The sale of Juventuz (1 Viewer)

Martin

Senior Member
Dec 31, 2000
56,913
#1
Dear all,

No doubt a lot of you were surprised to see the large, flashing banner advertising the sale of this website. For those who got a little nervous about this, I'd like to assure you that's it's not an imminent thing. I haven't published a schedule for when things are going to happen and that's what you'll get here.

But first things first. I've decided to end my adventure with Juventuz mostly because I've lost interest in running a website. I've been doing it for over 5 years and it's actually been a long time since I did any work on it at all, the website was constructed a long time ago and hasn't changed much over the years. Recently I thought about making some changes, upgrading the forum in particular, but I decided it was too much work. In the past I would have done it because I had a passion for it but I guess I've moved on to other things. And so now the website runs just fine but there is no dedicated webmaster to fix anything other than fatal errors. This kind of development did not happen overnight, it has been an ongoing process and the status quo has existed for about a year before I made this decision. People have asked me to redesign, to replace images etc and the reason I haven't done anything about those things a long time ago is I don't have the passion for it anymore. I could, of course, tell you that I'm “too busy with school/work” and that I don't have time for the site anymore, that is a very popular argument. But since I have been doing it for so long, I'd rather tell you the truth which is the fact that my heart's not in it anymore. Most websites like Juventuz close much sooner than I have been at this, a lot of sites close after a year or maybe two. So that should tell you we've been in business for a very long time in internet time.

Now, I realize that Juventuz is a home to many of you, I certainly have had some great times here, met the most wonderful people and it's almost hard to imagine that could come to an end. I certainly would like for the site to live on without me, both because it means a lot to people other than me and because it represesents a piece of my work which I'm proud of. But the absolute majoriy of sites die once the founder leaves so I know the reality. The ideal solution would be someone taking over for me and keeping it going, someone who shares my philosophy about how a website (and forum) should be run, because that would bring the highest degree of consistency and would preserve this place in the state that it was when it brought so many people together. Unfortunately, there aren't necessarily lots of people around who fit that profile and who also possess the technical skills and the drive to run the site. So that option has been scrapped.

The only other alternative aside from closing the site is selling it. Website trading is a relatively new and poorly established business arena, much less widespread than the trading of domain names. But instead of just closing the site, I decided to not rule out the possibility that perhaps somewhere there is someone who would like to take the hotseat and run the site in whatever way they want to. Since that is not a person I know well or someone I have chosen, there is no guarantee as to the outcome. So all I can do then is set up some kind of screening process to determine which bidders are serious and “right” for this site and which of them shouldn't take over.

When it comes to dates, when I decided to end my involvement with Juventuz, it was not going to be mid season. I will continue to run this site until June 30 or thereabouts. That means the bidding process (if there are bidders) should be completed by May 1. If it strikes you as early to start advertising the sale now, that is because I did not expect much interest and I thought given almost 6 months maybe there would be someone interested. The interest in the first few days has been far greater than anticipated and has forced me to decide on a time table sooner than I thought I would be doing it. Since bidding will start in April, there is still plenty of time and so this is a preliminary round right now to help me establish what each bidder stands for and whether or not they present a good solution to the problem of disposing of a website. Needless to say, if the people currently interested are still interested in a few months from today, that helps build their credibility. Since taking on a website is long term commitment, I don't think it should matter much whether the transaction would go ahead now or in a few months, there is no hurry on my part to get rid of it. Rules for bidding will be published closer to the date and for all those asking: yes, there will be an asking price. For more information about this sale, click on the banner.

In the event that no sale is made, the site will close by June 30.


Martin


An example sale
I worked closely with Mac in the early stages of constructing www.buffononline.com, I designed the site and determined how it would work from a technical point of view. Mac put in a great deal more work by adding all the content and he was the webmaster for a long time. At some point he decided he had had enough and the site was sold. The new owner took over I think over a year ago and not much has changed on the site since then. Some advertising texts and banners were added, the forum is still being run and the site is taken care of in technical aspects. The new owner, from what I am aware of, has not added any content, redesigned or made any big changes. The site is very much what it was before he came onto the scene. And my conclusion from this case study is that the outcome is quite positive. The site was not destroyed in any way, it's still online and running, the community has not been disrupted, so if this is were the fate of Juventuz I would not terribly mind it.

(If you think the above description is inaccurate or misleading, that is merely my impression of the process as an outsider, I do not claim to know the precise truth.)
 

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