Parsad Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 Hi Folks, I apologize for the site being down during such a crucial period. A software upgrade malfunctioned and the bureaucracy of the hosting service provider was delaying restoration of the database to just before the upgrade. Please thank board member Paul Clerc of Watermelon Web Works, LLC, who started working on the site a little over an hour ago, and accomplished what Godaddy.com's host of technicians could not get done in over 36 hours! We will be migrating the site over to Paul and Watermelon over the next few weeks. This will never happen again! In the meantime, I'm sure everyone has plenty of stuff to talk about, so get to it! Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rijk Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 glad the site is back!! regards rijk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zarley Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 As much as I missed being able to read the thoughts of the posters here, Parsad, you have much better things to worry about during weeks like this. I hope you didn't find the problems here to be distracting or stressful; I'm sure you had your hands full with your day-job. Glad to see the board back up though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericd1 Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 Glad to be back Parsad! I was missing my daily dose of valuable commentary!!! Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tooskinneejs Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 Nice work Paul!!! Glad to have the board back up and running. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liberty Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 Thanks Paul! Thanks Parsad! I missed you guys :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stahleyp Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 I was suffering a bit of withdrawal. I would try to get on here several times a day...and kept getting disappointed. Thanks to both of you guys! Glad things are back! :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myth465 Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 Thanks Paul and Parsad, I was enjoying the peace and quiet from my RSS but also suffering from withdrawals. Nice to be back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biaggio Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 Thank you Parad, thank you Paul. Very glad to see you back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smazz Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 Hi Folks, Please thank board member Paul Clerc of Watermelon Web Works, LLC, Thankyou Paul and Thankyou Sanjeev - you have nothing to apologize as we are getting a free place to place our bets here ;D and accomplished what Godaddy.com's host of technicians could not get done in over 36 hours! I had a brief experience with Godaddy and i was not impressed. Good to know there are good people in that line of work if ever we need good service. I have a non financial blog but i may be looking for some stuff at a later date. Hey Sanj, any thought of maybe putting up a members only service category? Perhaps if there are other things Members do besides investing -to help each other out? I know we cant invest 24/7 or we will go cookoo lol just a thought thanks again Paul and Sanj Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Jr. Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 Sanjeev, I would be happy to donate domain services, DNS and a place to host the website. Just shoot me a pm anytime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alekbaylee Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 Thank you both guys! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parsad Posted August 11, 2011 Author Share Posted August 11, 2011 Hey Sanj, any thought of maybe putting up a members only service category? Perhaps if there are other things Members do besides investing -to help each other out? I know we cant invest 24/7 or we will go cookoo lol Not a bad idea. Maybe I can co-ordinate some sort of "Corner of Berkshire & Fairfax member discount" program from those that do offer services. The homepage doesn't really get used much, and it is somewhat disconnected from the message board. Perhaps, I can create a free marketplace for members to sell "value investing related" items (books, annual reports, etc) and a "member services site" with discounted services. Sanjeev, I would be happy to donate domain services, DNS and a place to host the website. Just shoot me a pm anytime. Offer much appreciated Mark! We have a great group of boardmembers! Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwericb Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 Thank you guys very much. What a time for the site to go down! I'm sure we all can appreciate that you were busy with other matters and then had to take time out to try to bring the site back up. QUESTION for the board: It has been some time since a membership fee was brought up. Perhape we should start a pole on this, but a nominal fee - say $25 or so - for a yearly membership would help compensate Sanjeev for his work, allow him to hire techs when things like this happen and it also would help screen out people who were not really serious or those who have their own adgenda that was not in keeping with the spirit of the board. For me, $25 or $50 would be a very small price to pay for access to this board. I value this board and board members contributions far more than any yearly fee. What do others feel? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liberty Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 Thank you guys very much. What a time for the site to go down! I'm sure we all can appreciate that you were busy with other matters and then had to take time out to try to bring the site back up. QUESTION for the board: It has been some time since a membership fee was brought up. Perhape we should start a pole on this, but a nominal fee - say $25 or so - for a yearly membership would help compensate Sanjeev for his work, allow him to hire techs when things like this happen and it also would help screen out people who were not really serious or those who have their own adgenda that was not in keeping with the spirit of the board. For me, $25 or $50 would be a very small price to pay for access to this board. I value this board and board members contributions far more than any yearly fee. What do others feel? I would pay the membership fee, no problem. What I worry about is that closed forums tend to stop attracting new members because with most forums, you have to be part of a community for a while before you realize how valuable it is, so few people would be ready to pay just to join. Who knows, maybe the best contributors have yet to join, and it would be a shame to keep them out. Maybe Parsad could set up a donation/tip jar? Maybe - as someone offered - he could move to a donated servers to bring down expenses? I just think we should be very careful about doing something that could make the quality of the community plateau or degrade over time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwericb Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 "I would pay the membership fee, no problem. What I worry about is that closed forums tend to stop attracting new members because with most forums, you have to be part of a community for a while before you realize how valuable it is, so few people would be ready to pay just to join." I thought about this, so what about a 30 day free period or you could read but could not post until the fee was paid? