Fallen Sunlight). Although I have not had the opportunity to meet many people on Imzy, if you are interested in any of the subjects above in addition to classic rock, cross stitching, zendoodle, reading, Titanic (not the film), Harry Potter, crocheting, acoustic guitar playing, vaping, Johnny Cash, creepypastas, painting, wine tasting, hiking, poetry, classic films, Charlie Chaplin, cooking, coffee, Scotland, crystals, herbs, traveling etc..(eclectic, I know!) Please feel free to contact me via the above social media sites, or pm me for my Facebook info. I am very sad I will not have a chance to savour Imzy as many of you have. Imzy, you were simply too good for this day and age; a light in the darkness. I hope one day, your pure light will shine once again.
My ❤️ to all fellow Imzians.
Thanks for being here when you could.
Is there any chance to still purchase a plushy or shirt? I would love that so much!
I'm not staff but I did see Dan mention giveaways as the site winds down.
Wow, this is really sad to hear. Thanks Dan and co. for all your hard work. My time here on Imzy has been really enjoyable and I feel like I've made a lot of great connections here.
Is there any way to release the application code as open source so that members of the community can keep it alive? I'm sure there are plenty of proficient engineers like myself who would love to donate time and resources in order to keep some small part of the community running.
Thanks so much for being here, zhemao. You were awesome to have around, and seriously appreciated.
W...wait what? No. Noes. D:
I'M GOING TO CRY YOU GUYS
*sobs on everyone's shoulders*
This has been one of two places on the internet I have felt I can speak freely and not get slammed for it. I love this community and I will miss it dearly
What happens to the company's intellectual property? Trademark, domain, source code...
We're still figuring all that out.
This is a little silly, but I guess I'd hope you squat on the domain for a few years so that no one can put up something gross and make me take my Imzy stickers off my laptop. :-)
Oh my gosh, I couldn't believe it when I read the email. I am not active here because I am not very active on any social media, but I always enjoyed the times I was on, and I enjoyed the emails/tweets too. I will value my Imzysaurus plushies always! The stickers/pins too, but especially the plushies. ;)
Thank you to everyone who worked on this site. I hope your next adventures are even more awesome! Even though it didn't catch on in the Internet at large, your work was still very appreciated, and I will miss it.
Thank you. This really means a lot : )
Always going to wear my imzy sticker on my laptop with pride. Thank you all so very much.
Any way to get a 1 click 'delete account data' button? It's nice to have an export but I'd rather just be assured that everything is purged.
Sorry to hear it. I felt Imzy has a lot of potential. But yes, I know that at a certain point if things aren't clicking you have to make a change. Best wishes with your next venture whatever that may be!
Thanks so much : )
So sorry to hear. When I was at The Daily Dot, I was really excited and proud to have us be the first official media presence on Imzy, and our reporters found the questions and comments from the community to be both thoughtful and courteous. Y'all should be proud of what you built - I know you are, but know that others are, too.
I would like to know - perhaps later on, your retrospective feelings on Imzy - what worked, didn't work, the roadblocks that hindered it, what successes it did bring.
o7
Well this just plain sucks. The community on Imzy is hands-down the nicest, most welcoming of all the Social-Aggregators I've come across. Great signal-noise ratio and no Neo-Nazis
The experiences I've had speaking to Imzy staff were all helpful and friendly. This isnt an easy decision to make and I have full faith that they've done everything they can for the community. Best of luck to everyone involved. Big love all round
I'm going to rock my T-shirt as a proud veteran. ✌
The more I think about it, the sadder I feel. I will really miss this platform! It worked so well and was a delight! I should have been more active. :((((
Just last week I posted "happy birthday to us" on the one-year anniversary of the first Futurefood post. I'll miss sharing discoveries with that little group.
Well this is unfortunate. Granted, I'm a bad person who never really used the site (aside from setting up a community for a game that is still in Early Access and no one really plays yet), but still! The more diversity and competition in the Reddit-like marketplace the better, yeah? Ah well...
