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Yes
Remember that he used to be around as @Joel and was pretty active in posting about several Low-End related topics...
After reading through this and seeing the back and forth I have to say one thing. Would you rather it be run quietly in the back by professionals who do what it takes to keep this place together or would you rather it be sold off to another company that would:
1) Charge more to list any ad on this site
2) Put MORE ads on this site, think ads in the middle of threads
3) Charge for membership levels, think of paying to remove the ads
4) Less transparency because you have more hoops to go through, more moderators.
5) Less freedom to say what we are allowed to now, which is a LOT compared to WHT.
Lets think of how every other forum I know of off the top of my head is owned by a media company, notice "a division of X" on the site. Do you question where the ad money goes just because you are talking there? Do you really think the companies that BOUGHT the site did it to just help the community?
Sites like this are almost always started by an individual with a dream and then as it grows a company approaches them and makes an offer to buy it for ad revenue.
In this case it was bought by Chief from LEA and as far as I know Chief is just a guy, not some one with a giant bank roll behind him to buy 10 sites so the whole "network" brings in cash.
If you honestly feel like everything in the world should be run as a charity or a co-op then you are really looking in the wrong place as this site is about BUSINESS. Business people posting among the users and buyers. There is money to be MADE by being listed here, either free on LEB or paid on the side ads here. No one in the beginning of this site ever started it as a thought that everything brought in would go right back into management or expenses.
Ironic?
Come clean about the CC relationship and their pull. Clearly they have extra juice around here. Is Chief paying them or not?
Ax offers or ax the offer ADS. Fine to charge for offer postings. Applies to both sites.
Offer ad free with login to users/members with accounts who want ad free. No sense of showing ads to people who are ad blind or end up blocking them.
Have clearer assistant hierarchy. Liam is the most visible person lately. But I have zero clue who he is and what his relationship and responsibilities are.
Typically forums have moderators who tend to their patch of the forum. Specific topical segment. Liam is just everywhere and that's really confusing.
Other folks who are admins are who? That should be clearer to everyone easily --- prominently.
Remove offers from Lowendtalk. I mean isn't that what LEB is for?
Regulate providers kicking other providers in the teeth. Constant issue. If providers want to comment on another provider should have to do so under a different account than their commercial account that carries big swinging stick powers (inferred).
Publicly declare why an ad gets pulled or why someone has been banned. Clear description of the event and what they violated. Can't just have people and companies disappearing into a black hole. End of Reality is an appropriate name for the just banned company and the situation.
That's my festering complaint list.
@Joel hasn't been active on here since January 2012. No posts under that account since then.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_dilemma
Ah yes, that must be why Chief doesn't own lowendnetwork.com - oh wait, he does.
I think you are confusing what LEB/LET originally were, and what they are now.
Uhm, what?
I've pm'd Chief a couple months ago, guy said he was about to catch a flight, I have no idea who is he personally or whatnot, but I bet he is probably a busy guy, I have a gut feeling he is just a busy guy and get's shit done in real life, and doesn't bother chatting over the internet... no big deal imo :P I'd just like to see the Thanks button back lol
Plus Liam has been pretty active, I'm sure he can hold down the fort :P
@Nexus - I'd be happy enough to leave it at that too, if it weren't for the provider censorship.
Catching a flight, off to go paragliding... that's what I've heard of Where in the World is Chief San Diego.
I think he's busy lounging.
@pubcrawler You mean our president is playing golf!?
Seriously he appointed people and if he needs to appoint more he will when he gets back. He's allowed to have a life, he's not our public servant.
Actually, I would say by taking over a public site and agreeing to administer it, he has taken on the responsibility of informing us of his decisions regarding this public resource. No, there wasn't any contract, but there is this thing called common courtesy. Yes, he's allowed to have a life, but he agreed to do something, and even if the agreement isn't legally binding, he should do it. And when I see him avoiding the site for extended periods, I get to thinking he either isn't up to the job (too busy, which is fine, but he needs to accept this and pass the baton) or just isn't interested (in which case he should find someone who is). Either that, or he's up to something nasty behind the scenes, which means he definitely shouldn't be in charge.
@DStrout Your administrator is @Liam and you are free to speak to him. He has been appointed as @Chief's stand in for this time period. We are not lacking an administrator. If you believe that @Liam is not enough, take it up with @Chief when he returns.
I think this cant work to be a real community with ads.
It also has to allow offers, free, but with some clear rules and timetable.
While for me the idea of really low end stuff here is not appealing (ie do as much as you can with as little as you can) because it makes no sense for the equipment and network today, I am a very lowend person as a whole, living very modestly, recycling older or broken computers others deem bin grade material, trying to have a low carbon print, etc. However, as I said, it makes no sense to try to squeeze everything in 128 ram creating problems for the servers and the host and reaching the ceiling when I least expect it while also having low performance due to low caching, for example.
I would rather get a larger box for the same money (even I as a romanian can afford 7 bucks for 3 GB ram) saving IPv4 and time to setup 10 smaller boxes and optimize every byte of ram just to show how good I am.
But I can also understand those people, as well as I could understand those running xp at 8 Mhz cpu and 20 MB ram. I also experimented with antennas, receiving TV from bulgaria, serbia and russia at bucharest wasnt easy (ok, easy for bulgaria) and turkey was almost impossible, but I was getting the portable TV on the mountain at 2000 m and managed.
