Devlounge for Sale
The rumors are true: Devlounge is for sale.
“First and foremost, the initial question many people ask themselves is “why is this person selling a site if it is doing quite well?”. I am a high school student, who will be entering my final year in September, and then getting ready for college. Initially, I had planned to hold onto the site until almost the end of the school year (April or May of 2008), but I decided it would be best to focus on my school work and freelance work (my portfolio has fallen extremely out of date). I am not selling the site for any other reason beside the fact that I need to focus my time and effort into other things.”
What does this mean for the site?
Do not be alarmed that a future sale will mean anything different for the site. Pending the new owners approval, I will even be sticking around as an author, and possibly even continuing and retaining some admin responsibilities. When the site is sold, ownership will simply change. I am doing my best to find a reasonable future owner who will allow Devlounge to continue to develop and grow, and add more content to it. I had, at first, planned not to post about this until after a new owner was set, but I figured word would eventually get around, and I did not want any of our readers to feel “betrayed” in any way. I am not giving up on the site, simply relieving myself of permanent admin responsibilities. I plan on continue to be very active here, even after the site is sold. So what is next? Everything will remain as is for the next month - I will still be publishing articles, I plan on trying to get out 1 or 2 more interviews, and whatever else I can think of. Hopefully you can understand my reasoning behind this as I prepare to enter my final year of high school in just a little over a month. If you have any questions / comments / concerns about this, feel free to post in the comments. I’m ready to hear anyone and everyone out, even if you plan on bashing me for putting the site up for sale.
Thanks for listening and understanding.
- AJ, Devlounge Site Admin
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Wow AJ, I didn’t know you were in high school. You’ve done a great job here with DevLounge! You can put your site up for sale over at SitePoint.com, I’m sure you know about their great auctions there. I would be interested, but I barely have enough time to put socks on in the morning with my 2 little ones.
Goodluck with school and the sale of your site!
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Wowzers. Was caught off guard a bit by this news. Do any of the authors have to worry about previous works or such?
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No no, any new owner is not getting any rights to any of the content. They can keep it up, but it is not to be sold / re-used etc. It’s property of you guys - the authors. Same goes for your scripts, which I’m totally fine with you moving them to your server and me redirecting the download link to there if your worried about anything happen. Believe me, you guys helped in a big way and worked your asses off, the last thing I would want to do is give the site away to someone who is going to disrespect the hard work you put into things.
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Interested in buying your site if you would like to talk.
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I can understand wanting to sell, but have you thought about letting someone manage the site for you while you’re in college while still retaining ownership of the site? You’ve built up a reliable brand with Devlounge, and I’d hate to see some third-rate cybersquatter snap up the domain and Web site just to replace it with ads for (well, you know).
I’m saying this because it actually happened to a site I was asked to help moderate (and later administer). The new owner even has my PERSONAL email address, and uses it from time to time to spam other peoples’ accounts with ads for “enhancement” and “men’s help” drugs (if you know what I mean).
Please, if you can, don’t sell Devlounge. Find someone you trust who can administer the site for you while you’re away. You may be glad you did (and your readers may even thank you for it).
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Man, I only recently found this great site, and now you are leaving? Just my luck…
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Nothing will be changing, and I’ll still be here
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AJ, I respect your decision in all and I understand the reasoning. Selling the site is a reasonable choice, although I would have to fully agree with Dan’s idea of a temporary administration change. Devlounge is too good to have anything really change, and a new owner is indeed a big change.
I am sure you are familiar with the Wisdump sale, and if you have been following my blog or the Wisdump blog after I became an author, and after my resignation, you surely would see that even though Scrivs said nothing would change, he didn’t know his new owner would resell under a different contract which now allowed the new owner to put ads in every possible crack and cranny. Seeing that happen to Devlounge would not be good, really, it wouldn’t.
Although, I do see your reasoning still and I wish you the best in whichever route you decide to take! Great work, keep it up while you can. =)
Best Regards,
Spooky
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Ryan, I may end up hanging onto it until at least May anyways.
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If I had the liquid cash to pay a reasonable fee for the site I’d do it today, if only because I know I’d do my best to keep the quality of the site the way it is now.
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Same here, AJ. If I had the cash, I’d buy it off you in a heart beat if you really wanted to sell it.
As it stands though, I still think it’s in your best interest to find someone trustworthy to maintain the site for you while you’re away at college.
And besides, whoever said that a college student being the owner of a popular and successful Web site was a BAD thing? *wink* *wink*