The Actual Dslreports Shuttering Facts

HFB1217

Let me do a general reply.

Stop with the Political Junk Stuff for the web site shutting down and the reason for the abrupt closure.
Here are the actual true facts given to me in private quoted communications from a couple of the Moderators I knew and had relationship with when I was a site Moderator at DSLr.

The Money and income had run out and the Billing exceeded income
The past billings was not Paid.
Site Maintenance was not performed and too much was broken
Cabana was doing the site management Justin has abandoned the site and she was tired of the responsibility and work load.
Too many people were posting about the eminent shutting because of my relating it to them and others relating it also to the other members about the Secret Closure and Cabana was moving the postings to the "Out of Site Forum" it seemed this series of postings to have pissed Her off so she retaliated with the promised no released Killing.
It was directed by Cabana not to sell and not to transfer Management and Ownership to anybody.
This is not Politically motivated there was no politics involved it was Finances, Poor Management, Maintenance not being performed, Cabana was Overworked Without Remuneration and with a Pissed Off Driven EGO focus
No Politics Involved Mentioned and Pointed Too just Undeniable Poor Management Poor Oversight and a lack of Responsibility
It was Discussed in early December with the Moderators and I was told then by a Mod and started disseminating it then to others but had to be known to management prior to that December meeting what was taking place.

9a. At that time it was decided that in Early January of the New Year to Shutter and Kill the site Secretly without a Warning.

10.

InternetJeff

HFB1217

HFB1217 It was directed by Cabana not to sell and not to transfer Management and Ownership to anybody.

That's interesting. Implies that Cabana had (legal?) authority to direct/control of certain ownership aspects?

What's your take on some of the messages that have been posted on the website (in between the 5-minute access periods)?

HFB1217

Stop Look and Learn.
The actual Happenings Leading to the Killing of DSLreports.

Dks01

HFB1217 Do tell.

HFB1217

Let me do a general reply.

The Money and income had run out and the Billing exceeded income
The past billings was not Paid.
Site Maintenance was not performed and too much was broken
Cabana was doing the site management Justin has abandoned the site and she was tired of the responsibility and work load.
Too many people were posting about the eminent shutting because of my relating it to them and others relating it also to the other members about the Secret Closure and Cabana was moving the postings to the "Out of Site Forum" it seemed this series of postings to have pissed Her off so she retaliated with the promised no released Killing.
It was directed by Cabana not to sell and not to transfer Management and Ownership to anybody.
This is not Politically motivated there was no politics involved it was Finances, Poor Management, Maintenance not being performed, Cabana was Overworked Without Remuneration and with a Pissed Off Driven EGO focus
No Politics Involved Mentioned and Pointed Too just Undeniable Poor Management Poor Oversight and a lack of Responsibility
It was Discussed in early December with the Moderators and I was told then by a Mod and started disseminating it then to others but had to be known to management prior to that December meeting what was taking place.

9a. At that time it was decided that in Early January of the New Year to Shutter and Kill the site Secretly without a Warning.

10.

Hydraglass

HFB1217 Thats all well and good but it means as of today someone has paid all the bills. LW wouldn't turn back on hardware for someone overdue on bills, I've worked with hundreds of different hosting accounts and companies and if you're over due they disconnect your server and don't turn it back on until all the bills are paid. In this case the servers were never actually shut off - they all kept answering on their IP addresses - they had their processes stopped for certain server processes, but that's not what a web hosting company does when you don't pay. They shut the hardware down and lock you out until you're up to date -- so the story while it could be what mods claim, does not at all track with what happened the last 3 weeks hardware-wise, and especially now with things coming back online.

This looks more like someone just had a hissy fit and turned a bunch of stuff off and broke a bunch of stuff on the way out the door. DNS and Nginx servers were still on, admin.dslreports.com was still asking for login, i.dslr,com was still able to serve cached images on and off, etc. That's not unpaid bills. That's someone f'ing around with the levers -- and with the servers (still on the same IP addresses as a month ago) are now talking and serving data and pages again, that's indicating all bills and $ are up to date with liquid web, and are not "broke no $".

camper

HFB1217 It was directed by Cabana not to sell and not to transfer Management and Ownership to anybody.

