Three years ago, there was some discussion about MLS being for sale. At the time, I had no plans to sell. I said that if the time came when it was no longer feasible for me to continue maintaining MLS along with my career and family duties, I would sell the site. That time has come. myLargescale.com has been sold to a company called Vertical Scope. I’ll give you some background on them in a minute and explain my reasoning for accepting their offer.
Many of you know of the turmoil that I have had over the past couple of years. Between sick children, the loss of my father, taking care of my mom who suffers from dementia, moving twice, moving my mom in with us, losing my job, finding a new job, then another new job, several medical emergencies, and just life in general, it’s been a bit crazy. In addition, my interest in the hobby has waned somewhat. I’ve found other interests in smaller scales and other hobbies (I’ve been building a beautiful saltwater aquarium for a couple years now.) A result of my schedule and diminished interest was a somewhat neglected website. Updates were few and far in between. I rarely come to the site to indulge my hobby.
Back in October, someone representing Vertical Scope approached me about purchasing the site. It had been on my mind, so I responded and requested a little more information from them. I then set out and did a bunch of research on them. Vertical Scope is a company that buys established forum web sites like myLargescale.com. That is all they do. They currently run hundreds, maybe thousands of forums. Most are automotive forums that are very healthy and active. They also run a lot of other pet, powersports, sports, and technology forums. Forums are their business.
Why Vertical Scope? I had always imagined that if I sold the site, it would be to someone in the hobby, someone who wanted to maybe use it as a supplemental income. I had thought that maybe another publisher or website in the industry might want to buy it. But as I thought about Vertical Scope, it made sense. There’s not one person that the whole site depends on. If the owner got hit by a train, there would be someone there to pick things up and keep it going. Vertical Scope will keep making sure the system is upgraded and running well. They have the capital to buy new hardware, keep software up to date, and have an in house development team to resolve issues and make updates.
Yesterday's revelations about LSOL just confirmed to me the reason why Vertical Scope was the right choice. Selling the site to them ensures its long term life beyond what I or any single individual can sustain.
So what’s next? The site was moved to Vertical Scope’s servers last week. I will be handing over the reins to a site admin at Vertical Scope shortly. There are no changes planned in the moderating staff. Everything is status quo. Vertical Scope's primary interest is that there be continuity. An admin from Vertical Scope will become your primary contact, and he will post here shortly. As for my role. I will be available to Vertical Scope to answer any operational questions and advise for some time, but I expect to step back to a moderator, then just forum member role over time. I have retained the rights to the masterclass articles and will be putting them online on another web site by the end of the year.
You guys aren't attached to me, you're attached to the site and to each other. I don't make this forum what it is, you do. I just keep it up and running, and that is the role that VS is going to take.
Thank you to Dwight and the other moderators past and present that have helped me all these years. Thank you to our advertisers that have supported us. Thank you to you the members for all your contributions and support over the years.
Many of you know of the turmoil that I have had over the past couple of years. Between sick children, the loss of my father, taking care of my mom who suffers from dementia, moving twice, moving my mom in with us, losing my job, finding a new job, then another new job, several medical emergencies, and just life in general, it’s been a bit crazy. In addition, my interest in the hobby has waned somewhat. I’ve found other interests in smaller scales and other hobbies (I’ve been building a beautiful saltwater aquarium for a couple years now.) A result of my schedule and diminished interest was a somewhat neglected website. Updates were few and far in between. I rarely come to the site to indulge my hobby.
Back in October, someone representing Vertical Scope approached me about purchasing the site. It had been on my mind, so I responded and requested a little more information from them. I then set out and did a bunch of research on them. Vertical Scope is a company that buys established forum web sites like myLargescale.com. That is all they do. They currently run hundreds, maybe thousands of forums. Most are automotive forums that are very healthy and active. They also run a lot of other pet, powersports, sports, and technology forums. Forums are their business.
Why Vertical Scope? I had always imagined that if I sold the site, it would be to someone in the hobby, someone who wanted to maybe use it as a supplemental income. I had thought that maybe another publisher or website in the industry might want to buy it. But as I thought about Vertical Scope, it made sense. There’s not one person that the whole site depends on. If the owner got hit by a train, there would be someone there to pick things up and keep it going. Vertical Scope will keep making sure the system is upgraded and running well. They have the capital to buy new hardware, keep software up to date, and have an in house development team to resolve issues and make updates.
Yesterday's revelations about LSOL just confirmed to me the reason why Vertical Scope was the right choice. Selling the site to them ensures its long term life beyond what I or any single individual can sustain.
So what’s next? The site was moved to Vertical Scope’s servers last week. I will be handing over the reins to a site admin at Vertical Scope shortly. There are no changes planned in the moderating staff. Everything is status quo. Vertical Scope's primary interest is that there be continuity. An admin from Vertical Scope will become your primary contact, and he will post here shortly. As for my role. I will be available to Vertical Scope to answer any operational questions and advise for some time, but I expect to step back to a moderator, then just forum member role over time. I have retained the rights to the masterclass articles and will be putting them online on another web site by the end of the year.
You guys aren't attached to me, you're attached to the site and to each other. I don't make this forum what it is, you do. I just keep it up and running, and that is the role that VS is going to take.
Thank you to Dwight and the other moderators past and present that have helped me all these years. Thank you to our advertisers that have supported us. Thank you to you the members for all your contributions and support over the years.
