Who's Running This Place Anyway?

[JoeIsuzu]

If someone gets in contact, find out how much to buy the site. Even if no one does, it'd be nice to know.

Great idea. If they're honest (?) it's not making them any profit anyway.

Jack

[SRN]

Vertical Scope got back to me when I asked how much to buy it, $25,000. Which is about what I anticipated.

[JoeIsuzu]

Vertical Scope got back to me when I asked how much to buy it, $25,000. Which is about what I anticipated.

Absolutely preposterous. They contributed WHAT to the site that would justify that kind of profit? ZERO.

The only possible reason to price it that high is because they think someone might actually want it.

It would be amusing if everyone just removed all their posts, and left these greedy yahoos high and dry, with only the content THEY contributed (ZERO).

[mudoilngears]

Vertical Scope got back to me when I asked how much to buy it, $25,000. Which is about what I anticipated.

Absolutely preposterous. They contributed WHAT to the site that would justify that kind of profit? ZERO.

The only possible reason to price it that high is because they think someone might actually want it.

It would be amusing if everyone just removed all their posts, and left these greedy yahoos high and dry, with only the content THEY contributed (ZERO).

That, or they paid a substantial amount for it, and want their investment back.

[JoeIsuzu]

Vertical Scope got back to me when I asked how much to buy it, $25,000. Which is about what I anticipated.

Absolutely preposterous. They contributed WHAT to the site that would justify that kind of profit? ZERO.

The only possible reason to price it that high is because they think someone might actually want it.

It would be amusing if everyone just removed all their posts, and left these greedy yahoos high and dry, with only the content THEY contributed (ZERO).

That, or they paid a substantial amount for it, and want their investment back.

You really think so? I got the impression they took it off Tad's hands for nothing but a promise to maintain it, in return for the ad revenue.

I wonder if Tad would fill us in. Anybody have contact info for him?

Jack

[mudoilngears]

I don’t know, but if so, why wouldn’t he have approached someone on the forum first? Surely he would have known that some of us would have been willing to maintain it? I would think he would let it go to some who cared, before going to AutoGuide if there were no remuneration.

[JoeIsuzu]

If not for the load of collected knowledge that's here (contributed by AutoGuide: 0%; members: 100%), I'd vote to start over with a new site.

Jack

[mudoilngears]

If not for the load of collected knowledge that's here (contributed by AutoGuide: 0%; members: 100%), I'd vote to start over with a new site.

Jack

Agreed

[SRN]

Absolutely preposterous. They contributed WHAT to the site that would justify that kind of profit? ZERO.

The only possible reason to price it that high is because they think someone might actually want it.

It would be amusing if everyone just removed all their posts, and left these greedy yahoos high and dry, with only the content THEY contributed (ZERO).

I got the impression they took it off Tad's hands for nothing but a promise to maintain it, in return for the ad revenue.

While I don't disagree with your sentiment, they are a company in the business of making money. I have no idea what Tad sold the site for, but I've had a handful of friends sell forums to VS and other like companies over the years, and every one of them got at least $10,000 for the forum. Now I don't know Tad, and I joined the site a little late in the game (2012), but I'd be surprised if he just handed it off for nothing. And while I doubt that ad revenue directly from Planet Isuzoo is very much, my guess is that they approach advertisers with a basket of sites. You want to advertise on heavily trafficked sites like Off-Road.com or Pirate4x4, then you also will advertise on PI. So if you figure the revenue from that, then you take the ~$10k they paid for the site (adjusted for inflation), cost of hosting, maintenance (which has been limited), and then tack on a percentage that is pure profit, its easy to see why they'd say $25k to buy it.

The beauty of owning a forum, and why companies like VS are wildly profitable, is because they really don't have to do a damn thing. User's create the content that drive people to the site and all they really need to do is make sure the site isn't broken. They can even get saps (like me) who would be willing to become moderators just to keep the community that we've invested time and effort into vibrant. If I had the money back in the early '00's I'd have been all over this business model and by now I'd have an office in the Cayman's too.

