why cant we discuss EF "problems"?

[DepressiveJuice]

without them getting deleted or locked. we cant even talk about AAS prices without it being considered a source and yet, we have links to online stores that supposedly sell AAS. the excuse about google putting them there doesnt fly with me. i find it hard to believe that it always puts links on AAS no matter what topic we are speaking about. im sure that little area at the bottom can be controlled. i dont see any problem about warning non-plat bros to log in every three weeks so we can keep our accounts active. i remember george made a comment once that he wants EF to be the best, fastest, FREE bb board out there. he must be changing his mind i guess...

 

[drrman]

you are banned and this will be locked!!!

i have made numerous posts like this, the fact of the matter is, this is elite world controlled by elite powers. a few of the mods are like us and just dont' care about all the politics, but a few of the others lock down every fucking post because they feel powerful and just because george tells them not to let his site look "bad". This board has went from one of the most informative and best boards on the net to basically just a fucking

MUSCLEMAG on the net. thats all this fucking board is now, musclemag on the net. no one else can advertise, but if a few mods make a certain products, they can advertise all day about what they make or sell, you can't discuss GHB, but George will tell you how to make it, along with telling you how to get ass, what a crock of shit

 

[Zyglamail]

For one, this isnt the chat board. FOr 2, discussing them here doesnt help anyone because mods cant really help with these issues we often move them to the mod forum for someone who can help to see them.

You call it discussing EF issues but in essence it is nothing but a bunch of pissing moaning and whining.

Pricing threads get locked deleted because they always turn into sourcing threads...."hey e-mail me", PM me etc. I dont see why that is so hard to understand.

i remember george made a comment once that he wants EF to be the best, fastest, FREE bb board out there. he must be changing his mind i guess...

I am always amazed at just how niave people are when it comes to just how expensive a site of this magnitute is to keep running. Im sure GS does want this to be the best, fastest free board on the net and it is but it also costs the most to run and hiring lawyers to defend your privacy and keep all your posting details here private costs money as well.

i have made numerous posts like this, the fact of the matter is, this is elite world controlled by elite powers. a few of the mods are like us and just dont' care about all the politics, but a few of the others lock down every fucking post because they feel powerful and just because george tells them not to let his site look "bad".

It has nothing to do with a power trip it has to do with doing our jobs and if we dont do them GS will find someone who will.

GS has been out of town so all your pissing and moaning is falling on deaf ears. Another reason why they get locked/deleted because they are not doing anyone any good and simply wasting space and bandwidth. Lets put this all in perspective, why dont all you people who are sitting here complaining, publish a magazine and let everyone who doesnt like your magazine submit an article complaining about it and then you guys pay to publish these complaints in your magazine. Sound like something your willing to do? Yep, I didnt think so, so why do you expect GS to do the same??

 

[drrman]

well zyg, since i have given over 200 bucks to this site, i feel as if i should be able to voice my oppinion anywhere i want.

second, if these threads are moved to the mod forums, no ONE has ever explained this to me, most i have seen one mod in particular(manny) just locks it and puts the link to become platinum. sort of shitty in my book

Third, i feel as if i have a leg to stand on due to my donations this board in general. I know its not all the mods, and you know i have always had the greatest respect for you and was always a supporter of your previous site you had running. I just feel as if this board is getting too commercialized. You can't tell me george is not getting banked off of this fucking site, all the advertising, all the platinum memberships, its just getting all to bullshit.

Ask people even as big andy, they can't take much more of this shit either. People like him who are smarter than % of the people on here aren't platinum, and you think he will pay? no, we'll just lose him and many others. Some problems need to be brought out, and they have to be.

You mention publishing a magazine, well even in those they have call in numbers and letters to the editor, suggestion pages etc? what do we have, just the ability to make a quick post to watch manny and some other power tripping mods lock it down? I have seen magazines publish complaints about their mags numerous times, and i've seen them criticize the complaints and i've seen them fix the problems.

You know yourself their are some problems on here that need to be fixed, and just moving it all to the mod forums isnt' the answer, the largest population hangs out here so why can't we all read it? thats like saying all complaints for men's fitness will published only in a corporate journal that no reader can read? every published magazine, bulletin board or whatever is open to criticism and this board is no different. The problem here is the owners are too goddamn busy trying to get rich and don't care about the problems!

 

[Zyglamail]

Third, i feel as if i have a leg to stand on due to my donations this board in general. I know its not all the mods, and you know i have always had the greatest respect for you and was always a supporter of your previous site you had running. I just feel as if this board is getting too commercialized. You can't tell me george is getting banked off of this fucking site, all the advertising, all the platinum memberships, its just getting all to bullshit.

Ask people even as big andy, they can't take much more of this shit either. People like him who are smarter than % of the people on here aren't platinum, and you think he will pay? no, we'll just lose him and many others. Some problems need to be brought out, and they have to be.

I totally understand and sympathize. members are what make this place what it is, but non-paying members also cost the site and in turn plat members money. I honestly do not have the details into the specifics of what this site costs to run but being in the computer industry I can imagine the expense is rather large. Combine that with legal expenditures to protect our privacy and things can add up very fast. The whole thing really is a balancing act that I honestly dont feel anyone here has enough insite on to make an educated decision as to what affect making changes will bring.

You mention publishing a magazine, well even in those they have call in numbers and letters to the editor, suggestion pages etc? what do we have, just the ability to make a quick post to watch manny and some other power tripping mods lock it down? I have seen magazines publish complaints about their mags numerous times, and i've seen them criticize the complaints and i've seen them fix the problems.

