YAFETCOTO Blog: May 2010

So, after the demise of Firevortex (the extension that used to be for VWVortex that gave it some ease of use things that the new forum software already has) I kept using Firefox... however my new PC is CONSTANTLY crashing with Firefox. Brand new build of Windows 7 x64 and everytime it launches, it crashes... it does this 2 to 3 times and then works for a while

Today, I decided to try Chrome.

It's been sitting idle on my PC for a few months now. It even recently updated itself.

I logged in today and it says "Now with extensions!"

So I checked the extensions and I found a few I thought I'd try. Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, Gmail. Installed those 4 and I didn't need to even restart chrome. They're just sitting in the top bar rather unobtrusive.

The facebook thing is pretty nice. It drops down a nice news feed, you can update facebook from it. It's nice. Slim and fast.

Twitter is the same way (I think the app is called Chrome'd Bird). Nice, clean, fast, slim app.

The Blog app could be a little better. It does "Blog This"... so if you hit the big orange B it gives you a popup window where you can compose the blog entry (like I'm doing now)

It auto-populates the page your on. So, at the bottom, you'll see a link to chrome.

The Gmail thing is surprisingly NOT that good... In fact, there's no real google support for most of chrome. That's odd and ironic considering it's a GOOGLE product. The Gmail thing just shows a gmail logo and a number for how many emails you have. Nice, but doesn't support multiple mailboxes. Maybe there's a better app.

The thing that bothers me the most? Google Bookmarks aren't integrated into Chrome Bookmarks. WHY!?

I had to export them and re-import them into Chrome. Then I had to make a button to 'add to google bookmarks' but the problem is that once I actually add something, I'll need to re-export and re-import.

Otherwise, i think Chrome is slick, fast and (at this point) only using 70MB of memory with my 3 normal tabs running... Firefox would be 210MB or more at this point.

I'd recommend it.

Google Chrome - Get a fast new browser. For PC, Mac, and Linux

VWVortex went through a sudden forum software change the other day.
Here's a quick breakdown of what happened:
One guy built the original forum software (not employee of Vortex)
That guys friend helps him run the business of the software
Vortex used their hosted service
Two guys get into fight and business guy fires the tech guy.
Business guy sells the main forum to competitor for 2 million, doesn't give tech guy his share.
Tech guy (rightfully) sues
Vortex continues using software... cause it ain't their problem (right?)
Tech guy wins lawsuit. Receives $1.1mil.

Ok, so that's the basics behind it all... now for the juicy bits.

Tech Guy Claims
Tech guy claims that Vortex infringed on his copyright by continuing to use his software (even though they had a contract with 'business' guy and not 'tech' guy)
Tech guy claims he sent cease and desist letters to VWVortex
Tech guy claims he would allow VWVortex to continue using the software at a reasonable fee
Tech guy claims VWVortex turned down his offer
Tech guy shuts down the Vortex

VWVortex Claims
No cease and desist letter received
Attempted negotiations with tech guy for reasonable fee to continue use
Tech guy demands $250,000 for 6 months of service, no negotiations
VWVortex says 'no'
Tech guy shuts down the Vortex
Vortex quickly sets up a vbulletin site

Now for the source material
Dustin's (Tech Guy) claims from Honda-Tech

Lots of speculation from the peanut gallery.

I'll add this: Vortex rejected my offer [equivalent to their current rate of pay for ZeroForum service through RelyNet; Me letting go of the default judgment I have against them (they never responded to my original lawsuit!); and me dropping the ongoing litigation against them for their willful and demonstrable copyright infringement]

I am content with the current status for several reasons:

1) I suspected Jamie @ VMG was being disingenuous from the beginning (looks like I was right)

2) VMG refuses to admit that they did the wrong thing. They paid someone else (Dicarlo) to use something (ZeroForum) that they knew was owned by someone else (Adler). Jamie admitted this to me over the phone back in 2009 but claimed that he didn't want to shake up his current business and that it just wasn't a priority for them at the time. There also was a cry fest about not being able to afford the $10k retainer to respond to my lawsuit.

3) VMG has known the status of the situation from day one. They knew I wrote the software, and new I wrote it well before any employment relationship with RelyNet. It was mine and is mine. Chuck and I talked on the phone about the status of the software ownership and the instability @ RelyNet on August 2nd 2005. After this they decisively sidelined me, and continued to pay Mike Dicarlo for something they knew was mine.

4) ZeroForum is a decade-old hobby project of mine. I hoped to turn it into a money-making venture with my best friend. My best friend royally ****ed me and I had to pursue him in court to finally get the vindication that is mine. As I have said, this is not about the money, I just want everyone to know the truth and I want those that were wrong to make due. VMG still needs to make due.

5) I have moved on from ZeroForum, and while I intend to keep hosting legacy sites and sites for those that want the nostalgia, losing VMG as a customer is not a loss to me. I gave VMG an opportunity to let their userbase keep their preferred discussion format at extremely reasonable terms. They rejected it, we move on. Sorry to shake up everyone's dreams, but I have not been planning to make my millions by hosting volkswagen message boards -- I have much more exciting and lucrative things to keep me entertained.

