[nearly original] Open Letter to Endless Sphere Community

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F**K... i was somehow waiting for him to call his actions back... so childish of me thinking he cold at least for a minute feel and think about us.
damn, i just deleted several lines because I was too harsh and im not even active and still im deeply pissed, I wonder how the bright minds with thousands posts are feeling.
Betrayed! But yet i think knight was dumb... I dont know how much the dummie payed for our posts, but im sure WE as a community could pay alot more to keep the feeling of being free alive!!!

=(

+10 Len.. TKS
 
Trevors words like "monetizing the community" and "slice this pie" say it all, and since ES comes near the top in almost any ebike related search, the chances are slim that any reasonable resolution via Justin or whoever ends up being successful. It was great while it lasted and I hope to see everyone at whatever my new favorite place on the internet ends up being.

Look on the bright side, I'm sure the new place won't have similar frustrating and absurd downtime, and we won't have to worry about another gut wrenching event like this. A more EV related name would be nice too.

In the meantime I can focus more time on building. 8)

John
 
John in CR said:
Trevors words like "monetizing the community" and "slice this pie" say it all, and since ES comes near the top in almost any ebike related search, the chances are slim that any reasonable resolution via Justin or whoever ends up being successful. It was great while it lasted and I hope to see everyone at whatever my new favorite place on the internet ends up being.

Look on the bright side, I'm sure the new place won't have similar frustrating and absurd downtime, and we won't have to worry about another gut wrenching event like this. A more EV related name would be nice too.

In the meantime I can focus more time on building. 8)

John

John... I hardly think ES ll be top in google for over 12-18 months without the minds... Even if it does stay on top, I ll be where the gurus are!
Im not mistake if you can proof that John in CR is John XYZ in real life you ll have legal rights in all your post... :)
 
Andy and Trevors intentions are now clear to me. Purchase ES and make money.

Trevor, while you can buy the name, you can't buy the people.
The contributors on ES have made it clear that they are not for sale.

An offer has been made by the community to buy the site from you.

I think it is wise to concider this option.

You picked the wrong site.

This is a community not a bunch of words and pictures.

If you proceed with your intentions the spirit of ES will ensure there is little of value left for you.

Please, step away. Take you show to another town. Respect out community and let us be.
 
Ypedal said:
I still think ES can continue as it was, but not under this type of ownership...

Come on Trevor, i think it's obvious by now that it's best for everyone that you go fishing somewhere else, give us a reasonable price / dollar figure and give us back the keys to the house..

+1

-methods
 
Lenk42602 said:
has anyone created a current member email address database yet?
Not that I am aware of. I don't even have any contact info except for a few people (maybe four or five, and I'm not even sure of that).
 
So this is what they mean by the magnetosphere reversing, I smell an ice age.

Seriously guys and you all know who I mean (recumpence, live4physics, methods, ypedal, Lock, Jeremy Harris, John in CR, etc)... we all need to chat because this is going to turn into just another commercialized Piece of SH** which endorses junk of advertisers not becuase the quality of products or service, etc...

The one thing I've always counted on here on ES is that there were no corporate sponsors perse and thus much more open and honest discourse without trash recommendations made for profit (yea some out of ignorance, but noone is perfect).

I think the time is finally here, lord knows I've offered to mirror and even host this damn thing for free just to ensure no further data losses over time and I could care a less about bandwidth, my personal internet is a pair of 45/45MBIT lines with a 12 server farm... you should see my colocated racks, ha.... backboned with OC45s. I never asked for a dime and offered to host and take all the responsibility for the technical day to day... I also offered to just mirror the data, or just free hosting from my clusters (across the US and Eurpoe) to knightkmb.... never seemed an interest.

Every bit of information we have "lost" in the past year was invaluable, now ES will be more like a Rag paper than a true user community.

Those of you who feel the same, that something needs to be done - if it is only to start a new community based, no advertising site which doesn't loose data.... email me directly at mwkeefer@gmail.com, for those of you who know me... call me on the phone directly, my french sucks but I would even try there.

We dont need to become a corporate managed advertising forum to have better uptime.

One thing I'm curious about, why was the option to trasnfer the forums out to US the membership... the only answer I can arrive at (being a reasonable person) is Money $$$.

