findmadeleine.com

Please tell me what you think about this website. I could write an entire 'bewk' on how bad it is. You would think with all the best paid hired hands they have they would have come up with something better. Please dissect this nonsense and cheer me up. 'Purchase Our Book' hits you straight in the face. Then...'fill in our contact form'...which I clicked on and was immediately battered by a load of legal stuff....then go down to 'updates' and read 'thank you to everyone who has bought and read MY book...remember at the top of the website it urges you to 'Purchase Our Book'...then there is the bottom of the page with PayPal...aaaggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh.

They obviously don't care what anyone thinks about them. The website is so far removed from what any normal parent would get involved with that they must know for certain that they will never have to face justice. Any self respecting police force would take one look at it and go round and arrest them rather than providing a link to it on their own constabulary's website. The whole thing is so far from the realms of normal behaviour that I really don't know where to start with my critique, except to say that I am waiting for the "bewk" to come down to 1p on Amazon marketplace (plus £2.48 p&p of course) so that I can wonder all over again what the hell is going on in these two minds, let alone those of their hangers-on.

aquila wrote:Please tell me what you think about this website. I could write an entire 'bewk' on how bad it is. You would think with all the best paid hired hands they have they would have come up with something better. Please dissect this nonsense and cheer me up. 'Purchase Our Book' hits you straight in the face. Then...'fill in our contact form'...which I clicked on and was immediately battered by a load of legal stuff....then go down to 'updates' and read 'thank you to everyone who has bought and read MY book...remember at the top of the website it urges you to 'Purchase Our Book'...then there is the bottom of the page with PayPal...aaaggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh.

You should have a look at this site aquila:
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It is the 2011 version of the Religious Cults of the last century.

Some things that hit me as as missing from the site;

in the section looking for money, why not have their accounts to date plus up to date financial information showing that you need money? referring people to the accounts filed at Companies House is not good enough.

The website says they employ a Fund Administrator - why not have a name, email for that key person?

Why not give the office phone no? The only no given is specifically for information re Madeleine. People will want to ring up about merchandising not arriving, about fundraising, suggestions for the website etc.

Why not say where the office is? There is a PO Box no given.

The website is rarely changed.

Overall, this website does not give me the impression that this is an active company doing what it says it claims to do.

Just have a look on the fund "about us" page where they promise the highest standards of transparency and accountability in their limited fund. Then only release the UK legal minimum for any private limited company.

Here's a link to a previous topic about the Find Madeleine website. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I find the "About Madeleine" page particularly memorable - [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

The first bit is clearly written for the benefit of children in the form of a story - "she lives with her mummy and daddy" etc.

The last paragraph is a strange way to describe your missing child. Let's hope that she is as they say still bringing joy into the lives of everyone she meeets - but somehow I doubt it.

Sorry Aquila, this will not cheer you up, I hope you never contributed to the fund.

In desperate times such as these (alleged abduction of a child) you would normally find that family and friends rally round to help you as much as they possibly can and that they are usually quite generous in such circumstances. Faced with such an ordeal I am sure that most of us could find a relative, friend, colleague, neighbour or even someone more remote, a friend of a friend, but if we dig deep enough we will find someone who can create and monitor a website quite cheaply or for free if we are lucky. Unfortunately for the McCanns they didn't have this sort of assistance and in 2007 they (according to the fund accounts) paid £37,000 for their simple, uncomplicated website. Well, they did say that they were naive, maybe thats why they also got ripped off by all those dodgy detectives that they hired.

Does anyone know who the webmaster is? It would be interesting to find out why so much of Madeleines' fund was spent on a simple website.

Hi sharonl,

Pics and info here for people conected to the fund and website at the beginning.......

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sharonl wrote:Sorry Aquila, this will not cheer you up, I hope you never contributed to the fund.