Dustin

Responding to you is an entire waste of my time, but I'll educate you out of your ignorance anyways.

1) They were not my customer
2) They were sent a cease & desist and offered a license to use the software before there was any sort of litigation
3) They ignored all of my correspondence and continued to use the software without my approval
4) I built ZeroForum before I was affiliated with RelyNet. It is mine. Mike Dicarlo and I were best friends and ran RelyNet, a 2 person company, together.
5) Mike kicked me out of the company after years of slyly failing to issue my stock certificates.
6) I registered copyrights in the software (A requirement for filing a copyright suit)
7) RelyNet told me via counsel it was going to cease using ZeroForum immediately (circa Dec 2005).
8) RelyNet has been selling ZeroForum service illegally for years until they were just stopped by the injunction in federal court.
9) The case against VMG is not frivolous, in fact, I hold a DEFAULT JUDGMENT against them because they did not even respond to the lawsuit. They willfully used my intellectual property without my approval. This is called *copyright infringement*. This judgment still stands.

Jamie's (VWVortex) Response at VWVortex
Let's clear the air here for a moment since there are some things being said that aren't true...

1. Dustin wanted us to pay him $250,000 to continue using the ZeroForum software. I had several weeks of negotiations with him to continue using the sofware for a reasonable fee and those negotiations seemed to be going really well. Then we suddenly got an email from him late last week saying he wanted a quarter of a million dollars to continue using the software and that the terms and amount were non-negotiable. At that point things went south real quick.

2. We tried to negotiate anyway and made a counter offer to continue using ZeroForum for six months so that we could make an orderly transition to something else. During those six months we would have paid him many times the price of any discussion forum software we were considering and he wouldn't have had to do anything for us during those six month. We never received a response on our proposal from Dustin or his attorney until they sent official notice to Relynet (our host at the time) to turn us off immediately.

3. We never received any cease and desist letter from Dustin's attorney. If we had we would have complied with it immediately. At no point over all the time we've been using ZeroForum did we ever receive any legal order to stop using the software.

4. The a final verdict on the lawsuit between the two people behind ZeroForum wasn't entered until last month and it awarded Dustin the majority (but not quite full) copyright ownership to the version of Zeroforum that we've been paying Relynet to use. At this point it is now under Dustin's control and he is within his right to charge us anything he wants.

Even before this ZeroForum dispute had begun we had been watching Vbulletin with interest. There are two major advantages to ZeroForum that were a big stumbling block for other software packages - speed and our unique shared forum arrangement. ZeroForum was able to handle our traffic with no problem. ZeroForum also had a feature that allowed us to share a common database on the back end across multiple websites that could all have their own unique look and feel. It wasn't until Vbulletin announced late last year this feature set of their new 4.0 software that we had a viable option. VBulletin told us that ideally we needed to wait till some bugs were worked out with the 4.0 version before we try and use it.

Ideally if we could have controlled this situation we would have taken 3-6 months to carefully orchestrate a smooth transition from ZeroForum to VBulletin. We would have given all our readers plenty of notice. We would have been able to set up multiple forum environments and do lots of load testing to ensure that everything would go as smoothly as possible. In the end though we didn't have that option.

So we apologize for the hassles and inconveniences this has all caused. This isn't the way we wanted to do this, but in the end our options proved limited and unpredictable. Thanks for the support and hang in there while we continue to flush this thing out.

-jamie

*Added at 12:41pm:
I've said my part on all this. I have no reason to lie about any of it at this point particularly when it could be used against me.

Dustin offered us 5 year (non-negotiable) terms to pay the $250,000 which would have resulted in a payment close to what we pay for all of our hosting, bandwidth, co-lo and more. That is how he can claim that he made us an offer that was near what we are paying now. For us it was more a matter of the total sum of money ($250k) and the fact that we'd be buying a license to use software that was never going to be updated again. Let me know if you can find *any* forum software that costs $250,000 right now.

Our relationship with Relynet (Mike and Dustin) was/is a business one. We have never met either one of them in person. We have never known exactly what their corporate structure was/is and we had no idea who owned what at Relynet - it wasn't our business. We have always paid Relynet for service and Relynet has always maintained that the Zeroforum software is 100% theirs. Not until the lawsuit and trial came about did we get a definitive answer (Dustin owns the majority of it and Relynet owns the rest).

Having said all of that, I think what happened between Mike and Dustin (two life-long best friends) is really a tragedy. This is part of the reason why most business people will tell you never to go into business with your friends. "Business" can change everything and it might end up costing you your relationship and more. I personally think everyone involved in this has probably had more than their share of drama and stress.

So, I think that's an OH SNAP!

Personally, I believe Jamie. Why would they want all the hassle of having to set up vbulletin so quickly and lose all that business over the "same price they're paying now"

My comments are at both sites under "Chapel"
For the most part, I'm just being a douche though.

*Added at 2:14PM
Dustin posted some screenshots of emails he had with Jamie in the HT forum

Personally, I don't think these help dustin's case.
It proves that he did in fact ask for $250,000 for a product he more or less admits that he's going to give up on (see HondaTech posts)