Good Bye, CarseatData.Org

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SafeDad

CPSDarren - Admin
Staff member
As many of you may know, CarseatData.org has been offline for a few weeks. Since last summer, I had hoped to acquire the website along with the vehicle fit database and forum there. Unfortunately, I was never able to come to an agreement with the owners in over a year of negotiating. Recently, Niche Retail and EliteCarSeats, former premiere sponsors of Car-Seat.Org, have apparently gone out of business as a stocking retailer and appear to have switched to an affiliate business arrangement.

I am told that when the change happened, the website pages and database from CarseatData.org were apparently lost. It was a shame they could not propose a remotely reasonable counter offer to any of my offers, especially considering the website was given to them for free. I know Toby, the creator of CarseatData, worked very hard on it. She put hundreds, if not thousands of hours into its creation and maintenance over the years before she gave it to Niche Retail without any compensation, presumably with an understanding that they would continue its mission of education. Sadly, after commercializing it, they failed to even backup the data. Unfortunately, it now seems that the educational information and other results of her hard work are apparently gone forever and the website essentially worthless:-(

So, here is a tribute to Toby and CarseatData.org. Thank you! Taken from the original "About" this website information at CarseatData:

About CarSeatData.org

In the fall of 2006, Toby McAdams decided to hand the reigns of CarSeatData.org to Bradley Sorock, co-founder of Niche Retail, LLC. Bradley and his staff are dedicated to continuing the outstanding legacy of public service that Toby established, and will be performing incremental changes to CarSeatData.org over the coming year by enhancing the look and navigation of this exceptionally valuable public resource.

Brad had this to say about Toby’s decision to pass this responsibility on to his company:

In the ongoing mission to provide parents with comprehensive research on all facets of car seat safety, comfort, and prices, we came across CarSeatData.org. I had been aware of this site for some time, and often linked to it from EliteCarSeats as a highly valuable source for parents in search of the seat that would best fit their needs, based on their child, their budget, their car, and the ultimate concern: safety. Toby has put so much of herself into this site. She gave away an untold number of hours in her busy life to build one of the most comprehensive resources of Car Seat Data for parents on the internet today. Her work has proven to be invaluable, and it is my intention to improve and build on all the excellent work she has already put forth.

"Toby now has a day job, and her two children have outgrown the need for carseats. With enthusiasm and a warm heart, I met with Toby several times to discuss what my organization could do to take CarSeatData.org to the next level. Toby expressed her desire to pass the torch to someone that could step up and realize this incredibly valuable website's potential. Since taking the reigns we have stayed in close consultation with Toby, and will continue to do so until the final changes are in place. Her years of experience and deep wisdom concerning car seats and car seat safety are without equal, and Toby will remain a valued consultant. The goal of our organization is to build on Toby’s legacy in every way possible and provide parents with objective, educational resources addressing every aspect children's travel safety."

About Toby McAdams

"I live in Minneapolis, MN. I'm mom to two children, Claire and Adam. I've been interested in child passenger safety since Claire was small, but after Adam was born, I really ran into trouble. When he outgrew his infant seat in spring of 1999, I could not get our convertibles to fit rear facing in our cars. It turns out, of course, that Claire's old convertible did NOT fit in our car rear facing (I turned her forward facing at 4 1/2 months when she got to 20 pounds, a major safety no-no, but I didn't know about extended rear facing then). My journey to find a car seat that DID fit well led me to get training as a cps tech and made me think that someone should have a listing of which car seats fit well in which cars. Since I also participated in several on-line car seat bulletin boards (ParentsPlace carseat board and Baby Bargains carseat board), I had access to enough parents and cps techs that I decide to do it myself!. The database has been growing, and I've been learning more every day since then."

I would also like to send a thank you to carseatkelly of EliteCarSeats for being a long time sponsor of Car-Seat.org through 2010.

With that note, I realize there is a lot of competition out there for buying kid's gear and carseats. If you find our information, reviews and community to be a service, we thank you for shopping with our forum sponsors and for using our links to advertisers when you make a carseat purchase. I know it can take a few seconds to come back to Car-Seat.Org to use our Amazon link or other advertiser links before buying something, but it really does make a big difference!

Today, the forum and related websites are supported mostly by advertising through Amazon.com and Google network. Even though subscription prices have come down considerably, sponsorships and subscriptions have dropped this year, no doubt due to the economy. Using our links to Amazon and other sponsors doesn't cost a penny and helps pay for the increased forum costs we have encountered with a recent upgrade to a business-class server system.

Thank you again from Car-Seat.Org for supporting our advertisers and sponsors and for spreading the word about our forum and CarseatBlog!
 
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Kat_Momof3

New member
Re: RIP CarseatData.Org

wow... that's just such a loss.. so much info compiled over so much time.

(and is Toby the same Toby that runs/ran cpsafety.com where the albums are?)
 

SafeDad

CPSDarren - Admin
Staff member
Re: RIP CarseatData.Org

wow... that's just such a loss.. so much info compiled over so much time.

(and is Toby the same Toby that runs/ran cpsafety.com where the albums are?)

The owner of CPSafety is Jennifer (JMMatlock here at Car-Seat.Org).
 

unityco

Ambassador - CPS Technician
It was through carseatdata.org and Toby that I eventually found my way here. I'm sorry for all the lost efforts. :(
 

teekadog

Active member
:(:(:(Very, very sad. CarSeatData.org was an invaluable tool that helped me more than any other to keep my children safe when I was unable to see seats in-person before buying them. I don't know what I would have done without it.

O/T: I got a link from elitecarseats.com today about the switch. I checked out their new forum and saw an ad for aftermarket car seat covers :eek:
 

aeormsby

New member
How sad :( I found the carseatdata.org site when we were looking at trucks, before we even had kids. It's probably what started my research in carseats.
 

SafeDad

CPSDarren - Admin
Staff member
It's baaaack. Well, sort of lol. Still a shame that one or two greedy individuals took a great resource for free, monetized it and then ended up ruining it completely in a relatively short time:-(

carseatdata.jpg
 

SafeDad

CPSDarren - Admin
Staff member
Funny thing is I may have negotiated for close to this amount back when it was useful, though I wasn't willing to take the ridiculous offer they wanted. Assuming it's the same people, they're still trying to make more money on it, or already have:-(

carseatdata2.png
 
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