Anti-Eclipse Site Posts Its Final Blog

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Jul. 2--The Internet blog site known for its relentless criticism of now-defunct Eclipse Aviation Corp. has seen its last posting.

"The blog worked," writes Irish businessman Shane Price, who has maintained the Eclipse Aviation Critic NG Web site since early 2008, in his final comments on Tuesday. "We, working together, exposed the scam that EAC had become."

Over the years, postings on the site included insider information on the goings-on at the Albuquerque-based jet maker. Other comments ranged from thoughtful analysis to basic ranting and raving. In the end, much of the blog's criticism proved justified when Eclipse filed for bankruptcy court protection in Delaware late last year.

The blog site, which traces its roots back to 2006, was an apparent thorn in the side of Eclipse founder and former CEO Vern Raburn. In an April 2008 filing in a California Superior Court, Raburn tried to force Mountain View, Calif.-based Google Inc. to disclose the identity of 29 anonymous contributors to the site.

"We're not trying to suppress dissension or criticism," Raburn told the Journal at the time. "We're just trying to find out where it's coming from."

The court case attracted national attention. Within a week of Raburn's ouster as CEO in late July 2008, however, Eclipse dropped the court case against the blog. A spokeswoman called the case "not one of our top priorities."

Eight months later, the blog's criticism still appeared to grate on Raburn. In a March interview with Aero-News Network, Raburn referred to the bloggers as "all those cockroaches on the Web."

After Eclipse ceased operations in February and entered the Chapter 7 business liquidation process, the Eclipse Aviation Critic NG Web site saw the gradual disappearance of its reason to exist.