WPDesigner.com the site Tung Do aka Small Potato used to call home finally published a blog post today only the post was about the top five webhosting sites to use. See the screenshot as I believe someone who still keeps the lights on over their has since removed the post.
Small Potato sold WPDesigner.com in 2008 for about $65,000 to a man named Pawel Ciszewski who has not done anything at all with the site since the purchase. Considering someone has removed the post, I imagine someone with administrative abilities still has access to the site and is still maintaining it.
Seems like a waste, they really should have done something with that site.
Hah hah… it’s probably just a future scheduled post that came alive ;-) But why pass up a chance at extra $ affiliate bucks eh?
It is so strange that someone would invest so much in such a valuable property, and then let it wither on the vine like that…
I’d be happy to take over the site.
It is such a shame, I was about to join the club and grab some of the themes, but then it got bought, so I thought I’d wait and see what would happen, then nothing, so I haven’t bothered since.
I can’t believe that that much money was actually transferred over that site. I mean, it was a valuable website, for sure, but let’s be real.
I think we’ll see Potato pop back up again. Hopefully with an explanation for all this crap.
Still there this morning, and the sidebar has a hostgator ad. I’m sure SP is just as disappointed as the rest of us.
*Someone* is still paying the bills though.
I wonder how much traffic it is getting these days. I assume the traffic spikes every now and then when stuff like this happens, but I doubt it is anything like what it was pre-sale.
@Brad – Yeah I feel the same way. Thank goodness all of the articles are still their as an archive.
@Kel – You’re telling me. That site had a rich community and it all fell apart.
@Andrew – Yeah, I was glad to see Small Potato give everyone their 5$ back after the new owner failed to continue working on the site and theme club.
@Ryan Imel – He has left a comment or two on the site back in December of 2008 and there was a rumor that he would be working on something with another member of the WordPress community but we’ll have to see.
@Andrea_R – That is another weird thing, someone is continuing to pay the bills but yet, not add content that is not an affiliate ad.
@Ryan – We should plug the domain into Compete.com and checkout their traffic graphs to see how its leveled off.
alexa toolbar says it´s still somewhere around rank 210k …
I am surprised to hear that people got their $5 back. I received a renewal notice a short time ago and sent an email the the refund email address provided asking that my account be cancelled. Today I got a late payment notice. Most of the client area pages lead to the blank themes club page. The ‘order new services’ page still works and still has the option to join the club. The invoice page with paypal link worked as well. Of course I am not going to pay it, but it would be great to have a way to cancel this account for real. Has anyone been able to get in touch with the new owner?