Old attempt to buy PG (not tips)

[Conrad]

Well I have been sat on this one for a while, should amuse us now, last year on 14/5/09 we had the following fun.

We received the following from an email tagged Chris Hughes

> Hi,
>
> Out of interest would the pubsgalore website and domains be up for
> sale?
>
> Best Regards,
>
> Chris
>
> Sent from my iPhone


So we know straight away this is the owner of BITE (although he didn't declare it), beyond that though no real assumptions other than he is unlikely to be buying for top dollar given he claims to have purchased BITE for £30k (I feel that was and still is undervalued).


So our reply:


Hi Chris,

We are always willing to consider offers included with a scope of purchase.

Thanks


Conrad
Director - Novamarque


Response:



Hi Conrad,

Thanks for your quick reply. Do you have a ballpark figure you're interested in?

What sort of stats does it have? (pageviews/unique visitors?) - I see the main revenue stream is Adsense, that correct? Is the site entirely php/mysql?

Thanks

Chris

Sent from my iPhone


At this point I was already not particularly interested, so:

Hi Chris,

Given you own the sites most prominent competitor I think it is best you just place a value on the site, you are presumably also after the technology as well then.

Thanks

Conrad


Response:



Hi Conrad,

No problem - just need a rough estimate of traffic though before I can make an offer. Using, alexa, compete and hitwise doesn't help gauge that very well! Just a ballpark pageviews will do?


Best Regards,

Chris

Sent from my iPhone

So, at this point I decided he was just going for a quick grab rather than actually genuinely wanting to develop our site (and in this way I consider it a fishing expedition rather than a planned purchase).



Hi Chris,

This is increasingly sounding like a fishing expedition.

Thanks for your enquiries, and keep up the good work with BITE,

Conrad

Sadly he responded:


Hi Conrad,
I'm sorry you feel that way. I'm being serious and we've cash available. How anyone can value a business without knowing any metrics is beyond me, I clearly already know you are a lot smaller than us.
I'm only after a ballpark pageviews figure - I can do plenty of sums from that!

Your loss unfortunately! :)

Best Regards,

Chris

Sent from my iPhone

For me no is no, and the reply from Chris was unnecessary, so sadly I joined in the name calling (as a point of interest, part of the intent of this reply was to give him a hint of the sort of investigation he should be doing before approaching someone. I strongly doubt he knows anything about our company):


Hi Chris,

Sorry I was under the impression you had no cash available as you're company is currently under proposal to strike off.

Also it is hard to take anyone seriously who does this sort of investigation via iPhone, and doesn't announce their interests off the cuff.

Please go and patronise someone else,

Conrad


And we all know he had to reply:



Hi Conrad,

Oh dear, sorry to have upset you so much! Company accounts (even
updated) very much lag behind the real state of a company anyway. I can only assume you're embarassed by your stats; which is okay, I was expecting them to be low anyway as it's a hobby site.

I've bought plenty of things via my iPhone, you need to catch up with the technology ;)

If at somepoint you do consider selling please drop me an email with at least an indication of some basic metrics.

Cheers,

Chris

Sent from my iPhone


At this point I decided I might actually be rude if I replied so left him with the last word.

As a point of interest, during the exodus, when a couple of trolls were trying to follow we had serious cause to investigate our traffic - it would appear the investigation leading to the initial request was to look at our front page and the feedback. Later in the day he checked out a few festivals and pubs pages, so I don't feel too bad about not taking him seriously ;).

The correspondence is provided in full, there were no other emails sent between us, and there is no implication intended in reproducing them.

[ROBCamra]

[I was expecting them to be low anyway as it's a hobby site.]

You could always have asked him "How come a "hobby" site is so much better run than your commercial one" :muppet::muppet::muppet:

[Conrad]

Well we have less to do don't we ;)

Although after this week you do wonder why you act professionally, some people are just hell bent on wasting your time.

[Maldenman]

I'm guessing that was after the first few defections had taken place?

[Conrad]

I'm guessing that was after the first few defections had taken place?
Oddly it was about 3 months before it kicked off in earnest, one of those quirks of timing. At the time I thought it was odd, as the year developed it just became a little humorous.

[Maldenman]

Oddly it was about 3 months before it kicked off in earnest, one of those quirks of timing. At the time I thought it was odd, as the year developed it just became a little humorous.

Perhaps he was genuinely trying to find a new home for Prince Monolulu and his friends! :eek:

[Quinno]

irony :lol:

http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/comments.shtml/4320/

(yes, it's still going on)

[Quinno]

Now here's a thing - I was just inspired to go back over to BITE and remove the last vestiages of myself from the site (that I have control over). I came across an old PM from Andy (aleandhearty) that contained the following line:

"...As Chris was so contemptuous of Pubs Galore that seemed like the obvious place to go..."