I feel privileged to have been a small part of this amazing community. Thanks again for the Christmas Santa love and for your dedication to making this hidden gem on the Internet for us. I think we're all really grateful for your vision and your hard work. I wish you all the best in whatever you do next.
Why you shutdown this app for?
Isn't there anything at all we can do as a community to help and prevent this?
Man, this really sucks. Imzy was one of my favorite places and the only "social media" that I actually used on a regular basis. I-like everyone else here-can't believe it's going.
I only signed up a few days ago but I really do like this site more than Reddit. :(
Sorry it didn't work out Dan. Thanks for all the hard work you and the team did =)
Sad to see you go. You guys all do great work and Imzy has incredible potential. Thanks for the memories!
"Unfortunately, we were not able to find our place in the market"
I'm wondering what you mean here and how it did not work this way.
They couldn't get enough people to use the site. Makes sense to me.
I just read the email about shutting the site down. It's sad that something that's genuinely good has to shut down but sites that have trolls, perversion and filled with hate can keep running. Not to mention that my daughter took all the stickers that I've gotten and has them on her door. She says that she loves her "gween fwien."
Well this is ...
This is heartbreaking.
Also, on a shallow note, I'll never score an Imzy plush now. 😭
I had the same shallow thought! 😢
I have an honest question. Sorry if someone already asked or if this is super annoying, but. Can you guys let us pay to keep imzy open?
I am officially Very Unhappy.
:-(
I've been here since the start I've been inactive recently. Wow :'( Rip imzy
Sad day 😭. Goodbye Imzy, I'll miss you.
This is so sad. I didn't check Imzy constantly, but I was always rooting for a place on the internet with decent discussion again to break the eternal September that's been happening since late 1993. Thanks for what you tried to do here.
This is really sad news. I do have fond memories of you all. I'm confident that what was created here won't be lost or wasted. I do know you guys will go on to greater things, and I'll miss you here, but see you elsewhere.
That's very sad. I really liked these communities and the principles the creators held to when creating and maintaining Imzy. Good luck in all of your future endeavors to the team at Imzy. :)
Are y'all going to make the code open source? That would be really neat!
So sorry to hear this.
This is so sad. :( I recently came here to chat and make new friends. Sorry I never had the chance to get to know you guys. Hugs from Sweden!
Am very sad, am also very appreciative!
Surprising absolutely no one.
SJW infested communities all inevitably fail.
Sad to see this go... :( - Hey @Dan, I'd love to chat and get any advice/words of wisdom that you might be able to provide while we scale at Pinguin App >> bit.ly/pinguininvite (interest based conversation tool) - Can we schedule a chat? 🙏🏼 Congrats on everything you did accomplish with Imzy. Was inspiring for sure!
Thanks Imzy. You tried and that's worth a lot. This place never quite clicked for me and it seems like that was a problem in general.
I never had much of a presence here but if people want to follow me there's always twitter.com/fluffy, beesbuzz.biz, and I'm highly active on lgbtq.technology as well.
I haven't been on here in forever, but this breaks my heart. ;_; I was really rooting for you all.
(I was wearing one of my Imzy shirts today, too, when I heard.)
:( oh no. i'm so sad
I'm terribly sorry to hear this. I will really miss imzy. Hugs to you all!
I blame the lack of tipping. When I first joined, I thought tipping would be awesome. Tipping is the reason I joined. Then it got removed.
Why was tipping removed?
Really sad to hear this. I know a lot of people in my community will be disappointed. On behalf of all of us, thank you for what you provided. I will always remember Imzy time fondly.
It was really great to have your community here. Thank you.
Seemed like a great idea. Sorry to see it go.
Aw man, sorry to hear that. I know I wasn't in the "very active" category, but I still did enjoy my time here (shoutout to the Cranky Old Fangirls comm) I'll miss Imzy :( thank you for the time you dedicated to it!
I'm so sorry. Thanks for creating this great space. I'm going to miss Imzy more than I can say.