While that may outwardly appear to be the case, i can bet that a very large majority of the complaints aimed to magazines never get a response or published but the small paragraph or 2 you do see on a monthly basis is just to lull the reader into a feeling that their concerns are addressed. The ability to write or call a magazine is just a ploy to give you the warm fuzzies. You can always e-mail George or EF same etc about your concerns. As I mentioned above the forum itself is the medium that this forum uses as its platform of communication, its no different than the printed words in a magazine really and I can guarantee that you will not find a magazine out there that will print every complaint aimed at it yet somehow because this forum is electronic people seem to think this shouldnt be any different.

You know yourself their are some problems on here that need to be fixed, and just moving it all to the mod forums isnt' the answer, the largest population hangs out here so why can't we all read it? thats like saying all complaints for men's fitness will published only in a corporate journal that no reader can read? every published magazine, bulletin board or whatever is open to criticism and this board is no different. The problem here is the owners are too goddamn busy trying to get rich and don't care about the problems!

Every family, every institution, every place of employment and every government has problems in someones eyes, this isnt a perfect world and if GS sat down and did everything you said it would just piss someone else off or run this place off the net due to lack of funds. Its a balancing act and we are in america so I dont really see a problem with GS wanting to make some money off the site. Is he being greedy? I have no idea and neither do you but you speculate he is with no facts to back anything up.

Since you(and many others) feel GS shouldnt have any problems running this site with a couple popup ads, why dont we try an experiment. We will list out all the smaller fitness boards on the net and each month we will pick one and EVERYONE here will register at the board selected for the month and post there instead. Then, as the months go by we can watch the boards all go deep into debt when they get their bill for the traffic that hit the site and watch and see how all these other boards deal with the issues of needing money to support them. Most would likely immediatly close......hehe, assuming they could even handle a fraction of the traffic EF does to begin with.

There is no cut and dry fix and your posts that you so vehemently stand by offer nothing. They are simply you venting, they bring no constructive criticism and offer no ideas. If you care about this place so much and feel issues need to be fixed then why not spend some of your energy in a more constructive fashion and offer up some ideas instead of constant ridicule?

 

[Counterstrike]

hey DRR i guess Zyglamail is one of the ones you are reffering too?

 

[benevolent anarchist]

I have a degree in business and am partner in a high-tech firm so I understand both ends well—which is why I didn’t object when my original user name was locked for not paying my platinum bill. Sure it bothered me a little given my personal situation (brother’s death) but hey, it’s none of my business, so I just joined under a new name. To me—having a large post count or cyber-reputation is not a big deal. I’m just here to learn, not to make cyber-friends or to gain cyber-respect. I have that covered in the real world. Hell if that were the case I would have picked a pretentious name like… AAS Specialist.

(Disclaimer: No offense intended to AAS Specialist, if there is one.)

 

[Zyglamail]

hey DRR i guess Zyglamail is one of the ones you are reffering too?

Since some users are bringing up issues with posts dissapearing etc, I am trying to bridge the gap between forum members and board ownership. I am trying to help members understand whats going on behind the scenes as best I can. I am not trying to insult anyone here and if it came accross that way I appologize, but the fact remains that constant redicule does nothing toward solving the issues we face.

You guys can call me out and criticise me all you like but if I wasnt here chances are you wouldnt have even gotten the explanations you have and your threads would still be locked/closed/deleted.

 

[halfaclue]

I can add a little value to this because I use to work for AT&T as a data rep. The bandwidth charges that a site like this produce is easily over $15,000 a month. You don't believe me log on to AT&T's site and create a bogus business name like you are interested...that is a T3 price. You go up in bandwidth from there which i assume this place has to with the number of daily posts and then add router costs for that bandwidth and load balancing for the data traffic and I wouldn't be surprised if the cost wasn't over $50K a month. That isn't counting anything excpet the data traffic. then you need a mainframe for the memory we are using and about 50 mail servers for the platinum members. GS is proabbly spending $750,000 a year just on Data trafficing and management of e-mails. There is a little site that AT&T handled 3 years ago associated with body building...it no longer existrs and some may remeber but Iwas the rep and so I can not say the name. There site wasn't close to this magnitude and the plan I had them on cost them $25K a month. This site has taken a turn for the worse but I think the only thing that can fix it is more mods locking threads that have nothing to do with anabolics. I defintiely think they should have a forum to voice opinions, specially for platinum members who are paying for this site. But think about threads like this, that have no value to body building or anabolics that are taking up bandwidth and memory...thaink about posts that turn into talks about recreational drug use or a couple of guys who hate each other going at it back and forth for 20 posts. I mean do you want this to be an Anabolic discussion board or an AOL chat room?

 

[DeepZenPill]

I don't think anyone disagrees that the site should make money. It's just how they go about it. I've helped administer sites that started off free. But they needed to go to a pay model, and they were successful with their model because they didn't take away benefits of free users. Instead they added a ton more functionality and perks for being a paying member.

If EF offered some really great benefits for being Platinum that are only found here, that would be a huge boon to the site. I think all the unrest stems from the 5 post search limit and the sources advertising through google. Luckily for me I've been reading this site for a while and made plenty of bookmarks so I don't need to search too often, but I feel bad for those that are just joining.

I know how Google "ad words" advertisements work, and EF doesn't directly control the advertisers. Yes if you search for steroids on Google you're going to see these same international pharms advertising on the right of the page. I really doubt EF is going to allow this to happen very long on their site though.