This is sad news, Pierre has done an amazing job with the
encyclopedia-of-meteorites.com site. I consider it the single most useful
meteorite site on the net (just my personal opinion, no offense to others. David
Weir's site is certainly up there too).
It seemed a labour of love for Pierre, and although he sold advertising this was
always restrained and never excessive. He clearly has the right to sell the
site, and I hope he gets a fair price for the considerable (and most likely
thankless) efforts he has made. That said, I'm concerned that the auction may
only interest people with commercial motives. The more they spend, the more they
may feel the need to recoup, which could be highly detrimental to the site in
general.
A second concern would be the purchaser getting access to a great deal of
information regarding other peoples collections and the email addresses of 1100
collectors. I wonder how many people have listed a lot of their collection on
the site? Although they may have pieces set to invisible to the public, the site
owner (and anybody else with database access) can see them. I recall spaces for
the dealer that a stone was purchased from, dates and prices. I always limited
the info I placed on the site regarding my own collection anyway, but I'll be
removing what I have entered in the database before it's sold. I can think of
several ways access to this information may be abused, I trusted Pierre, I
wouldn't necessarily be as trusting of the new owner (again, I'm not suggesting
anybody in our community would abuse this position, just that the possibility
exists).
Hopefully the site will be bought by somebody with exactly the same
philanthropic approach as Pierre demonstrated during his years of hard work on
the site. A HUGE thank-you to Pierre for his work to date, and I'll be keeping
my fingers crossed for the site's future...
Matt.
Pelé Pierre-Marie wrote:
Hello List Members,
My new work doesn't allow me to keep working on the
Encyclopedia-of-meteorites.com website as I would like
to. I can't make the updates and make new features
available.
So I'm selling my domain name
encyclopedia-of-meteorites.com and of course the
account and the complete website. That's the only way
for the website to be continued and updated.
What you get ?
----------------------
- You get the domain name
encyclopedia-of-meteorites.com
- You get a website with over 1,100 members
- You get a Starter account at uplinkearth.com with
3GB disk space, 2 domains possible, and much more
(follow this link for more info :
http://uplinkearth.com/hosting_packages.html)
- You get a complete DVD with a backup of the website
Who can buy it ?
----------------------
Anybody of course but I would really like it is an
IMCA member or a well-known meteorite collector to
keep a high level of quality.
Also, you have to have a good programming skill if you
wish to maintain the website working or have a friend
as programmer (it's programmed with ASP and an MS
Access database) ; I won't have time to help the new
owner.
How to buy it ?
----------------------
I'll start a sealed auction. Principle is nobody sees
the bid of others and, on January 31st, 2009, midnight
(Paris time), I'll stop the bids and warn the winner.
Of course, as all bids are hidden, you just make one
bid !
The starting price is US$500. I think it's a fair
starting price as I worked hundreds of hours on the
website and you get a complete website with
possibilities of advertising and cross-selling. I'm
sure the price gets high so make a good offer to win
it.
BIDDING TIME STARTS NOW !
I'll help the winner to make the transfers with my
provider uplinkearth.com
How to pay ?
----------------------
Payment will only be done with PAYPAL in US$ just
after the end of bidding.
I thank you for reading,
Pierre-Marie PELE
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