Goodbye

Scott - thanks for being honest, now go home and enjoy your family, and phuk em for the time being

Hopefully i havent said anything out of line, and I hope things turn out great for you Scott, doesnt seem fair at {b]Too take all the flack[b] for something that isnt ur fault.


Well Good Luck

Right on dude...people ALWYAS think that if you charge for something , then you MUST be rich... seen it all to often when i was STARVING as a tech , but people still wanted **** for free...

I have sat in the chatroom , and defended this since yesterday , and , while im not happy about it, i DO understand that , hey, its a real world out there , and good things do cost. One shot of $50 per year is gonna be a hard sell to my corporate off , but its all relative , as they were completely ok with the $30k + that i blew on Exchange 2k upgrades.

People need to get used to this , the internet IS NOT going to be the same place it used to be , as the websites lean farther and farther away from advertisong only revenues and more to REAL PROFIT generation. Guess what people? BANDWIDTH COSTS , SERVERS COST , Maitenance COSTS. maybe not you , if you are in your dorm room running off the .edu's T1 , or at your business, but rest assured , the cheapest t1 _I_ can have dropped for MY office is $1100. an guess what , a T1 isnt THAT much bandwidth when it truly comes to hosting a site that takes hits like this.

Im sure that if we could all donate bandwidth and reliable hardware , we could have kept this site free. but we cant just send bandwidth in an envelope up to chicago , or wherever the hell the server racks are.

as for WHY he is NOW charging , BLAME YOURSELF! if you ALL clicked the banner ad's EVERYTIME you used the page, scott would have made plenty money. but no , and im not saying im anybetter than anybody , as i tune banner and popup ad out completely, all im saying is that im not completely blindsided, nor am i angry with scott.

Dudes gotta eat,and hell , hopefully he will get to be VERY rich , as this is HOW he deserves for this to turn out.

and yeah , im still bitching about $50 , but if thats what it costs , thats what it costs , and thats what ill just have to pay , even if i have to pay for it out of my pocket.

but what do i know? im just a guy who likes to help out for free in the chatroom...oh , its a good thing my office pays me a salary , cause as much as id like to sit in the room 18 hours a day , somehow i dont think i could go to the grocery store and say "hey , i help in the windrivers chatroom" and have them say "great , pick out whatever you like , and you can just have it"

greedy american syndrome , wal~mart mentality... i want something but i cant afford it , so there fore i can get somthing subtandard... friggen drives me crazy...

[quote]Originally posted by WinDrivers:
<strong>>>>Sorry to see that making money has become more important than helping people.

Oh, so let me see, the past five years I've been a nice guy trying to keep it for free as long as I could and now I'm a greedy American pig. Where were you when I ran this out of my house paying close to $10,000 a month just to keep it going for free to help people like yourselves, hoping that the advertising revenue would cover the costs. Why didn't you send me a couple of bucks to help keep it going then?? Where were you when I neglected my family and kids, putting in ten hours a day while working a full-time job to try and make things easy and convenient and make everyone's job a little easier and their day a little brighter?? Did you offer to help??? No??? I guess it's easier to sit back and complain when things don't go your way.

And why, oh why, do all these people complain and then say "I can get this stuff for free elsewhere", boo hoo hoo, well then, what do you care, stop complaining and move on...I really appreciate everyone who has supported this site in the past five years, especially Darren Wilson who's been with me from the start and all the mods and if I ever do make a load of money, I'll be sure to spread the wealth. But that ain't not happening, you see, I waited until the last possible moment to sell the site because it killed me but it had to be done, the very month I sold the site, the stock market tanked and I and others lost out, no biggie, I'm over it but get over the "sell-out" crap. If I didn't sell out, the site would have been gone two years ago when I sold, sell or fold, sell or fold, no amount of donations could have kept it going, unless... you all chipped in $30 a year, oh wait, 8 cents a day for convenience is too much, so I sold and now I have less headaches and I see my family, ya f'in hoo! You're telling ME that if you had a chance to make a milion bucks which would help your entire family, friends and charities, that you'd rather be a nice guy and help people and work eighteen hour days and not know your own kids, WOW, that sounds like a whole mess of fun cowboy, see you in the welfare line and divorce court where you can tell everyone else your big philanthropic story of being the DriverGuy, that and nickle will get you...well....a nickle.