That is the part I cannot understand.

HooRU

Interesting and sad. I don't know who Cabama was/is, but they were the ones locking threads and heading moderation?

bjf123

What was the source of any income? I never saw any ads. Also didn’t see any way to contribute or subscribe.

HFB1217

bjf123 They sold the testing information from the speed test and line quality and
had an arrangement with google to supply member information for customizing advertising use along with site linked ads. You selected when joining not to display ADs but they were there with a money generating click every time you accessed the site and the forums so as to link your identity to the ADs.
The TOS said information was private and not to be sold but there was a loophole in the TOS that all information could be released to contracted site affiliates and Google was one if those site contracted affiliates.
Secondly the TOS could be changed without restrictions or review by just publishing it in any Dslr site forum.
Also they had a mailing with personal information of 1.8+ million members that was worth big dollars for rental or sale
Their downfall was that only at the time of operation it was said there were only a few hundred of active members online at a time. So the Revenue from all sources that were member driven were not able to pay the bills.

px_eliezer_

bjf123 What was the source of any income? I never saw any ads.

There were ads especially if someone did NOT log in.

I sometimes deliberately did not log in, not just to see the ads but also in case it possibly helped the site.

Smith6612

bjf123

The site had a few ways to make money.

1: Tool Points. For a while you could buy tool points to skip ahead of the queues for their Line Quality tests, as well as pay Tool Points for ongoing line monitoring. All of those testing suites were hosted in Amazon EC2. Minus the Line Quality test which was custom, the Line Monitoring service was basically automated rrdtool.

2: Advertisements. The site had them. Granted, many people on that site probably used an Adblocker, so they weren't visible anyways.

3: Premium. The site had a Premium Member feature where for $10 you could upgrade your account and go Ad-free and get other perks like priority access to the testing tools, especially with the old Speed Test (not the newer Buffer Bloat one, but you had more customization options to eat more bandwidth). I don't know if the site supported Gifting Premium to users, but I remember years ago logging in one day to find my account had been upgraded by someone or something.

HFB1217

Hydraglass

Can't transfer or sell until the site license expires some time in late 2027 they can hold it for security of the debt with a lien preventing their use of the domain

Guy54435

Speaking of income I spent $10 for premium membership, was there pretty much since the beginning lurking and signed up 2003, Anywho wonder if I can get a refund, I was hoping my investment in the end would cost 25 cents a year, instead it has cost me 40 cents a year. Wonder who I can contact for a refund. /s

Rook

Guy54435 😆 For a second there I thought you were serious.

HFB1217

Guy54435 The premium membership was not refundable and mine was similar to yours and just before the site closing down mine was over stamped closed and inactive

gwailodan

HFB1217

HFB1217 an arrangement with google to supply member information for customizing advertising use along with site linked ads.

So is data here being supplied to google?

Guy54435

HFB1217 Yep thats why I put the /s at the end

MJF

From the DSLR website about the 5 minute window
Signed "DHMU -Justin"
:-)

antdude

MJF I had to look up DHMU: https://duckduckgo.com/?kl=us-en&q=DHMU. Justin is still around. 😮

HFB1217

MJF Brackets brackets its not signed by Justin its a point of information ONLY

Bracketed items are an indication of information or clarification and not for a signature

broknsymetry

gwailodan https://broadbandbulletin.com/p/1-terms

HFB1217

gwailodan

Reference is for DSLreports NOT FOR HERE

gwailodan

broknsymetry
I had a quick read and don't see one way or the other whether data is sold. Am I missing something?

HFB1217

gwailodan
DUH read the Topic Title It says DSLreports Not this Site

broknsymetry

🤷

HFB1217

antdude

NO Justine is not around the DHMU -Justin was put there by Liquid Web to tell you not bothering to contact him be because he had nothing to do with this it is explained in postings here in this topic