SearchGuild: R.I.P.
SearchGuild was my favorite SEO forum and it died after 5 great years of service. You can read why it died here. I think I became a member of SearchGuild within 2 weeks of it first being started by Chris Ridings. Shortly afterward I was asked to be a moderator and later became an administrator so I traveled a good bit of that 5 year run with SearchGuild and it’s members.
SearchGuild was a great place because it never got too big so that it lost the personal touch or too noisy or became base, vulgar or mean. SearchGuild stuck pretty close to just covering SEO and marketing and did not cover web design much. That might have kept it small, but then again it also made unique. The members and other mods and admins made it great and special and I was happy in that time to go along for the ride.
SG also remained, somehow, quintessentially, British, with a wonderful dry sense of humor, discussions of tea, Cadbury chocolates and Doctor Who - you could almost see the bowlers and umbrellas and Big Ben ringing in the background. Yet everyone was made to feel welcome and at home no matter what nationality. Wonderful.
Now I am a bit at a loss as to where to hand out anymore: SearchGuild and Threadwatch were my two favorite places and both have closed down. There is a lifeboat group at Facebook: SearchGuild Lost and Found, trying to round up SG refuges. (Thanks to BurgerMan (who I don’t have a URL for) for forming that Facebook group.) Maybe we will all decide to migrate to another SEO forum.
Thanks SearchGuild, you will be missed.
PS.: I’ll miss the quirky little SG ‘Bots - Heilbot, Guildbot, Looksmartbot and the others. Rust Rest in Peace guys.
Tags: chris Ridings, Gurtie, Heilbot, Search Engines, searchguild, seo, seo forum
December 28, 2007 at 6:50 pm
Hi,
The Founder, an old timer at SG, has opened the doors of hs on forum,
http://www.aosep.com/phpbb3/
A few of us are there already, but the Facebook Group may still be a better place to contact old SG friends.
Cheers,
Burger Man (now jonbey)
December 30, 2007 at 9:13 pm
Hi Guys!
Just like to wish everyone from SG a very happy new year!
I’m in shock and hitting the left-over chocs in true Gurtie style. Hope we’ll all be able to find a new home soon.
An extra big hug for Chris without whom Searchguild would have never been - success to you my friend wherever the web takes you next.
December 30, 2007 at 9:43 pm
Hi JoJo!
I’m glad you checked in. I hope you will be in on the hunt for a new home for SG refugees.
>>An extra big hug for Chris without whom Searchguild would have never been - success to you my friend wherever the web takes you next.
I’ll second the thanks to Chris for creating SearchGuild and supporting it for all those years. Cheers Chris and may your New Year be grand!
March 3, 2008 at 8:47 am
Well, I found you again, Brad! (And found the new FUDwatch forums via Michael Martinez’ blog — looks interesting and I’ve registered.)
Sorry to hear about SearchGuild. I know how it feels, more or less.
March 3, 2008 at 11:36 am
Hi DianeV,
Thanks for tracking me down. And double thanks for registering at FUDwatch. I hope you like it.
I know forums come, go and change but this was a tough loss. Still it looks like it came out okay in the end with FUDwatch being born.
March 4, 2008 at 11:00 am
I really know what you mean about losing a forum — I took the loss of Threadwatch not so happily.
FUDwatch is pleasant, although they seem to be talking about pancakes just now … and I’m never sure with U.K. folk whether it’s really all about something else and I’ve misinterpreted. But it does seem to be about pancakes.
Anyway, I’ll keep in touch.
P.S. You might like to add the Subscribe to Comments by email plugin … it lets people know when someone else has commented on a post they’ve commented on. I think the newer one also lets them subscribe whether they’ve commented or not.
I’m also looking for a way to enable email newsletter-like subscriptions that does not involve Feedburner or installing newsletter software (so that I’d have to compile the newsletter).