In desperate times such as these (alleged abduction of a child) you would normally find that family and friends rally round to help you as much as they possibly can and that they are usually quite generous in such circumstances. Faced with such an ordeal I am sure that most of us could find a relative, friend, colleague, neighbour or even someone more remote, a friend of a friend, but if we dig deep enough we will find someone who can create and monitor a website quite cheaply or for free if we are lucky. Unfortunately for the McCanns they didn't have this sort of assistance and in 2007 they (according to the fund accounts) paid £37,000 for their simple, uncomplicated website. Well, they did say that they were naive, maybe thats why they also got ripped off by all those dodgy detectives that they hired.

Does anyone know who the webmaster is? It would be interesting to find out why so much of Madeleines' fund was spent on a simple website.

I am involved in a good cause (not a limited company) and we needed a website but funds were to say the least limited. There was no-one on the committee who could do websites. On an email newsletter sent out by a group of NGOs/charities I found an ad from a website designer. I met him, he liked our cause and did a website for €250 plus some basic training for me in maintenance.This charge was set in late 2010. Now that is not the economic price for sure, but after that I met a more commercially minded designer and could have got a website for €2,000.

I presume the Madeleine website was constantly updated in the months after she vanished, but even allowing for website maintenance charges the figure of £37,000 for the first year for the website is OFF THE WALL. And with all those lawyers protecting them, this rip off happened! They could have asked their lawyers who did their website and the lawyers could surely as a good client of the website designer have negotiated a special rate for the Mccanns. As the website was going to have so many hits, any website designer would have grabbed the opportunity to promote themselves, and would have done the work for a reasonable fee because the spin off business could be lucrative.

sharonl wrote:

Does anyone know who the webmaster is? It would be interesting to find out why so much of Madeleines' fund was spent on a simple website.

Hi Sharon, isn't the webmaster Police Constable Cameron MacRae? a (still serving) police officer in Ullapool. His teenage son Calum was reportedly an ex pupil of Philamena McCann and he was given the credit for setting up the site. However, I believe this is just another red herring to divert people away from the fact that they chose a (still active) copper to run the website!

Please don't quote me on this because I obviously don't have the proof, but it's highly likely that PC MacRae is also a freemason. Given his location and profession, it's more likely than not. A quick online scan of the recent history of local masonic lodges in the area shows a few freemasons by the name of MaCrae in the small highlands town of Ullapool.

Very very fishy! NOTHING connected to this case is straight forward is it? Is the Madeleine McCann fund site still run by Infohost?

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Photos of Callum Macrae and staff, and a bit about them, on link I put up a few posts above under the heading FIND MADELEINE WEBSITE STAFF - just over half way down the page on this link

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The domain name 'findmadeline.com' is still registered to Cameron McRae, Ullapool, registration created 10/05/07, expires 10/05/12. The figure £37,000 for a website is ludicrous for the purposes their site was set up, i.e. publicity and a small amount of e-commerce.

This is, and was in 2007, available for around £100 'off-the-shelf' (for example [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] with a few hours needed to configure the look/feel of the site (not rocket science) and a bit of search engine optimization (SEO, ie. get it high-ranking into the search-engine's search results). For a good cause the man hours needed to set this up and administer would most likely have been volunteered for free, and to register the name, activate the site (no web-designing necessary, this is done for you by the package you buy) could all be done for less than £100.

With the contacts they had surely someone would have known this (especially Mr McRae), and saved them a good £36,900

I very much doubt whether £ 37,000 was paid for the website. I would guess the money was diverted to other places, and merely put under this heading in what passes for the account.

PeterMac wrote:I very much doubt whether £ 37,000 was paid for the website. I would guess the money was diverted to other places, and merely put under this heading in what passes for the account.

Absolutely. I build websites for my own business, using open source (i.e free) software.

I can get a professional webstore designed on a open source software platform for around £700-£1000 from here:

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For content management sites (i.e info sites without sales / e-commerce) the prices are around the same using open source software such as Joomla or Drupal.

All you're really paying for is the design and additional modules and features.

Infohost appear to be running the store and from what i can gather from their site it looks more charitable than actually commercially charging them £37,000.

Certainly there is no reason on earth they should have paid anything like that for a website and store. Maximum £2000.