Thank you! We're going to miss it too. Thanks for being here with us : )
It was a good run. Take this time to reflect on the positive and all the things that you've learned. Use it to your advantage for future projects.
Sorry for not posting more on Imzy. It's was great team and great community. Looking forward to what you all do next. Thank you.
Sad to hear this. I joined when I felt disillusioned by bs on Reddit, but I struggled to keep using the site. I hope things go better in your next venture <3
While I am sad this is happening, I am glad you tried. A community did come together, creators created and conversations flourished. There is definitely a blueprint for what a productive, positive community can be like.
I don't think it has any bearing on the internet being hostile to the positive and affirming attitudes fostered here. Many startups fail, and pioneering a social media platform is an exceptionally difficult and heavily luck-based effort.
I greatly appreciate the way you are shutting down. It is, as always, thoughtful and kind.
Thank you for all you have done.
thank you for being here, yellowmix.
Thank you : )
[Content deleted by author]
My generation? As a 42 year old.
Whippersnapper!
What the hell, man.
So sad to see this happen. You had great plans but it is hard to run these things and especially it is based on a centralized model. I think it will interest you to check out steemit.com. Steemit.com can easily become a new home for imzytizens. Consider checking steemit.com out and i am sure you will love it enough to consider it a home for many of imzy user. Steemit is built on the steem blockchain which is decentralized and already has a strong community of great minds and it really impacts lives already, so positively. I am @surpassinggoogle and i had a small community on Imzy but ended up moving to steemit.com as i am now a fan of decentralized social communities.
https://steemit.com/steemit/%40surpassinggoogle/steemit-is-already-creating-quality-youths-and-here-are-5-steemian-youths-who-are-becoming-hot-cake-in-their-society
There's also a chat site created by greenie and friends: http://euphoria.io. Rooms have to be made by an admin though.
In particular, I recommend the room https://euphoria.io/room/space/ which is where I hang out all day. (It has nothing to do with outer space, it's just a friendly social room.)
Yeah, that was basically the first main room we made. I should go back to hanging out there more often.
And let users make their own rooms.
euphoria hasn't been in active development for over a year, sorry. Its unlikely it would open up room creation without staff.
So you won't let me have a room?
Thank you for everything, and I hope everyone on the imzy team will be able to financially survive the site's shutdown and move on to new and exciting things.
@greenie thank you for all the help when I had questions or broke the site or all of the above
@Jessica thank you for sharing riot grrrl nostalgia with @persygrrrl over on /chicmusique
@imzy thank you for the amazing leader console, which I hope can be used for future projects. I'd love to encounter it again.
I had so many plans for my communities this summer. I'm truly going to miss this site.
thank you so much. also i deeply enjoyed /chicmusique, though I didn't use this profile name to post there.
Aw, that's good to hear. I absolutely haven't decided what to do with /chicmusique yet, but I really did enjoy having a chance to revive it, if only for a few months.
Ah man, I'm sorry for all of you guys at Imzy. The site was/is awesome and the care and development you put into it reflected very positively on you all. Best of luck with everything in the future.
Aw, that's sad! Got to be here for over a year, and it has been a wonderful journey! Thanks! :)
Nooooooo! Imzy is one of the only places with wholesome discussions! You'll be remembered. 😢
I'm so sad this is happening, I've been around for a while and this site was amazing. I'm sorry you guys couldn't make it further. Good luck in the future.
Oh shoot, this sucks. This was a good alternative to Reddit. I hope to see another one in the future.
I'm honestly stunned. The few communities I was active in I loved, and I loved how the makers of this site were actually attentive to user feedback and majority of the people here were friendly (not trolls)
wah gg liao rip
I'm sad, your platform was amazing and the ux/ui design of your mobile app and website is beautiful. The functionality, the features and the fluidity is amazing. I'll miss Imzy, and maybe it came out before it's time. I hope all the best for you and your team. You guys have some amazing talent!
Thanks so much for your kind words.
