OurDoings closing to new users, continuing for existing users

OurDoings closing to new users, continuing for existing users

(Bruce Lewis) Building OurDoings was a lot of work, but in 2012 it paid off. Not in the way I imagined, by growing to the point where it would take over my day job. Instead, it gave me the knowledge and experience I needed to get a much better day job. I am now a software engineer at Google working on image search for tablet computers. When interviewing, the skills I used were about half general Computer Science and half things I learned building OurDoings.

Had I succeeded at growing OurDoings the way I wanted to, I doubt I could have created a company environment anywhere near as great as what I'm now part of at Google. Building and maintaining a great corporate culture is not easy. The prospect of that work is now off my plate.

The only wrinkle in all this good news is that I can't run a business that competes with my employer. OurDoings competes with Picasaweb and with Blogger. What would normally happen in this situation is that OurDoings would be shut down. But Google is not a normal company.

I've worked out an arrangement that avoids hurting those of you who've come to rely on OurDoings. All existing users can keep going at the same level of service. By closing to new users, OurDoings no longer competes with Google, since the public can no longer choose one over the other.

There will still occasionally be improvements to OurDoings, but not as big as the ones I implemented when running it as a side business. I will continue to run it as a hobby, which is a great relief, personally. I'm already finding myself able to spend more time with my family...we recently all watched a movie together...the first time we've done this since my youngest, six years old, was born.

I'm fully expecting to experience a happy new year, and hope you do too.