Is this how it ends?

Kashmir

Kashmir

New member
If looking for new beginners - the life blood of most teachers - this site (and ones like it) are the wrong forum (pun intended). This works better if you are targeting existing dancers for workshops etc. Same for Facebook - unless someone is raving on their personal timeline about how much fun they had.

Personally whether it is a dance teacher with only a Facebook page or a business with only a GMail address - both scream "recent startup" to me. About the only thing I would use a commercial Facebook page to find someone/something would be a restaurant. Any other type of business I would steer away from if that was their ONLY web presence.
 
Aniseteph

Aniseteph

New member
Zorba said:
And whatever else you do - do NOT put auto-play *anything* on a page you care about
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Yup. There's a site I have to use for work and the way that video on the home page pulls out drives me nuts. That sort of artistic vision thing only has a chance of being impressive the first time you go there, after that it's irritating and time-wasting. Dear Web Designer, do you expect people to only go to this site once, and if so, how does that sit with your doing a good job?
 
Zorba

Zorba

"The Veiled Male"
Aniseteph said:
Yup. There's a site I have to use for work and the way that video on the home page pulls out drives me nuts. That sort of artistic vision thing only has a chance of being impressive the first time you go there, after that it's irritating and time-wasting. Dear Web Designer, do you expect people to only go to this site once, and if so, how does that sit with your doing a good job?
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That's a good point as well. I go to a major computer manufacturer's webpage daily - sometimes several times a day. It has a stupid auto-play video. AT LEAST ITS SILENT! But I still have to wait for the stupid thing to load - and its HUGE pixel-wise - every stinkin' time. Unfortunately, bookmarking my way around it isn't really an option as I'm always accessing this site from different computers each time.
 
S

Suzanne Azhaar

Active member
Grateful this site remains functional. Life has taken a distinctive turn. Dance has been set aside to deal with what's in front of me. But, I do enjoy checking in from time to time to live vicariously through other's joy.
 
Shanazel

Shanazel

Moderator
May what is in front of you be only pleasant and satisfying, Suzanne. Good to see you back here for a visit.
 
Z

Zumarrad

Active member
Kashmir said:
Personally whether it is a dance teacher with only a Facebook page or a business with only a GMail address - both scream "recent startup" to me.
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I was a fairly early adopter of Gmail and have used it in preference to any other email provider for a long time, because I was sick of losing all of my mail to crashes. I work for an international media company of renown and long standing, and our mail server is Gmail (though we have our own domain names on our email addresses, not @gmail.) I must say I look askance at Hotmail and Yahoo though.
 
Zorba

Zorba

"The Veiled Male"
Does anyone know why bhuz.com - which as we know has been down for several weeks - now redirects to hannansultan.com?
 
deelybopper

deelybopper

New member
Hannan Sultan has owned the site for quite a few years now. Fairly recently she started spamming the Bhuz email lists, so I unsubscribed, but I suspect there's been a plan to wind Bhuz up for a while now.
 
Shanazel

Shanazel

Moderator
OOOOOOHHHHHH, I wondered why I had become the recipient of relentless advertising from Hannan Sultan. Heaven knows, I haven't darkened the cyber doorway of Bhuz in a decade or more, but obviously my e-mails address is still in the system somewhere.
 
deelybopper

deelybopper

New member
Zorba, I think that Rosey was a paid member of staff. She definitely wasn't the owner.
 
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Aniseteph

Aniseteph

New member
Zorba said:
Does anyone know why bhuz.com - which as we know has been down for several weeks - now redirects to hannansultan.com?
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"Looking for Bhuz? Oh well it's gone, not going to explain or anything so tough luck, but hey would you like to buy a DVD instead?" Over-pushy advertising, hate it.

ETA - password is no use if Bhuz is dead, so can you unsubscribe from her list via a link in the emails?
 
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Roshanna

Roshanna

New member
Yeah, I was annoyed by the barrage of Hannan Spam, and also unsubscribed to it a while ago. I don't know about the law in the US or Canada, but I have a feeling that in the UK it would be illegal under data protection laws to take over a mailing list that was for one thing, and use it to advertise something completely different, which members have not consented to.

I wonder if it has even occurred to Hannan that she is irritating bellydancers all over the world with this unsolicited mail, and now with what appears to be the unannounced deletion of a community resource?

EDIT: I've amended this post a bit as in light of the announcement from Hannan posted on the Bhuz fb page today I think I was a bit harsh. It seems like her and Rosey have been doing their best, but have not handled the communication well (maybe because they didn't realise how many of us were still lurking but only posting occasionally, or how many of us have been using old threads as a resource).
 
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Duvet

Duvet

Member
Aniseteph said:
"Looking for Bhuz? Oh well it's gone, not going to explain or anything so tough luck, but hey would you like to buy a DVD instead?" Over-pushy advertising, hate it.

ETA - password is no use if Bhuz is dead, so can you unsubscribe from her list via a link in the emails?
Click to expand...

Hannan has this statement on her website;

"The BHUZ SWAP MEET is here: http://www.panjo.com/p/bhuz
Regarding the Bhuz forums: After several years of declining participation due to the age of Facebook, my mom, Rosey, the owner of Bhuz.com, Rosey, has decided to step away from the site. She has given it to me to revamp. We are working on a new iteration of the site, but since Facebook has really taken over the role of web forums, it will be more of a reference site than anything else.
Wishing you happy dancing,
Jessica Hannan Sultan"
 
Jeanne

Jeanne

Member
Funny, I never experienced any of the spamming, even though I had been a longtime Bhuz member and continued to visit regularly and occasionally post even after things had slowed down.

Anyway, here's a more extended message that appears on Bhuz's Facebook page:
Regarding the Bhuz forums: After several years of declining participation (and two years of ad revenue that fell way short of covering surprisingly large expenses) my mom, Rosey, the owner of Bhuz.com, decided to step away from the site.

Thanks for being a part of Bhuz. Personally, it was an amazing retirement job for my mom. She learned to code, she indulged her love of sparkly shiny things, and she developed relationships with many of you. She wants you to know that she is now happily raising ducklings, listening to opera, and enjoying her grandchildren.

The site has been saved to a hard drive for archival purposes. I am working on a new (much less elaborate) iteration of Bhuz, but since Facebook has made forums obsolete, it will be more of a reference site than anything else.

Panjo, the sales app, will still maintain the swap meet.
(http://www.panjo.com/p/bhuz)

Please stay in touch with your Bhuz friends on this Facebook page if you haven't already.

Wishing you happy dancing,
Jessica Hannan Sultan
 
Shanazel

Shanazel

Moderator
The difference between Facebook and forums is that forums instigate conversations and Facebook is a platform for soliloquys .
 
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