The only possible explanation is if Infohost are charging them for running and managing the store on a daily basis. But even then that's an awful lot of cash.

if the policeman McCrae got the £37,000 for setting up/maintenance of the site would there not be an issue as he is at the same time a full-time state employee? In Ireland there are restrictions on other work you might do if you are a f/t state employee. Maybe its not the same in the UK.

And, as he is a policeman and the McCanns were official suspects for a while, and are still not cleared despite what they say, surely it is inappropriate to say the least that a serving policeman would work for them?

Pauline according to this on Pamalam site, it was the son Callum who set up the website - all people connected to fund and website , with photos etc on link below..................

Calum McRae
CALUM MACRAE (19) Year 2007
19-year-old internet expert runs Find Madeleine website which has attracted more than 400,000 unique users and helped to raise more than £1 million in donations for campaign. He is a Director of Infohost. (His father, Cameron MacRae, a police officer, is the Director/Secretary of the company) Calum is an ex-pupil of Phil McCann.


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Millions have contacted the Madeleine McCann appeal website. Who runs it? Three teenagers from Ullapool


SUNDAY HERALD: 16 SEPTEMBER 2007

By John Bynorth Inside the campaign HQ


Rona Eddington


Calum McRae



TWO YOUNG people hurriedly stuff yellow Look For Madeleine wristbands into envelopes, surrounded by cardboard boxes containing thousands more earmarked for the campaign. Nearby, in the untidy garage store room, Madeleine badges and posters are awaiting delivery to supporters around the world who have donated £2 for the bands that symbolise the search for the missing four-year-old.

Policeman's son Calum MacRae, 18, is responsible for the campaign's website and distribution network for Madeleine's campaign from the unlikely location of the Loch Broom garage, on a windswept industrial estate on the outskirts of Ullapool, Wester Ross.

Despite Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry, both 39, now being treated by Portuguese police as suspects in her disappearance while on holiday in the Algarve, Calum claims there has been a recent surge in interest in the website and wristbands.

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"There's no let-up," said Calum, whose Infohost firm hosts the family's official website, run using some of the £1 million in donations being sent to the privately run Madeleine's Fund: Leaving No Stone Unturned. "There's been a big increase in orders since they became suspects. Somebody came back 30 times, ordering 100 bands. Sometimes people just want one or two, so we throw a couple of extra bands in. It's difficult to get rid of some of the medium-sized bands as they don't fit many people. People would still want the Madeleine bands even if she was found. Her face is a mark. It's everywhere."

Calum, who has designed websites "since he was 10" is paid out of the global donations to the fund, which won't be contributing to the McCanns' legal costs.


He refused to be drawn on how much his team of six are paid, and the Sunday Herald's repeated calls to the fund's spokeswoman, Esther McVey, were not returned. He added: "I can't tell you that, it's not much honestly. We are just covering our costs. You would need to speak to the fund about that."


Calum is convinced of the couple's innocence and says he will continue to run the website even if they are charged and tried in Portugal. He said: "I know from speaking to Gerry on the phone that he is 100% innocent. They are definitely not guilty. Gerry is very determined to find his daughter. You can tell it in his voice when he talks on the phone. He wouldn't have done all this if they were guilty. If the fund is still going, we will continue the website even if they are charged and face trial. They wouldn't want us to back off ..."

He remains convinced "someone" in Portugal knows the truth about Madeleine's whereabouts, and the family yesterday launched an £80,000 TV, newspaper and billboard campaign, which will be translated into several languages primarly aimed at Spain, Portugal and other mainland European countries, beginning in two weeks.

Madeleine's uncle, John McCann, from Glasgow, said: "The main objective of the Madeleine fund is to leave no stone unturned in the search for Madeleine."

Calum became involved after Madeleine's aunt, Philomena McCann, his former schoolteacher in Ullapool, approached him four days after the girl disappeared on May 3.

He said his staff spent between "12 and 20" hours each week on the website and wristbands. Although he claimed to have lost money on an earlier stunt for Premier League footballers to wear Madeleine t-shirts, he is pressing ahead with the distribution of T-shirts to the public in return for £10 donations.

