The news from my friend Birgit Pauli-Haack took me by surprise last night: Storify announced it will soon close down.
A fantastic #WordPress dev opportunity: @Storify just announced its “End of Life” for May 2018. The export is kinda lame. If I could import a story from Storify into a WordPress Post/Page that would be fabulous! I have a few stories that I wouldn’t want to lose. #biz
— Birgit Pauli-Haack (@bph) December 12, 2017
As a Storify user with almost 150 stories, I’ve got some work to do before they close down!
What is Storify?
If you’re not familiar with Storify, it’s an online platform that allows users to quickly curate online stories from existing content on various online sites, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, and others.
When it first came out, I was thrilled to use Storify.
As were many other publishers and journalists.
What an easy way to quickly take notes and publish stories from events, news of the day, and conferences.
My Storify Experience
Over six years, I published events from WordCamps, online user experience conferences, our local meetups, and more.
I loved Storify for its ease of use for adding content, by simply copying a URL from the source.
However, after a while, I became a bit disheartened with Storify.
Their newer versions removed formatting features that I had come to depend on.
I knew that Storify wasn’t accessible, but asked their team for updates on what their plans were for improving accessibility.
They didn’t have any. It wasn’t on their roadmap.
When WordPress came out with oEmbeds for tweets and other online services, I slowly stopped using Storify and published my curated posts on my blog.
But I never made a plan for what to do with my Storify stories.
Now I have six months to figure that out. Like Birgit, I have a lot of stories I don’t want to lose.
What Storify Users Need To Do Before May 16, 2018
According to Storify’s Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), existing Storify users can continue to use Storify until May 16, 2018.
If users want to keep their Storify content, they’ll need to export it before May 16, 2018.
Which is good, that Storify offers an option to export.
However, the export is a four-step process for each story.
That may not be an issue for someone with less than 20-30 stories.
But for me, at almost 150 stories, and my friend Patricia Anderson with over 250 stories, that’s a lot of work.
OH NO! Can I export my content? Storify CLOSING?!? @SusannahFox
— P. F. Anderson (@pfanderson) December 12, 2017
How to Export Your Storify Story
If you want to export your stories, login to Storify, and use these four steps:
- Hover your mouse over the story you want to export and select View
- Select the ellipses icon, choose Export
- Choose your preferred format for download, HTML, XML, or JSON
Storify export options - To save your content and linked assets in HTML, select File > Save as > Web Page, Complete
You’ll need to repeat the four-step process for each story you want to save.
And you’ll need to do it by May 16, 2018 because Storify will no longer be available after that day.
Summary
If you’re a Storify user who wants to keep your stories, you’ll need to take steps by May 16, 2018 to export each Storify story.
Unfortunately, as of December 12, 2017, there is no option other than to use the four-step process to export each story.
Personally, I’m hoping a WordPress plugin author considers creating a plugin that will automate the process.
For more info about Storify closing down and the Storify plugin (now discontinued) check out Jeff Chandler’s post on WP Tavern.
