For context, let me give you a brief history of the Silicon Florist job board: In 2007, there wasn’t one. Then people kept asking for one so I launched a janky ass one. It was free. People used it for a bit. Then it died off. So I killed it. Then people started asking for it again. So I started another janky ass one. Then folks were using it. A lot. So I invested in a better-than-free solution. Then a way-more-expensive-than-free solution. And for the past decade or so, things have been going just fine. The job board broke even, with the paid postings covering the costs of the platform. Every week the newsletter featured a number of interesting jobs. Feedback was amazing. Candidates were happy. Employers were psyched. And all was well in the Silicon Florist corner of the Internet.
Then the pandemic hit. And the job board changed a bit. Jobs were still being posted. Candidates were still finding gigs. But most of the jobs shifted from “local” to “remote.” And yet, there were still enough posts, here and there, to make the job board a loss leader. Not breakeven. Yet still worth maintaining. For the community. Because there was activity.
Then stuff started to slow down, even more. And slow down further. And then, finally, coming to a grinding halt. With no posts. No candidates. Nada.
And so the job board ceased being a loss leader and became a full-on loss. Continuing to dig a financial hole, week after week. I honestly can’t tell you the last time someone posted a job. Even a short-term gig. (I just looked. It was January 2023. So it’s been a full quarter since any job has been posted.)
Which brings me to the question the headline posed: Has the economic downturn killed the Silicon Florist job board, again?
Never being one to forego facts for the sake of nostalgia, I’m beginning to assume it has. That there are enough job boards out there to support the number of jobs available in the region. And that the resource that provided value for our community over a period of time is no longer doing so. And that’s absolutely fine. And so it goes.
But I also don’t want to shut something down that actually has value to folks, either. Or have someone come to the site expecting to post a bevy of new interesting startup jobs over which the community would salivate and only being met with a 404.
So I’m going to do the good old “put your money where your mouth is” request to figure this one out. If you think the job board has done its duty and can ride off into the Internet Archive, do absolutely nothing. But if you have job openings and you think the Silicon Florist job board is a resource worth salvaging, then purchase for a single short-term job post. Or, if you don’t have a job to post today, you can opt for the pack of jobs. Because once you’ve purchased that option, you can come back whenever you want to post your jobs.
To sweeten the deal, feel free to use the discount code “rebuild” and you’ll get 75% off of any job board purchase — single jobs or packs of jobs. That means choosing the option to post a short-term job offer today will run you a whopping $6.25.
But even that will demonstrate that the job board still has value to folks.
Again, I’m more than happy to let the job board go away if it’s not providing value. But I don’t want to sunset it if folks still find it worthwhile.
Call it “spring cleaning.”
