We are happy to announce that Identify Your Breyer (and its sister sites) are being updated! Janice, who started IDYB, passed away unexpectedly in 2021. Going forward, there will be three curators working together to manage the sites. We have been working with her family to carefully transfer all of the websites and set up things behind-the-scenes, and now that everything is finalized and we’ve been able to bring IDYB up-to-date, we’re pleased to announce this formally. The curator group consists of three collectors: Stephanie Michel of Minnesota, Stephanie Van Horne of Quebec, Canada, and myself: Eleda Towle of Maine. We each bring a different skillset, but we all agree that Janice’s work and memory should be respected. IDYB will always be her baby, and now it will live on in tribute to the twenty years she spent building it.
Please be patient with us, as we’re still learning how she coded the sites, and it will take us time to get everything organized (including new email addresses for questions and submissions), but you can look forward to the site being kept up-to-date going forward. Having three people involved should provide stability for the site in the event one of us is unable to update it. Future plans include making the site more user-friendly for new collectors -- without changing what we long-time collectors love about it.
For the next several weeks, though, we'll be working on the important "framework" behind the scenes to make sure the code is brought up to date so it doesn't "break" as it has been doing for some viewers for a while now. We also will need to set up new email accounts, as we don't want to access Janice's private emails, so we'd like to ask that you please hold off on sending emails and submissions for the time being. We'll announce on the site when we're ready to take questions and submissions of photos and information. This is a huge project, and we want to go slowly to do it well. We hope you’ll support us as we take on this responsibility, and we look forward to hearing your feedback as we make progress.
For me, and I know I speak for the Stephanies as well, this is a huge honor. Janice stayed out of sight for the most part, so few people realized how many hours every week she put into the site, until she passed and it sat untouched. We feel like we're picking up the torch she had carried for so many years. Going forward, updates will be posted to IDYB's homepage, so stay tuned.
~~ Added 9/1 at 7:pm EDT:
I just received a message saying that there was a rumor out there that "the new people" would be charging people to access the site. I hate rumors. To put that to rest: NO, absolutely not - There will never be a fee to access IDYB while the three of us are involved.
We are not doing this for money, and we're all volunteering our time. Currently I'm paying all the hosting fees. Janice built the site out of love for the hobby, and that's how we'll carry it on. Information should be accessible to everyone, both lifelong collectors and new collectors just starting out.
25 comments
Thank you so much for what you are doing to support the hobby. Many use it casually and don’t see the depth of information the site houses. The information is priceless and would be nearly impossible to recreate.
That is so awesome to hear. Thanks for undertaking this project for all your fellow hobby people. Keep up the good work and looking forward to using the final product.
I just wanted to thank you three from the bottom of my heart! Janice was an amazing person and she is so missed. I’m glad that her legacy will continue to live on and that you Eleda are involved. Whenever I use IDYB site I always think of her and wish that I could thank her again for creating this incredible website. Again thank you three for stepping up the plate. I look forward to contributing if I can in the future.
Janice did such a wonderful job. I have faith in you 3 wonderful ladies to keep it going. Janice was a gem and is deeply missed.
Thank you all very much for continuing to provide valuable information to fellow collectors and Breyer lovers alike. You are all amazing for keeping this site going, and I cannot thank you enough, as I use it all of the time.