I've been debating how to write this, for some time, and now that I've received some e-mails about Domain Transfer, I figured it'd be a good idea to post da information, as
www.saxpics.com may be offline for a bit, while we get all the server stuff straightened out.
I had wanted to wait for the check to clear, first, too. Another week+ for that, but I figured I'd get a bunch of e-mails if the website goes offline for any length of time, so I decided a post here would be the best idea.
So, I'll offer the buyer-approved quote from the buyer:
"Saxpics.com will be under new ownership shortly and it will be sponsored by USA Horn."
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OK, the rationale (again, not being punny, but hey. BTB, I'm cutting and pasting some details that I e-mailed my host, Mark Bushaw, regarding this):
Completely out-of-the-blue, two different dealerships contacted me regarding buying my website, while I was on vacation last month. It's I had told USA Horn that I'd give them the first option to buy the website if I ever planned on selling. (I think that promise dated all the way back to 2003.) I told USA Horn how much the other dealer was offering and they matched it.
My desire to sell was really prompted by a confluence of events:
As I've mentioned elsewhere, I'm now back in college after a layoff of 17 years (this is my third stint in college: first was right after high school and the second was after a hiatus of about 3 years). This has cut into my time for working on saxpics.com and, well, just about anything else. I didn't really want the website to lie fallow, but I didn't see any other option. Both usahorn.com and the other prospective buyer said that they wanted to add to what I had built, rather than turn it into a marketing platform. (Another company e-mailed me in the past and actually offered me *more* cash, but I had no desire to turn saxpics.com into Pharmaceutical Marketing 101 -- in other words, someone found out that I get a lot of hits, but didn't care squat about saxophone.)
Secondly, my wife quit her job and moved to a different one -- at a $5000/year paycut. Combine that with the amount of college tuition I'm having to pay, I was overly stressing about how everything was going to get paid. I now don't have to stress. Something to be said for that.
There were actually several people and dealerships that have contacted me in the past regarding buying my website. Some were very serious, but I could never really bring myself to actually sell.
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One important question may be, "So, what's up with the
Calendar?" That project is
STILL a go. I have talked with a couple other sax websites and they said they'd be happy to advertise it and I'll pop it up on my new website. The calendars and the contents thereof were not included as part of the sale of
www.saxpics.com.
Another important question is what's going to happen to the SOTW original eesite forum archive pages that I had hosted on my website. The short answer is that they will disappear (there are a variety of reasons for this). However, my statistics indicate that fewer than 30 people per week used the search function there (and that's the main reason I never put up more archive pages), so I tend to doubt that too many people will be affected.
I WILL still answer sax-related questions through my various e-mails. I also hope to do a few more things for SOTW in the near future and may contribute to
www.saxpics.com on occasion.
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What's Next for Me?
1. My new website idea.
You can see my "tests" at
http://saxinfo.scribblewiki.com/ (and yes, you can post and edit stuff). It's based on an idea I shared here about a month ago. It's nice because it's a) low impact (the research I have to do is very slight), b) YOU can edit it yourself: I don't have to be the end-all, be-all fount of all knowledge and c) I can play with a Wiki from any computer, anytime, as long as I've got an Internet connection.
I've said, a couple times, that if Wikis and Coppermine Photo Gallery were around when I designed
www.saxpics.com, I'd have used those. They do most of what I'd want them to, but in a more convenient format.
Anyhow, this new website may eventually move back under the servers of my long-time provider, Mark Bushaw. I'm still testing.
2. I will petition Harri and the gang to change my user name, here, and possibly give me a title like, "The artist formerly known as saxpics". I want to do this for a few reasons, but mainly to avoid cofnusion with the "new"
www.saxpics.com.
3. I'm going to assist, if necessary, with moving
www.saxpics.com to the new server. Primarily, there are some interesting little hacks and cracks that the good folks at Coppermine Photo Gallery made for me when I started using that product and they're a little tricky to configure.
