General Chat

Friends Reunited social networking website to close down

Just read this on the news....


Friends Reunited, one of the first social networking websites, is closing down.

The site, which once boasted more than 15 million members, was set up by Hertfordshire couple Steve and Julie Pankhurst in 2000.

It allowed people to reconnect with old friends and quickly became popular.

However, it has since fallen behind the likes of Facebook and its current owners, DC Thomson, have decided to close it.

Mr Pankhurst, who became involved with the site again two years ago after selling it in 2005, wrote in a blog post: "It hasn’t covered its costs and like any business this can’t continue indefinitely.

"Therefore, whilst it’s sad, I believe it’s time to move on and put Friends Reunited to bed. And I feel like I am the right person to do it."

A shame but inevitable and no doubt GR will eventually go the same way.

I'm not surprised. They couldn't leave it be, had to mess it up with all that 'do you remember this from last week rubbish' and members dropped it en masse.

Shame, it was a great site.

She is starting a new site called LIIFE. It will be funded by divorce lawyers.
:-D

Very said that's where I found my school friend who I had lost touch with for thirty years, we had five year together before she died but i'll never forget her

I found sooooooo many of the statements made by Steve Pankhurst to be relevant to this site ...........

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In an emailed entitled “the sunset of an era”, Pankhurst wrote that “the world is now a very different place” and that Friends Reunited is no longer able to compete with Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

The site, Pankhurst writes, still has a “handful” of users but that its continuation would not be viable.

“It is clear that the site is no longer really used for the purpose it was built for … therefore, it is with a heavy heart, that we have decided to close the service down.”
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The news about FR ending was apparently put up on FR back in December by Steve Pankhurst


http://www.friendsreunited.co.uk/friendsreunited-sunset/People/6e6ee4da-4c42-4e43-81d0-a57d0117ff22

I just saw it today on the latest news bulletin...

The Group that Steve set up on Fr back in December is called FriendsReunited Sunset, and this comment he made in response to members is very interesting

.......... and alarmingly like GR

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I have seen people ask about saving the boards. However, this is close to impossible. The code behind the FR site has been written, changed and hacked about for over 15 years by many different people and companies. I wrote the original back in 2000, and some of that even still exist. As you can imagine it's a bit of a mess by now (understatement!) and needs a huge amount of effort to make any significant changes to it. I no longer personally have the skill set to do so, and 2 years ago the whole development team left leaving just one developer and myself (and Will in support) to take over. The developer has since left leaving no tech support. I could find someone - and that is hard in itself as the technology is old and no-one wants to work on it. But it would cost a lot.

The site already costs many thousands a month to support and maintain with little advertising income. Therefore you can see the reason for the closure is mainly down to it not being financially or technically viable to continue it.
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A belated "Happy New Year" to everyone!
So, it seems FR will soon close.
It's very sad this will occur, and the owner's reasons makes sense.
FaceBook - to which I do not 'belong' - has obviously more to offer than FR.
I believe FR was the first site I joined way back when ... and shortly before I joined GR.
I had great success on it!
For 10 years I am in regular contact with four schoolgirl friends. Three of us met (with their hubby) in London for the day in 2012 when I came over.
It was really nice to see them again, the first time since 1956, when I left that school.
I have just spent the last half hour trying to send a message or two to others I know but I continually get "Sorry, an error has occurred."
Now which site does that remind me of, I wonder?
Perhaps the 'end' might be earlier than suggested.
RIP, FR. You were a great help putting so many folks in contact again.
I had fun!

According to out local radio station lots of people had forgotten they belonged to FR and were surprised to get an email about the site closing.

Did anyone who has posted here receive e-mail?
I didn't and I was surprised to read it.

I haven't had an email Barry so I shall have a look to see if I have any unfowarded messages on the site after all these years. My fella had an email.

Perhaps the emails are being sent out in batches? It's always possible they've end up in amongst the 'spam'.

I have not received an email about the site closing.
I visited friends reunited yesterday, enjoyed reminiscing.

:-S

Strange. They also commented that a lot of emails would not reach some members as email addresses had changed.

Det, I'm not really bothered. I was just lettling Barry know :-)

Sadly, I always have to check my spam/junk as hotmail/outlook mail is rubbish these days. :-|

"Horray, no spam here'" Island.
That's what my spam box notes, thankfully!
I just checked again!
I accessed my FR account from other sources a few minutes ago ... and clicking on e-mail / message icon merely brings the message I noted above.
It seems FR is on its way out much quicker than anticipated.
Again, RIP, FR.

http://www.friendsreunited.co.uk/Mail
Sorry,
something didn't quite work!
Check out our FAQs or contact our support team so we can help you find what you were looking for.

Moments ago I received e-mail from FR.
Part of it notes ...

"Therefore, it is with a heavy heart, that we have decided to close the service down. This will commence in the next month, We do recognise that ..."

So there we have it from the Horse's Mouth, so to speak.
The new service / site 'Liife' is also mentioned.

I doubt their internal e-mail service to other friends will resume meantime, however.
We shall doubtless see!