State of affairs
Hello, all. I’ve been going back and forth on whether or not to write this entry for a while. I figure now’s the time…
As much as I would love to, I don’t have the time right now to put into maintaining RouteSlip.com. A couple reasons:
- One man team
- Full-time job (at a startup)
- Newborn baby
- Part time MBA program
… I think that pretty much covers it. I’ve received a few offers of help, but for numerous reasons, I haven’t found someone that can (or wants to) take over support right now.
And while I appreciate a few people’s offers of donations to help keep me involved, but the constraint is time - not money.
I have pages and pages of new features I would love to add, and I would really like to be able to solve each person’s problems with the site. Regarding the latter, it’s just more than I can handle - even if I were full time on this.
And lastly, just to get this off my chest… I’d like to remind people that RouteSlip is a free service. I’ve received several emails commenting about the current lack of support that I can only describe as rude. For a long time I was very diligent in responding to each and every bug report, but for the reasons listed above, it’s just not something I can do anymore - or at least, right now.
Feel free to comment.
Update:
Thank you to everyone for their encouragement and support. Just to clarify — I certainly will NOT be pulling the plug, and I am not planning on ditching the development effort altogether. Just at this time, it’s not possible for me to continue development. A friend of mine is moving to a pretty small town in Tennessee and mentioned that he was able to find some great routes in the same area. I definitely don’t want to take a resource like this away from anyone.
I would be more than happy to moderate a semi-open source effort to maintain the site through distributed means — I just need to find someone(s) that wants to put the time and commitment into it. Thanks again!
April 12th, 2007 at 10:02 am
This site is great, and I am amazed that anybody would put in the time & effort to provide this kind of service for free. I wish you nothing but the best. Anybody who criticizes you for focusing on your family, job, and education has their priorities way out of whack. Thanks again for the great site.
April 12th, 2007 at 12:29 pm
Ryan,
Thank you for your honesty. I realize how difficult that it must have been to come to your decision. I hope that routeslip.com can continue without enhancements for the near future.
Good luck and I wish you well.
April 12th, 2007 at 3:02 pm
Amen to that. This site kicks ass and I will be sad to see it not get the attention it should but i think everyone can understand why you can’t dedicate the time. I would just like to say thank you for creating it and putting in the time you have. It’s sites like this that make the net so great. I wish you tons of luck and hope the site will stay around as is. F#%K anyone who says anything bad. I think we all know what dedication it has taken to make it so great. Keep riding.
April 12th, 2007 at 3:48 pm
I agree with Aaron, thank your for the great site.
April 12th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
Ryan,
I suspect that many web users have no idea what work it is to maintain software, and furthermore they are used to getting everything for free on the internet. I fully support your position.
If I may make one work-generating request, is there an easy way for you to provide users with their routes in a form that can be imported into other tools? If not, then we’ll just have to deal.
p.s. have you discovered bycycle.org yet?
April 12th, 2007 at 8:21 pm
Thank you for letting us know what’s happening with you and the site. Congratulations on the new little one.. Hopefully someone will be able to assist you soon. You’ve created a fantastic site for personal “free use” which is almost unheard of these days. I personally would be willing to pay a reasonable fee for use of the site. Hopefully, you’ll find the assistance you need soon. Word is spreading about this great site. Best wishes to you.
April 13th, 2007 at 8:55 am
This is the best bike route site out there. Thanks for providing it! I sure hope you find someone to give it the support it deserves!
By the way your priorities are absolutely correct!
April 13th, 2007 at 3:04 pm
I would just like to say thank you for creating this site and supporting it as far as you have. It’s a great resource, and much more usable and elegant than other comparable sites.
April 14th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
Oh no! I don’t know of a site that offers a similar service, even for a fee. Routeslip had obvious areas for improvement, of course, but it was so useful. I’ll be really sad to see it go. Please say you’re at least leaving it up in its current incarnation?
April 14th, 2007 at 9:39 pm
I’d just like to say that I really appreciate your site. It’s easily the nicest looking bike route site out there. There are a couple sites with features that yours doesn’t have, but their sites aren’t nearly as well done overall.
Thanks for all the work that you’ve put in!
April 15th, 2007 at 5:18 pm
I run a free website too. It’s focused on a local bike club and not as ambitious as yours (was). Fortunately for me, I’m retired, but I still experience some of the same issues of expectations versus reality that you do. Early on: a couple of years ago, I was bitching to a friend something like “what do they expect for free” and she responded: “you are putting it out there, they expect professional and competent service that meets the goals of the site.”
Something as ambitious as Routeslip needs to be supported by a good sized team of programmers and probably a corporation with at least a few million dollars in the “kitty”. Even building off the base provided by Google Maps, you will wind up with thousands or tens of thousands of maps within a short time owned by thousands of users. The support requirements are well beyond what any one person can cope with. But I guess that’s preaching to the converted. There were dozens of Spreadsheets before Visicalc and later Lotus 123 took hold. Count yourself as a pioneer.
