The story
On August 12, 2013, Worth1000's founder, Avi Muchnick, announced in the community forums that Worth1000 would be closed and converted into a static museum. The final contest was scheduled to end on the midnight changeover (Worth time) of September 29/30.
Worth1000 was scheduled to close at midnight on 30 September 2013, but problems with the transfer of the site to the Static Museum status meant that it stayed open for a further 24 hours. However, once that period had passed users were greeted with a single page with the message that the site was now closed and would resurface within the next few days as a museum. However, after a brief hiatus, Muchnick announced via a cryptic 1 Corinthians 15:4 message and an image from Worth's archives of the Turin Shroud. Posted to Worth's 'refugee' website communities on Google+ and Reddit, former users found that the site had been sold to Emerge Media and would re-open soon.
Worth1000 returned to the version of the site that existed in the week before the shutdown, one week after the instigation of the museum. Over the following months, the new team transferred the site to new servers. However, ongoing technical issues and with declining popularity and an alienated user base, the new owners announced the intention to rebrand, redesign and invigorate the site. Contests were hosted to create logos for the new site, and admin level users were invited into discussions on the redesign.
In June 2014, graphic design crowdsourcing company DesignCrowd announced that it had acquired Worth1000 for an undisclosed amount. DesignCrowd announced its intent to port all user accounts and artistic content to DesignCrowd servers, while attempting to keep the user experience unchanged. The company announced the acquisition would help "create a bigger and better marketplace for freelance designers". The transfer, however, was repeatedly delayed and by the end of 2015 had not been completed. Member frustration was exacerbated by the decision that Worth1000 members not wishing to become DesignCrowd members, would have to “opt out” of the migration, rather than “opt in".
Worth1000 was no longer available online on February 26, 2016.
From Wikipedia’s article on Worth1000, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4