What a shame

head in hands

I was on Outlook Code a few days ago and noticed a change in the footer:

For the record, I am not an affiliate of Add-in Express, nor of any of their competitors.

In OutlookCode.com under new management, I reported that outlookcode.com was given or sold to another Outlook MVP, Eric Legault. I don't know the details of that transfer, and Eric seemed excited about the move, but it looks like the site was too much to handle, so at some point in the last year it was turned back over to Sue Mosher.

I thought Sue would continue supporting the site, but it looks like she was just looking for someone else to take over.

From the site's About page:

OutlookCode.com was founded and run for many years by Sue Mosher, an experienced journalist, technology manager and software developer, the author of hundreds of articles and seven books on Microsoft Outlook. Now OutlookCode.com is owned by Add-in Express Ltd., which is a privately held company located in Homel, Belarus. Established in 1998, Add-in Express is the pioneer of tools and solutions in the Microsoft Office integration industry.

We do hope that this site will encourage you to buy Sue’s books and Add-in Express products, which will give you knowledge and means to become a confident and competent Outlook programmer.

Ugh.

The site is supposed to encourage you to buy products?

To me, Outlook Code represented a free resource full of code samples and a forum with competent expert assistance. One of the (very) few places you could go for help with Outlook programming.

But for a while I've felt that Outlook Code, while a great resource, was in steady decline due to lack of attention. The forums are a graveyard; too many questions and not enough people who know how to answer them. Plus, whoever built the site hasn't the slightest clue about usability. Even Microsoft's forum has surpassed Outlook Code in terms of user friendliness. That's where I'll go if I need some help with Outlook.

This change can't possibly be good. How do I know this? The site is exactly the same as it was before the sale — there are no new code samples or new design — but all of the affiliate links have been converted to point to the new owners.

If it was in decline before, now it is in free fall.

My guess is that the new site owners will do absolutely nothing with the site (except maybe adding more links), instead milking it for its high SERP listing to drive traffic to their existing website. The fact that the articles are years old and some of the links dead won't matter. Any remaining technical experts will abandon the site for other forums (if they haven't already). I really hope I'm wrong on this one.

Unless something drastic is done with the design (and the support), it will continue to decline until it is sold again, or is taken down. So if I were you, I would visit the site and start downloading any articles you want to preserve. I wish Sue would have contacted me, I would have gladly bought the site and renovated it. Now, that seems impossible.

What a shame.