Interesting...I am trying to remember what that was about. Obviously I can't refer back to the old forums...!

[Conrad]

Now here's a thing - I was just inspired to go back over to BITE and remove the last vestiages of myself from the site (that I have control over). I came across an old PM from Andy (aleandhearty) that contained the following line:

"...As Chris was so contemptuous of Pubs Galore that seemed like the obvious place to go..."

Interesting...I am trying to remember what that was about. Obviously I can't refer back to the old forums...!
Yeah he was a bit mad like that, there were a couple and we may have them lying round. Something about how they had genuinely built their list of pubs and we had bought ours (we do in fact now have more distinct pubs contributed to than they have pubs on their system), which I just read aghast, he bought that bl**dy site :eek: (from people who deserve a lot of kudos for building it).

Anyway, I am true believer that one should get on and try and be the best rather than constantly looking at the opposition, so hopefully that is just the way we will get on and move this site forward.

[aleandhearty]

I came across an old PM from Andy (aleandhearty) that contained the following line:

"...As Chris was so contemptuous of Pubs Galore that seemed like the obvious place to go..."

Interesting...I am trying to remember what that was about. Obviously I can't refer back to the old forums...!

:D I certainly remember the sentiment, but not the context. Ah, happy days.

[Strongers]

Yeah he was a bit mad like that, there were a couple and we may have them lying round. Something about how they had genuinely built their list of pubs and we had bought ours (we do in fact now have more distinct pubs contributed to than they have pubs on their system), which I just read aghast, he bought that bl**dy site :eek: (from people who deserve a lot of kudos for building it).

I remember when he said this, it was that moment that I realised he was completely up his own and there was no point trying to reason with him about anything.

[NickDavies]

Interesting...I am trying to remember what that was about. Obviously I can't refer back to the old forums...!

<anorak>If you've got loads of patience you can poke around the wayback machine (http://www.archive.org/), like this:

http://web.archive.org/web/20080801134527/forums.beerintheevening.com/index.php?showforum=4

OK the links break, so does the formatting and obviously you can't look at things you would have had to log into but...a lot if it is there somewhere given a bit of effort. </anorak>

[RogerB]

There are times when the people on here scare me.:eek:

[Quinno]

<anorak>If you've got loads of patience you can poke around the wayback machine (http://www.archive.org/), like this:

http://web.archive.org/web/20080801134527/forums.beerintheevening.com/index.php?showforum=4

OK the links break, so does the formatting and obviously you can't look at things you would have had to log into but...a lot if it is there somewhere given a bit of effort. </anorak>

Bah, tried clicking on the links but they all go nowhere, just recycle the current front page. I shall try a better digging session tomorrow.

However, I did see this classically-titled old thread:

Who Is The Most Objectionable Regular Reviewer On Bite?
bigotry, political incorrectness etc. Who takes the biscuit?

:rolleyes:

[Alesonly]

The way the other site is spiralling down out of all control & This One is improving in leaps & Bounds I can see it would be more likely there would be a Reverse takeover.

[RogerB]

The way the other site is spiralling down out of all control & This One is improving in leaps & Bounds I can see it would be more likely there would be a Reverse takeover.

We could be the Greene King of review sites. Buy them all up and then close them down! :eek:

[Conrad]

We can barely keep up with this one :)

More seriously though I would only take over in the same sector to gain audience, of our competitors BITE is the only one that is interesting due to its Google prominence, but these days I wouldn't want the hassle involved with cleaning it out, apart from the odd stupid complaint I am enjoying trying to build PuG up.

[Grailhunter]

We can barely keep up with this one :)

apart from the odd stupid complaint I am enjoying trying to build PuG up.

It's good to hear that you are enjoying it Conrad.
I have to say the last couple of days on the forums in particular I have enjoyed. Lots of posts and good conversation and humour on a wide range of topics. We're really 'cooking on gas' at the moment.

[NickDavies]

We can barely keep up with this one :)

More seriously though I would only take over in the same sector to gain audience, of our competitors BITE is the only one that is interesting due to its Google prominence, but these days I wouldn't want the hassle involved with cleaning it out, apart from the odd stupid complaint I am enjoying trying to build PuG up.

Wonderfully of course typing "chris hughes bite" into Google now sends you straight back here.....

[Conrad]

Now see if I had been planning that I would have found an excuse to pluralise BITE.

[RogerB]

Here's another good example of what happens when you take your foot off the pedal and bury your head in the sand...

http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/40/40812/Coach/Worlds_End#comments

[aleandhearty]

Here's another good example of what happens when you take your foot off the pedal and bury your head in the sand...

The fact that it started two months ago says it all.

[Conrad]

Bit like our Koran attempt really, I can't see how it benefits the fake handbag shops, but I guess they think it is worth the effort.

[arwkrite]

I see one of these adverts in a comments queue on news website. They are like boils, breaking out everywhere.