Deepest Respect for those who deserve it, unbelievable dissappointment in you others :(

Regards, :(
Mike Keefer
mwkeefer@gmail.com
267-303-7050

PS: My cost to host this forum on redundant, distributed servers with unlimited bandwidth and nearly unlimited capacity raid capable drive arrays is practically ZERO since I already have so much infrastructure in place already and it would be my honor to work with the old and new members to re-establish elsewhere's our community if needed... Lord knows it's the quality of information and the quantity of participants who make this forum a target for commercialization - I can tell you this, and I'm certain many can and will attest to it... I would still offer this even if it cost me huge out of pocket, without ES I would know nothing about electric bikes, let alone the vast amount of knowledge I've gained just after having an ES topic peak my interest (Tiberious, Gary Goodrum, SpinningMagnets, etc). Without this open community and our participation in it, there is no Endless-Sphere.com/forums.

PPS: There are too many people who contribute in a major way I have not mentioned, forgive me... it's 12:00am and I'm pressed to get a shitload of work done tonight.... I wouldn't even have known of this if several members didnt pm, im, face book, txt or call me tonight... Wish I had known sooner.
 
Ok... are you guys ready to get nasty?

LFP likes the angle of threatening to leave. That is a VALID THREAT... but let me make an analogy...

A stun gun will mess you up bad right?
Everybody knows that...
But what happens when you threaten a bear (or a retarded midget) with a stun gun?
NOTHING

Why?
Because they dont understand the threat.

This is what we are running up against here. Trevor and Andy R are not capable of grasping the fact that they have woken a sleeping giant. The only way we can wake them up would be to stun them... which would be stunning ourselves!

I dont like stunning myself

I have a different solution
I say we temporarily pollute the entire forum with propaganda.
Every signature
Every forum
Every post

Tell the world that we have been taken hostage!!!!

Tell every advertiser that we are captives!

Tell every noob that this place is under siege!

It would be like a hunger strike. How long do you think Trevor will hang around when every single post in every single forum is calling him a DOUCHE BAG???

He cant delete all of our posts!
He cant switch to a backup every morning!
He cant make any money
He will have to get the F*&K out of here.

That is what I say we do!

Running away like a bunch of scared girls?
NOPE
I am not leaving this place to those scammer punks to profit off of

I AM NEVER LEAVING
YOU DONT EVEN KNOW WHAT A TROLL IS UNTIL YOU GET A LOT OF ME PUNKS!!!!!

They want LFP and all the outspoken people to leave so they can just post the number and milk the dead husk that is left.

Lets PAINT THE WALLS WITH WHAT IS HAPPENING

Don't delete your posts
Post the Truth!

-methods
 
Pat - Here Here + 1

Lets not forget - incase they suspend access to prevent a mutany, we have a FaceBook group David Silva (neptronix) was kind enough to assemble but only about 40 of us have joined up and added ourselves to the list of members and our names here...
I would encourage everyone who feels as Methods, myself and tens of dozens of others feel about this to join the facebook group and add yourselves to the Who's who document so if we indeed to reform in a fully NON commercial way with membership ownership and control.... we will be able to find each other.

And Yea, this is what one would call hostile, dirty, underhanded and truly myopic.... what idiot tries this here and thinks it will go off?

-Mike

See my previous post and PM
 
Like this>

* Go to the Technical Forum
* Start a thread titled "Awesome pink bike build"
* Fill that thread with links to this thread

I really think if we trash our own forum the trolls will leave.
We keep it trashed until they do

When they are gone, we all go and clean up our own trash

Simple solution that will work.

-methods
 
Amen. Started...
 
Interesting events, many of which I don't understand.

What I do understand is how much I've learned here, and that with the knowledge YOU GUYS gave me I have gone from thought to two finished projects (a tricycle and a bicycle).

I certainly wasn't getting anywhere on bikeforums.net (a fine site, but not for e-bikes). I felt like I was spinning my wheels there (pun intended) trying to learn.

I look back on those days of searching Ebay, having no idea what I was looking at, wondering if that WE kit would be good or that other kit. I knew nothing.

This website is what taught me. You guys have given far more to me than I've given in return.

This is the number one site in America for building e-bikes. I don't know how influential it is in other nations, but I've seen a lot of Australia and Britain represented here.

My point is that Endless Sphere is really good. I wonder what will happen to it.
------------------------------------

Here's a parallel: Years ago I started a website called "The Greater Atlanta Society of Surfers." I did everything myself, and had to use a learn a lot of code in a short amount of time. We got up to 49 surfers who lived in the Atlanta area. I made profiles, photo albums...everything. This was in the 90s, and making a website back then wasn't easy. We had discussions and eventually formed our first "meeting," which was a party at the Hard Rock in Atlanta. There were thirty of us sitting there eating, drinking, and talking about surfing. We had surf trips, events, etc. I even had a big party at my house and tons of people all showed up. Each of us thought, up until that time, that we were each the only surfers in Atlanta. We all came from other places (coastal places), but for various reasons found ourselves 250 miles from the ocean, and were so lonely (as surfers). We found each other and it was good.

