Friends Reunited RIP

Adam Tinworth
Adam Tinworth

One of the original social media sites is dying. From the “notification of death” e-mail:

Not long ago I was approached by the FriendsReunited owners, to see if I wanted to take it back and try some new projects with it. It was evident that putting the site back to be more like its original form was not a service people would get excited about using again. The site is still used by a handful of members however it has become clear that the site is no longer really used for the purpose it was built for. For the site to continue it needs a complete re write and this is just not viable.

The life of friends reunited

Over on Medium, one of the founders has written extensively about its rise, fall, and what will replace it:

One of my biggest gripes with Facebook are the times people tag or share photos of you and everyone sees them. And I too dont want to see everyone else’s group party shots. Plus the fact that they are lost in a mass of vacuous information. Don’t get me wrong, Facebook is fantastic for lots of things and keeping in touch, but as a tool to plot my life its rather cumbersome.
Liife will be a great way to store the life of a child through pictures and memories. I also want to go back and plot the life of my late father through talking to my mum. There are lots I don’t know that won’t take that much research.

It’s a brave idea – and I hope it succeeds. But it’s hard to bet against Facebook right now.

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Adam is a lecturer, trainer and writer. He's been a blogger for over 20 years, and a journalist for more than 30. He lectures on audience strategy and engagement at City, University of London.

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