Public servants are allowed to have lives too @jarland. Let's not bring "our" pres-i-dent into the fold. $580k to fly to pay golf, but we don't have cash to... never mind... you know the routine.
The pope appoints people. Unclear what the "moderators" here are doing and for what. Liam has been around for while, so sure he represents an active community member. Likely the volunteer slave member. Thanks for your service soldier. The others? Let them define their roles.
I hear more about @Chief vacations and lounging than I see anything pushing forward to fix, bandaid, repair the site, or to deal with the "nevermind the man behind the curtain" syndrome.
But seriously, he can run the place however he wants. If all those Nigerian users are fleecing the pockets of providers here and Peruvians are running a close footrace too, then swell. I missed then entire market and who buys what.
I do not believe Liam is not enough, I believe he doesnt have enough access. If he had he could have fixed the damn thanks button.
@jarland - See this post by Liam. While I'm sure Liam is competent, he clearly doesn't have all the facts (or access) at his disposal, and it's primarily information I'm after.
Oh well, good night all. I'll be AFK for 14 hours or so.
@Liam been doing pretty great, imo. LEB and LET getting more and more features (hence the like button). But still, I don't think we have rights to ask wether he's paid or not. It's personal.
If, and it's a big if, @Chief gain some commercial revenue from LEB/LET, he deserve it. It's common internet business when site owner provide free services for certain people and gain some money from it, even less, indirectly. Afaik, nobody ask us money to read LEB/LET contents nor to post.
True dat @DStrout. Liam speaketh the truth. No man listens to his voice.
Bow to your master Chief. Iz haz limited cheeze and the internet be broken. I'm leaving on the next plane, I don't know when I'll be back again.
@Maounique, love your tinkering stories about the signal reception. Killer stuff. True about the low end boxes and hazards.
Perhaps they should rename this site cheapassbox and cheapasstalk instead?
Some but not all.
We're nowhere near the WHT phenomenon where someone asks a question and everyone jumps in to ask "what's your budget/location" so the OP can see their signature...
Come on, you think they could sell memberships to read the content here or for the privilege to post?
There aren't many places that can pull such a thing off.
Instead, if it is free then you are the product that is being sold. That's the retarded advertising business. I am betting most members here who are buyers are also ad blockers.
Curious experiment to compare a text offer uptake and post sale novice issues compared to similar campaign via the graphic ads. I'd wager to say the novices are buying more from the graphic ads since they aren't knowledgeable enough to block ads. Non novices hate ads generally and bound to block or mentally block them out. Meaning, the visual ads folks are paying for, likely, have more cost overhead via ticketing and problems with those customers.
In reference to..... one instance. Seriously, one instance. Is everyone here really not able to go on with their lives until Joel gets some time to explain that one single thing? Other than that, does anyone here have any complaints about the way Liam has been running the site? Perhaps suggestions that he should have more help may be valid, but that he isn't capable? You'll hear none of that from me.
Totally agree, this is one of the reason I didnt agree uncle to pay for ads here, but he said he can cut off a cup of coffee, so, not really an argument against that.
Oh, come on, that is a red herring.
Maybe I missed something, but I havent seen anyone claiming Liam is not capable. I just claim (together with others) he has not enough access to scripts and truth to help us as much as he could otherwise.
Wondering if other providers are mentally agreeing with their experience from the paid ads yielding more needy / less knowledgeable customers...
Anyone else witnessed same effect?
@Maounique My proposal is that he does have enough access. Just not enough time. It's a big job. Other than that one instance, which we'd all like an answer to, I propose that everything is fine. Just giving voice to another opinion.
So how about the thanks button?
@joepie91 The time thing perhaps. Poor Liam has been a bit busier than I think he realize he'd be.
Well @jarland, you know we always see eye to eye on things. I have nothing but positive to say about @Liam.
A story...
In my life have someone who has a job managing actively 50+ workers. All are remote contractors. Meaning constant changes to their schedule, location, etc.
The owner routinely shuffles folks. The person I know in the assistant role gets all the calls and complaints and basically most of the workflow.
Daily issue where company owner moves folks around and doesn't communicate it. Billing gets messed up. People are unaccounted for. Wastes big amount of time debugging each gap in the accounting, hours, etc.
Point there, like here, is someone cannot delegate something that is the entire business without delegating almost all the systems. But additionally, needs to communicate when changes made and why. Otherwise, all the support/assistants in the world aren't going to fish your hind end out of looking like an incompetent one man show and irritating the paying customer, the contractors that do the work and the complimentary support staff.
Maybe I'm missing the point of this thread, but it sounds like a lot of you are frustrated that the owner of a moderately large website can sit back and count cash. Isn't that what most site owners do these days? In addition, what's wrong with that?
The problem isn't per se the cashola @RobertClarke.
It's the lack of investment in the site. The Thanks button is a sore spot. The banning of End of Reality with no explanation and all past ads gone.
I listed 7 points I'd like addressed (ideally). Others pointed some of their issues to address.
Watch before you wrongly assume the site is "moderately large". Considering the participants vs. the advertised audience, their is a huge difference --- bookends away. Like I said, providers who run specials here can say if those somewhat obscure but popular countries are ringing sales in their registers. I don't think they are.