By way of explaination....

**Danford C Jennings** · 02-25-2002, 11:42 AM

I was going to post this in Marc's "The State of the Forum" discussion but, changed my mind......

Here's the deal (some will find this as very good news I'm sure): Firstly, I'm trying to run a business and I do come here only to help others and pass on what I have learned over the last 40 years and to learn from others. Being a one man operation, I do have a tremendous amount of flexibility in how I "schedule" my time. Now that things are picking up, I've been trying to post here prior to rolling out and on my breaks. I have spent the last hour just in navigating this site and making a few posts. This is a total waste of my time.

So, I have implemented a new "rule"; if I don't get a page loaded in 10 seconds or less, I will not bother to wait for it to load and will move on to the next message, so on and so forth.

No, I'm not leaving.....there will just be a lot less postings from me because I frankly don't have the time to waste trying to be helpful on this forum.

This is not Lee Gilchrist's fault, I believe the "fault" lies with the owners of this site and their unwillingness to have the problems resolved. Since I "arrived" here last November, these issues have gotten worse, not better. It is obvious to me that those in charge of the server lack the expertise and technology to run this forum efficently, you do get what you pay for.

I, for one, have been very patient and have not been a "complainer" about this site. The only reason why I have put up with the incompetence of those in charge of actually running this forum is because of the people that participate here. So, this little note is to explain to those why you may not get a prompt reply to any questions in the discussions that I've been participating in recently.

Dano

P.S. This is my third attempt to post this: after my first attempt I was asked to log on; I already was, the second attempt did not get posted and is probably ratteling around somewhere on the server, so if this is a double post, so be it....I've already indicated elsewhere on this forum that I will no longer take the time to "edit" multiple postings that result from the problems with this site.

Randall · 03-04-2002, 08:20 PM

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>just in navigating this site and making a few posts. This
>is a total waste of my time.

>So, I have implemented a new "rule"; if I don't get a page
>loaded in 10 seconds or less, I will not bother to wait for
>it to load and will move on to the next message, so on and
>so forth.

I can sympathise with the frustration, as well as running a business, lots of times I go to post and something doesn't work and you not only lose the text you typed out but have to re-find the thread or forum again.
Now I see problems where I post and can see the thread is updated and showing my name as the last entered post but the post is not there but my name IS in the index for the thread.

>This is not Lee Gilchrist's fault, I believe the "fault"
>lies with the owners of this site and their unwillingness to
>have the problems resolved.

No it's not his fault, but keep in mind this forum is FREE and woodworking.com is PAYING for the space and bandwidth so we have this forum. If people start complaining and griping then hey, they can decide to heck with this thing, it generates NO money, costs the owners money and resources for nothing, shut it off.

If folks who can't or don't want to deal with the problems here want a forum under the control of say, a panel of woodworker users who monitor and fix stuff immediately, there are other free hosts that offer message boards as well as mailing lists, such as http://www.network54.com or yahoo.com

I think THIS forum however is better, despite the occasional problems.

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**Lou_williams** · 03-04-2002, 09:43 PM

While there is much true in what you say, This is not a free site in the true sense of the word Free. We are paying for it with the ad's. This is a front site for a tool store.

They pay the bills to get people to click over to their store site hosted by the same technical guys.

Now if this were woodworking.org then you would be 100% correct.

I don't have an issue with the ad's. I for one don't pay them much mind but some of you are and that is why this site still exists.

Lee is a good guy and is doing what he can to make this a good site.

But it is the people here is what makes this site what it is.

Not Lee,(he has said this himself) not the people paying the bill, not the one shot wonders that float through and dump garbage.

The site is much better than it was a week ago. Still has some issues. But, to keep this site the one that we want to come to it has to work so that the key contributore show up and answer what 500 dollar tablesaw is the best question one more time.

Randall · 03-04-2002, 10:54 PM

Ok Lou, yes there are ads, but I never read them, I just have my toolbar favorites link set to come directly HERE.

It is free to us in the sense we are not being charged a monthly access fee, if we were, we would have every right to expect a functional service and make a complaint if it were not functioning right.
I really doubt this forum honestly generates much if any sales based solely on it's existance that would not have been generated anyway from the company's catalog, direct mails, prior purchases, magazine ads or whatever other method they use.
It's been pointed out many times in the media that browsing people HATE popup ads, banners and the like and ignore or close them, so those are really not effective sales tools.
That is one of the reasons so many free sites are failing, geocities, tripod etc are going to a pay format and stripping down their free services, the banner ads and ad revenue have not supported the service.
It's showing up all over now, same for newspaper sites, they are now charging for reading the articles over 7 days old.

**Kevin** · 03-05-2002, 05:36 PM

I must respectfully disagree when you say that this site does not generate revenue through the ads. It is hard for me not to spend each and every paycheck I receive on every last tool and jig mentioned by someone on this forum. I spend way too much time browsing Rocklers online catalog, solely from advice and suggestions made by the posters here. I can't imagine its any different for most of the others here. Plus, if this site weren't generating revenue in some way, do you think it would exist anymore? FWIW...Kevin

**Paradise** · 03-05-2002, 07:20 PM

I'm posting to agree or disagree with anyone in particular. I think Dano stated a good point that works for him. If it takes to long to load, just click to another forum (or whatever).
I have done this same thing on numerous occasions. Sometimes are worse than others. Whern it's running painfully slow, I just come back at a better time.

As for the advertisers... I've never clicked on a single one of their ads. I'm immune to them and don't even see them anymore.
~dave

**mtnwdr** · 03-06-2002, 08:51 AM

applehillstudios.com I have found this to be one of the better sites for us woodworkers to bs. pass on info. & get questions answered or just to put in our 2Cents worth. Sure it has some problems but none like some of the other "free Sites" A lot of sites don't even have an active moderator. Just have a little patience if you are too busy to wait now, try again later. There are other knowlegable members here to take up the slack if one is "too busy" at the time. Jim