Digital Railroad says goodbye

Andy

[imgl]http://img.skitch.com/20081029-rewrp9npad761521wd55im5mam.jpg[/imgl] It's a shame, really. We never like to see this, companies just shutting down. What's worse, from announcement to closure, Digital Railroad only gave their customers one week's notice :wxwax

I know a lot of photographers that are in a real jam now.

SmugMug expects to have a stock marketplace - we've solicited input for a long time and we'll get there. No, I don't have an update, other than to say it is indeed terribly important to us to have such an offering :deal

Any Digital Railroad refugees can use coupon code digitalrailroad when signing up, for 50% off the first year's subscription.

Matthew Saville

Andy wrote:

...other than to say it is indeed terribly important to us to have such an offering...

Music to my ears, Andy. I know the others may harp on such ambiguity, but being with SM since 2004 or so, I know you guys do things RIGHT THE FIRST TIME...

Can't wait to get my portfolio of nature and other photographs available in the commercial realm, finally...

And very sad to hear about DRR going under... They had a way cooler name than "SmugMug"!!! :-P

Take care,
=Matt=

Karenl39

Matthew Saville wrote:

Music to my ears, Andy. I know the others may harp on such ambiguity, but being with SM since 2004 or so, I know you guys do things RIGHT THE FIRST TIME...

Can't wait to get my portfolio of nature and other photographs available in the commercial realm, finally...

And very sad to hear about DRR going under... They had a way cooler name than "SmugMug"!!! :-P

Take care,
=Matt=

That's sad. I wonder if the economy is really affecting photo companies also.

DrDavid

I'm pretty sure the business was just not good enough to survive. Businesses fail all the time.

Good thing Smug is profitable still!

Andy

darryl

I'm just hearing about this now, but guh, if it was at all possible, the story got worse:

http://www.nppa.org/news_and_events/news/2008/10/digitalrailroad.html

NEW YORK, NY (October 28, 2008) - Digital Railroad didn't even give it's users the courtesy of 24 hours to get their photographs off their servers.

When users signed on this morning, waiting for them after the Digital Railroad log in today was this notice:

"To our valued Members:

We're sorry to inform you that Digital Railroad (DRR) has shut down.

On October 15th we reported that the company had reduced its staff and was aggressively pursuing additional financing and/or a strategic partner. Unfortunately, those efforts were unsuccessful. Therefore Digital Railroad has been forced to suspend all operations.

This archive may only be accessible for the next 24 hours.

Digital Railroad has attracted a loyal set of members. Thank you for allowing us to serve the photographic community these past few years.

All questions pertaining to claims should be addressed to:

Digital Railroad Inc.
c/o Diablo Management Group
1452 N. Vasco Road, #301
Livermore, CA 94551"

Then this afternoon, shortly after 5 p.m. EST, the Digital Railroad Web site went dead. Dark. Gone.