Calum said: "We stopped every other thing we were doing that day and put the Find Madeleine site straight on. It's pretty much full-time doing the website and bands. We just invoice the fund, but it's not expensive compared with what other companies would charge. We have to account for how many hours are worked. It's not for us to decide what we are paid, but the fund insist we are."

The website's English-based server crashed when 1.5 million users tried to watch a video of Madeleine shown at the Uefa and FA Cup finals.

Figures obtained by the Sunday Herald show the Find Madeleine website attracted as many people as Missing People, the established UK charity formally known as the National Missing Persons Helpline, on September 7, the day Kate and Gerry were named as suspects in the case.

They show that 400,000 people viewed the Madeleine site, compared to only 150,000 for [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] which is responsible for issuing appeals for thousands of people who vanish across the UK and Europe. American interest accounted for 103,000 hits on the Madeleine site, with only 15,000 from Portugal, and around 20,000 each from European countries such as Spain and Germany, which the family are hoping to target with the poster campaign.

Calum also revealed how Kate checks Gerry's blog before it is emailed to the site. However, Gerry has only posted one message since his return to Britain last week. Calum added: "It has got crazy at times, we've even got people going on in places such as Kurdistan."

Another worker on the site, Rona Eddington, 18, the daughter of a senior police inspector in Ross-shire, said: "We've had people saying in emails we killed her and taken her away' and we hate you.' We don't know if they are genuine, but they are passed to the police, who chase them all up. We've had so many like that and have to filter them. The website is about supporting the family."

Rona's father, chief inspector Paul Eddington, said he had no problems with his daughter's involvement in the website following Leicestershire Police's decision to take Kate's diary and Gerry's laptop, which he used to write his blog, for their Portuguese counterparts to examine last week.

The Portuguese magistrate examining the case is expected to announce this week whether the couple will face further questioning.

"I view what my daughter is doing as a parent, rather than a police officer. In the unlikely event that the investigation did involve the website, I would take a pragmatic view and wouldn't seek to get involved," said Eddington.

Calum is already working on new ventures after spotting a market in missing-person websites. Last week he contacted the family of missing schoolgirl Rosemary Edwards, from Hampshire, after her father made an emotional TV appeal. He said: "I don't think we should be making money out of it, but I would love to do more stuff like this. We phoned up to see if they wanted a website for that missing girl, but they haven't called back."

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candyfloss wrote:Pauline according to this on Pamalam site, it was the son Callum who set up the website - all people connected to fund and website , with photos etc on link below..................

Calum McRae
CALUM MACRAE (19) Year 2007
19-year-old internet expert runs Find Madeleine website which has attracted more than 400,000 unique users and helped to raise more than £1 million in donations for campaign. He is a Director of Infohost. (His father, Cameron MacRae, a police officer, is the Director/Secretary of the company) Calum is an ex-pupil of Phil McCann.


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What an enterprising young man if he is the person who charged £37,000 for setting up a website re the missing niece of his former teacher!

The Company Infohost Ltd was set up by Allan Campbell and Cameron MaCrae on 2nd April 2003. Allan left on 20th May 2005 and Calum MacRae became a director on 21st June 2006 (aged 18).

From the Infohost website

Madeleine McCann
The leading Highlands and Islands IT Specialists!

On the 6th of May Infohost received a call from Philomena McCann, Madeleine's aunt, asking if they would set up a website to help find her neice. The website was setup that day as [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

On the 16th of May [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] was born and the Look For Madeleine campaign became world wide. At one point there were 1 million simultaneous users accessing the website. Support messages came pouring in with some information about Madeleine, suggestions for the campaign and general support from people all over the world.

On the 20th of May it was decided that there should be some way for people to buy Look for Madeleine bands so Infohost created an online store putting all the money into the campaign fund.

On Friday the 22nd of June, 50 days after Madeleine went missing, thousands of people gathered in various places across the globe to send off balloons. A card with Madeleine's picture and a number to phone was attached to the balloons.