Nextly, do you realize how many people visit this site every month, over 1 million unique visitors, that's means one milion different people and over four million visits per month by those 1 million plus people. So, for example, take the threads that are complaining about internet.com charging for the site, probably a couple hundred people ranting, most of them hardcore WinDrivers users, I love you all really but a couple hundred out of a million... WinDrivers will be around for a long time, trust me, the subscriptions are already a huge success.

Later and thanks for all the fish!

10 Print "Rant";
20 Goto 10</strong><hr></blockquote>


Damn straight Driver guy! You tell 'em. Most folks just don't see the time and dedication that is needed to create something or the cost to maintain it. Heck, hosting a site that gets no hits costs about $100 or less for sign up and about $500. over 5 years. That's if you get few hits. Now, if you get a ton of hits - the unlimited bandwidth of your server contract suddenly changes and you get kicked or you get bills for $ the likes of which you never dreamed of.

I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you for everything that you have done over the years to bring everyone together up here. For creating a family, though rife with growing pains we are all a part of a whole that you created. Some of us would be lost without this place and you are owed more than a debt of gratitude. Thank you Scott for all of your time and patience. Thank you for my Internet home page. Thank you for making things easier for techs everywhere. You are a man amongst men and I wish you luck with this site and any future endeavors.

Please read my statement <a href="http://forums.windrivers.com/cgi-bin/forum3/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=18&t=000692&p=15#00 0213" target="_blank">here</a>.

I will pay because you have helped me so much in the past, Scott. The bill has come in the mail, and I don't mind paying it. I will put in my 3000 cents to keep Windrivers afloat.

yeah i hear ya .. well i;m one who bashed at first but seeing it from the other side really makes the picture clearer . I think the big problem is not that it act. cost us money . Its that we had it for free then tooken away from us .. thats so much different than not having it at all .. well goodluck guys . i hope it works out .

-tony

i think everyone just needs to take a pill and lay down til the temptation to rage passes.
so the owners have decided to make this a 'pay for play' site, ok, 2 of my favorite streaming audio sites have started charging to listen. it's nothing new and it will become more prevalent every day. broadband providers have begun raising rates also for the same amount of bandwidth.
scott has done yeoman duty here, we all know that, and i am sure there is LOTS we don't know about. keeping a site this large updated and running smoothly is a time-consuming (and generally thankless) task.
i have seen countless rants against the mods (and scott too) over meaningless, childish things. frankly, i don't think i would have put up with it. i would've closed the site.
so if you don't want to pay...don't...drivers are everywhere. can you say Google? i bet you can.
but, lay off the Driverguy for business decisions that are in all likelihood out of his hands.
God bless you scott...you have helped countless people. don't let the silliness of a few get you down.

After quietly reading all of the posts, I have to admit that Scott is in a position that none of us want to be faced with. This site was his baby, a thankless effort. Now he is employed to keep this site running, but has little control over policy. Many people have said they would have no problem contributing if it went straight into his pocket. Well, its a little too late to contribute directly to that endeavor. However, I think it is time to show some appreciation on his behalf. Scott, do everyone a favor tomorrow. Set up a P.O. box and post it to the Forum. You have several years worth of Christmas gifts just waiting to be delivered.

You can pay for the site service or not... But I am ready to pay respect to the Father of Windrivers.
God Bless.

