BE for sale - A deja vu post

It is with heavy heart that I write this post. Seeing as it may well be the last post I ever create for boycott be I have decided that I am going to go the same way as Jeff and be overdramatic and exaggerate things a little.

So the word is out. BE is up for sale but I've been saying that since September so no surprises there. I will say the timing is odd, seeing as BE just recently added three more staff members. It seems wrong to hire new staff when word out on the street is that the sale of BE has been in the pipeline for "weeks" and by weeks, I mean days.

The last week has been rather interesting. Lots of people have been sending me lots of little tit bits and I've been reading Jeff's impassioned speeches both in the helpmeblog and from his newsletter that was kindly forwarded to me by a number of people. You all know who you are. Thank you.

I have also visited the BA forum and after mentioning the sale rumor, had it out with some crazy fuck who can't speak english properly and it seems all the brown nosers from BE are going into damage control about the sale. Orange Haired Boy is now running around squashing rumors and I don't think I've been this amused in a long time.

There are a lot of questions that need answers and I will address those towards the end of this post but lets take a look at Jeff's newsletter which is in fact a letter to BlogMad.

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Message from BlogExplosion
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In this Special Release
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1. BlogExplosion is Up for Sale! aka Dear BlogMad
2. Daily Lottery and ShoutBox Enhancements

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1. BlogExplosion is Up for Sale!

Dear BlogMad

With very heavy hearts we are announcing that BlogExplosion is going up for sale. After much internal debate we felt that a larger company can take BE to the next level. We want to see BlogExplosion grow even bigger and be more successful in the future.

You can read all about the upcoming sale here
htpp://wow.helpmeblog.com/index.php/blog/blogexplosion_is_up_for_sale/

Internal debate. Key words there Reader. Key words.

We have already received dozens of warm and encouraging email from members thanking us for providing such a quality service. We appreciate hearing from all of you which makes it all the more worthwhile for us. We have always maintained that BlogExplosion members are the best and we have been very fortunate to have such wonderful members since we launched the site.

Some people have also wrote in and said nasty things including being scared of upcoming competition. We can tell you definitely that is NOT the case. BE still has the best traffic exchange scripts (cannot be cheated), has the best in terms of QUALITY of traffic, and the most feature-rich options available to members. Demand excellence no matter what site you use!

Perhaps you could set up a page of all these emails you're getting. A fitting tribute for the king leaving the masses and we can all read them and share in your trials and tribulations. If BE members are the best then show them your appreciation and publish their emails and link back to their sites like a good blog exchange owner would. As an ultimate fuck you, why not publish the nasty ones too and make a point of telling everyone how you're not going to link to such non BE trash. That would be a pretty dramatic leaving present Jeff. Think about it.

For that reason BlogExplosion is a difficult site to manage. There have been lots of negative things said about us just because people have nothing better to do than to be negative or because we have kept spammers, cheaters and people with nothing good to say off of BE. When using competitive sites make sure they provide full stats (not just counters) and make sure they provide quality traffic for your time on the site.

The negative things that have been said about you have all been true. There is evidence everywhere of your dealings and how you treat your members. It also appears that you have issue with competitive exchanges in that even as you leave the blog exchange arena like the little bitch you are that you still can't resist putting in one more dig about competitive sites.

Your non cheat timer issues a credit the first time you click a wrong number. Do your other members know this? I've had reports from a few members who have pointed this out on your non cheat script. Its also been mentioned numerous times that your 30 second timer can be cheated by as much as 4 seconds. Exaggerating again Jeff.

Games and puzzles are cute but do send you quality traffic? Do they offer all of the features that BE does? Can you surf by category? Can you flag sites for profanity or mature content? Can they be cheated or allow auto-clicking programs to work? Do they display all of their traffic numbers on the site and tell you the whole truth? Are they still in perpetual BETA?

You're talking about BM here and let me tell you that is a sweet site. It took you four years to get a surf by category option open Jeff and BM have only been around for seven months and their site is getting better. There are options for profanity and mature content and even those features aren't infallible on your exchange Jeff. I heard about the blog you had on your rotation where there were naked women in compromising positions with sporting goods. Sexy stuff there Jeff and that blog was marked as profanity or mature content. It is also hard when a site that is owned by one of your staff members is responsible for turning what is normally a nonprofane blog into an ass page by not letting previous blog owners regain their sites. Kind of iffy ground there Jeff and I'd step back from that potential can of worms if I was you.

Displaying all the traffic numbers on a site are no good when you lie. On your blog you're talking about 50,000 members yet on your integrated forum the number is nowhere near that figure. Now when you said that the forum and the traffic exchange are integrated, that meant that the number of members on your forum corresponds to the number of members on your traffic exchange. Which display of numbers is the whole truth Jeff? How many of those members are people you have banned or deleted Jeff? When people sign up for blogs and are rejected does the number drop down again Jeff?

BETA. I cannot believe that you mentioned this. Half your site is in perpetual BETA and you're a laughing stock in that you just can't make that final push into making it all real. In the past couple of months all you've done is update and upgrade and even then its all still in BETA. Step away from the BETA accusations Jeff. You're potentially walking a tightrope there.

Keep track of your blog stats. See where that traffic is actually coming from. Keep track of unique percentages, time per blog visit. Demand the best return for your surfing time. Ratios dont mean a thing if the quality of traffic is not there. Stats never lie and you should always keep them for your blog.

