Ducatisti did become the largest UK Ducati forum with lots of users from overseas also, it makes perfect sense to me why someone like JHP would buy this up given that it's a good shop front for them and hopefully would increase their sales in the long term. It will take some time to recover, and that's assuming Ducatisti will return as a forum in the first place it may not ever just be a forwarder to JHP again not a bad business move how many hits does Ducatisti have a day even now I wonder? No-one knows the reasons behind why Ducatisti closed, or I certainly don't know any of them or even any rumours but I liked Dan and he did a great job in what he achieved, closing the site without as much as a thought for anyone else is questionable but I don't know the circumstances, the good news is something is going to change now rather than the message the site has closed until further notice.
Ummm, I was told that Dan passed on the domain to a friend of mine by that friend. So not sure what happened... Either way, good to see the domain being put to decent use Will question my mate now
Ducatisti was good, now it's gone... let's move on. This site looks like it has everything in place to replace Ducatisti so why not look forward and if we post anything we want to keep for the future, make a back up every now and again.
I agree There's nothing there except old history. TBH, I can't see JHP resurrecting the site. They would need to re-hire the moderators and would likely need permission from the old members to publish old threads. Without the content, the place is nothing more than an interesting domain name.
I very much enjoyed Ducatisti and was sad it closed. However, the people that made it good are here now. :smile: I met Dan once and I thought him a thoroughly good guy. So, without proof, I think its a bit off to criticise someone and accuse them of selling out. For all we know he paid them to take it and run it. Unlikely I know, but there are two sides to a story and I for one like to get my facts right before passing sentance.
Ronnie, I know at least three people who tried to buy the site, either to preserve what value was there before it was too late, or to build a new business model. Ultimately, he didn't have the manners to respond to emails or txts. The fact that even the mods didn't know what was going on gives a clear indication of his state of mind. Any forum is made successful by the people posting on it - the contributors. A lot of people invested time and effort to make their threads, posts and blogs interesting and they asked for and received nothing in return. Dan, as owner of the forum software and domain name, chose to repay those people by closing the site. Not once, but (correct me if I'm wrong) three times, without notice. He singlehandedly destroyed that forum seemingly without thought or regard for the contributors. The act of a selfish individual?
Just to make this clear for everyone as to why Ducati Coventry bought the domain, NOT the site from Dan. Over the years, Ducatisti has probably accumulated thousands of search queries and results into search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing etc. Everytime someone now clicks on those results, they go straight to Ducati Coventry. For example - I search : Ducati Hypermotard Performance parts - Chances are, there will be a Ducatisti.co.uk result there somewhere, click the link and BOOM! - I'm on Ducati Coventry. So, to be accurate about why they've bought it - It's for the exposure, the advertising and the link history. They don't intend to make it a forum or anything like that, they've just purchased the name. However - What can't be certain is whether Dan sold the Database (As in, Usernames, Email addresses etc) to a third party. That in itself, is probably more valuable than the domain name, as third-parties would kill to have a database that strong with information about potential customers etc. So you won't see Ducatisti.co.uk being used as a forum or community, it's just for the strength behind it's links and association. Hope that helps make sense of it all if it weren't clear.
Not sure about that, Google's 'spiders' will soon kill all the existing ducatisti search results when the relevant content isn't found. Domain name....was it ever Dan's to sell?! WHOIS info from some weeks back (remains unchanged)
True Andy, It depends how it's set-up though. If they do the re-directs it will last for a while. I think more than anything it's that power behind the "Ducatisti" name. It's the association that's in place now. Still, there's a limit to how long that will last now ducatiforum is around. Looking at that info there Andy, I'd suggest the domain had been sold to a domain buyer, then sold to Ducati Coventry via a third-party at a later date. The domain value is probably worth several thousand pound at this moment in time.
I seem to recollect quite a few donations being made to Ducatisti.co.uk. I wonder if they will get a share of the payout?
Didn't you get your email from Dan? He's going through all the members and returning everyones personal data and sharing out his windfall with all the people who donated cash to support the site. Oh no....sorry I just imagined that such decent people existed. Anth
Couldnt agree more, tho a contributor in cash terms on a number of occasions, I'm not interested in getting that back....but so much time and effort went into my almost 9000 posts that the technical info I posted, which included just about ALL Ducati manuals from 1986 onwards, including all RS models, articles on brake disc vibration, and god alone knows what else, that I'm pretty sore that all that info, along with the myriad info posted by many other contributors, is now either LOST to us all, or being used by a retailer of parts that MIGHT cost my business, business.......despite the respect I have for JHP, I dont want info I have donated to the site being useful to another Ducati parts seller.
The fact that there is the potential of a financial impact on your business, with your own information and knowledge and in the present climate must be enough too boil your piss.
I'm gutted also about all the tech posts that take an age to type out and follow to help people out for free.. One of the reasons I never gave money to the site as I feel I helped to contribute in many other ways once the site closed my views on free advice changed slightly as I felt my time was waisted and info lost. I'm not keen on a "shop" owning and running a public forum as it will be influenced by what they want, selling products that they want to sell! They may say otherwise but you could never tell if the site was sensored, none of it matters to me now as I am here to stay and feel Rob is doing a fab job with the sites he runs in all respects my views of ducatisti changed big time when my posts were deleted after others had posted views that did not agree with the mods or staff of the site that ruined it for me.
