Happy New Year from your new owner!...

[sanjay]

Dear members,

I am posting to let you know that I have recently (last week) purchased this forum from Tom. I am building a network of forums called CrowdGather and I am very excited to include PF (parentingforums) in that universe. When we launch in February, all members of participating forums will have universal sign-on with their existing usernames on <U>any</U> of the forums in the network. All your moderators will remain if they chose to (I'm hoping they will).

Currently Networked (one log-on and username):

http://www.genmay.com
http://www.abxzone.com
http://www.spiceforums.com
http://www.lovethatsound.com
http://www.eternal-allegiance.com
http://www.graffittispot.com
http://www.bigscreentalk.com
http://www.forumbabes.com

Newer forums (pending conversion to vbulletin and/or central log-on):

http://www.alltopix.com
http://www.talkvideogames.com
http://www.democracyforums.com
http://www.theweathervane.info
http://www.metalthrone.com
http://www.parentingforums.com

I am the founding owner of http://www.genmay.com and the rest of the forums are those that I have purchased over time. Crowdgather's vision is that forums have been treated like the step-children of the internet for too long and there needs to be a way to centralize 'search', 'user-profiles' and 'messaging' across multiple forums. We will also have a facebook plug-in that allows you to get thread-feeds and forum PM's while you are on Facebook.

Feel free to ask me any questions. Here is an excerpt from Tom regarding his decision to sell in the mod forum:

I was not pursuing a buyer for the forums. Sanjay emailed via the contact us form and we talked a bit about his forum network idea and the possibility of parentingforums.org being part of it. As you know, lately I have not had the time nor resources to devote to the forum. This weighed heavily on me but I did not want to shut down the forum since it was active and growing despite me (and therefore I hope doing some good). I had anticipated my increased workload would be temporary but nothing seems to be letting up and (when I'm honest with myself) I see no end in sight. So Sanjay's offer was starting to make sense and him being a successful forum developer gave me confidence that the forum would be in good hands. It keeps the forum alive and growing and potentially makes it part of something new &amp; cool with the Crowdgather project.

Again Happy New Year to you and yours!

Here is my family and me:

the picture is 2 years old, but you get the idea...

Sanjay

 

[fallon]

beautiful family sanjay...thanks for filling everyone in on things

 

[formerposter]

Sanjay, welcome to ParentingForums. I hope you are able to make this a successful transition. I have some concerns though.

I don't particularly care for the universal username and password for so many forums I have no information about. I registered for ParentingForums, not all the ones you listed above. I get enough e-mail as it is and I certainly don't need to start getting reminders, admin e-mails, newsletters, and the like from an additional 13 forums that I have never visited before. Do you have something in writing on each of these forums letting your members know they are not only signing up with one of the forums but with 14 of them at once? I think that might be helpful in the future. It won't change things for me because when I signed up here, it was just PF.

 

[sanjay]

You bring up a valid point, but your user experience will not change unless you chose to participate in the other forums and agree to their respective rules and terms of service. If you only post on PF then you will not really notice anything major except maybe links to other forums, etc.... on the bottom of the page.

When you search for something on the forum search feature, results will be brought up first from this forum and then links to posts on that subject in other network forums. You can look at those searches to see if they are relevant to your interest and click on them just like you would off google. Only if you want to post will you be prompted to accept their rules and the crowdgather user agreement. The other place you may notice something is when we launch the new profile system for members. Again, if you do not want to have the profile then you don't have to. Privacy controls will be set by the user just like on Facebook.

Off the top of my mind I don't see your user experience changing unless you are into it, but I realize that some people don't like any change and may still leave. I am glad to address any other concerns you have and I thank you for bringing them up since I know there are others who will have the same questions.

Happy New Year!

 

[formerposter]

Thanks Sanjay, that does explain more. One other question though. Does this mean that there won't be multiple 'markblair' user accounts on all those forums? So if I never visit them that name, e-mail address, account will not exist? Like I mentioned before, I registered here and I do have a problem with my account details being provided to 13 additional forums just in case I decide one day to visit. I understand that the network of forums is owned by the same person or people but it is still something I am not interested in. Please let me know.

Thanks!

 

[sanjay]

your username will be merged into a central database that is available for all of my forums. If you chose not to use your username on the other forums then that is your choice- I cannot prevent others from using the 'markblair' username on other forums if you chose not to do so. Just like right now there are a million sanjay accounts on other forums that are not me. If you would like you can chose to have me delete your account here, I understand and I won't be offended. Let me know by PM if you have any individual concerns

Thanks Sanjay, that does explain more. One other question though. Does this mean that there won't be multiple 'markblair' user accounts on all those forums? So if I never visit them that name, e-mail address, account will not exist? Like I mentioned before, I registered here and I do have a problem with my account details being provided to 13 additional forums just in case I decide one day to visit. I understand that the network of forums is owned by the same person or people but it is still something I am not interested in. Please let me know.