I think we have taken BE as far as we can and want new blood to come in and take over where we left off. We will be looking for a company with the same fiery determination to make BlogExplosion that much better. We are the biggest and the best and we want a company to take over and keep it that way.

Anyone else could make this work better than you. Your skewed perception on what makes a company great has been your downfall as biggest does not make you best. You have this fact slammed in your face time and time again and still you are all about the (fake) numbers. The numbers mean nothing when you buy the traffic. The participation levels are what is important and you don't have it. 50,000 members and how many applied for the jobs you had on offer and while we're on the subject whats going to happen to those new employees?

When you hired them were you aware then that you were selling? Seeing as you've known for weeks that the sale of BE has been looming. Do you think it was right to open a blog platform that offers bloggers the chance to earn money when you're not going to be around to fulfill that promise? How do people know that the new owner/s is going to stick to that policy? They don't have to as once they buy the site they can do, delete and deny anything they see fit to.

Interesting questions, no?

There are already 3 parties interested in buying BlogExplosion. They are all companies with definite and sizable -internet assets- which means that the company that does eventually purchase BE will have lots of firepower to grow BE much faster than we ever could. This is great news for BE members as a larger company can build the memberbase quicker, have more marketing and promotion resources and have the ability to build smarter features.

What happens next?
We will be sending out a PR by the end of the week that announces the sale of BlogExplosion. From there we will have a two week window period to find a potential buyer.

Why are you sending out a PR and why will there be a two week window period to find a potential buyer when there are already "3 parties with definite and sizable -internet assets-" pounding on your door wanting in on it? Or is this like VH1 and your "partnership" that's not really a partnership and more like an affiliation.

Have any of them asked for solid proof of your numbers? Can you "cook books" on the internet? I hope all potential buyers are asking for solid proof, like legitimate bank statements to see all this wonderful money you're talking about. As an investor, I'd be mad if I found out that a site I just spent thousands of dollars on was actually nothing but an empty site with only a few hundred operating members and a whole lot of worthless junk accounts.

Again you can get all of the details surrounding the sale of BlogExplosion here
htpp://wow.helpmeblog.com/index.php/blog/blogexplosion_is_up_for_sale/

Hopefully 10 years from now we can show our children what we built and be proud of our work on BlogExplosion. We have given it our all and we have done our best to make BE the best it can be for members.

That is so dumb. "Show our children"? You're not fucking Schindler and you didn't save thousands of people. If anything you will be held responsible for releasing most of the shit blogs out there about babies and cats and poopy diapers into cyberspace and your alleged children will pretend they're not related to you. I'm no psychic but I don't think there will be any children for you (wink)

Thank you members of BlogExplosion for your support of what we tried to accomplish here. We have made many good friends here and these are very difficult days here realizing we will be walking away. We know a bigger company will have the resources to make BE that much better and to keep the BE legacy alive!

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2. Daily Lottery and ShoutBox Enhancements

Things are still business as usual here as we continue to develop BE with our usual determination.

For ShoutBox we should have Frenzy and Trivia working by end of the week and we program the action scripts to make the messages pop up properly in ShoutBox.

Also Daily Lottery will be done by end of week where Rocket and Battle of the Blogs require 20 second visits and go towards a daily lottery where members can win bonus traffic each day.

So both of these features are scheduled to go live for the end of the week and should make BE that much more fun to visit.

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With the sale of BlogExplosion we expect to see interest in the site much higher than normal. Since we announced the sale on our blog we have been receiving a record number of new sign-ups (approvals are slow as a result)

This is an exciting time to be a BE member! Anytime a company is about to sell it create alot of extra attention from people that usually do not visit our site. Please come say hello and celebrate our last couple of weeks with us.

Again a sincere thanks from the bottom of our hearts for making it all worthwhile.

Keep on blogging!
Thomas, Jeff and the entire BE Team
:-)

I'm enjoying the fact that you make a big deal of games, puzzles and other things that would be counted as gimmicks yet you cap it all off with your enhancements to a lottery, the rocket and battle of the blogs. Gimmick things. Funny one there Jeff.

According to my BBE source the real reason BE are selling is due to the partnership not being as strong as it has been claimed to be.

Jeffs past behavior in his shoutbox and in other peoples blogs has proven that Jeff clearly isn't the brains of the operation so its obvious he's not the coder and the person that keeps it running. Jeff and Thomas have allegedly put tens of thousands of dollars into BE but if one person wants out then the whole project is scrapped and it is strange that they made all those expanding noises, like hiring more staff, adding new features and fine tuning things and then to just up and sell like that.

We must all look stupid to believe that. We all must have the attention span and memory of a dimwitted goldfish to believe that BE has been contemplating selling for quite some time. Jeff claims that BE is his "baby" and yet here he is selling it now. In a hurry too. A big hurry. Whats the rush Jeff? Who really wanted out Jeff?

Some months ago this poor pathetic loser had to have a competition held to pick a nickname for him. Jeff has the unfortunate affliction of having zero personality so it was hard to think up something that made him unique yet after all of this, a nickname for Jeff is relatively easy. With his penchant for lying and exaggeration and with half his site in BETA which is virtually computerspeak for "not really real yet", it's obvious his nickname should have been Pinocchio.