Why SamProof failed to buy Stickam

For those few who may not know, Stickam is shut down. For those like me who had no idea what Stickam was...

Stickam was a cam broadcasting site who launched around the same time as another major media site. You might have heard of that one before. It was, apparently, quite an awesome place. And with my brief brush with their culture, I can see why.

I wrote about how we are disconnected by technology not long ago. Ironically, Stickam did more to connect people with several shared experiences. There were users everyone knew and talked about, events everyone covered in their own way. And then there was the mundane everyday. And that's how I met SamProof.

He was streaming to the last on the final day of Stickam. And making a sandwich. Yup, a sandwich. Nothing spectacular or awe inspiring, just chilling with his dog and talking to anyone who happened by. That included me. I watched as others showed up and chatted about the old days. And I watched as he decided to try to save the home he had known for so long.

When he launched the IndieGoGo campaign, I donated what I could, and wished I could do more. I truly wanted to see him succeed at dragging the site back from the brink of destruction if for no other reason than to see it done. Yet I watched as the days wore on that it was not going to happen. People tried to get the ball moving in the right direction but to no avail.

So, what happened? Where did it all fall apart?

Well, for one, the biggest stars did not throw in together. They each had something on the go. If they could have combined their efforts, maybe things would have turned out differently. For another, it was last minute in being announced, so it meant building up a grass roots movement was hard with everyone turning nomad in search of a new home.

But the biggest reason is the disposable view the world has towards many things these days. It colours a lot of what we do, and this was no exception. Sure, gathering 5 million dollars sounds like an insane amount, but when you consider that the last traffic numbers pegged the amount of users to around 500,000 people, that would have been 10 dollars a person for the bulk of the cash. Factor in that seeing those users drop down 10 dollars each would have caused buzz around the site, I'm sure Sam would have found a corporation frothing at the mouth to get in on it.

Apathy led to no one wanting to cover the news that one of the major stars was rallying to save the site. If any one of the sites that came to dig Stickam's grave had run a piece about Sam trying to save it, there would have been a major upswing in the donations. That is for damned sure. But instead, it's just another site, who cares, there are others.

It's sad to see him fail to even crack the thousand dollar mark, and I wish it would have gone better. In the end, he will survive, as will we all, without that one streaming site. There are plenty of alternatives. It's just sad to see one with such a welcoming community die while the Internet just stood by and watched.