Experience Project is a social networking website that has been operating for a decade. It is smaller in comparison to big social media sites such as Twitter or Facebook, however, that is not necessary a bad thing. The type of users the site attracts is different. The social aspects of the site revolves around sharing stories and connecting with people with similar life experiences, as the name implies. Experiences such as “I love Coffee” or “I suffer from Depression” and endless possibilities of these experiences. These experiences act as groups with a page and member posts. The posts are written by members and are usually multiple paragraphs elaborate stories relating to these experiences!
This website was the only social networking site that I have ever used seriously! It is the opposite of artificial and I have had great conversations with people on it. However, they announced less than 2 weeks ago that they are shutting the website down. The announcement included insights and explanations of that decision; see here.
What is said in that announcement is quite concerning. The EP team had to decide between selling out their users private data or shutting down. They decided on the latter. They also mentioned how they have been attacked and targeted by government spying agencies.
I will not be quoting a lot from the announcement and I argue you to go read it yourself for clarification. However, I would like to discuss a few aspects of it.
Given EP’s nature and mechanics, it does not appeal to most social media users today. It requires a longer attention span, ability to write, and most importantly, not be superficial all the time. This hinders their ability to grow to the size of Twitter or Facebook. A growth that would be necessary if they are to survive, after all they have server bills to pay. Their income has been mostly through minimal amount of ads and donations.
They were not fond by the idea of selling private information to ads agencies for income. So in a way, they were missing out on a hefty sum of steady income because of this. An income that most social media sites would not miss a beat to acquire.
That said, government agencies, US government agencies, took notice to that. Usually these agencies would have direct or indirect access to private user information by the ads agencies, but since EP did not participate in that business model, they were targeted with direct requests of this data.
These requests were so great in volume and required so much resources to deal with that it became impossible to keep EP online without more income streams, ideally from selling this same private data being requested by government agencies.
This is my interpretation of the situation, as explained by EP themselves in the announcement, and I am very, personally, upset about this. I loved the concept of Experience Project so much that at one point I was working on creating my very own clone of the site. You can sign up to my incomplete clone project just to check out the similarities here.
But I digress. This great social platform that is, in my honest opinion, superior to the majority of the mindless social networking sites out there, is going to be no more. They are unable to keep the website up and running because the government surveillance online has become so outrageous and so invasive that is impossible for them to keep up. The existence of EP is not being challenged technically, or even financially, but is being challenged by government surveillance policies they have to uphold and work around! That is insane! I see this as an indirect attack on freedom of speech, expression, and assembly, not to mention a direct attack against online privacy.
The only social networking site I know to offer a meaningful way to connect with people is shutting down because they refuse to violate their users trust and privacy. Do I have to repeat that?
I am glad that I tried looking up the EP site to instead find this. EP is, was and will always be the finest of all social networking sites. Bar none.
Damn used to use it all the time in my teenage years just thought of it today only to see that it’s shutting down 🙁
It’s interesting that you can form an opinion based on uninformed speculation and governmental bias. EP was shut down because of the deluge of government search warrants and subpoenas they were being forced to answer. These were for the names of the members posting anonymously to place their ads for illegal drugs causing the deaths of at least dozens, or possibly hundreds of deaths. EP had a responsibilty to minimally police their site st least to close groups named “I Love Heroin” and “Heroin, Heroin, Heroin” which included open offers of drugs for sale including the type, price and phone number of the dealer. When there is an opioid epidemic in this country killing 144 people every day, and EP can’t be bothered with monitoring bad actors on their site, they can blame the government, but they’re to blame. All this ridiculous speculation about advertising data is just wrong. They didn’t even bother to take down the ads after knowing the posters were being investigated for murder. Good for you that you didn’t participate in the ugly part of EP, but it’s saving hundreds of lives that they are shut down.
Hi Ali, remember me? You took advantage of me and pretended to be my friend. I guess your lying paid off though since you got this success. Congratulations, hope it made you an honest person. Or you only lied to me since my role in life IS scapegoat.
I have read much about government surveillance, advertising companies collecting data, and so forth.
I have never heard of the set of circumstances described together in this fashion.
A new level of disturbing………
NO!! I have been on EP on and off to play and for some sort of therapy. The government destroys everything they touch. The older I get the more I understand anarchists.
I hate the government.
It’s like 1984.
The type of surveillance we have now makes 1984 look like……..1984.
miss it , felt like home
This really sucks.
thats so sad,i used to ask some silly questions and people were really nice and not fake in ep
Hi Ali, I’m a fellow EP user and although I didn’t expect this at all, I am feeling very shaken by the shutdown that has occurred this evening after this website was a part of my life for 6 1/2 years. However I am really skeptical of the official explanation. I think the most important fact I have seen pertinent to the shutdown is Armen Berjikly’s Feb. 2016 statement that “Kanjoyaâs technology was originally based on the Experience Project.” (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/charu-sharma/going-against-the-flow-ar_b_9233684.html) We thought Kanjoya was still dependent on Experience Project data mining, and the revelation that Kanjoya no longer needs EP looks pretty significant. Most longtime EP users I’ve spoken to are mindful of the fact that EP management has been systematically dismantling the features of the website since mid-2012, and were agreed that the website had become a shadow of its former self. Censorship on the website implemented in 2013 was very unpopular with the members. It appears that as Armen has been feeling his oats with the Kanjoya business enterprise, EP has been an orphan for a long time. I think there just wasn’t an interest on the part of the owner in doing what was necessary to make EP more viable. By spending years butchering the website, management greatly reduced its traffic and popularity and thereby made it less viable.
Another thing that makes me doubt the official explanation about the government driving EP out of business is the fact that as soon as the end of EP was announced, there was a mad dash by a number of camps to put out replacement sites. Some of these are destined to fail. One called SimilarWorlds did a great job marketing itself on the EP website; if its founders are up to the task, they will have a great chance to absorb a large portion of EP’s clientele.
I really, really hope there will be a good replacement for EP. I have no use for Twitter and scarce use for Facebook. An anonymous website that allows one to write material as lengthy as one pleases has great advantages.