A few months ago I had tweeted that a potentially difficult decision was waiting for DYPC's fate. What it would be, even I didn't know at that time.
Couple of curious friends asked me about it. I didn't answer. They didn't ask again.
The answer was given last week: DYPC would be shutting down by end of November. It was greeted with same question from everyone: Why? Wife was even more surprised because only couple of months ago I had spent several nights updating a lot of code to simplify the process and make it more automated. What could have gone wrong in such short span of time? It was not a straight forward answer. It had taken me weeks to select between opting for a simpler directory model and discontinuing completely.
DYPC was not my brain child. It was Ankur's but I gave it my everything: time, passion, money (it wasn't very needy but whatever little it needed for hosting). Every few months some or other friends or volunteer would pitch in with an offer to help and some would even help for a few days. But it remained a lonely journey more or less for almost ever.
Every completed donation was a morale boosting affair. The "Thank You" mails from requesters would make all the time spent in mailing donors and requesters and even multiple followups seem worth everything. But lately the number of followups had increased and many times the conversation was getting stretched for several weeks (even months at times!) resulting in donors losing patience and ultimately donating PC to someone else. After doing everything, to be quite honest, such thanklessness on part of requesters was extremely demotivating. To be honest, this problem had become a norm rather than exception. Even after I updated code and made sending reminders easy enough process with warning of stricter actions it didn't help.
I guess it was the monotony. And probably the fact that DYPC became a pretty much thankless service. It was just existing and without any motivation (and support, if I may use that word!) it was not growing in any manner. Fatigue has started seeping in from quite some time now. Greeting e-mailers on special occasions had already stopped. Our blog was never exactly buzzing with activity but the occasional post was now limited to only occasional mention in media. Mails to the DYPC Google group (which went unresponded most of the times) too were discontinued. And nobody ever asked me why! To me it seemed that it just didn't matter to anyone. Maybe it did, maybe I was wrong. Too bad, we will never know. (Yeah, I am behaving like a child who is sulking because nobody would play with him!)
I will be blamed for not diversifying DYPC operations, not distributing the tasks, not forming a team, not continuing with an idea that was so novel that it is still not replicated. May be I will never plead guilty or may be it WAS my fault. Did I try hard enough or was I just plain unlucky? Again I don't know.
For that matter I don't even know whether to celebrate 6 year run of DYPC or mourn the loss of a venture that was so close to my heart. Even writing these words is reminding me of all those initial days when DYPC was in a nascent stage.
I will be moving on to other things but DYPC will always be something I will always love and remember fondly. I just hope atleast someone else does too!
Good Bye DYPC.
Couple of curious friends asked me about it. I didn't answer. They didn't ask again.
The answer was given last week: DYPC would be shutting down by end of November. It was greeted with same question from everyone: Why? Wife was even more surprised because only couple of months ago I had spent several nights updating a lot of code to simplify the process and make it more automated. What could have gone wrong in such short span of time? It was not a straight forward answer. It had taken me weeks to select between opting for a simpler directory model and discontinuing completely.
DYPC was not my brain child. It was Ankur's but I gave it my everything: time, passion, money (it wasn't very needy but whatever little it needed for hosting). Every few months some or other friends or volunteer would pitch in with an offer to help and some would even help for a few days. But it remained a lonely journey more or less for almost ever.
Every completed donation was a morale boosting affair. The "Thank You" mails from requesters would make all the time spent in mailing donors and requesters and even multiple followups seem worth everything. But lately the number of followups had increased and many times the conversation was getting stretched for several weeks (even months at times!) resulting in donors losing patience and ultimately donating PC to someone else. After doing everything, to be quite honest, such thanklessness on part of requesters was extremely demotivating. To be honest, this problem had become a norm rather than exception. Even after I updated code and made sending reminders easy enough process with warning of stricter actions it didn't help.
I guess it was the monotony. And probably the fact that DYPC became a pretty much thankless service. It was just existing and without any motivation (and support, if I may use that word!) it was not growing in any manner. Fatigue has started seeping in from quite some time now. Greeting e-mailers on special occasions had already stopped. Our blog was never exactly buzzing with activity but the occasional post was now limited to only occasional mention in media. Mails to the DYPC Google group (which went unresponded most of the times) too were discontinued. And nobody ever asked me why! To me it seemed that it just didn't matter to anyone. Maybe it did, maybe I was wrong. Too bad, we will never know. (Yeah, I am behaving like a child who is sulking because nobody would play with him!)
I will be blamed for not diversifying DYPC operations, not distributing the tasks, not forming a team, not continuing with an idea that was so novel that it is still not replicated. May be I will never plead guilty or may be it WAS my fault. Did I try hard enough or was I just plain unlucky? Again I don't know.
For that matter I don't even know whether to celebrate 6 year run of DYPC or mourn the loss of a venture that was so close to my heart. Even writing these words is reminding me of all those initial days when DYPC was in a nascent stage.
I will be moving on to other things but DYPC will always be something I will always love and remember fondly. I just hope atleast someone else does too!
Good Bye DYPC.
