TextDrive
{{Infobox company
| name = TextDrive
| type = Private
| logo =
| hq_location = San Francisco, CA
| foundation = 2004
Relaunched: 2012
| key_people = Dean Allen {{small|(CEO)}}
| industry = Web hosting service
| divisions = Cloud Hosting
| products = Web and cloud services
| homepage = {{URL|http://www.textdrive.com/}}
}}
TextDrive was founded in 2004 by the Canadian typographer, art director, designer, writer and programmer Dean Allen, the creator of Textile markup, who was looking to create an ideal hosting environment for the content management system he was developing, Textpattern.{{Cite book| publisher = Apress| isbn = 9781590598320| last = Smith| first = Nathan| author2 = Cody Lindley| author3 = Kevin Potts| author4 = Robert Sable| author5 = Mary Fredborg| title = Textpattern Solutions: PHP-Based Content Management Made Easy| location = Berkeley, CA| date = 2007-05-22| page = [https://archive.org/details/textpatternsolut0000unse/page/4 4]| url = https://archive.org/details/textpatternsolut0000unse/page/4}} TextDrive was incorporated in California in May 2004 with Allen as chief executive officer and Jason Hoffman as president and chief operating officer.{{cite web|url=http://textusers.com/wiki/History_of_TextDrive|title=History of TextDrive|work=The Unofficial TextDrive Wiki|date=November 12, 2006|accessdate=September 3, 2012|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090107100312/http://textusers.com/wiki/History_of_TextDrive|archivedate=January 7, 2009}} TextDrive was positioned as "a hosting company run by and for people who love publishing on the web."{{cite web|work=TextDrive.com |title=Welcome to TextDrive – Reliable, high performance web hosting you can trust |url=http://www.textdrive.com/ |date=November 29, 2005 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=http://wayback.vefsafn.is/wayback/20111126094556/http%3A//textdrive%2Ecom/ |archivedate= November 26, 2011 }}
Lifetime hosting crisis at Joyent, relaunch and shutdown of TextDrive
On August 16, 2012, individuals who had provided start-up and development funding to Joyent (and its predecessor, TextDrive) in exchange for lifetime shared hosting accounts with Joyent were informed, via email, that their lifetime hosting accounts would be deleted on October 31, 2012.{{cite news|title=Cloud Computing Company Joyent Leaves Early Supporters Out In The Cold|last=Finley|first=Klint|date=August 16, 2012|accessdate=August 24, 2012|url=https://techcrunch.com/2012/08/16/cloud-computing-company-joyent-leaves-early-supporters-out-in-the-cold/|work=Techcrunch}} Depending on the nature of their initial investment, they were offered either one or three free years of hosting on a Joyent SmartMachine,{{cite news|first=Brandon|last=Butler|work=PC World|title=Cloud Company Ending 'Lifetime' Hosting promise| url=http://www.pcworld.com/article/261094/cloud_company_ending_lifetime_hosting_promise.html| date=August 19, 2012|accessdate=August 19, 2012}} the company's cloud hosting solution, after which they would be moved to a regularly billed account. Customer backlash to the announcement turned out to be fierce.{{cite news|url=http://www.inc.com/erik-sherman/the-tricky-business-of-offering-lifetime-guarantees.html|first=Erik|last= Sherman|title= The Tricky Business of Lifetime Guarantees|work= Inc.com|date=August 29, 2012|accessdate=August 29, 2012}}
On August 30, 2012, TextDrive co-founder Dean Allen announced that he was relaunching TextDrive as a separate company which will carry on Joyent's shared hosting business and honor the "lifetime" agreements.{{cite news|title=A user revolt and the second coming of TextDrive|first=Stacey|last= Higginbotham|work=GigaOm|url=http://gigaom.com/cloud/a-user-revolt-and-the-second-coming-of-textdrive/|date=August 30, 2012|accessdate=August 30, 2012}}{{cite news|title=TextDrive Separates from Joyent to Continue Lifetime Web Hosting Deal|first=Nicole|last= Henderson|date= August 30, 2012| accessdate= August 30, 2012| work=Webhost Industry Review|url=http://www.thewhir.com/web-hosting-news/textdrive-separates-from-joyent-to-continue-lifetime-web-hosting-deal}} Allen relaunched TextDrive in late 2012 using Joyent infrastructure. At the time, he was confident he would succeed in building a viable business similar to DreamHost.{{cite news| title=Inside CEO Dean Allen's Plans for a Resurrected TextDrive Hosting Service| first=Nicole| last=Henderson |date=September 5, 2012|accessdate=September 6, 2012|url= http://www.thewhir.com/web-hosting-news/inside-ceo-dean-allens-plans-for-a-resurrected-textdrive-hosting-service|work=Webhost Industry Review}}
On March 3, 2014, Dean Allen announced the shutdown of TextDrive:{{cite web |url=http://discuss.textdrive.com/ |title=The TextDrive Discussion Forum |accessdate=2014-02-12 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140225124932/http://discuss.textdrive.com/ |archivedate=2014-02-25 }}
As anyone looking for decent support or even useful information over the past few months can attest, the revival of TextDrive has not been a success.What began in mid-2012 as an exciting challenge fuelled by good intentions and lean resources quickly turned into a cleanup project with almost no resources.
It is disappointing to report that after a year and a half of uphill battles and unimagined setbacks, after several costly efforts to regroup and find another way, options to keep TextDrive growing have run out, and we will cease operations on the 14th of March, 2014.
For those who wish to know, details of what went wrong will be made available once shutdown operations have completed.
Sorry to have let you down.
Dean
References
{{reflist|30em}}
External links
- {{official website|https://web.archive.org/web/20140212051223/http://www.textdrive.com/}}