Thanks!

 

[musicmom]

What if we do not want any of our information merged?

 

[formerposter]

musicmom, be careful not to ask too many questions. You'll get the following PM from Sanjay as I did this morning.

Let me know if you would like me to delete your account and posts on PF. I have been on forums for a long time and I prefer not to deal with people who are too sensitive. I have answered your questions, but I cannot assure you anything beyond what I have posted. A change of ownership often comes with changes that are not acceptable to existing members- I understand and I am glad to erase you.

I don't have the time or interest to go through all of the forums that Sanjay owns but I'm sure many people here won't like having an account at both ParentingForums and a forum called 'Forum Babes'. I don't understand how those two sites would be affiliated and it might look odd for a link to each forum to appear on the others.

Either way, I'm sure this post as well as all of mine will be deleted soon. Apparently Sanjay doesn't have time for the tough questions. That's a shame for ParentingForums because I'm sure this site will suffer in the long run.

 

[sanjay]

What if we do not want any of our information merged?

Your information will only be associated with parentingforums unless you want it to be associated it with other forums. The concept of merging is meaningless unless you want to participate.

I have stated this from the beginning. If you do not click to accept the terms of the other forums, you will not be merged and you will not be able to post there- this is how it is on every single forum.

I understand that people value their privacy and so the system is being designed with that consideration. There are others however who like posting on and finding information on forums- for those people, crowdgather saves them the time of having to register in order to ask a question or comment on a news item.

I appreciate your questions and I am not afraid to answer them directly.

 

[sanjay]

LOL

Since you want to post PM's and then act like a tough guy who might be deleted for your bravery...maybe your PM below will help others understand why I am removing you from the system.

Since you insist on posting PM's, I have no choice to do the same. I have patiently answered all of your questions and have even corresponded with you via PM's.

I'm too sensitive? Give me a break. You are coming in here making all these changes and then telling everyone that a super cool universal login will allow everyone to visit 14 different forums (many with a vast variation of interests than a parenting site) and you think everything will be kosher? Maybe you have spent too much time running forums to remember that not everyone will like the idea. Forget the fact that some of those forums I would never visit and many people at a parenting site might have a problem with.

Either way, delete my account here. You have no right to use my name, e-mail address, or any other identifiable information on any of your sites. Tom made a huge mistake selling PF to you. For the sake of this site and all the long-time members, I hope you have nothing but failure with your attempt to join all these forums together.

Let me know if you would like me to delete your account and posts on PF. I have been on forums for a long time and I prefer not to deal with people who are too sensitive. I have answered your questions, but I cannot assure you anything beyond what I have posted. A change of ownership often comes with changes that are not acceptable to existing members- I understand and I am glad to erase you.

Happy New Year.

Sanjay

musicmom, be careful not to ask too many questions. You'll get the following PM from Sanjay as I did this morning. I don't have the time or interest to go through all of the forums that Sanjay owns but I'm sure many people here won't like having an account at both ParentingForums and a forum called 'Forum Babes'. I don't understand how those two sites would be affiliated and it might look odd for a link to each forum to appear on the others.

Either way, I'm sure this post as well as all of mine will be deleted soon. Apparently Sanjay doesn't have time for the tough questions. That's a shame for ParentingForums because I'm sure this site will suffer in the long run.

My dilemma is that you want to remove your account and posts, but yet you want to act like a martyr who is being persecuted. In order to allow members to have the full benefit of your posts (so I am not accused of hiding the truth), I will change your username to something that cannot be identified with you.

 

[musicmom]

I'm going to think about this but I may also want to be completley deleted. I signed the agreement for PR with the orginal owner. I am not comfortable with the larger access. I wish you all luck.
Sanjay, do you need to know now? I think it would be for the best. There just isn't enough information from you.
This was a very small forum so I'm not sure why anyone would want to buy it. It's pretty much the same ten or so people. Doesn't sound right but what can you do. I wish you all the best.

 

[sanjay]

You are welcome to let me know what you want and I will respect your wishes. As for accusing me of not providing enough information- that is an unfair statement since I am spending more time on this forum than I have had to (on a relative basis) on any of my other forums. I am direct with people because I realized that there were some people that I could not satisfy no matter what I said and I cannot kill myself to make one or two people happy. I was a member of egroups.com and then they were acquired by google. I don't remember being anything except excited so I could use one ID and log-on. People are different and I respect that, which is why I am glad to change your username, delete your email and sig if it makes you happy. You can also point me to all posts with pictures and personal info and I will remove those for you as well.

