Why Your Website Is Better Than Pownce

I got my beta invite to Pownce pretty early on. I was super enthused and immediately began trying to sell the concept to my friends. "Think of all the uses! It's like a ready-made intranet! It's like Twitter, but on steroids! You can post, like, anything there!"

These things, they're all true. But here's my problem:

I don't trust the internet like I used to.

Over the last several months, I've become wary of web services where, if said service went down, it'd mean a gut-wrenching loss of data for me. It started when I heard that Microsoft was ditching support for their own DRM format. You really should read the article if this is news to you, but here's a brief synopsis: If you've ever bought a song encoded with Microsoft's PlaysForSure DRM, sucks to be you! After August 31, 2008, if you buy a new computer, none of that music can move to the new machine.

What does DRM have to do with web applications?

Simple: in both cases – that is, with web apps and DRMed music – a loss of service means a loss of data for you. Microsoft's decision to deep-six PlaysForSure is no different than if a service like, say, Flickr suddenly disappeared. If the business fails, or for some other reason the service becomes inoperable, you're left without your data. It wasn't until the PlaysForSure fiasco that I suddenly started considering the possibility that these Web 2.0 services even could go away.

Granted, for the big, popular services, these chances are pretty low. But aside from a total loss of data, you've got other things to worry about, too – like sudden changes in Terms of Service that charge you for a previously free service.

But why are you singling out Pownce?

I use – and will continue to use – a whole slew of web apps. I love Flickr for the ability to post photos remotely and extract them via the API. But I'd never store a photo only on Flickr. Those same photos live in triplicate on drives at home. Del.icio.us is terrific, but part of the reason I'm now keeping a link blog here at TNF is for these very reasons. And Twitter? Well, let's just say that as much as I love Twitter, I wouldn't lose too much sleep if my year-and-a-half of status updates suddenly up and vanished. (Which, actually, is a good thing, since at the time of this writing, a database crash has forced Twitter to disable paging. I couldn't even tell you what my first twit was if I wanted to!)

Pownce is built to accept a wide array of media – from long(er)-form blog-like entries, to files, to events. If you were using the service the way I'm betting its creators wanted you to use it, Pownce would be the central part of your online identity. So it all comes down to this: if I'm putting important material into a system, I want to know exactly where it lives, I want to be able to back it up, ensuring it won't suddenly disappear when I need it.

But you're missing the point. Pownce is all about the community.

Yeah, that's true. Like I said earlier, I'll continue to use all these web services I've signed up for, in part because I like the social aspect of modern web services. But when it comes down to it, I'd rather be adding value to a site that I own outright first and adding value to external sites second – and even then, only when it benefits me. It's a selfish equation, but one I think I'll be more comfortable with in the long run.