Reply to post #1203 (show post):
I've been trying to do a bit more research on who the new owner might be, but I keep hitting walls. Would you have any idea how long it takes for a domain name to transfer ownership? Because Dawid Piaskowski appears to still be listed as the owner. It sounds like the sale may have only taken place last month, though, so maybe things are still in flux? The lack of info is worrisome, though.

Reply to post #1204 (show post):
Hmmm, no, I’m not sure. I know so little about running/maintaining a web site. I Googled that question and found a couple different links that indicated the minimum time was 5 days but can vary.

This really does explain a lot, though. It probably explains why the e-mail hasn’t been working for about the same apparent amount of time. If maybe the new owners they can’t access BookLikes yet, it would also explain why nobody is telling us anything. Otherwise, I don’t understand why they haven’t posted anything. I’d be thrilled to pieces just to see something along the lines of “Hey guys, we’re your new owners. We’re still trying to tie up loose ends and research how the site works, so it might take us a while to address your concerns, but we’re here, and we’re excited about growing the site. We’ll give you some news as soon as we can.”

I hate that the former owners apparently gave up on us, and maybe new owners won’t be any better, but I feel like now we have a reason to be hopeful that things could improve. The new owners certainly couldn’t be less involved than the previous owners have been lately, anyway!

I imagine there could be additional red tape also if it’s being sold to somebody in a different country.

Well, now I have something to google the rest of the day...

If a sale did take place, who knows how long the paperwork will take before transfer of ownership actually takes place? There might be a dead space of time where people on both sides are obligated to not say anything to avoid jeopardising the deal?

My biggest concern is who did they sell it to? Are they going to just try to monetise the site? I can't say I feel good about this at all...

Well, I wasn't able to find out much of anything new except an article (in Polish) that has Dawid saying he always hoped to sell BookLikes at some point. Which is really disappointing - not that I don't wish them success - but I came here to get away from big corporate influence. I guess that's not possible anymore.

He describes himself as a "serial entrepreneur" so I always thought he would sell BL eventually. I didn't think he would so completely, utterly fail at communicating though.

There might be a gag-order type of thing in place until a certain date. GR wasn't allowed to announce their sale to Amazon until a certain date either. It's hard to believe it would keep them from reporting on bugs, or trying to fix them (and the last communication did say they were working on it), but who knows? I just know I hate it. Hate not having information...

Reply to post #1211 (show post):
But didn't the other co-owner announce the sale in that article? Wouldn't the gag order cover that, too?

Reply to post #1212 (show post):
Wasn't an announcement so much as it was just "sold in 2016" with no other information at all. So, I don't know. But if they could talk about it, why wouldn't they? There's nothing to be gained by sitting there watching us spin our wheels.

Reply to post #1213 (show post):
Either way, it seems weird. Usually gag orders are to try to prevent knowledge from coming out - and it would seem counterintuitive to post that it was sold with no more information. People just want to know now!

Someone - or someones - are working on it now. So, it seems to me that a gag order would make no mention of the purchase until date of.

Well, you know, Murder, no one can get e-mail confirmation links when they sign up to BL, so maybe the new owners really, really want to say hi, but can't :P

Because that makes total sense, too...

Honestly, at a loss here. Toss us a bone, BL, please!

Reply to post #1214 (show post):
Of all of this, the part where new users can't join worries me the most - who doesn't fix that ASAP?!?

Also, if it's supposed to be a secret, it isn't anymore. I just posted it on Facebook.

Reply to post #1215 (show post):
Unless the new owner has no intention of keeping BL going. That's what I'm worried about, that we'll try to log in one day and the site will be gone because, I don't know, the new owner just wanted user data or something and then shut it down. :-(

I hope the new owners will keep up the site, because I love the community here, but I still have a dormant leafmarks account and still use GR to manage my bookshelves, so if things get shut down here and everyone migrates to a different site, I hope I'll be able to keep up with you all.

If Familiar Diversion and YouKneeK have got it correctly, the new owner is Bauer Media Group, a major German player in the magazine, radio / TV and just generally, media business (they own tons of major media outlets in Europe and also in the U.S.) The English version of their site is at http://www.bauermedia.com/en/ .