Dear WWWendy,

[AZY]

Wendy proclaims this on her Linked In profile:

I have been developing Web sites for small businesses and non-profits for fifteen years. I specialize in helping organizations connect with their audience by building strong online communities. I help organizations make the most of a modest Web budget.

I also own, operate, and moderate Videofitness.com, a 17,000+ member community of fitness enthusiasts


Whatever is going on with Wendy, hope she is okay and will honor her 17,000+ members by giving the website over to others if she is no longer interested, or reviving her interest and working toward maintaining the website. I too would be glad to donate wherever needed.....

[sheepla]

Originally Posted by prettyinpink

i didn’t know wendy personally, but it makes sense to me that if she did contact someone to let them know she is okay, it would be someone she considers a friend from years back.

It seems obvious to me that this forum is dying like so many others are and have done. I didn’t think vbulletin even offered more updates, but there is a new version 6.0 this year.

This has probably been mentioned before, but this site is version 3. According to wikipedia,
“vbulletin 5 was released in 2012.
In late 2017, a post by technical support lead, wayne luke, confirmed that vbulletin 3 and vbulletin 4 were now considered to be "end of life" software, with no further development of the series planned.”

the forum would need a major update, either to the newest version of vbulletin, or something else. Major forum updates, from what i have seen, require effort, money, sometimes major tech support for fixes, and from what i’ve observed, some data can get lost along the way even then.

With no communication, no involvement, it’s clear that the owner does not have the interest or ability to do this.

Of the forums available to transition to when vf’s demise occurs, which best offers control by a group of interested parties? Because, and no offense to anyone intended, including www, who offered this forum for many years, i’d prefer a format that isn’t dependent on just one person giving attention to it. Ime the model of one single person making the rules and being responsible for the whole thing, leads to similar issues, eventually. My 2 cents.

this!

[KarenJo]

I have not and do not expect WWWendy to update this forum or do anything else with it. She did a bunch of research before picking this forum software to transfer to back in 2001, partly based on claims of great tech support and stable software. Then almost immediately people had issues getting registered here with their former VF names, which the software claimed were taken but wouldn't let those they were taken by use them Some people went round and round with not being able to register under their old name and being told they were already registered but not being able to log in. And tech support was not so helpful. It took some members over a month to get registered and some gave up and left. Part of the reason I don't have a Nov 2001 date is that I was out of state dealing with an ill father and didn't want my account messed up, so waited for things to stabilize.

Then when she went to do that 2009 Version 3 update, WWWendy was assured it would be simple, take a short time and there would be support for any issues, so she started it in the middle of the night without a prior notice, though there was a screen telling us an update was in progress. Instead of an hour or two, it took her 2 weeks of 12-to-18-hour days that took a serious toll on her sanity, her family life and her business. At times it looked like she would completely lose the site. Customer support just kept giving her the same brief dialog on how to do the update with zero support for the issues she was having. And there was no way for her to tell people what was going on. She persevered and got the site restored and up using her tech skills from setting up sites for a living. She heard from other site managers that they had the same issues and a couple did lose their site and were unable to restore. WWWendy said at the time that she would not ever update the site again. I think transferring to a new owner would also be an issue for her based on her past experience. Most VFers were understanding and very grateful for her work when they heard about the situation, but WWWendy took a couple of days to get the rest of her life back in order before coming back to post and several people were pretty unkind in their posts during that period.

And I believe someone has posted that this forum software was not going to be supported going forward after the most recent update - not just the old version we're on but all of it. Which may mean this forum is doomed even if WWWendy put in the time and effort to update or transfer it. I doubt she expected to still own this forum almost 30 years from its first incarnation or to spend over 20 years on this site. But the total lack of communication is a mystery and disheartening. Someone is doing things like posting the New Year's Day Marathon on the front-page calendar and deleting some reported posts, but I'm not sure if there is a way to confirm that it's WWWendy or someone else using her credentials. If it is WWWendy, I hope all is well with her outside of VF. I hope to be able to participate in a New Year's Day Marathon next year.

[donnamp]

KarenJo - thank you for that history. I had no idea about all that happened in 2001 and 2009. I was here then but don't recall the disruption. This does open my eyes to the challenges of running this and yes, 20+ years is a long time. I hope that VF continues, it is a part of my daily routine to come here and read posts, check ins, etc. There is so much history and I would hate for it to be lost. But I am thinking there is not much we can do about it.


Donna

[Karla25]

Originally Posted by Vintage VFer

Karla, I find it interesting that you tend to accuse VFers of being unfriendly. In recent years, you quoted me and accused me several times of either making long-time VFers leave or making it so no new folks want to join. I found that extremely rude, insulting and demeaning.

Now you are making the same accusations at FOLV - one of the kindest, most welcoming VFers I've *ever* known on this forum.

Well, you have your own Forum now so you can run it any way that you want. I think I may have signed up for that one some time ago. Please do me the favor of deleting my account there, and banning me forever.

That way you won't have me to blame for membership issues.

I never mentioned you personally, but if the shoe fits I don't remember quoting you, but if I did you were being absolutely being hurtful to someone. I only spoke the truth. I have never called you a liar or questioned your integrity. You know that you can be antagonistic towards others as you've admitted it yourself more than once on this forum. I know people that have left this forum because of meanness not only from you, but from others.