On the 11th of August, 100 days after Madeleine went missing Infohost sent t-shirts to all major football teams playing that day to raise awareness about the campaign.

Today we are still supporting the fund and sending out orders that come in through the website. We hope that Madeleine will soon be returned home to her family where she belongs.

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Note it states Phil McCann contacted Infohost (not Calum)

Also what a heartless greedy little bxgger Calum is

"Calum is already working on new ventures after spotting a market in missing-person websites. Last week he contacted the family of missing schoolgirl Rosemary Edwards, from Hampshire, after her father made an emotional TV appeal. He said: "I don't think we should be making money out of it, but I would love to do more stuff like this. We phoned up to see if they wanted a website for that missing girl, but they haven't called back.""

Thanks for the above link Candyfloss

Gillyspot wrote:From the Infohost website

Madeleine McCann
The leading Highlands and Islands IT Specialists!

On the 6th of May Infohost received a call from Philomena McCann, Madeleine's aunt, asking if they would set up a website to help find her neice. The website was setup that day as [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Is that the same website that was set up the year before Maddie 'disappeared'?

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According to here

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The website was activated on 11th May 2007

Note the categories

Dmoz Category:
Top/Society/Issues/Children,_Youth_and_Family/Child_Abduction/Individual_Cases/McCann,_Madeleine

pauline wrote:

sharonl wrote:Sorry Aquila, this will not cheer you up, I hope you never contributed to the fund.

In desperate times such as these (alleged abduction of a child) you would normally find that family and friends rally round to help you as much as they possibly can and that they are usually quite generous in such circumstances. Faced with such an ordeal I am sure that most of us could find a relative, friend, colleague, neighbour or even someone more remote, a friend of a friend, but if we dig deep enough we will find someone who can create and monitor a website quite cheaply or for free if we are lucky. Unfortunately for the McCanns they didn't have this sort of assistance and in 2007 they (according to the fund accounts) paid £37,000 for their simple, uncomplicated website. Well, they did say that they were naive, maybe thats why they also got ripped off by all those dodgy detectives that they hired.

Does anyone know who the webmaster is? It would be interesting to find out why so much of Madeleines' fund was spent on a simple website.

I am involved in a good cause (not a limited company) and we needed a website but funds were to say the least limited. There was no-one on the committee who could do websites. On an email newsletter sent out by a group of NGOs/charities I found an ad from a website designer. I met him, he liked our cause and did a website for €250 plus some basic training for me in maintenance.This charge was set in late 2010. Now that is not the economic price for sure, but after that I met a more commercially minded designer and could have got a website for €2,000.

I presume the Madeleine website was constantly updated in the months after she vanished, but even allowing for website maintenance charges the figure of £37,000 for the first year for the website is OFF THE WALL. And with all those lawyers protecting them, this rip off happened! They could have asked their lawyers who did their website and the lawyers could surely as a good client of the website designer have negotiated a special rate for the Mccanns. As the website was going to have so many hits, any website designer would have grabbed the opportunity to promote themselves, and would have done the work for a reasonable fee because the spin off business could be lucrative.

I am a writer and designed and built my own web site, I did not want to spend a year learning HTML so bought some software for 100 quid to help me do I - I have used the same sw for a frien for her site - it really is fairly easy.


37k is c r I m I n a l

Should have been done for free by one of the hoodwinked millions...
Having said that, with all their connections, you would think old clarrie and the othe pr sellouts would have done something really very slick indeed - Inhouse, no fee - it actually seems to me that the web site is the very bare minimum they think they can get away with - they don't want something super slick with search functions and so on, as they know theve already messed up a hell of a lot, to paraphrase Gerry, he said it was fortunate that so much stuff is out there, it is hard to get a grip on all the conflicting info

We will see about that!!!!!!

This is the latest on twitter from the find madeleine campaign promoting this piece from the Writing the wrongs.........



Find Madeleine

@findmadeleine UK

Official Campaign to Find Madeleine McCann

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.
*****************

findmadeleineFind Madeleine

From our friends at Madeleine-Writing the Wrongs. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

3 hours ago