I get a 404 error whenever I navigate to Afari from the Blockstack homepage. Is this project still active?
It is Mobile App now and please try it in your iOS or Android.
I cannot find Afari anywhere on iOS.
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I heard that they are working on a new version but I don’t know anything concrete.
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Do you happen to have a link? It’s not in the iOS store as far as I can tell.
Interesting to know. Just doesn’t seem to make sense that it’s listed under “Top Apps” and then you get a 404 page returned. And I’ll say it’s more troubling to me that an app that was paid out almost 2 BTC back in January 2019 for app mining appears to be inoperable. I know there have been changes to app mining but I fear that many devs will come in and game the system just to get rewarded with app mining and then disappear. I like app mining as a concept but I worry about people taking advantage of it just for the payouts.
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Based on the bios and activities of the founders, I believe Afari has been shut down. Perhaps they are still working on it as a side project but it does not appear to be actively maintained anymore.
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That’s a bummer. Thanks for looking into that. Hope you’re doing well, my friend!
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Afari is not taking part in the June patch.
If you have any input for the app mining rules feel free to join the discussion at github.com/blockstack/app-mining
Hey guys,
As you have correctly noted, the Afari website or mobile apps have been taken down. Unfortunately, despite the initial positive reactions and feedback we got from the product, we noticed that the product was not addressing a clear need or problem, which made it difficult for us to grow the user base. As many successful founders and entrepreneurs have noted, a critical component of building successful companies and products is killing bad products quickly. So we took the initiative and shut down the Afari product while we looked for other problems to solve and products to build.
As Friedger said, we are in the process of building and launching a new product which will be available soon. I’m not sure exactly what bios and activities @jehunter5811 saw and/or was referring to. The truth is Afari the company and team are very much alive and strong. @jehunter5811, please send us the material saying that the company Afari is shut down, and/or that we are not working on it full-time; we would love to take a look as well and correct them if possible.
@Kitsana if this question was prompted by a general interest in the previous Afari Project, then I suggest waiting a few weeks to try your hands on our new product which is also a group social platform. If this question was an attempt to highlight Afari as some malicious party that joined the community to game App Mining, then I fear you have the wrong impression. We started building on Blockstack long before App Mining was launched and as participants in the competition, we have never hesitated in alerting Blockstack whenever we believed the system could be rigged. As far as money is concerned, we, as creators of Afari, have never been motivated by money. If we were, we wouldn’t have left our high paying jobs to work on a startup. We joined the Blockstack community and started building on Blockstack because we believed that there are some products and companies out there that will provide immense value to users if built on Blockstack. Afari, like many other companies building on Blockstack, is working to find and build these products.
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Glad to hear you’re working on something new. Here’s what I saw that led me to believe that Afari had been shut down:
Did you guys write up anything for users? Based on theblockstats.com, Afari had nearly 1400 users. I was one of them but not very active, I admit. I didn’t receive a notice of the app’s shutdown if it was sent.
One of our co-founder’s Avthar recently left the company. However, one person does not make a company. For the record, this is just one bio of a founder not “bios of founders” as you had previously stated:
Also, nowhere in this bio does it state that Afari has been shut down. Nonetheless, I can see how that conclusion could have been drawn.
About the issue of alerting users, we informed all active users that we were shutting down the app a few weeks before we took the apps down.
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Thanks for clarifying. Was trying to be respectful in my original post and not call out the person. Guess I should have named names originally so as not to have confused people. Glad this has been thoroughly corrected 
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I’m a bit confused at the moment. Will the new product discussed be Afari v2.0 or is Afari the app completely shut down? Thanks for the clarification!
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It will not be Afari v2.0. We shut down the Afari App completely. The product we are working on is an entirely new product. We will update the community on the details as we approach the official launch.
Now, we need the migration tool. How can I get all my messages out of Afari?
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@1Hoj1rUximo4tduD8Wof thanks for taking the time to respond.
My question (which centered around Afari as an example but was also focused on app mining as a whole) was prompted by a few concerns:
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Afari was still listed as a “Top App” even though it was no longer functional. This isn’t a concern for the Afari founders as much as it is on whoever maintains the homepage for Blockstack PBC. It looks bad when someone comes to the page, clicks on a top app, and they get a 404 error. I’m glad to see its been taken down.
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My overarching concern with app mining, is that bad actors (or more likely people just looking for a cash infusion on an existing app) could potentially come in and game the system just to receive the app mining reward. With the payouts setting to go up substantially in May 2020, this is a big area of concern for me. The fact that an app got paid more than $20,000 in mining rewards and then would be taken down so quickly is of concern to me. I’m using Afari as an example, but there are others. I don’t think it’s a good practice to pay out money to projects that ultimately shut down so quickly. I’d rather see a structured payout that was contingent on an app remaining operable for a set period of time.
As someone who has been an interested user in Blockstack for two years, the growth of Blockstack Dapp ecosystem is important to me. And when I see money being given out to apps that are of low quality or shutdown rather quickly it’s a cause of concern to me. I’d like to see the funds allocated in a better fashion, especially as app mining rewards increase in the future.
I do wish you and your team all the best in creating a new app in the future, and I can promise that I’ll be one of your early users!
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Thanks that clarifies it. Decentralized microblogging/twitter and other social media is important, particularly the more that online discourse is “managed”/censored by centralized governments and corporations in the same way that censorship resistance is an important facet in bitcoin.
This also shows the importance of having open source clients so that even if the developers walk away, the project can continue without them. see e.g. bitcoin, lite coin, name coin, twister etc.
Good luck with the next project!
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