Blognation goes for auction

After resigning from Arrington's Techcrunch, Sam Sethi founded blognation, blogging network.

Blognation is a network of professional bloggers brought together to report on the latest Web 2.0 technology, mobile and enterprise start-ups from around the world.

Blognation was started well with nice concept, however somehow Sam Sethi is not able to raise enough fund to run the blognation any more. The authors at Blognation claimed that they were not getting paid. Oliver Starr who is one of the principal Blognation author since August of this year, wrote an open letter to Sam Sethi about not getting paid.

"AN OPEN LETTER TO SAM SETHI

Please Note: This is an open letter to Sam Sethi, Founder and CEO of Blognation. I have elected to write this letter after having been one of the principal Blognation authors since August of this year. In all that time I have not received the pay promised in my contract nor the reimbursement promised for expenses incurred on behalf of Blognation during this period. I am not alone. Every other Blognation author is in the same unsavory situation.

This open letter details in very broad strokes the reasons why I have lost faith in Sam. It makes specific statements as to the veracity of things Sam has said or written as well as things he has failed to do. I do not say these things lightly. Every statement made in this letter can be backed up with verifiable written material from email correspondence, Skype chats, or SMS messages.

The final paragraphs are obviously my opinion and do not necessarily reflect that of the other bloggers that are still members of the Blognation team. For a more detailed history of this sordid story, one includes a considerable amount of the actual Skype chat dialog as well as many paragraphs from dozens of email messages, please visit my new home on the blogosphere, owstarr.com (http://owstarr.com), my new email will be oliver@remove-this-first-owstarr.com

Lastly, this post is likely to be removed very shortly after I post it so please, make a screen capture, download it to an off-line reader, copy and paste it into a document or repost it on your own blog(really). At the end, this is a cautionary tale and the victims are the people that have worked for months on the content many of you have enjoyed but for which Sam Sethi has yet to (and may never) pay.

Oliver Starr "

This can be found at:

http://owstarr.com/2007/12/05/an-open-letter-to-sam-sethi/

Finally Sam Sethi has decided to stepping down from blognation.

"Following a number of discussions, yesterday and today, a revised termsheet proved to be unworkable. I have announced internally that I am stepping down from blognation and that the company will be put up for auction, like edgeio, to ensure that the idea and vision can go forward and that ALL the (cr)editors are rewarded for their loyalty and hardwork. (note: unlike edgeio none of the editors were employees)

I am pleased to say that there are already a number of potential buyers who have come forward. I am now seeking advise on how best to manage this auction process."

You can find this update from Sam Sethi here.