Im writing to let you know that The Crab Street Journal website is back online as of today. I hope you will give us another chance and come back to help us keep our work rolling along.
When the site went offline last month I was not sure how I wanted to proceed. But after a week, or maybe it was two, I started thinking about the wealth of information housed at CSJ. We are the largest repository of information on hermit crabs on the web. Yes there are other sites with bigger, busier forums but no one has our archives of information, caresheets, research documents or a photo gallery that comes close to rivaling CSJs. I began to see that it would be a travesty to allow all that information to be lost. So with that in mind I contacted Vanessa about taking legal ownership of CSJ. Vanessa too understands the importance of the keeping our information out there, after all CSJ was her labor of love for many, many years. So with that in mind she readily agreed to give me full ownership of CSJ. So as of today, I am now the owner of The Crab Street Journal!
My goal today, moving forward, is to continue to building our library of information so that anyone can access it. Working full time means that my time on CSJ must be spent wisely and productively.
While the forums are fun and helpful, not all users want to participate on the forums. At this time I do not expect to personally be active on the forums if I am to continue to build the site content. I hope our members will pick up the slack and keep the forums active and help each other out!
I would like to continue our monthly contests but only if someone is willing to run the contests if Serena is not able to continue. Ive not heard from her that she is not willing to return and pick up where she left off but we need a back up plan just in case.
The species site is still in progress at www.coenobitaspecies.com
The wiki has been converted to cover several types of crabs and is no longer specifically CSJ branded. I like the idea of including other types of pet crabs in the wiki. It is now at www.crabbywiki.com and there are forums there as well as the ability to start your own blog and image gallery.
The Hermit Crab Adoption Center is still in place under the ownership of Marie, it was never offline. You can access it via: http://hermitcrabadoptioncenter.com or http://crabstreetjournaladoptions.com.
The caresheets STILL, STILL are in desperate need of updating so they reflect our current information. This project needs to be headed by someone goal oriented as it is probably the most important pending project we have.
The Sister Site & Local Rep programs will continue on, though Im not sure what the structure of the organization will be. Previously LHCOS was the parent org but I did not acquire that site with CSJ. These projects may be shelved for the time being while we focus building other areas of the site.
Michelle has taken ownership of www.hermitcrabcuisine.com and will be working to build a super awesome food site there with the help of Jedi_Sena and NarNar!
Marie, Michelle, Angela, Yvette and Sue will still be site managers. Sue and Yvette are working in a decision making capacity at this time until they are able to return full time.
I hope you all will give CSJ another try and maybe even be compelled to volunteer to work on one of our projects!
*crabby hugs*
Daethian