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tnp20 Posted August 12, 2011 Share Posted August 12, 2011 Count me in for $50-$100 as price of admission. Sanj has been beyond generous in providing this incredible educational forum, most would happily contribute. We should figure out a way where new members can do a trial "join" for say 3 months and then are asked to contribute. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tnp20 Posted August 12, 2011 Share Posted August 12, 2011 Sanj. I've got couple of IBM x335 blade servers with high speed drives if you need free hardware. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bargainman Posted August 12, 2011 Share Posted August 12, 2011 I would pay the membership fee, no problem. What I worry about is that closed forums tend to stop attracting new members because with most forums, you have to be part of a community for a while before you realize how valuable it is, so few people would be ready to pay just to join. Who knows, maybe the best contributors have yet to join, and it would be a shame to keep them out. Maybe Parsad could set up a donation/tip jar? Maybe - as someone offered - he could move to a donated servers to bring down expenses? I just think we should be very careful about doing something that could make the quality of the community plateau or degrade over time. Definitely agree with this. tip jar would be the best imo. You definitely don't want to lock new prospective members out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smazz Posted August 12, 2011 Share Posted August 12, 2011 I would pay the membership fee, no problem. What I worry about is that closed forums tend to stop attracting new members because with most forums, you have to be part of a community for a while before you realize how valuable it is, so few people would be ready to pay just to join. Who knows, maybe the best contributors have yet to join, and it would be a shame to keep them out. Maybe Parsad could set up a donation/tip jar? Maybe - as someone offered - he could move to a donated servers to bring down expenses? I just think we should be very careful about doing something that could make the quality of the community plateau or degrade over time. Definitely agree with this. tip jar would be the best imo. You definitely don't want to lock new prospective members out. I'll 3rd that. Attracting new fresh minds is a good thing and many young people just getting started wouldnt pay an entry fee - besides, they say the best things in life are free! ;D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwericb Posted August 12, 2011 Share Posted August 12, 2011 Regarding the fee discouraging new members, I really don't think $25 a year would be too much of a deturrant and as tnp20 said, a 3 month free trial period should resolve this. But I am sure that Sanjeev could use the fees to make the board even better and more reliable. I just think that we gain a lot from having him manage the board and we don't contribute even a small token of our appreciation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parsad Posted August 12, 2011 Author Share Posted August 12, 2011 Thank you guys very much. What a time for the site to go down! I'm sure we all can appreciate that you were busy with other matters and then had to take time out to try to bring the site back up. QUESTION for the board: It has been some time since a membership fee was brought up. Perhape we should start a pole on this, but a nominal fee - say $25 or so - for a yearly membership would help compensate Sanjeev for his work, allow him to hire techs when things like this happen and it also would help screen out people who were not really serious or those who have their own adgenda that was not in keeping with the spirit of the board. For me, $25 or $50 would be a very small price to pay for access to this board. I value this board and board members contributions far more than any yearly fee. What do others feel? Guys, thanks very much for the offers. I never started this site to make any sort of money. I like running it and enjoy using it myself. I do not want to institute a membership fee, as who knows what young minds in high school or college might want to learn or contribute. I myself got to know alot about Berkshire from the Motley Fool BRK Board when it was free. In fact, that's where I became friends with Lotsofcoke, who first invited me to a Yellow BRK'ers Party in Omaha, and I eventually met Buffett for the first time. It changed everything! Eventually, I went off and started the old MSN Board after Motley Fool instituted a membership fee. So no membership fee! What I will probably do is implement the tip jar idea, but in one of those tabs that you see on various free open source software sites. Between the ad revenue and the occasional tip, we should be able to more than cover any tech costs, as well it will allow me to cover some expenses I incur setting up the annual dinner and other functions I want to create for boardmembers. Cheers and thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwericb Posted August 12, 2011 Share Posted August 12, 2011 You're the boss, but don't undervalue what this board means to the members. If you ever need to hire a temp or need equipment just let us know and I would think that we could come up with whatever was needed. EricB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lethean46 Posted August 12, 2011 Share Posted August 12, 2011 Whew. Talk about withdrawal ! ...... I'm very glad the board is back up and running. Nice job, Paul. And thank you, Parsad, for everything you do. ML Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCG Posted August 12, 2011 Share Posted August 12, 2011 allow him to hire techs when things like this happen It sounds like an issue the hosting co lay should have been able to resolve, and you shouldn't need independent techs...the key is having a good hosting company. I've dealt with a lot of hosting comanies and the good ones (host gator, inmotion, liqud web etc) are able to easily handle things like database restores. I have not had good experiences with GoDaddy either. Anyway, thanks again for everything you do for this site Sanjeev! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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