Friends,
I have decided to stop using Spout.
Thank you so much to everyone who has helped contribute to the site in the past. I have had a wonderful time getting to know many of you. We have had some terrific discussions, and you have introduced me to countless new films and filmmakers.
My reason for leaving is that it is clear that the people originally responsible for creating and maintaining the website have now virtually abandoned the site. I’m sure most of you also noticed this starting just about a year ago. Although the initial indicator of their ceasing further investment in the site was the sudden lack of the usual advertisements, games, and other officially sponsored content updates, it soon became clear that they were no longer making any effort to fix or update any of the problems with bugs, formatting, and function of the site. This would not have been such a big problem if the most recent site update had not broke so many things that had previously worked just fine in the past. As the site stands now with all of the bugs it is too annoying to use, and the knowledge that it will not be fixed has dissuaded me from adding any more content to it. I am also too embarrassed by it to attempt to invite any other potential new users to view it.
Many of you have had discussions with me about why I think this abandonment might have happened. Although I do not have any definitive answers I do know that the company that created Spout called Pomegranate Studios also started an endeavor around the same time called ArtPrize. ArtPrize has been highly successful in its efforts which include putting on a contest in which artists create and display different works of art around Spout’s native city of Grand Rapids, Michigan. My guess is that the people behind Pomegranate Studios became more interested in ArtPrize than in Spout at some point, and when ArtPrize began turning out to be more of a success by their own measurement than Spout, they decided to put all of their efforts into ArtPrize instead of Spout. Paul, one of the creators of Spout told me in one of his correspondences to me that Spout was not achieving certain goals so they "cut back the burn rate." If my speculation is correct, it is sad to me that the administration abandoned an endeavor that they had originally put so much care and work into, but I can understand how their affinity may have shifted over time without the users knowing about it. What I cannot understand is why the administration has been so remiss in communicating their decisions to their loyal users. There are even still many links on the website requesting users to submit question, problems, and feedback. But I’m sure many of you have found that any inquiries made via these avenues over the past year do not get addressed. Although I used to feel as though as a user I was cared about as a person. Now I am feeling a bit more like just a component of a business model. Although the most confusing thing to me was the question of how Spout ever made any money for its creators. Maybe it never did. I know that one of the owners of Pomegranate Studios is Rick DeVos, grandson of billionaire Rich DeVos, the co-founder of Amway and well known philanthropist in Grand Rapids. Reflecting on this, maybe I should be glad that Spout lasted as long as it did.
The last correspondence I received from Paul indicated that Spout is currently in a “holding pattern” and that they are planning on making an official announcement about the future of Spout at some point. I will be curious to see what the announcement is if and when it comes, but in the meantime I will no longer be using the site, except minimally if anyone still attempts to communicate with me through it.
As an alternative, some of you have also had discussions with me about what other good movie sites are out there. Here are some other movie sites that I use that provide some similar features as Spout:
Discussion sites:
The Auteurs
MovieLens
Rate movies and get recommendations:
MovieLens
FilmAffinity
Criticker
Make movie lists:
The Auteurs
FilmAffinity
Criticker Lists
Compare and rank movies:
Flickchart
Here is where you can find me at these other sites. Please join some if not all of them and become friends with me there. I would love to keep in contact with some of the friends I have made here:
http://www.theauteurs.com/users/25528
http://www.movielens.org/profile?memberName=Risselada
http://www.filmaffinity.com/en/userlastratings.php?user_id=741007
http://www.criticker.com/profile/Risselada
http://www.flickchart.com/Risselada
http://www.netflix.com/StrangerProfile?prid=126541948
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=695135011
See you around the web fellow film lovers!
--Brian Risselada