FOLV accused me of lying. She publicly slandered me when she could have sent a private message which I would have noticed and answered. I don't consider that being "one of the kindest, most welcoming VFers I've *ever* known on this forum." You might consider her accusations as acts of kindness. I consider it bullying and rude.

My original post in this thread was only to provide a bit of comfort to another member. I was subsequently called a liar, had a member run a report test to see if her post would get a response（another lie check) and now you're attacking me for standing up for myself.

If I had insinuated or accused someone of lying and was subsequently proven wrong, I would have the decency to apologize. But hey, that's me. I don't expect that from some of the members here.

I'm done reading this thread. It's too negative.

[Vantreesta]

Originally Posted by Karla25

I never mentioned you personally, but if the shoe fits I don't remember quoting you, but if I did you were being absolutely being hurtful to someone. I only spoke the truth. I have never called you a liar or questioned your integrity. You know that you can be antagonistic towards others as you've admitted it yourself more than once on this forum. I know people that have left this forum because of meanness not only from you, but from others.

FOLV accused me of lying. She publicly slandered me when she could have sent a private message which I would have noticed and answered. I don't consider that being "one of the kindest, most welcoming VFers I've *ever* known on this forum." You might consider her accusations as acts of kindness. I consider it bullying and rude.

My original post in this thread was only to provide a bit of comfort to another member. I was subsequently called a liar, had a member run a report test to see if her post would get a response（another lie check) and now you're attacking me for standing up for myself.

If I had insinuated or accused someone of lying and was subsequently proven wrong, I would have the decency to apologize. But hey, that's me. I don't expect that from some of the members here.

I'm done reading this thread. It's too negative.

FOLV did not accuse you of lying. At the risk of speaking for someone else, I believe she only asked bc the question was whether Wendy herself was still around. Trying to ascertain if Wendy herself sent the message or if someone was acting on her behalf was a fair question. Someone acting on Wendy's behalf would not then prove that Wendy herself was still involved with the forum. There was no malicious intent or accusation in her post.

[sherry7899]

Originally Posted by Vantreesta

FOLV did not accuse you of lying. At the risk of speaking for someone else, I believe she only asked bc the question was whether Wendy herself was still around. Trying to ascertain if Wendy herself sent the message or if someone was acting on her behalf was a fair question. Someone acting on Wendy's behalf would not then prove that Wendy herself was still involved with the forum. There was no malicious intent or accusation in her post.

Exactly <3

[toaster]

Karen Jo, I appreciate all of the VF forum history you provided too. I've been a member since around 1998 (not 100% sure because my original date was lost with the 2001 update), but I either forgot or never knew the details of the things that Wendy had to do to keep VF afloat following each update.

[Joni O]

Originally Posted by toaster

Karen Jo, I appreciate all of the VF forum history you provided too. I've been a member since around 1998 (not 100% sure because my original date was lost with the 2001 update), but I either forgot or never knew the details of the things that Wendy had to do to keep VF afloat following each update.

Same. I remember there being issues, but not all that detail - and I was a moderator. I probably glossed over it all because I didn't understand any of it.

[prettyinpink]

Originally Posted by KarenJo

I have not and do not expect WWWendy to update this forum or do anything else with it. She did a bunch of research before picking this forum software to transfer to back in 2001, partly based on claims of great tech support and stable software. Then almost immediately people had issues getting registered here with their former VF names, which the software claimed were taken but wouldn't let those they were taken by use them Some people went round and round with not being able to register under their old name and being told they were already registered but not being able to log in. And tech support was not so helpful. It took some members over a month to get registered and some gave up and left. Part of the reason I don't have a Nov 2001 date is that I was out of state dealing with an ill father and didn't want my account messed up, so waited for things to stabilize.

Then when she went to do that 2009 Version 3 update, WWWendy was assured it would be simple, take a short time and there would be support for any issues, so she started it in the middle of the night without a prior notice, though there was a screen telling us an update was in progress. Instead of an hour or two, it took her 2 weeks of 12-to-18-hour days that took a serious toll on her sanity, her family life and her business. At times it looked like she would completely lose the site. Customer support just kept giving her the same brief dialog on how to do the update with zero support for the issues she was having. And there was no way for her to tell people what was going on. She persevered and got the site restored and up using her tech skills from setting up sites for a living. She heard from other site managers that they had the same issues and a couple did lose their site and were unable to restore. WWWendy said at the time that she would not ever update the site again. I think transferring to a new owner would also be an issue for her based on her past experience. Most VFers were understanding and very grateful for her work when they heard about the situation, but WWWendy took a couple of days to get the rest of her life back in order before coming back to post and several people were pretty unkind in their posts during that period.

And I believe someone has posted that this forum software was not going to be supported going forward after the most recent update - not just the old version we're on but all of it. Which may mean this forum is doomed even if WWWendy put in the time and effort to update or transfer it. I doubt she expected to still own this forum almost 30 years from its first incarnation or to spend over 20 years on this site. But the total lack of communication is a mystery and disheartening. Someone is doing things like posting the New Year's Day Marathon on the front-page calendar and deleting some reported posts, but I'm not sure if there is a way to confirm that it's WWWendy or someone else using her credentials. If it is WWWendy, I hope all is well with her outside of VF. I hope to be able to participate in a New Year's Day Marathon next year.

Thanks for this info.


Thank you to Wendy for all the time you poured into VF over the years, providing such a great fitness community to so many.