It was around 6pm when I arrived at the Pier One Bar in San Miguel by the Bay, SM Mall of Asia. As usual, I came first. I sat near the bar, ordered beer, chicken sisig and had some chat with the bartender while waiting for them. A few minutes later, Carol Sinel aka  icezorg came in followed by Almer Viloria then my long time blog pal Ricky Refuerzo. We then ordered food and had 2 buckets of beer to start the night.

Around 7pm or so, I saw a familiar face outside,  it’s the country’s top domainer and online money maker – Rustom Hernandez aka netPH with his wife. Then came Eric Marantan, GurlAlien, Rosette aka Maldita, Arnold Alvarez, Gary Viray, Neil Maranan and his sister, kid money maker Kenneth Mendoza, Rev. Jeffrey Aspacio and his wife.

The discussions were truly healthy, guys were talking alot about their online ventures. Neil Maranan’s sister (I wasn’t able to get the name), made an interview of us one by one, for a school project I think.

The best part of the night was the discussion about the current status of the seo community in the Philippines. I felt really comfortable discussing things with these guys as I can really see how much they support the group’s aim of spreading seo awareness in the country. I have known these guys for such a time already as we have something in common – we are search engine optimizers and we love it.

The serious discussion started after one of the guys divulged (no, that’s not me) that someone approached Marc Macalua inquiring to buy seo.ph and Marc priced it at around Php5,000,000.00 (something near $100,000.00). I know it’s a great name, and Marc has the right to sell it because he owns it, though we’re not sure if he’s really selling it. The source is reliable but I’m open to what Marc will say.  The issue raised by the guys last night was – where will the local seo guys go if it will be sold? And being the so-called founder of the group, why will Marc sell it? Doesn’t he care about the group anymore? Is that the reason why he don’t visit the forum nowadays? Many questions and suggestions came in. Even the SEMCON 2008 issue was opened.

I love this group. My life was changed by the knowledge I gained from it and the friends I’ve met thru it. Marc is my friend, and I know he’s a good guy but the rest of the seoph peeps are now calling for an action. They are looking for a new non-profitable publicly owned forum community. Decisions have been made, let’s see what will be the turn out.

Going back to the party, It was a really rocking night. I went home past 3am.

Btw, you can view last night’s pics in here: SEOPh Christmas Gathering 2008

Update: Thanks to other members showing their support via this thread: http://forums.seo.ph/showthread.php?t=4937

Tweet This Post