I'll be honest, I never used Imzy and the main reason why I never did was because it didn't support porn and other NSFW stuff. You may think that's stupid and that there are other better places, but that's my reasoning from when I signed up. I've never contibuted and I only signed up months ago when I heard of this site via word of mouth. Why am I leaving this comment? Because maybe my reason is part of why it's failing. As far as I know there were never any significant problems with imzy other than the one I personally had, and the internet really needs competition for Reddit so it's not a pseudo monopoly.
But don't take this post to mean "this is THE reason" this is just my reason and I figured if nothing else i'd offer that as a suggestion. They say that porn drives new technologies after all, so maybe it applies to websites like this too.
Also i'm not sticking around to see your responses because this is the second and last time i've ever used this site, nothing personal.
Obviously tom is not going to read replies and I'm not trying to argue with him, but to present a counter point: The lack of NSFW content was one of the reasons I frequented this site. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.
So sad to hear this. Thanks for being a bright spot in the dark abyss that the internet has become. Your effort means a lot. ❤️ Good luck, Imzy staff, and I hope the future treats you well.
Thanks for the amazing experience Imzy! I had a truly awesome time on this site and shall never forget about it!
I wish everyone on the Imzy staff good luck to whatever endeavors you may have next.
Have a great day/night everyone! <3
It's really sad to hear this - thank you for providing this space for as long as you did, and good luck in whatever you're doing next! <3
I'm sorry to hear about the shutdown. Imzy has been a great website with an innovative interface, and I hope it is not forgotten.
Best wishes for your next projects, and thanks everyone at Imzy for all the effort and work you put into this site.
I have just registered to Imzy and I'm starting to get hooked with the SNS and later did I know it's shutting down! So disappointing :(
Aw :(
I hadn't been part of this site for very long, but it seemed like an incredibly cool place. Sad to see it go.
Thank you for everything. I wish everyone well. I'm on Dreamwidth, the link is on my profile and pinned in my personal blog.
Come to https://imzy.dreamwidth.org/ ! :-D
Done! 😊
I'm sorry to hear this. I thought Imzy had so much potential.
Thanks for everything ❤️
Goodbye imzy
I'm sorry to hear that Imzy is shuttering so soon. I was just hoping to get back in to it since I've grown tired of a lot of reddit lately.
Are there any left over stickers or plushies or anything? I'd like something to remmeber imzy by.
This is some of the worst news I've heard today. I was so hopeful about this site. It's a shame to see it shut down.
Bugger ;( Ah bugger, once again, being technically excellent and culturally neat, even polite ... No need to finish that, sentence.
Sincerely thanks for the massive amounts of work , thought and care this all took. You all rock !
So sorry to hear about this. I hope all the people who were working on Imzy find great new projects to work on. And for all the folks here who are soon to be without an online home, I'd like to add another recommendation for Dreamwidth. https://imzy.dreamwidth.org/
Loading times at Imzy were taking WAY too long sometimes. People probably got tired of it.
😢 Sorry to see Imzy go. It's a beautiful, fun community 💗 Thank you and I pray the best for all in the future 🙏🏻
I'm very sad that this is happening. I just want to say thank you for trying, and thank you for all of your hard work. I'll miss this place.
Wish I would have been more active in this community but life happens. I have to say it is one of the most brilliantly designed, aesthetically pleasing and most intuitive sites I've ever used. It will be in the forefront of my mind when I think of Community and I hope to one day see its revival :)
I wish all the imzy team the best in their future endeavors and thank you for creating an incredible space for us interwebians!
Thank you so much.
I'm sorry to hear this. I recently found voten.co, it's nice and realtime. Seems promising. Hope to see some of you there.
Wow, thank you everyone at Imzy for all you have done to make this site so welcoming. I have only been here since November but this is a great place with a lot of great people. I am going to miss this site.
well good bye..
Nooooooooooooooo.... noooo! :( That can't be true. I love you Imzy, don't gooooo
Had a trick generating traffic, but I tried to leave comments where I could when I could even with the last number of months being less than stellar at times.