I bought this forum because a) it ranks the highest on google for 'parenting forum'; b) I had been looking for a parenting forum and this one had excellent design and post quality; c) I am building what I believe will be the largest most diversified network of forums in the world. I intend to spend some money on marketing to make this the number one parenting forum with a lot more members and traffic. So far, I think the mods are great so I am happy to have them stay on if they would like.

Once I build this network I believe that a lot of people will come to the site (crowdgather) to search for answers from the members, hopefully at this point it will be very valuable and turn into one of the top sites in the world. People buy and sell websites all the time without telling you what they intend to do. I have been very open.

I cannot sign an individual contract with you as you requested via PM because that is silly since I do not know what the future holds and I cannot encumber the site with strange limitations that do not exist on other websites.. Please think about what you wish for me to do and let me know.

I'm going to think about this but I may also want to be completley deleted. I signed the agreement for PR with the orginal owner. I am not comfortable with the larger access. I wish you all luck.
Sanjay, do you need to know now? I think it would be for the best. There just isn't enough information from you.
This was a very small forum so I'm not sure why anyone would want to buy it. It's pretty much the same ten or so people. Doesn't sound right but what can you do. I wish you all the best.

 

[Lissa]

I'm still a bit weirded out by this. Why hasn't Tom said anything?

 

[fallon]

he has lissa, there are quotes in the other posts from a conversatsion the Mods and sanjay had with him

 

[Fatheredfive]

Sanjay, will the layout or interface here change? I hope your crowdgather system isn't like the About.com cluster forums. Have you ever looked there? U-uuugly!

My Boy4 is very resistant to change. One week he had a new teacher in his sunday school class and you would think someone had just told him they're going to cut off his left ear. Picture me chasing a terrified preschooler across the church lawn and tackling him before wrestling him into the minivan to go home and strap him to his bed. The kid can be a real freak.

 

[sanjay]

Sanjay, will the layout or interface here change? I hope your crowdgather system isn't like the About.com cluster forums. Have you ever looked there? U-uuugly!

My Boy4 is very resistant to change. One week he had a new teacher in his sunday school class and you would think someone had just told him they're going to cut off his left ear. Picture me chasing a terrified preschooler across the church lawn and tackling him before wrestling him into the minivan to go home and strap him to his bed. The kid can be a real freak.

I love the way this forum looks and feels. I have no intention to change anything at this point. Basically you would only notice something when you used the search feature or new profile system. It would make no sense for me to buy a forum and then change everything- not a good investment strategy.

 

[TAR]

Change can be good and it can be bad, I hope this forum stays as good as it has been. We can all judge how it will change for the worst but I like to be an optomist so I think some people will like all the new unique point of views it draws to this fourm and all the access you will have to seek other fourms of interest. Things are good when you have a diverse group of people in all forums it makes it interesting and brings lots of new point of views... Ya there are only about 10 - 20 active users and that is good we all know eachother and enjoy eachothers opinions but keeping with only a few people may end up being a bad thing because there will come a time when we know everything there is to know about eachother and ya we may have built friendships but not any new advice would be coming in and that is what this site is, helping out people with our advice and I tend to give it to whom ever joins. Best wish for the New Year and to PF's new owner.

 

[FooserX]

I'm going to think about this but I may also want to be completley deleted. I signed the agreement for PR with the orginal owner. I am not comfortable with the larger access. I wish you all luck.
Sanjay, do you need to know now? I think it would be for the best. There just isn't enough information from you.
This was a very small forum so I'm not sure why anyone would want to buy it. It's pretty much the same ten or so people. Doesn't sound right but what can you do. I wish you all the best.

That's too bad...oh well...

BYE!!!

lol

 

[Lissa]

That's too bad...oh well...

BYE!!!

lol

Be nice!

 

[musicmom]

I have replied to you in the thread. I do not have any interest in signing a deal with you since that is an unreasonable request. What would I gain from selling your information? Why would anyone want information on someone named musicmom? most people use fake ID's on forums. The only value I gain is if I can build a lot of traffic and maybe make some money selling advertising- just like any other site on the internet.


Quote:
Originally Posted by musicmom
<I>That is my concern but how can you gaurentee that? With as many forums as you will have and as many posters and information you are going to have, I don't see your benefit of taking over a site. There has to be revenue in it for you someway and usually that's selling our information. Do you have a contract stating that NONE of our information will be sold or given to ANY or ALL third parties? I never agreed to that.
Posting a pic of your family is not enough, sorry. Concerned.</I>

I never asked you for an individual contract Sanjay, I wanted a gaurentee that you do not sell our email address or any of our information which you STILL have not given a gaurentee to.
With the attitude that you have I'm sure you will be seen right through.
You get so angry when approached about information. Did I hit a nerve?

Fooser, one day your balls will drop and you will become a man.......maybe.