Subject:
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Leaving BrickLink.com post.
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Thu, 15 May 2014 04:14:40 GMT
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I thought this would be interesting for people who buy and sell on
BrickLink.com. This is a copy or a repost from Northstar Computer Systems. It
was first posted on Northcomp.com website and then copied to Bricklink.com forum
by a BL member on May 14, 2014.
Link: Northcomp.com
Leaving BrickLink.com
In case you don’t know me, my name is Eric Smith. I was originally involved with
BrickLink as the web host, starting back in 2001. I assisted Dan with 3 or 4
server upgrades as the site traffic grew and helped out occasionally with
technical questions he had. It was exciting to see this site grow over those
years, watching the number of users and parts climb each month. I continued
hosting the site for Dan Jezek until he passed away in September 2010. I was
asked to serve as BrickLink Administrator by Dan’s family, in addition to
hosting the site. The site saw an explosion of growth between 2010 and 2013,
which was rewarding to see.
After the site was sold in June 2013, both the family and the new owners asked
me to continue in my role as site administrator to aid in the transition between
owners. I wasn’t sure how things would go, but I was invited to meet the new
owners in Seoul in July 2013. At our meetings, they convinced me that they would
be good stewards of the community that Dan built. Building a replacement site
seemed like it was the immediate priority, and I was looking forward to
providing guidance and serving as a user representative during this process.
When the chief communications officer role was created in November 2013, the
original charter was to serve as the liaison between BrickLink and AFOL groups,
conventions, etc. While I continued to do my job as site administrator, this
person managed to convince the site owners to put all customer service under the
chief communications officer role, effectively demoting me from a role I’d been
performing for more than three years.
This change occurred in December 2013. I asked ownership several times for a
reason for my demotion and was never given an explanation. This demotion and new
organizational structure was announced back in December with a little blurb
announcing the new customer service team. Since December, I have been relegated
to supporting her team, which has grown to five people including her. These five
people are now doing the same job I did, part-time by myself, for more than 3
years.
My contract is up at the beginning of June and it has no automatic renewal
clause. At the end of April, I contacted the leadership of the company to
determine my status. My assumption was that the answer was that I was being let
go in favor of her local team. Instead, the chief communication officer offered
me only 10% of my current contract fee to help her team do my old job. It would
have been far less insulting to simply not renew the contract. Sadly, as a
result of this response, I will no longer be involved in BrickLink as of June
5th, 2014.
If you have questions, please send them to me privately at eric ( at ) northcomp
( dot ) com. Thanks to those of you who have provided encouragement and support
during my time in this position. I’d like to hope Dan would be happy with how I
managed the community he created.
Eric
(end of post)
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