Then I did something dumb: I moved the site to a Yahoo club or something. I forget. I was tired from hours upon hours of making the website, that when a clubs site came along that allowed each user to input his information, I thought it would be a welcomed break.

Only about 14 surfers moved over to the new site, and eventually that faded away.

I moved to California (but am now back in Atlanta) and it died entirely.

There is a club called The Atlanta Surf Posse on Meetup.com or something like that, but those corporate sites just don't have the same pull as a stand alone.
 
Well, looks like I just made it in the door for last call. I’ve been lurking for a while and have learned a ton. I was actually about to make my first post asking for some feedback on a pack build…then saw Method’s sig.

My take is: I could give a shit about Endless-Sphere. It has no intrinsic value…other than emotional attachment for you guys that lived in it for the past years. The value is in the core posters. And note that the other 95% of us lurkers and noobs are still DIYers. We still can weed out the best forum for our interests. And will find it. Hell if just Luke and Methods put it in their signatures before turning the lights off…we’d all find it.

And anyone who’s spent more than a few hours sifting the threads can pick out the talent, and the contributors. That’s the value. And from someone who’s been sifting for a few weeks….the realm of E-vehicles is changing so rapidly…that posts form a year ago are almost irrelevant at this point. The value is in the present…which is produced by the core. And even those that find ES a month from now will quickly figure out that all the smart guys quit posting.

So ba-bamm, Trev-whore shows up speaking like every boss we’ve ever hated. Does he not know this place is made up of engineers…most of us who’ve worked for years under some asshole who talks just like he does? He would have been better off hiring Aussie Jester just to tell us to go F ourselves if we have a problem with what he does. At least that response we could have credited some honesty.

And for those thinking Trev-whore might change his ways and repent… Don’t forget his motivation: to make money. Who cares how he does it. Ads…. Or his righteous proposal of milking vendors?!!!

It looks to me like most of the vendors on here are guys who are selling items as a service to the community. You think Gary is getting drunk with high dollar call girls and rolling around naked in pile of cash and non-release candidate BMS boards every night? Icecube’s making shit-tons off those headers? So some how T-whore is just going to “Monetize” the hell out of those guys? I think not. Say hello to your new Daddy fellahs.

What will happen is this: T-bag’s clinching up at the castle he just turned into a house of cards. Even if we demand he plays by our rules, promises to never make us ad-bait, and even brings us Andy’s severed hollowed out skull for us to fill with beer and drink to our freedom and sovereignty…as soon he can he will doc the web-traffic up in business plan and sell this bitch to someone who’ll make Andy look like Andy-Griffeth.

So really there’s only one option. Go to the new forum. One suggestion for the new house however: give the ownership to several of the trusted members and poison pill the partnership contract. That way if, if a new party inherits a portion of the ownership…it can’t be sold to the next monetizing T-hole.

Luke, someone, anyone, let us know where the next party’s at.
 
GMUseless said:
Well, looks like I just made it in the door for last call. I’ve been lurking for a while and have learned a ton. I was actually about to make my first post asking for some feedback on a pack build…then saw Method’s sig.

My take is: I could give a shit about Endless-Sphere. It has no intrinsic value…other than emotional attachment for you guys that lived in it for the past years. The value is in the core posters. And note that the other 95% of us lurkers and noobs are still DIYers. We still can weed out the best forum for our interests. And will find it. Hell if just Luke and Methods put it in their signatures before turning the lights off…we’d all find it.

And anyone who’s spent more than a few hours sifting the threads can pick out the talent, and the contributors. That’s the value. And from someone who’s been sifting for a few weeks….the realm of E-vehicles is changing so rapidly…that posts form a year ago are almost irrelevant at this point. The value is in the present…which is produced by the core. And even those that find ES a month from now will quickly figure out that all the smart guys quit posting.

So ba-bamm, Trev-whore shows up speaking like every boss we’ve ever hated. Does he not know this place is made up of engineers…most of us who’ve worked for years under some asshole who talks just like he does? He would have been better off hiring Aussie Jester just to tell us to go F ourselves if we have a problem with what he does. At least that response we could have credited some honesty.

