Internet Auction Blog

Well, maybe I spoke too soon with my previous posts about Gozbay.com, as they are now back online, and will hopefully be here to stay. Here is a copy of the eMail I received from them.

Hello Everyone,

Great News! Very much has happened with GozBay since November 2008. We realized that scalability was an issue as our server was experiencing millions of hits and our site was dramatically growing. I’ve had a variety of people and companies approach me with resources and now I’m confident we have an outstanding management team that is ready to take on anything.

Shortly after we took the site down, the owner of a successful IT company contacted me about GozBay. We have put an exceptional team together capable of providing the security, scalability and resources required to make GozBay a successful auction website. This team consists of security experts and IT professionals, Attorneys, and expert programmers along with me. Each of these key people has a stake in GozBay and together we have been re-building GozBay and have released an extremely aggressive new GozBay.com. Our #1 goal and our attention will be directed towards site stability and usability, after which we will focus on design and feature requests. Rest assured we have the resources and capability to grow this site into a successful auction website which meets your needs.

We publicly went live with GozBay on June 1st of 2009,and would like to welcome everyone to chat in the new GozBay forum at http://gozbay.com/community/. If you have anything that you would like to see in the new GozBay please make a post in the forum, using the same username and password that you use on GozBay. If you have forgotten either of these please point your browser to http://gozbay.com/retrieve_password.php to retrieve your info.

We want you to know that even though this is a new site, we still have all of your information that you entered when you signed up for GozBay and if you were one of the first 2000 VIP users you will still have no fees for life. Your grass roots marketing effort is what made GozBay successful and our success is your success, as all of us build this into a powerhouse site.

There are many new features that you will have an opportunity to explore as soon as you log into GozBay. An important one, which we highly recommend using, is the ability to start your auctions on the first bid rather than when you list the item. When this feature is enabled your auctions will be live but the auction duration will not be active until the first bid is placed. This will ensure that your auctions will not end without any bids. We have additional features and functions that will come online over the next few weeks.

As a parting note, the site name may change in the next few weeks. Although our lawyers are confident we don’t have an issue with the current name, we are going to play it safe and change names. We have registered a few domain names and are in the process of choosing the one we want to go public with. We will announce the change before it occurs and the existing urls will redirect accordingly for a period of time. Thanks for your support and understanding.

I am fully aware that you may have moved on but I hope that everyone will try out the all new GozBay.com. If you have any questions please either post in the forum or feel free to contact us.

Thanks for your support,

Zach

I really want to see the website succeed, although it will be nearly impossible. Check ‘em out at www.Gozbay.com.

I wanted to give Gozbay a chance, because the owner talked a good game, but ultimately failed. Sure, they might claim they aren’t giving up, but it doesn’t matter. Their website has been down since October, and the webpage directs you to some corny Yahoo Group if you “would like more info on what is going on”…LOL, then you have to sign up to join the Yahoo group in order to read anything. No thanks. I’m not doing that. I don’t care enough about what’s going on to sign up for a Yahoo group.

I posted about Gozbay.com a while back and said it looked “somewhat promising”… I admit I didn’t follow up with it much, other than an occassional search. However, now when you visit their website you are greeted with this message:

Hello GozBay Members,

As everyone has noticed GozBay.com has been off line for the past 6 days due to a series of issues affecting both hardware and software components of our auction site. In June of 2008, GozBay converted to a dedicated server to meet the tremendous demands of our exploding member base. This greatly increased our operational cost but I believed the expense was necessary for our continued success. We’ve been working at a hyper pace to meet the demand of our members and keep costs low.  In this environment testing and redundancy suffers and as we now know the possibility for serious issues are increased.

On Thursday November 30th 2008 initial errors were flagged and by Friday it was determined that a combination of software, OS and hardware issues were corrupting the integrity of the GozBay auction database.  A team of support professionals and myself spent days trying to minimize the damage to the operating system and salvage the integrity of our data tables.  It seemed that there were too many variables all occurring simultaneously to recover without loss of data.  OS and Hard drives had to be replaced. Live backups on the server were unreachable and when archive backups were evaluated it was discovered that backups were not occurring as intended and were unreliable.

Yes, the perfect storm, initially intermittent hardware failure corrupting data tables for days prior or longer corrupting current backups with archive backups not running as expected.  The team managing our server was unable to recover and also had not completed a total backup of the server.  All this comes several weeks short of a planned disaster recovery and penetration test scheduled for January 2009.

It is important to note that no Member information was compromised.  The end result was the loss of all auctions on the site that are unrecoverable in any form.  The majority of the Membership information, about 95%, was recovered from a remote backup from a short time ago.
Members who registered after August 2008 will need to re- register.  I realize this may shake the support of some Members and I can only hope that things will be taken in perspective both in terms of the cause as well as the relative infancy of the site.  Of course the lessons learned will only strengthen us for the future.  Your support is needed now more then ever.

These last few days were spent tracking down the issues and making attempts to salvage what could be salvaged.  I have also had numerous meetings with Jeff not only to assure his continued support and re-up of his efforts but also to formulate a carefully considered action plan.
Jeff’s scope of work for the site will expand significantly to expedite the re-launch.  The site will continue to be down for a brief time while Jeff and I and the support team work on the re-launch that will not only be faster but also safer and more user friendly with greater functionality and vastly expanded categories.  Other prior issues raised will be addressed at the same time or are already non-issues and there will also be significant user level testing prior to re-launch.

In respect to the hosting of the site we will improve all aspects of redundancy and backups along with disaster recovery testing and off site management to insure we’re never walking down this path again.

Cost? Many of you have asked about when we’re going to start charging and getting greedy. We’ll never be greedy! I may need to ask members for financial support sometime after you see the new site, posting a Web Advertisement on the site would be fantastic if you want to help.  We do plan to implement a structured fee program to create income as the site grows to cover our costs.  All VIP members will remain free for life, you’re the marketing team and you’ll be paid by no fees for life unless you choose to help out with a Web Advertisement.  Please!   It’s extremely important for you to understand that we need to be financially sound and as we become a larger delivery channel of auctions we plan to cover our cost from advertising and minor fees. I’m telling you this because I want you to know that with your support GozBay will be here to stay as an extremely low cost alternative for your business.

I understand that you’re a member of GozBay.com because you were looking for a great auction site.  We are a great auction alternative.   Please know, it’s not about becoming wealthy and taking your hard earned cash. I’ve spent plenty of my own money and huge amounts of time on GozBay.  I love this business and the excitement it creates for all of us. I enjoy building something that benefits all of us who enjoy the community.  I’m kindly asking you to stick with me, continue to support me while I get our community back on line, faster, safer and at a lower cost than any other for the functionality.

Thanks,

Zach

Man, I hope they get back up and running soon. I really want a new eBay to emerge from somewhere.

Unlike many other auction sites, this one actually seems somewhat promising.
Check out www.goZbay.com, sign up and help get it started.