Tempus Fugit

Pownce, the micro-publishing web service with great media support and social sharing controls had its technology and staff acquired by web publishing company Six Apart, as announced on December 1st. The service is scheduled to be shut down on December 15th.

In order to allow people to keep their content after the service shuts down, Pownce has allowed users to export their data.

Since we’d like for you to have access to all your Pownce messages, we’ve added an export function. Visit pownce.com/settings/export/ to generate your export file. You can then import your posts to other blogging services such as Vox, TypePad, or WordPress.

Pownce blog

I’ve not yet received my export file. A Google search doesn’t reveal anyone that has, and lots of people who haven’t, including people who asked for their export file on December 1st.

There is only one more week until the service is set to be shut down. In order for users to have their exported Pownce content up on another system, they really need to be getting their export files soon.

Update

Anil Dash from Six Apart says in the comments that they are still working on exports and that Pownce won’t shut down without making sure that every person who requested an export gets one. Good to hear. He also says that the export format will be “a custom XML format, old mtimport format, Atom feed, and FOAF for friends list.”

Update 2

I received an e-mail at 12:04am today (the 9th) saying my Pownce export was ready. It also said “Please stop by as soon as possible to pick up your files. Once Pownce is closed, on December 15, these files will no longer be available.” That rather implies that people who ask for their export file late on the 14th may be out of luck, which seems to contradict what Anil said about making sure that everyone who asks for an export will get their data. Or maybe it’s just meant to scare people into downloading their files ASAP.