Month: November 2006
The occupation is over
Dear Scout/Fanhome Member
After nearly four years of working together to build good communities, Scout.com and Fanhome.com have agreed to shake hands and end our relationship effective November 14, 2006.
Fanhome has been deeply integrated into the Scout ecosystem, and we need to advise how this transition may impact you.
First, this change will not affect your status with Scout in any way – your registrations and passwords remain the same.
Second, because you registered with us through a Fanhome-managed message board, Fanhome may decide to email you directly about its new online efforts. Fanhome does not have your password or any credit card information, however, which will remain secure and privately held by Scout.
If Fanhome does email you, they are required to make it easy for you to opt out of future emails from Fanhome.
Thank you,
Scout.com Staff
I was on the sidelines but involved a bit in people growing disillusioned with Scout.com and FanHome this late summer. I simply advised on certain things before growing annoyed with some too-deep details of the day to day infighting on Scout/FanHome/The Score Boards.
I don’t know what Kevin (the creator of the FanHome.com sports network) is planning to do from here but this move itself brings about a sigh of relief from members of the FanHome community, wherever they might be.
Palm Harbor Ale House — Gone!
Our lease was up some it was a business decision. Please try us at
STPete or Brandon or Tampa.Thank you for your patronage!
That was it. In a short, snappy, out-of-the-way-but-we’re-ok explanation, someone at Miller’s Ale House let me know why their Palm Harbor location (near Coral Landings shopping center) was closed and boarded up.
Palm Harbor Ale House has been the neighborhood gathering place for teens, young adults, sports fans and just those hungry for some grub. It’s been that way since it opened about 15 years ago.
It’s an icon of sorts, and it’s gone now… My favorite local eatery is gone and all they can suggest is I drive 20 miles to their nearest restaurants. Bah.
You can email Miller’s Ale House here to complain about them closing up shop in Palm Harbor.
Political ads in three frames
My friend Melissa puts out a graphic-blog every few days on her MySpace profile… Just different stuff with stick figures that generally convey a concept and make you laugh, snort, cringe or whatever…
Melissa hit gold on her last entry:
Make sure you click to view full and read that last frame 🙂
Don't let these lapse
Last year, I purchased a couple domain names – TampaBayRail.com and TampaBayRail.net. I intended to launch a web site on mass-transit and address the Tampa Bay area as one region. Not a separate-but-equal take that local government has had in the past on transit solutions. But those plans were soon forgotten as other issues worked into my life (including hand surgery, political campaigns and walking the dog).
Now, for those of you aware of what the local blogosphere has to offer, you already know David Pinero has Tampa Rail.org up and running. Pinero’s site is a great civic orientated pro-rail web site. The plan in my noggin’ with my own blog/site were just to ride the “rail” names but talk about all transit issues in general. But all of this is really beside the point, so let’s move on.
Basically, time goes by, the seasons change, the Gators were champs and John Grahame sucks. A few weeks ago I got notification from my domain registration company that both domain names were soon going to expire. I could renew the domain names for however-many-years I’d like or I could simply let them disappear into the digital tumbleweeds of the interweb. They’d likely be snatched up by a spammer or domain-name broker with no interest in Tampa, Tampa Bay, transit in Tampa Bay or rail in the region.
The whole thought reminded me of what happened to the previous official website that the city of Tampa and Hillsborough County operated regarding a rail system. A few years back (2002), those governments held the rights to TampaRail.com (check the wayback machine). For some reason, the powers that be (City of Tampa? Hillsborough County?) let that domain name expire around 2003. The name was quickly snatched up and exploited by a Russian domain name broker. The web site and url shifted to BlueHeronMedia.com, then ended up drifting into oblivion before being removed from their servers. Tampa’s official rail website was as dead as the pro-rail movement in the region. But the movement is now stirring again.
This past summer, we were all witness to the grand spectacle of the Hillsborough Expressway Authority trying to launch a new sprawlway through the region. Along with Mayor Pam Iorio (and the Tampa Bay Partnership and Tampa International Airport) renewing a push for a regional rail system through the Tampa Bay area. Emphasis on the Tampa Bay regionalism of their presented interest.
So, what’s a guy to do? I have control of TampaBayRail.com and .net. I could sell them and possibly recoup some of the costs of the domain names — eventually. Instead, I decided to do some good. I offered both domains to the City of Tampa. You entrepreneurs may see this as a waste of money on my part, but just consider it a good deed.
Suffice to say, the city was receptive of the idea, so both names are now controlled by Mayor Pam. I don’t expect you to see a regional rail website any time soon, but there is the possibility for a united Tampa Bay rail effort on the web — with TampaBayRail.com potentially it’s base location on the web.