And for those thinking Trev-whore might change his ways and repent… Don’t forget his motivation: to make money. Who cares how he does it. Ads…. Or his righteous proposal of milking vendors?!!!

It looks to me like most of the vendors on here are guys who are selling items as a service to the community. You think Gary is getting drunk with high dollar call girls and rolling around naked in pile of cash and non-release candidate BMS boards every night? Icecube’s making shit-tons off those headers? So some how T-whore is just going to “Monetize” the hell out of those guys? I think not. Say hello to your new Daddy fellahs.

What will happen is this: T-bag’s clinching up at the castle he just turned into a house of cards. Even if we demand he plays by our rules, promises to never make us ad-bait, and even brings us Andy’s severed hollowed out skull for us to fill with beer and drink to our freedom and sovereignty…as soon he can he will doc the web-traffic up in business plan and sell this bitch to someone who’ll make Andy look like Andy-Griffeth.

So really there’s only one option. Go to the new forum. One suggestion for the new house however: give the ownership to several of the trusted members and poison pill the partnership contract. That way if, if a new party inherits a portion of the ownership…it can’t be sold to the next monetizing T-hole.

Luke, someone, anyone, let us know where the next party’s at.

What an EPIC first post!! :lol:
 
Regarding Methods' call to action, I already started this with a link in my sig, and this icon:
file.php

in my sig, as well as the first thing in each of my existing project threads (that I have links to in my handy folder for that).
I've started using that logo on my posts, signature, etc., to represent the idea that what we do is not for that purpose--it's freely given but not to earn money from, even indirectly.

Also a link to this thread in the last post of my major project threads.

I've posted a link in my blog (long inactive, so probably not being followed by many these days, but still...) to this thread.
http://electricle.blogspot.com/2011/08/hostile-takeover-at-endless-sphere.html

I also (a few hours ago, IIRC) re-stickied this thread, as it had gotten unstickied for some reason.
 
So.....we have the ebike gurus. We have the resources (mwkeefers generous offer of hosting). We have the IT know how (multiple people including myself - I am certified to the hilt and ran my own IT consultancy for 10 years). We will soon have a lot of the good content recovered.

We even have the best ebike domain in the world (possibly) - ebikes.com.

I was prepared to give this guy the benefit of the doubt at first, but his lack of engagement has pissed me off no end. This is a community where people will post into the small hours about obscure mods to an obscure controller. And this guy turns the whole shit upside down, makes one post, them fucks off to the pub?

I'm up for it and will happily donate whatever time I have at my disposal.

I have a rented co-lo server of my own in London - I don't have the bandwidth on it for ES but just to let you know I am familiar with the whole deal and have the skills to help.

This could be a big step up for the ES community if we play it right.

I agree with Methods sentiment, but there is nothing here to stick around for. If Clever Trevor capitulates then we still have to deal with KnightMB who obviously cannot help us any more. It is time to move.

The only flaw in the plan is that.....yes.....ebikes.com is the perfect domain name, but I expect Justin paid a lot of money for it and has major plans for it. I personally would like to see this website on a domain if it's own. Ebikes.com would of course be perfect, but we would need to somehow compensate Justin for a hugely significant loss if he were to give it up for the forum.

But that would be the ideal solution to me. ebikes.com on mwkeefers servers, with a bunch of us IT techies (who wanted to help before but were knocked down by knightMB) behind it.....allowing our heroic cutting edge electrical engineers do what they do best .

We could have "NO SELL OUT" written into the new sites constitution, just in case any forum vampires and their gollums got any ideas.
 
Amberwolf... leader of the ES rEVolution! :)


-methods
 
Methods....it's rEVolution! :wink:
 
Hell of a first post!! I like this guy

GMUseless

So ba-bamm, Trev-whore shows up speaking like every boss we’ve ever hated

How does one find the Facebook group?
 
methods said:
Amberwolf... leader of the ES rEVolution! :)
Me? I don't think I could be leader of *anything*. :lol:
 
You are doing it right now bro... and you better keep it up because I am going night night.

I hammered on this thread for over 10 hours today.
Someone needs to pick up where I am leaving off. The wife needs servicing and I need sleep.

Change your sigs...

Get the message out.


-methods
 
amberwolf said:
Me? I don't think I could be leader of *anything*. :lol:

And that is exactly the attitude that makes a great leader in my mind. Just keep doing what you do AW. It's your actions, not your intent, that makes you an inspiration.
 
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