[quote]Originally posted by -=Longhorn=-:
<strong>After quietly reading all of the posts, I have to admit that Scott is in a position that none of us want to be faced with. This site was his baby, a thankless effort. Now he is employed to keep this site running, but has little control over policy. Many people have said they would have no problem contributing if it went straight into his pocket. Well, its a little too late to contribute directly to that endeavor. However, I think it is time to show some appreciation on his behalf. Scott, do everyone a favor tomorrow. Set up a P.O. box and post it to the Forum. You have several years worth of Christmas gifts just waiting to be delivered.

You can pay for the site service or not... But I am ready to pay respect to the Father of Windrivers.
God Bless.</strong><hr></blockquote>

Thats one of the nicest things i have read in a very long time, i am all for it

Scott,

Sorry to see you doing this song and dance as well. Like you, we tried many different things on 3dfiles and tweakfiles and the usual parade of people come through not understanding we are at a serious crossroad in this market. Many, many sites are going to subscription or partial subscribtion and during what should be the highly profitable months. Many sites (like ours) have been shut down.

I predicted the downsizing of the net years ago (obviously if there was room for 100,000 websites, there would be 100,000 television stations, pretty simple to see this one coming) but it sucks to watch.

People dont understand many of these successful websites require 24\7 attention. I took no vacations and worked all sorts of nutty hours including holidays while putting my family and health on the back burner for 4 years. During the final year and at the end, I did well financially, but the sacrifices I made were not worth it. I think if I could take it back, I would seriously consider it.

I have been kicking back the last couple of months getting ready start up another website and give it a go (with a fresh attitude). Its in the building stages, but will be similar to what tweakfiles was. It will be located at <a href="http://www.majorgeeks.com" target="_blank">http://www.majorgeeks.com</a> (theres nothing there now). I hope you and your visitors stop by. We should be up and kicking in a couple weeks.

hope all goes well scott...i will continue to try to help in the chatroom..but as most know i rarely post in the forums anymore..not that i ever really did...only reason i even registered is so i could moderate the cyrix forums...was a life long dream and scott made it happen...thanks again man...
weck

Don't let it get to you, Scott, this must have been a toughie.

It's easy to feel deprived if something that was free starts to cost. But it's also easy to miss the point: it was never free - it was just that somebody else was paying for it.

If it's what must be done to secure the survival of WinDrivers, I hope it is successful and the Forums can remain a no-charge site. I can't see why anyone would pay to post tech help. But as long as access is free, I'll be here, for what that's worth.

Speaking as a newbie compared to some, I have to admit I use this site more than any other site. It has everthing in one place, and for a newbie that means a lot. My time is valuable to, and if I can save time here it means more time for more valuable things,i.e. family, having a life. So I think I will go on supporting this site. A simple rule is you get what you pay for, and if you ain't paying, then stop complaining!

[quote]Originally posted by -=Longhorn=-:
<strong>After quietly reading all of the posts, I have to admit that Scott is in a position that none of us want to be faced with. This site was his baby, a thankless effort. Now he is employed to keep this site running, but has little control over policy. Many people have said they would have no problem contributing if it went straight into his pocket. Well, its a little too late to contribute directly to that endeavor. However, I think it is time to show some appreciation on his behalf. Scott, do everyone a favor tomorrow. Set up a P.O. box and post it to the Forum. You have several years worth of Christmas gifts just waiting to be delivered.

You can pay for the site service or not... But I am ready to pay respect to the Father of Windrivers.
God Bless.</strong><hr></blockquote>
--------------------------------------------------
Here-Here

:)

You know when I used to use an independant driver,or utility,I would read the read me file.Sometimes it would say send $$ or a pic to their address.I did,and I would send both,and I would write on the back of the pic,I'm behind you.I've been utilizing this site since "98",and if it's at all possible,I would like to send both to Scott aka. Driver Guy.I'm behind you.

All comments aside,

I cannot understand, how someone (read: internet.com management primate) can really expect people to fork out for this re-direction service. Are people really so fscking lazy, that they cannot live without it?

Dear Internet.com,

Blow me.

Ta.
-Cameron Jones
Network Administrator