But I digress. Planet Isuzoo is stuck with Vertical Scope. So our options as users are really either to push them to grant some active users moderator rights and to upgrade the software, or to walk away. Personally, I think PI is a very valuable resource and worth trying to maintain. I replied to VS with my concerns about the forums current state and we'll see if they reply.

[JoeIsuzu]

@SRN -

Good post. But even a LITTLE effort on their part would go a long way. And if they had not set the expectations the way they did, I'd have no quarrel with them. I might be disappointed, but that's not the same as feeling like you've been lied to.

Jack

[SRN]

Another person on ExPo that tried to post and cant get it approved.

https://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/ ... st-2802732

[Jake.Werecat]

Yeea, I experienced same issue. I registered, wrote a couple of posts that didn't show and gave up. And then suddenly after 10+ days I received a few e-mails with information that posts got approved, and new ones started showing up.

[SRN]

Well, glad you’re here! Hopefully we can get VS to start making some changes.

[JoeIsuzu]

And the spambots are back. There's one that has successfully posted three separate topics, I think in Vietnamese. I reported the first one, but apparently nobody saw my report. And then another spam post appeared today (this one in English, from a different user).

So this is how it all ends for the Planet?!?!

Jack

[JoeIsuzu]

Maybe someone needs to start us a new site. Unfortunately, we would not be able to move the existing content. VS claims ownership of every word on the site, regardless who posted it.

Jack

[SRN]

I’m in touch with someone at VS. they say they’re willing to make a couple of us Mods. Just waiting to hear back on that.

[JoeIsuzu]

I’m in touch with someone at VS. they say they’re willing to make a couple of us Mods. Just waiting to hear back on that.

The more they can get done for free, the less it will cost them. There really isn't a polite term to describe how they'll be taking advantage of moderators.

Jack

[mudoilngears]

I’m in touch with someone at VS. they say they’re willing to make a couple of us Mods. Just waiting to hear back on that.

The more they can get done for free, the less it will cost them. There really isn't a polite term to describe how they'll be taking advantage of moderators.

Jack

As long as the content is preserved, at least something comes of it.

[JoeIsuzu]

So if every active member voiced his opinion of Vertical Scope and AutoGuide in his/her signature, it would then appear on every post they've made. I wonder how long it might take for all those opinions to start showing up in search engine results (like Google, Bing, etc.).

Jack

[mudoilngears]

They’d probably just disable signatures.

[JoeIsuzu]

They’d probably just disable signatures.

You're assuming they're even paying attention?

I mean, that's been the main complaint -- lack of attention.

jack

[mudoilngears]

They’d probably just disable signatures.

You're assuming they're even paying attention?

jack

If it’s something that might hurt their interests, yes. If not, no, not a chance.

[SRN]

I’m in touch with someone at VS. they say they’re willing to make a couple of us Mods. Just waiting to hear back on that.

The more they can get done for free, the less it will cost them. There really isn't a polite term to describe how they'll be taking advantage of moderators.

Jack

The biggest complaint is that the site is withering because of lack of attention. Having new moderators will help keep the site running smoothly. Sure, they'll be doing free work for VS, but I'd like to think that's out of a desire to see PI continue to survive and maybe thrive a bit after a period of stagnation. That's my motivation to try to work with the owners to keep it going and preserve this information so that people can keep these awesome vehicles on the road. And lets face it, if you're on the forum often enough to want to be a moderator, it's not too much more work to delete spam, help move topics to relevant sub forums, etc, etc.

[SRN]

Looks like they listened! I got Moderator access today.
mudoilngears, if you're still interested they're willing to give you the rights as well.

[mudoilngears]

Looks like they listened! I got Moderator access today.
mudoilngears, if you're still interested they're willing to give you the rights as well.

Sure!, work your magic. .