VegGuide.org has been shut down

Time 2020-11-24 03:03:22

Web Name: VegGuide.org has been shut down

WebSite: http://www.vegguide.org

ID:125517

Keywords:

has,org,VegGuide,

Description:

VegGuide.org has been shut down. Thank you to everyone who has contributed tothe site as well as to all of our nonprofit partners! So long and thanks forall the mock fish.AlternativesCheck out HappyCow. They haveworldwide restaurant and shopping listings, as well as lots of otherinformation.You might also find Google Mapshelpful. Try searching for "vegan food near me". And also checkout Yelp for restaurant listings and reviews.VegGuide was created back in 2002 to fill what I(Dave Rolsky, the site creator) andseveral others saw as a gap in online services. There were also some othermotivations you canread about in greater detail if you'reinterested.The site did get some traction and did have quite a bit usage, particularlyfrom 2008-2015, when the bulk of the entries currently on the site were added.However, traffic to the site was declining for many years by the time it wasshut down in late 2019. But even more importantly, contributions tothe site had also declined, so the data on the site was becoming increasinglystale and out of date. My feeling is that the site was that the site hadbecome a net negative because it often directed people to businesses that nolonger exist. This is especially true outside of North America, buteven in North America most of the listings were old and not well-maintained.I think there are a number of factors that led to VegGuide becoming much lessrelevant.Probably first and foremost is the rise of mobile devices and apps. A hugeamount of people's internet activity has moved to their phones and apps. Wenever had a full-featured app and we didn't have a mobile-friendly web design,all of which certainly hurt usage quite a bit.In addition, very well-funded commercial entities like Yelp and Google Mapshave done a better and better job of serving the same niche that VegGuide.orgserved. When traveling over the last few years I've found Google Maps to bequite helpful in finding vegan food, and I turned to it before VegGuide orHappyCow more and more.My own increasingly limited interest in working on the code behind the sitedidn't help either. The code base used some technologies that I developed inthe late 1990s and early 2000s. I really started hating to deal with thosetechnology choices over time, but switching off them was quitedifficult. Also, as I've aged I've also noted that my stamina for working onlarge volunteer coding projects by myself has greatly waned. I still enjoyworking on hobby projects, but I'm much better at completing smallerefforts. Moving VegGuide to a modern technical footing was one of those bigprojects I just couldn't get done.That all said, I think it had a good run, I'm proud of what the siteaccomplished, and I think creating it was a net good for animals and themovement.Technical Jibber Jabber About WhyI wroteabout the shutdown on my blog, with a lot more technical detail, if that'ssomething you're interested in.Code and Data

TAGS:has org VegGuide 

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