Summary:
Hello Scoreboard Guru Players. I am sad to report that at the end of the month, I will be shutting down Scoreboard Guru.
I built this application to fill a need that I (and my family & friends) had while playing board games. I wanted to build a synchronized, social record of all the games we’ve played to compare and challenge each other… And we did it! For the ~10 months that Scoreboard Guru was out in the wild, we had a few hundred users score a few hundred matches in over 50 distinct games!
However, I’m just one person, and the cost of running the Scoreboard Guru servers is not being covered by the money I thought we might make by selling the full, unlocked application (which was a $1.99 in-app purchase). This also doesn’t cover my time to keep improving the app, servers, and keeping both bug-free as we add more features. So, after 11 months of giving it a try, it is time to sunset what I had hoped would become a popular gaming application.
As of now, no new users can download the Scoreboard Guru application, as it has been removed from sale in the iOS app store. If you already downloaded the app in the past, you can restore it.
If you are interested in downloading your scores to move to another platform, you can export your data as a CSV from within the app, and it will be emailed to the address on your account. You must do this before February 1st, as that is the day the Scoreboard Guru servers will be shut down.
There is no way for me to issue a refund for an in-app purchase via the iTunes/iOS ecosystem. Apple treats their users’ privacy with respect, and that includes not sharing your contact information with me, the app developer. I want to refund those of you who paid to unlock the full application. Please email support@scoreboard.guru and we will coordinate a refund of your $1.99 via another method. You will need to provide the email address you used to register Scoreboard Guru with so I can verify the purchase.
All of the data we’ve captured and you have provided to Scoreboard Guru will be destroyed and never shared with anyone.
On February 1st, I will be deleting all of the Scoreboard Guru data. This means that our database (with your games, matches, notes, and friends) will be totally deleted. No backups will be kept.
All the content you have uploaded (images of your games and matches, along with the detailed records of your matches’ scores) will be deleted, and no backup will be kept.
The vendors used by Scoreboard Guru (Heroku, Amazon Web Services, Apple, SendGrid, and Cloudinary) all have excellent policies when it comes to deleting data, and I trust them to instantly comply with my request to destroy it all.
This post has also been sent to all registered users of the Scoreboard Guru app.
I write about Technology, Software, and Startups. I use my Product Management, Software Engineering, and Leadership skills to build teams that create world-class digital products.
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