April 15th, 2007 at 6:30 pm
Have you considered selling?
April 16th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
Thanks for fixing the login problem.
This is the best route making site there is, bar none. In a strange way, all the whiners with their nasty complaints should be taken as compliments - they recognize that RouteSlip is superior to the competing sites, and are frustrated when they have problems. They ought to be much more understanding about your lack of time - after all, this site is your hobby, not theirs! I wish you much success, and I hope you’ll find a way to keep RouteSlip alive.
Good luck
April 16th, 2007 at 4:26 pm
If you are contemplating pulling the plug, any chance you could work with the fellows over at Bikely.com to transfer the routes already entered here? At least they would not be lost.
Thanks, and best wishes.
April 17th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
I had just heard of this site and was really excited to explore it, especially because I live in a hilly area (Oakland Hills) and getting figures on climbs and distances would be tremendously helpful in training for centuries.
Why would someone vandalize your work? What a jerk.
Nevertheless, best wishes on your pursuing a very busy life, especially the new baby part. Thank you for all your efforts. Hopefully someone will pick up the gauntlet.
April 18th, 2007 at 9:34 am
Having now been a user for all of 12 hours, I want to express my appreciation for what you’ve built. Sounds like you’ve got your priorities pretty straight to me…
April 18th, 2007 at 10:04 am
You’re doing the very best you can, Ryan, and anyone who can’t see and understand the amount of work you’ve put into this doesn’t deserve any answer to their rude e-mail . . . and keep broadcasting that you could use some help. Sooner or later some cyclist who does know about programming will see it and you’ll get some help. I wish I could do it myself, but I know absolutely zip about programming!
April 19th, 2007 at 8:46 am
This is an awesome site - thanks for putting all the time in you have already. Have you thought about getting one the major mags (e.g. Bicycling) to support you? I’ll bet the major bike corps would be willing to advertise/provide funding to help you make this a full-time gig.
good luck!
April 22nd, 2007 at 12:13 pm
I just want to say that your site is great! I just discovered it today and it is totally what I have been wanting, that is a way to map out routes and figure out about how long they would be. I just checked out the workout journal thingy (sorry can’t remember the term you gave for it), and that was pretty cool too. Basically, don’t get down about the crappy support emails you have been getting. This is a free site (which I really appreciate) and I think it is a really great idea, I’m glad you were able to get it up for public use. Good luck with the other parts of your life! Thanks again!
April 24th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
I’ll echo Aaron’s comment. This is an unbelievably great tool. I’ve been trying to find something like this for international destinations. Thanks for putting the obvious time and effort to get this up and running!
April 27th, 2007 at 5:33 am
Hey man… great site! I think it works really well (I will say I’m glad I wasn’t around for the hack-attacks), and for a free service, it’s even more especially awesome.
If you get around to doing more with it, that’s cool, but if not, it’s still really useful in its current state. I do hope you’re able to get back to it at some point, just because it’s a really great site and has tons of potential (but you know that.
And yeah, I hope this cancels out some of the jerks.
Thanks!
May 3rd, 2007 at 11:38 am
Thanks for all that you have done in pulling this site together. Your efforts and diligence in getting the site as far as you have are to be comended.
Good luck with kids, school, and life in general - you deserve it. I will say one thing, this site is so good that I bet we will all be here waiting for you when you choose to take the mantle up again. Thanks for all of your hard work.
May 4th, 2007 at 7:53 pm
Please contact me at my email address provided… I am an avid cyclist and presently own/develop a couple of websites that are not cycling related. Perhaps we can have a chat next week..?
Regards,
Raye
May 8th, 2007 at 9:15 am
Hi there!
I just discovered this site via a friend and it looks like a fantastic resource. We’re just getting into cyling tours and having rich tools like this makes it even easier for novices like us to plan and execute routes.
I don’t have much experience developing RIA interfaces with Javascript, but it’s an area I’ve already started looking into. I do, however, have plenty of experience with server-side PHP and Java (not sure how much of that actually transfers over to browser-dependent ECMAScript though, probably not much).
If you do find the time to do project management tasks for this, count me in as one of your developers.
May 14th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
Ryan, congratulations on the baby and on this marvelous tool you’ve created to help riders. A number of my friends are using it, too, and are delighted with the results. We all wish you everything good.
August 28th, 2007 at 8:34 am
Just wanted to give you a HUGE THANKS for this site and your efforts involved in it. I love it and any bugs or somewhat inconsequential. Keep up the great work; please never let this site go away. And I hope all goes well for you and your family. IO hope your time constraints begin to lessen.
Thanks again for the great FREE site!