I am live at PubCon and there is an "historic" announcement going to be made here at the event as part of the "Tribute To WebmasterWorld."
Update: Jim Boykin has bought WebmasterWorld. Here is Jim's release and here is the forum thread at WebmasterWorld. I also have a more official write up at Search Engine Land.
Here is my live coverage of the event.
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Barry Schwartz:
11:10:08 am
Brett takes the stage...
Barry Schwartz:
11:10:34 am
He starts talking about webmasterworld, he started it on the dot com in 1999 and on his ISP in 1997.
Barry Schwartz:
11:11:03 am
He has been running WebmasterWorld for a long long time. We've reached some milestones... And I want to talk about stuff.
Barry Schwartz:
11:11:17 am
We now have Twitter, Facebook, and other social networks.
Barry Schwartz:
11:11:48 am
I wanted to take time out to tell you who makes WebmasterWorld possible and asks them all to stand up at the event.
Barry Schwartz:
11:12:12 am
He thanks them all for their hard and devoted work
Barry Schwartz:
11:12:35 am
This is the 10th anniversary of PubCon III where he met his wife
Barry Schwartz:
11:12:51 am
It has been a good 10 year run
Barry Schwartz:
11:13:31 am
He points out Tedster, Ted Ulle, who has contributed hour after hour. Crowd cheers Tedster.
Barry Schwartz:
11:13:58 am
Ted has touched on almost every web site here. He has been the admin of the Google forum for the past 5+ years,a tough forum.
Barry Schwartz:
11:14:38 am
He has done almost 37,000 posts on the public site and over 20,000 posts on the private site. Been involved in WMW for 13 years.
Barry Schwartz:
11:14:51 am
They are giving Ted an award for his community service
Barry Schwartz:
11:15:41 am
He takes the award and says thank you and he has been a bit sick
Barry Schwartz:
11:17:09 am
Barry Schwartz:
11:17:29 am
He talks about his dad passed away two years ago
Barry Schwartz:
11:17:36 am
He talks about how he turned 50 recently
Barry Schwartz:
11:17:42 am
He loves running PubCon...
Barry Schwartz:
11:18:19 am
Brett said to continue running WMW he has to continue to make huge financial and time obligations and he doesn't have it to do it.
Barry Schwartz:
11:18:45 am
He had some offers but they would kill the community
Barry Schwartz:
11:18:53 am
so he couldn't accept those offers.
Barry Schwartz:
11:19:18 am
A man offered him to buy WMW and he threw out a number.
Barry Schwartz:
11:19:28 am
Jim Boykin bought WebmasterWorl
Barry Schwartz:
11:19:55 am
Jim will have his team build out WMW and support it. He made the offer, and Brett accepted.
Barry Schwartz:
11:20:34 am
Jim is on stage, he looks very emotional
Barry Schwartz:
11:21:02 am
He grew up at WMW, respects it, loves it...
Barry Schwartz:
11:21:55 am
He is so happy to be able to be a part of it and is humbled to be a part of it.
Barry Schwartz:
11:21:58 am
Barry Schwartz:
11:22:13 am
Jim says he is here to listen to everyone... Tell me what you want the future of WMW should be.
Barry Schwartz:
11:23:16 am
He thanks Brett for trusting him and is excited.
Barry Schwartz:
11:23:20 am
See http://www.webmasterworld.com/webmasterworld/4508916.htm
Barry Schwartz:
11:24:48 am
http://www.internetmarketingninjas.com/blog/marketing/webmasterworld
That is all for the announcement
That is all for the announcement
