Multiply Social Network Going Down For Bloggers

Multiply, the social network you may have never heard of in spite of millions of members around the globe, will be shutting blogging services down by December 1st 2012. It will then become a “social shopper site”. One of the reasons Multiply is not in the mainstream (other than to make room for the big IPO kid on the block) are the tools by which members use to upload and share media. This apparently is a no-no for a media industry being crushed under the weight of its own excesses. Multiply finally gave in and has decided to reinvent itself as a hawker of five and dime fare from the Pacific Rim. You can read more about the situation in a little tome I posted for my online friends:

The inevitable has happened and Multiply will no longer serve us in its present form by the first of December 2012. The virtual Mayan calendar has run out, our sharing sins laid bare and some of you are waiting for the next social networked shoe to drop. Well not this guy and hopefully most of my other fellow swells who have been here through thick and thin, educating me on the finer points of jazz, pop, blues, films, books, etc. And not to mention your respective cultures from all over the globe. This one’s for you.

I have been plying my multimedia trade here on Multiply since 2006, another grizzled refugee from the still lamented Yahoo 360. While there is still enough to feel bad about when it comes to Yahoo, Multiply ended up being the superior place glitches and all. Unlike Yahoo, The ‘Ply offered a premium option for a measly stipend so long as we obeyed the rules. For the most part we did, but over time it seems as if the rules were starting to bend at the expense of those who were more than willing to walk the straight and narrow. All of a sudden we started to receive invites from people who were hawking dime store wares from points Pacific, in complete violation of what we came to understand as no selling on Multiply. We ignored this growing trend at our own peril as we turned down these invitations and went about our merry multimedia way convinced of our invincibility. Oh how the mighty have fallen.

But wait….there’s more. We have been told there are other sites who can better serve our blogging interests while this one continues to pander to policy breakers. Truth be told…and this is just my opinion, our overseers have bowed to the pressures placed upon them by “the industry” and have been ordered to crash the “sharing” party here. Couple that with another ad-addled social network who’s recent failed IPO has it scrambling for other options to keep it afloat. And a few million people from a soon-to-be-extinct site may just migrate over to help with the headcount. In the words of the immortal Dennis Miller “of course, that’s just my opinion….I could be wrong”. Not. ; )

There is however a rainbow at the end of the road. Most of us have been actively seeking alternatives. While the Multiply format in its current incarnation is a tough act to follow (cheap pocketbooks and watches notwithstanding), some say impossible, it can be done. Some have fled to the newly minted public competition. Others plan to strike out on their own for more obscure waters so as not to be shat on by a pair of random angry birds in the town of Farmville.

For the time being, yours truly will be billeted HERE. I know, at first blush its kind of plain, but as they say “pardon our dust”. A work in progress if you will. If I build it, hopefully all of you will come from time to time. And if a review addled blog is not your cup of Darjeeling, then cut to the chase right HERE. This is the only way I can think of to continue in the capacity I have here for the past few years. Until then, please add my email to your lists: dunkirkstreet@gmail.com.

Keep your heads up out there and don’t fall into despair. There’s much more to life than wiling away precious hours creeping and crawling on all these crazy sites. However….! Let’s get out and show ’em…we may be down but refuse to be out. The dynamic carried over from 360 to Multiply can mutate again into something even more wonderful. So what if we are a bit scattered? Keep the email addresses and site links and just spread the word that Multiply refugees have their heads down and are still punching.

Fred
That’s pretty much it in a cracked nutshell. Multiply, good, bad and sometimes ugly, was one of the best full featured platforms out there which didn’t require you to “like” anything you didn’t want to, not to mention a level of privacy we may never see again.