Some of you who have visited this blog more than once will notice that all articles relating to SPCK have disappeared. This is not, as some may have thought, due to receiving the illusive “C and D” from anyone. Instead, it is because somebody pointed out that I had written a number of dubious / offensive remarks where no offence had been intended. If anyone read these articles and took offense (particularly if you live in the third largest country), then I apologise, and assure you that what I wrote was not what I intended to say.

It is also true that recently I have become increasingly more uncomfortable writing about SPCK. I still feel that the story is important, and I certainly do not have anything against those who continue to report it. However, I have felt that, recently, my articles have been clutching at straws a little. What started out as a collection of supportive articles for a cartoonist who found himself on the wrong side of a lawyer, has now turned into an all-out battle against two men who made several managerial mistakes.

I feel a little bad removing the articles entirely - however, while I prepare to move countries, find a job, and find somewhere to live, I think I will leave them ‘offline’ for now (obviously, they will still exist on Google’s cache). Maybe, in the future, I will reinstate them.

I will still be interested in the developments of this case - but it is unlikely that I will be doing any extra investigations myself.

For now, here is a cryptic Gerald cartoon:

Those of you with a degree in Observation will notice that those mysteriously disappearing posts have now mysteriously re-appeared. I still think the cause is important - but maybe it is no longer about Dave Walker, and more about those who have been silenced when they shouldn’t have been - BG.

There have been a few rumblings about Third Space Books - who owns it and what you can buy on it have certainly gained quite high readings on the blog-richter scale. However, being someone who designs websites for a quasi-living, I have been quite intrigued about why the site looks the way it does.

For those not-in-the-know, Third Space Books (TSB) is the online bookseller for SSG, the company that took over SPCK and then made a number of mistakes (but not necessarily in that order). In case you are too lazy to click on the link that I have kindly provided for you, the site looks a little like this:

The first thing that struck me about the site was its colour scheme. It’s fairly hard to ignore - and not something that I would instantly see as being very “Orthodox”. In fact, a quick search on Google Images for “Orthodox” reveals a somewhat overwhelming array of browns:

This made me a little suspicious as to who had actually designed this websites. A web designers role is to make the website seem fairly natural in its surroundings. I choose this layout for my website because I feel it reflects who I am. Similarly, the website I designed here, is in keeping with the personality of the group it represents. The fact that TSB seems to buck that trend suggested to me that it wasn’t designed by someone whose living it is to design these things.

My suspicions were further confirmed when I looked at the bottom of the webpage:

Joomla Templates by Joomlashack

Joomla is known as a Content Management System - a little like WordPress (like what this website runs off), it is a way for website owners to change the material on their site without knowing any code, and without hiring anybody to do it for them. Moreover, Joomla is free. Joomlashack is a website that sells pre-designed templates for those who want a site to look good, but don’t want to pay the price for having it professionally designed. It didn’t take long for me to find a template that looked quite similar to TSB’s. Here they are compared:

Obviously, there are subtle differences, but the overall feel is the same - particularly in the title. Look in the code for TSB shows that it is the same template as well.

As for the book selling part, and why there are some fairly controversial books in stock, all is explained when you look at this site from Amazon. In total, I would estimate that the TSB site cost around $100 to set up. I personally do not like the fact that this store did not bother to try and be unique, and instead apparently attempted to get ‘online’ as quickly and cheaply as possible.

Had a web designer designed this site, it possibly would have cost them about $1000 - $1500. It’s a shame SSG didn’t have that kind of money.

Going back to SPCK stuff. I received a comment today from one of those who reposted Dave Walker’s “missing” blogs.

Relating to a post I made about the WHOIS information on various SSG websites, the anonymous commenter writes:

“Another interesting question is who exactly owns the online bookselling arm of the SPCK, particularly as they are now happy to offer books by such important religious writers as Aleister Crowley, let alone a wide range
of ‘adult’ material. spckonline.com is still registered to the SPCK although they of course say that they’ve passed the domain over to SSG. When you go on to spckonline though you are in reality on a twinned site ‘Third Space Books’. You’d have expected to find that to be registered to one of the Brewer brothers’ myriad enterprises, but it’s hard to tell. The whois for thirdspacebooks.com shows up thus:

Registrant Contact

Name: Carey A McDonald
Address: 202 N Curry St.
Carson City, NV 89703
US

Note that Andy McDonald is not listed as the registrant, merely as the contact. Andy himself has a site http://www.juland.com (correctly registered), which appears to have nothing whatever to do with bookselling, let alone the Orthodox faith. How do I know that he’s actually known as Andy? Well, I rung him up (his office number’s on the whois, and his answaphone gives out his mobile number). It would have been nice to establish what and who exactly lay behind an Orthodox Christian online bookseller prepared to use the name of a long-established and respected UK charity to flog such distinctly un-Christian literature, but alas I fear that Andy was not able to give me any assistance whatever.”

I live only 15 miles from Carson City (the capital of Nevada, and also the cheapest petrol around). However, a quick Google search does reveal that the address is an Antiques Store. Confused? I am.

EDIT: Although I think the information is quite bizarre and interesting, I also think it is important that we respect the privacy of some of these people. They are probably innocent of the SPCK/SSG incident, and probably unaware of its existence - so we should be a little careful before contacting them / accusing them of anything.