Gonna miss this place *hugs all*
Best wishes to all of you!
Sad day.... I wish I had been able to support it more. Not enough time for everything. :'( Thanks for trying to make a better social media.
Oh, that's too bad! I've been working in the community space for...well, since the 90's (my company launched Talk City) and it's so hard to make a go of a new community today with such critical masses of users on other platforms. Even Google couldn't really make it work, and they have pretty major resources.
So sad :( Thanks for everything. You pushed your karma, nevertheless :)
Sorry to hear that you are shutting down Imzy.
:(
Hi @Dan @Jessica @weffey. I was sad to hear this news today but hope that all is well with all of you and good things are in your future.
Hey, thanks : ) Nice to see you!
How about releasing your source code? It could be useful for somebody else.
Super bummed! I had really hoped this would grow. Bookface and the limited character place really suck for different reasons. Mewe seems to be populated with some super strange folks but has some potential. Sigh.
Teat
It was good while it lasted. Thanks for everything.
What's the name of Imzy successor?
Wow. And I litterally just found the place. This is sad.
That's a shame... I just found this place a couple weeks ago and was excited to get involved more. I'll check out the discord
Thank you for creating this space, Dan. I enjoyed it in the moment. Nothing is permanent anyway, eh? I'll just enjoy the time I've had and the connections I've made.
I'm sorry to hear this. I like what you were trying to do and I wish the best of luck to everyone.
G3
Aw no 😫 Is it a cost thing? Can we donate? This was literally a safe space for me and I know I didn't talk much but I loved being in an inclusive community. :(
Sad to see a startup like this vanish with such little competition out there and us all wanting more than what's being served over at Reddit. That said, I can suggest two places community members might find solace. http://Snapzu.com is the closest thing to Imzy I have found (and I highly recommend it!), and http://Refind.com is another great option, though it's more of a modern day Delicious and is invite only. If you'd like to join, here's a link for that: https://refind.com/NickCobb/invites/EBA7PhAnOB
Very sorry to hear, best wishes to all staff at Imzy on their future endeavors
I am so sorry. I love Imzy. It is a 'NICE' place with nice people, with so much potential for ideas and shared discussion of activities. It is cute. It is simple. I am so sad and sorry. I tried to have a community, but there was no response to my posts, and that made me a little sad. Why? I still don't know. I was able to make some lovely friends, keep in touch with old friends who had abandoned less nice places.
I had a friend who was a lovely person and liked t say 'It's nice to be nice to the nice." Imzy made me think of that.
Haollowimzy was so wonderful. The christmas exchange was lovely. I was stunned with my gifts and I was happy to send the best gift I could think of to my recipient. I will treasure my Imzy stickers and wee plushy always.
Imzy. <3 :'-(
I'm going to miss this place. Thanks for everything Dan-zy.
rip in peace
Rip Imzy, you were cool. Even if you didn't have the stuff that I liked, I guess.
I am so sorry. I wasn't as active as I would've liked but I did check in. Thank you and please take care.
oh no :( i was really sad to see the email - im sorry imzy didnt work, its such a good idea and it'll be missed
Imzy was a great tool to get reviews/impressions about games I was interested in. Sad to see it leaving...
If anyone is looking for another service to build communities in, take a look at Hub: https://www.gethubapp.com/. You can build any type of community you like, it is currently in public beta. I work on the project appreciate any feedback you all might have.
Here is a hub for everyone to try out: https://www.gethubapp.com/invites/eb20bfca-ea5e-44e6-b2a3-7033bcfed25f
Sounds to bad for all the team who has done a great job. That s quite bad. Hope you will find a kind of reinsertion or that a huge brand will find what you have done.
Aww what a shame :< I never posted on here, but I did browse every now and then. It felt like such a warm and fuzzy community.
What happened to
tipping?I would still like more metal though tbh Imzy had none of that and that's why it died