I discovered posterous some time ago and use it for some purposes (http://news.offlineimap.org and http://synkie.sspaeth.de), mainly because of its simple post-by-email interface. (I am still not sure how they deal with authentication, and there is no way to use gpg signatures either, but I digress).

Posterous has now been acquired by Twitter and the announcement post is followed by a long series of both “likes” and critical questions. No doubt that it is good for twitter to get new developers that have a proven track record of producing nice software. But is it also good for posterous the platform? It is not the only contender in the field (http://tumblr.com) and tech acquisitions are often followed by a swift shutdown of the service in question. Examples of this are for example gizmo5, and etherpad being bought by Google.

It is not exactly reassuring to read in the announcement:

We’ll give users ample notice if we make any changes to the
service. For users who would like to back up their content or move
to another service, we’ll share clear instructions for doing so in
the coming weeks.

*sigh* That’s what you get when you go for free services, isn’t it? “If you are not paying for it, you’re not the customer; you’re the product being sold.”(-Andrew Lewis)

UPDATE: And indeed posterous.com is shutting down as of April 30, 2012.