Techvibes, the local online social community which is dedicated to technology recently went up for sale on eBay (see screenshots below, hosted on flickr). Unlike other blogs that point at the relative antiquity of the site as well as the fact that the site got pulled off of eBay, nobody’s talked about the reason the site got yanked, which is the topic of my rant.

The understanding is that the site got pulled off of eBay because one self righteous bastard who knows nothing about privacy law (but knows how to mess with the due course of business) piped up and complained to eBay about the listing. eBay, of course, needing to protect their own interests, shut it down as they normally do in these situations (without little or any investigation).

Geesh, well whoever complained to eBay – it worked. They removed the listing saying that it was illegal to sell a database of personal information.

I was actually planning on removing the eBay listing this morning anyways because we’ve had so much interest and most of the inquiries require a fair amount of due diligence… so I don’t think an eBay auction would work unless we were able to provide a lot more information (financials, access to analtyics etc.) to the general public.

So while the eBay listing has been removed, Techvibes.com is still open for sale to the best offer… please contact me directly mike at club zone dot com.

cheers!
mike

What does this mean? Well, the squeaky wheel certainly got the grease. The whiner is no longer part of the Techvibes community (good riddance) but I’m sure the damage is already done.

Setting the record straight

There’s nothing wrong with selling a whole business intact – the customers, their information, etc. (conversely, there is something wrong about selling databases containing personal information by itself unless there’s some form of explicit permission given such as affiliate relationships)

At the end of the day, it’s a good idea to always consult your lawyer (an IP lawyer at that) and make sure that the people in the database are apprised of the change in business after all, the privacy laws in Canada puts the power of control of that information in the hands of the person to which the personal information is attributed (that was a mouthful).

Overall, I think Techvibes is a good buy for someone who’s interested in putting the time and legwork into bringing the community back to life.

1972 was a pivotal year in Canada. The Canada – Soviet Summit Hockey Series took the country by storm. Hockey was reinforced as being THE Canadian sport and the world got a lesson in sportsmanship.

It’s been a few years since this historic event but now, another historic event is about to take place. On Robson Street, starting today, seventy two sports bar and restaurant is open for business.

The Skinny:

seventy two sports bar • restaurant
112 – 1025 Robson Street (where Malone’s Sports Grill used to be) (MAP)

TEL: 604-646-4031
FAX: 604-646-4032

WEB: www.seventytwo.ca

Highlights:

• 23 3/4 Oz. Pints of Beer
• 14 20″ LCD TVs at every booth
• 3 55″ Plasma Screen TVs at the main bar
• 2 44″ Plasma Screen TVs throughout the bar
• 4 satellite feeds

The food is excellent, the decor new and stylish and the prices are truly reasonable. Definitely check it out and tell ‘em Raj sent you.

Click HERE to check out the latest photos from seventy two on flickr.

Located near that black office tower in Park Royal South (West Vancouver) is the Ocean Club restaurant.

Here’s the Skinny:

The Ocean Club Restaurant
Suite 105 – 100 Park Royal South
West Vancouver, BC

TEL: 604-926-2326
FAX: 604-926-2386

WEB: www.theoceanclub.ca

The Ocean Club is an elegant place with really stylish modern decor. On Tuesday nights, they have live performers and a pretty good lounge menu to accompany.

Highlights from the evening:

• Mona’s mac and cheese came with an awesome shortrib accompaniment
• The inventive cocktails:

• Caipirinha – powerful brazillian cocktail of cachaca sugar cane, fresh muddled lime, and sugar served short with crushed ice
• Toffee Crisp – wydborowa, frangelico, giffard caramel toffee, caramel crème, and cookie crumb rim

I also ordered the Lost Mexican but the waitress got confused and sent me something else from a similar genre.

• Lost Mexican – (they gave me something else) chili infused tequila, grand marnier, fresh apple and lime juices, salt rim

I wouldn’t reccomend the Albacore Tuna Chopsticks – the tuna didn’t appear to be fresh, but the rest of the meal, especially the steak and drinks, splendid!

Best times to check Ocean Club out:

• Sundays – $3 Coronas & 1/2 price Mojitos
• Mondays – all bottles of Wine 25% off
• Tuesdays – Live Jazz Night
• Fridays & Saturdays – 2 for 1 bar snacks 11pm – 1am with DJ Dimitri

You can always check out the latest photos I have taken from Ocean Club on my flickr site, HERE.