My heart, prayers and well wishes go out to them and their family. I don't believe they owe us any personal details, certainly not over such heavy issues and serious illnesses. I don't blame them for not being social, active or constantly updating us. Parents have decisions to make that no one can make for them.
I still don't think it's out of line to ask for them to have posted even once a year saying that while the site is not being shutdown or sold they were going through some un-detailed personal issues/upheavals that would mean they would be very inactive for a time. I know, I'm not the ones going through it and it's hindsight to say that even saying they were busy immigrating would have helped.
I completley understand not giving out personal details. Sometimes on social or public sites people cannot bear even supportive comments constantly bringing up their ordeal or grief.
A nothing statement just saying be patient if they seem inactive would have so helped so much speculation and concern that site was going under.
I'm here until it actually shuts down (or everyone I "talk to" leaves). There's not a better site out there for me. Not going anywhere; hope everything goes well with them and their health; do still think they'd have two minutes over the course of a year to post to booklikes that something other than shutdown was going on -- particulalry since sporadically they managed to post to Facebook and Twitter.
I hope that doesn't come across as harsh or unfeeling of their situation. But if they plan on continuing a business, a wee post/announcement would have been in order -- I understand not immediately posting, I understand not giving personal details but one post in several,months hopefully is not too much to ask.
I don't think it would have been out of line either; it would certainly have been welcomed. But if I ask myself what kind of place I'd be in if I found out:
1. I was pregant
2. I had cancer
3. The laws and/or ethics in my country prohibited me from getting treatment
4. I had to move to another country (immediately) to get treatment, and
5. Suffer through treatment AND pregnancy AND pray the process didn't kill me or my unborn child...
Well, that place wouldn't be all that rational or organised or in any way concerned about anybody else's feelings about anything. It would, truthfully, be verbalised as "everybody can go f*ck themselves".
So yes, it would have been nice to get any kind of message from them (and to be fair, the last person tried to tell us without revealing personal details and we didn't think it was enough) but I'm not going to judge either of them because they didn't. They also could have just as easily shut down BookLikes altogether and eliminated one complication in a suddenly very complicated life, but they didn't do that either. I'm choosing to focus on that, rather than their lack of communications.
Oh, no judgments here. And certainly not second-guessing or criticizing any personal decisions they made. Certainly relieved booklikes did not shut down.
Jobs and businesses of course take a backseat to issues like they are having to deal with -- but jobs and businesses are unlikely to last (even online ones) with months of zero communication. A vague post about personal issues goes a long way towards keeping your customer base (a few more details could even have resulted in even more tangible support from customer base in terms of purchase link clicks, data edits, ad clicks, donations, etc.).
I think it would actually be great for us if booklikes business operations/registry did move to Germany.
I'm not sure, before this news, how long I would have stayed active here with booklikes my primary site if there had been a good alternative. For me, until Leafmarks "staff" started last spring to be just as inactive and non-communicative as booklikes I had hopes that site would develop to be my primary site. Now -- well, I see no good alternative to booklikes. This backdoor communication means I'm sticking around to see. I honestly don't know what I will do if booklikes closes; probably give up on finding book sites with reader interaction except for an annual or biannual look to see if an alternative cropped up.
Again, not judging their personal lives and situation. Just the business end. The lack of communication/activity has already lost booklikers, made many here less active or inactive, had many of us evaluating and/or joining other sites -- and certainly deterred refugees from Shelfari and Leafmarks. Glad booklikes is still going and glad some of us are still here.
I don't know how many other sources of income they have, but I definitely wouldn't be able to just disappear from my job one day and be incommunicado for months no matter how serious the illness (I mean assuming I was conscious and able to communicate), so a brief update doesn't seem like that much to ask if they're making money off it. If it's just a hobby, well, then I get it not being a priority. Either way, what an ordeal!
Thanks for posting this. They didn't really abandon the site. Just life intervened, and not in a good way, so my best wishes to their family. Hopefully, one day she would be healthy again and back among us, the BL junkies.
Exactly. Iurii was hired after April (when, based on birth, Joanna was diagnosed) and frankly, in our frustration and ignorance of the situation we were all pretty hard on him/her; looking back that poor soul had a *steep* learning curve with probably little or no real support/guidance. I don't doubt ht/she bolted when the opportunity presented itself. The new developer was hired in June? I think, so he's in the same boat. Whether it's a language barrier or he was just told "don't engage with the wildlife", I don't blame him for not sticking his head up. :P
Agreed. Website/business is nothing compared to a job/loved one. Plus, Grave Cupidity's boss was lucky where booklikes wasn't -- meaning had enough experienced staff to retain clients and keep the business running.
I still don't think it's out of line to ask for them to have posted even once a year saying that while the site is not being shutdown or sold they were going through some un-detailed personal issues/upheavals that would mean they would be very inactive for a time. I know, I'm not the ones going through it and it's hindsight to say that even saying they were busy immigrating would have helped.
I completley understand not giving out personal details. Sometimes on social or public sites people cannot bear even supportive comments constantly bringing up their ordeal or grief.
A nothing statement just saying be patient if they seem inactive would have so helped so much speculation and concern that site was going under.
I'm here until it actually shuts down (or everyone I "talk to" leaves). There's not a better site out there for me. Not going anywhere; hope everything goes well with them and their health; do still think they'd have two minutes over the course of a year to post to booklikes that something other than shutdown was going on -- particulalry since sporadically they managed to post to Facebook and Twitter.
I hope that doesn't come across as harsh or unfeeling of their situation. But if they plan on continuing a business, a wee post/announcement would have been in order -- I understand not immediately posting, I understand not giving personal details but one post in several,months hopefully is not too much to ask.
1. I was pregant
2. I had cancer
3. The laws and/or ethics in my country prohibited me from getting treatment
4. I had to move to another country (immediately) to get treatment, and
5. Suffer through treatment AND pregnancy AND pray the process didn't kill me or my unborn child...
Well, that place wouldn't be all that rational or organised or in any way concerned about anybody else's feelings about anything. It would, truthfully, be verbalised as "everybody can go f*ck themselves".
So yes, it would have been nice to get any kind of message from them (and to be fair, the last person tried to tell us without revealing personal details and we didn't think it was enough) but I'm not going to judge either of them because they didn't. They also could have just as easily shut down BookLikes altogether and eliminated one complication in a suddenly very complicated life, but they didn't do that either. I'm choosing to focus on that, rather than their lack of communications.
Jobs and businesses of course take a backseat to issues like they are having to deal with -- but jobs and businesses are unlikely to last (even online ones) with months of zero communication. A vague post about personal issues goes a long way towards keeping your customer base (a few more details could even have resulted in even more tangible support from customer base in terms of purchase link clicks, data edits, ad clicks, donations, etc.).
I think it would actually be great for us if booklikes business operations/registry did move to Germany.
I'm not sure, before this news, how long I would have stayed active here with booklikes my primary site if there had been a good alternative. For me, until Leafmarks "staff" started last spring to be just as inactive and non-communicative as booklikes I had hopes that site would develop to be my primary site. Now -- well, I see no good alternative to booklikes. This backdoor communication means I'm sticking around to see. I honestly don't know what I will do if booklikes closes; probably give up on finding book sites with reader interaction except for an annual or biannual look to see if an alternative cropped up.
Again, not judging their personal lives and situation. Just the business end. The lack of communication/activity has already lost booklikers, made many here less active or inactive, had many of us evaluating and/or joining other sites -- and certainly deterred refugees from Shelfari and Leafmarks. Glad booklikes is still going and glad some of us are still here.