There appears to be a bit of customer discontent about the news that Dimdim’s free service will be discontinued after the closing of the sale to Salesforce.com.
The closing is without question. The Dimdim FAQ has 11 questions and answers to inform customers about the service’s discontinuation.
Dimdim’s closing is a study in the risks of using free services. What will happen now to Dimdim customers is all outlined in the FAQ. The first question states the timeline for closure:
How long will my service be available?
Monthly accounts will be available until March 15. Annual accounts are available until their current subscription ends. You can determine the expiration date of your subscription by logging into your account at my.dimdim.com.Will I be able to access my recordings after my account is no longer available? How can I keep them??
Your recordings will no longer be available after your account expires. You can download your recording files and chat transcripts before then. See the Knowledge Base for instructions on downloading recordings and transcripts.
Open-source code contributions will stop:
What will happen to the Open Source version of Dimdim?
The open source code made available by Dimdim remains available on SourceForge.net. Dimdim will no longer be contributing to this project.
The API will be maintained as long as the service is functioning:
We have integrated with the Dimdim API. Will you be preserving that functionality?
Current API functionality will be maintained for all active subscriptions.
Sameer Patel says the Dimdim acquisition is a wake up call about using free tools for business use. They do go away. There are few if any guarantees about your data. But people will get over it. They will move on.
“Loyalty to a free product is somewhat artificial,” Patel said.
The services available to Dimdim customers are plenty. Dimdim will be forgotten by customers. But we’ll see if the market makes note of what happens when a free service gets acquired.
