StikiPad - When software in the cloud goes sour

For a long time I have been using a wiki service called Stikipad to jot down things I wanted to save for later; like business ideas, drafts for blog posts and presentations, stuff like that.

Unfortunately Stikipad has looked like this the last 2 weeks or so:

This essentially means I cannot get at my data and have not been able to for weeks now. As if that isn’t bad enough in itself, I don’t know squat about what is happening, why a data center move is taking weeks to complete, or when I might see my data again.

The sound of silence

The owners of Stikipad, Jonathan George and Matthew DeWaal, appear to have hid themselves behind a wall of silence which is even scarier - not to mention disrespectful to their customers.

While I can understand the sticky situation they might be finding themselves in, they need to pull their heads out their butts for a second and provide information to their customers. They haven’t answered emails, they don’t reply to comments, and their support site is down.

At least a thousand people used to have public wikis hosted with Stikipad and are now left with only a non-informative “We are moving data centers”. Fine, move data centers all you want, I really don’t care. But I do care about my data, which you are currently keeping away from me.

And to add insult to injury, Stikipad is apparently charging their customers for a non existant service.

If you’re using web applications…

There a couple of lessons to be learned here - both as a consumer and a producer of “cloud services”. To the consumers out there looking for the next new thing to make their online life easier, I say

• Don’t sign up for a service that doesn’t allow you to get your data out of the system in a structured way. To Stikipads credit, they did provide that feature, and I do have a fairly recent backup, so this is probably not a total disaster for me.
• Use that backup/export feature! Use it regularly and not only when you want to cancel your account - I did not, shame on me.

If you’re producing web applications…

The most important lesson for producers of web applications that deal with other peoples data - and I sure hope the Stikipad guys are taking notes here so they don’t end up accidentally screwing more people over - is that you need to always communicate. Especially in times of trouble. Set up a blog on one of the numerous blogging services or hook your company up with Get Satisfaction.

I don’t care how you do it, just don’t shut the fuck up.

Comments and Trackbacks

Yup, it’s quite sad really. We’ve had our user support for SugarStats.com up with them and have been with them for almost 3 years now. These problems go back at least 2 of them.

The first few months back in 2006 I was even lucky enough to get some email replies but that quickly came to an end. They even took their “User Forum” down because pretty much all messages were complaints asking if anyone was there. It only got worse from there as you can imagine and that was 2 years ago.

And that insanely annoying login problem isn’t new either (you login with the correct credentials but it sends you back to the login page), happens on-and-off randomly and has been doing so for years. It’s quite baffling, I’ve never seen that in any web app let alone a Rails app. I even offered to look at their code and fix it for them, but of course did not get a reply. The same goes for the dozens of other emails I’ve sent them over the last 18-24 months, eventually I just stopped trying.

So now, just like you said, I along with thousands of others are stranded in the cold. Luckily I saw this coming years ago and make frequent backups. I’ve thought about switching many times but the funny thing is I really like the application itself, if ONLY IT WORKED. Unfortunately I didn’t cancel my account before this “Switch to a new datacenter”. Hopefully when they come back online, if ever, I will definitely cancel then.

I initially signed up with them because I saw many other reputable web apps using them for their help docs, especially Thomas Fuchs at Scriptaculous. I’ve recently emailed him and he had the smae complaints as I, lucky for them he has a new system about to roll out so he can ditch Stikipad. We’er definitely in the process of following suite, either moving to the new JotSpot (Google Sites, Free) or building our help in house to something similar to 37Signals.

If there is another group out there who can duplicate Stikipad, put it up on reliable hardware/infrastructure and can provide good transparent support then there is definitely an opportunity for them here.

Web 2.0 is still in beta. In the meantime, try TiddlyWiki.

It proves that it will be a long time before we dispense with the desktop apps. I for one only used stikipad as and when I wasn’t at my own computer and needed to collect info/data as and when for later.

Sadly, I didn’t back it up since I hadn’t used it in a long time and only went there the other day to share it with a friend only to be confronted with the same notice.

Bit bummed as I could do with having access to the data right now, but there’s little I can do about it. I just hope that this isn’t the end of stiki and that it does actually re-open.

@Verity

“It proves that it will be a long time before we dispense with the desktop apps.”

How does this prove anything, other than the Stickipad managers are irresponsible jerks?

@Verity, I am with Mike here, see Stikipad doesn’t spell doom for /all/ cloud services

We are considering legal action against the founders of stikipad, if there are others who like to particpate post here

@snowcrash, I’d like to find out about possible legal options. Let me know how I can participate. I was thinking I’d start by reporting them to my credit card company as perpetrators of fraud. Not sure if that’s possible/accurate; first I have to see how many months I’ve been paying for an unusable service. Does anyone know the earliest date that the site stopped responding?

I used stikipad for a group i was running, and paid the first year’s $99. A year later I get a charge on my Amex for another $99, with no email notice from stikipad that they were about to charge me. I try to find the guys and no one replies to my emails. So I finally track one of them done via Google and post on his socnet. He fires back in a nanosecond that I should not be posting a complaint and that to send them an email via their site. Of course I already did that. I guess he just got mad because he was called out.

I contested the charge and I have to check to see if I got a refund. I have been way too busy to look.

And the kicker is that I never used the site for the group, we switched to basecamp because we needed more features.

@snowcrash, I’m just desperate to get my data back. I had the manual for a business concept put up there, and I’m growing increasingly concerned that it is lost. Perhaps legal action is the best possibility, however, I’d really prefer to aviod the hassle if I could only get my hands on my data.

I am interested in taking some action. I have about 120 hours invested in building my wiki and also desperately want the data back. I think a lawsuit is going to be expensive and has a small likelyhood of recovery.

I am thinking we should post a web site(s) about the founders documenting their misuse of the public trust. (Maybe a wiki with permissions?)

A good web site will be inexpensive yet will make it difficult for them to do business or obtain well paying jobs. We can offer to take it down after they have returned our data.

What do you think?

@Mountainsport, Sounds like a good idea. I think we should try everything within limits of fairness.

http://jdg.net/ this is the guy’s site. he is working.

Stikipad’s founder is at phone number removed by Jakob

Alright guys, enough’s enough. I realize people are frustrated - so am I. However, I don’t want my website to become the outlet for a personal vendetta.

I will be happy to pass your email address on to the other people posting here if you allow me to, and you can take it from there yourselves.

But it won’t be on my site, sorry.

see: http://ferociouspixie.blogspot.com/2008/06/stikipad-is-lame-duck-company.html