Quoting Doombear:

Quote:

Could the site have a bot running which could do that?
I would very much like to talk to whomever is cleaning up the spam posts.

Maybe, but even a "bot" needs to be set up, monitored and tweaked by a human. And that person may not have the interest, time or ability legally to "talk" to you. We don't know what is going on. But be careful what you ask for. I know if I were running this free site during some time of obvious stress and adversity for Invelos, and instead of appreciating it, people kept complaining about it, not having compassion for what must be a monumental disaster in their lives, I would just shut the thing down and tell people just where to go. 

Thank goodness Invelos is more kind and thoughtful than I am!!!!

Quoting rdodolak:

Quote:
Quoting mediadogg:

Quote:
Maybe, but even a "bot" needs to be set up, monitored and tweaked by a human. And that person may not have the interest, time or ability legally to "talk" to you. We don't know what is going on. But be careful what you ask for. I know if I were running this free site during some time of obvious stress and adversity for Invelos, and instead of appreciating it, people kept complaining about it, not having compassion for what must be a monumental disaster in their lives, I would just shut the thing down and tell people just where to go. 

Thank goodness Invelos is more kind and thoughtful than I am!!!!

Do you know something that we don't? 

Although there is no annual fee people did pay for the software so I wouldn't necessarily say the site is free, per se, but the fee was an exceptional deal.  Of course, I wouldn't mind paying an annual fee if that actually meant we'd receive more updates and fixes.

No, I don't. But I can make reasonable assumptions based on past experience. Having a discussion as to whether this site is free, based on what you paid for a one-time software license is worth about what you are paying for the site.

Quoting Dr. Killpatient:

Quote:
The last time something like this happened was when Ken & Intervocative was put in a Gag Order when everything simply vanished until Invelos raised from the ashes back in 2007.

The one thing I've been wondering if there's some kinda related shiitake mushroom going on that Ken's gagged and is forbidden by the Court from interacting but managed to keep the site itself up.

Yeah, also one of the options I have been considering. I would not be surprised if it involves IMDB or some other entity that thinks it owns what is in the Invelos database. On the other hand, if that were true, the existing contribution process probably would have been blocked, so who knows ...

But people who run businesses don't think that way! (at least I don't). It's like their baby. They would no sooner walk away out of disinterest than a parent would walk away from their child because it had grown up and no longer giggled and pooped in their pants! 

Seriously, given the amount of effort this guy and his family have put into this enterprise, including suffering a lawsuit and subsequent settlement, not that long ago, I think that if he wanted to close the business he would do so responsibly, with some kind of announcement, etc. You don't just leave your life's work lying around for people to step on.

@rdodolak, by the way I agree with most all your other points - well taken.

If memory serves me (which unfortunately is not always the case) there was a long silence from when Intervocative folded until Invelos was announced, due to some gag order. Is it possible that something similar is happening now? That Ken's silence is due to a gag order, rather than uninterest (or whatever)?

If so, I hope that things will come back to normal, whatever that is, eventually.

So long, Katatonia. Thank you for all your efforts until now and wish you all the best for the future.

@Katatonia, Sorry to see another valuable, loyal and productive member go. Best of luck in your new endeavors! 

If the situation ends up with DVD Profiler being abandoned, or you get tired of waiting, you guys are welcomed on "the dark side" with us at My Movies.

The whole market is also difficult for us, with much, much fewer users collecting movies, and therefore also a lot fewer available customers, and on top, the idea of a community based service is also becoming more and more difficult, with many people getting more and more used to everything just being available to them, without them having to take part.

CLZ is apparently attempting to resolve the economical part on their side by adding some very high costs of $14.99 per year for their mobile apps, and a lot more for their desktop apps. We do not know their business model, and it may be that they are successful on that, but for community idea and users contributing, we do not see it being the ideal way, as it is bound mean less new users.

We have, and will continue to provide apps as a one-time sale (at least nothing else is planned), and then there will be an optional new major version upgrade with a minimum of three years between them, which is a paid-for upgrade - eternal free updates just does not pay the bills on development costs and services. Current cost of My Movies currently is $9.99, then $4.99 for an upgrade every third year - compared to $14.99 * 3 = $44.97 for the CLZ app. It is a lot more than a DVD Profiler app, which have had a summer sale now for years at $2.99, but almost every issue created by new iOS release or new device model have taken many, many months to resolve, if ever, and the reviews of the DVD Profiler apps shows what the current stability is for new users.

Most of our users today use mobile apps, and our focus have been a lot on these - we know that our services lacks something on the Windows side compared to DVD Profiler, and always have. On the other hand, our mobile apps are frequently updated, and we are on top of new device models, iOS and Android versions, ect.

Since the majority of our users is on iPhone, iPad and Android these days, we have tried to improve a lot on the ability to contribute to the service from these apps, and take part of the community. In the end, we believe that the apps must be affordable, and that we need to try to involve as many users as possible in the contribution parts - the number of active users has a direct affect on the quality of data.

While the community idea is the base of everything for us, it just does not cut what most users expect from the data - because of that we have services on reporting missing titles, and incorrect data, which is processed within 48 hours, and for popular titles, missing titles are handled much faster (we prioritise based on how many searches barcodes get).

We have import functionalities from DVD Profiler, and I would have loved to be able to offer a code based discount for DVD Profiler users, but Apple unfortunately recently forced us to remove the option of having coupon code functionality in the app - go figure :-) For the editing parts, our Windows app which is based on a point based model is free - the features requiring points are mainly on the now legacy Windows Media Center parts, and the functionalities around backing up discs to storage.

Our community on our forums have never been as active as DVD Profiler - it has unfortunately never been typical for our users to discuss the contributions, but we are active on our support e-mail, where most users seek help, and you can expect to receive a reply to support inquiries within 24 hours.

In the end, it is also sad for us to see DVD Profiler and the users being abandoned, as it says a lot about the market on what we do, and what we love doing - DVD Profiler is not the only competitor solution we see getting less and less updates and bug fixes, and many eventually abandon it all together.

We hope that Ken is ok, and should he at any time decide to pull the plug on DVD Profiler, we are always available and ready to find a solution for the DVD Profiler users on converting - for us, having more users being part of the community is of value.

There have always historically been room for all of us, but without a doubt, it is becoming more difficult for all.