as some know and some dont, i recently had to take an extended break from online......My father had heart problems at the end of last year and had 4 stints intalled and started to have further problems, at the same time I also recieved a promotion of sorts at work......needless to say january and feb were a mess!!!

i started my 2 week vacation from work about jan 31st and Mark and I flew to Maine to see my dad......he still even now is having problems but i cant take more time off work at this time.........

Upon my return home i had about 2 days before i had to leave for kansas city kansas for 3 weeks to start my engineer training for work.
not knowing what kind of internet i was going to have for those 5 weeks i put myself on vacation mode in all my GPT programs i could, a few i was unable to due to malfunctioning scripts <dolphin cents etc> I not only added myself to the vacation mode but any program i couldn't i e-mailed the webmaster and informed them to make arragnements. when I had add myself i put it in a seperate folder in my favorties so i would know i had done that program....yes i know very organized huh, lol

being that it was a long period of time after i added the vacation modes and put them in the folder i had made, i them made another folder when i went BACK into the program and doublechecked my vacation mode setting AND my personal info...........yes yes i know double checked means i am anal or something, lol but hey it was MY hard earned money!!!!!

i returned and before i had even unpacked my bag and done my ever growing pile of dirty clothes i went to remove my vacation setting, i got home a whole day sooner than i expected, i found 2 programs that didn't have me listed.........

deep-c-links and misty and sams cash

i notified eash webmaster of my "disappearance" and am happy to say the webmistress of deep-c-links remedied the problem with-in 2 days!!!!!

here is what i have gotten from misty and sams cash:

http://mistyandsamforum.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4997

anyone have any suggestions for the future, i obviously will not be getting my account back here how can WE as a whole keep this from happening to others?? anyone know why this happened?? why was my vacation mode ignored?? was it deleted due to a script update or something?? anyone have any ideas?

Broderick, if you check the M&S FAQ, you'll see that to go on vacation for more than 30 days, you have to ask Peter if it's ok, and receive his permission -- in writing. Otherwise, he'll delete your account if you're in vacation mode longer than 30 days.

I know, it seems crazy that a person who's breaking his own Terms of Service, and who may be running his "business" illegally, is deleting people for breaking "rules" that aren't even stated in the TOS. But I guess he's got to do something to try to get out of paying people the money they've earned He obviously doesn't have the cash to pay members anywhere near the time-frame stated in the Terms.

Cheers,

Wil

and that was difficult for him to inform me off the FIRST time i asked about it, well geeeeeesh not that i had alot of money to lose, guess he can keep my 10 cents, not like i would have ever made payout anyways!

I'm sorry you were deleted, but look at it this way. It actually saved you the headache of waiting over 3 months to be paid.

This is especially disturbing since accounts that are upgraded or on vacation have to be checked specifically in order to be deleted in the purging of inactive accounts.

Thank you Dana for directing me to this thread.

And Broderick, please check misty forum, I replied to your post there.

sincerely
Peter

Wow, I read the response on the other forum, nice work Peter. This was handled very well, I'm actually surprised.

broderick, I am truly sorry to hear about all your recent troubles/upheavals...I hope your father is on the mend and things settle for you soon.

But yes, it is important I think for people to realize that this is not personal...inactives and people with vacation times longer than a certain time are deleted from most PTR as a matter of course, and not to hurt anyone.
You really can't win, you know--if you don't delete inactives, people will complain that the memberbase isn't clean. If you do it, as stated by the rules, people will complain about something else.


broderick, please understand, I am not targeting you specifically, and I do hope that you can get your account back as Peter offered.

after careful concideration i decided not to take him up on the offer to restore my account, i can stand to lose the amount i had there and it really was not worth the effort to find it in umpteen zillion backups.........one less gpt accountwill mean i can spend more time on my other programs anyways..........

i hope in the future other accounts are looked into more closely before being deleted, if nothing else maybe this will assist someone in the future to be ble to keep the money they have earned there.

Was the op deleted because their vacation was too long or would anyone who hadn't clicked within a week of getting back from a 4 week vacation have been deleted? I don't understand how any vacation time can be classed as an inactive period?

Why should people be considered "inactive" just because they go on vacation for 31 days without begging for permission? I guess I could see sending Peter a note to let him know that you're not going to be logging in for six months or a year because you're going to rollerskate to the North Pole or something. But even then, it ought to be a matter of notification, not asking permission.

I mean honestly, being on vacation for more than 30 days is hardly deserting the program, is it? I was reading just today that in many European countries the minimum annual holiday time is 20-25 work days!

And let's not forget that there are no activity requirements in the "rules" -- the Terms of Service -- the agreement between the members and the owner. All that activity stuff is in the FAQ, which members aren't required to read or agree to. And if Peter says that the stuff in the FAQ is binding (which apparently he does, since he's deleting members account every day), then its kind strange that he doesn't worry too much about the part in the FAQ (as well as in the TOS) that says he'll pay within 60 days of request.

I see he did finally add a little statement to say he's not currently paying by cheque, but that look a loooooong time. And of course since that change was made in the FAQ and not the TOS he didn't feel the need to inform the members, did he? If he did, I must've missed it! I'll bet that's kinda handy -- being able to change the rules without telling anybody. I wonder how many members he could get rid of (and payments he wouldn't have to make) if he changed the activity requirement to 20 minutes instead of 20 days?

Cheers,

Wil

i was listed as being on vcation for a total of 5 weeks, 2 to visit my sick father and 3 for training in another state for a promotion at work.

not being a webmaster i assume being on vacation for any amount of time means you are inactive at least on a temporary basis therfore can't be counted on to click the advertisers links.

i also assume some use it to not lose their accounts when they dont want to click links

Me either, yet from another site I was suspended for inactivity and I was on vacation too. I was out of state for petes sake lol. I got the account back easily enough but still am baffled why I was suspended in the first place. When I got it back it STILL had my return date listed in the vacation box. Go figure. lol.

Circumstances like this really make me wonder exactly what the vacation mode is for. Why even have it if you're still risking the possibility of deletion? Things DO happen. PTR isn't the be all and end all of the world.

Certain people keep telling others that they need to step back and realize what's more important in life. PTR, family, work, etc. Well, someone actually did just that and look at the outcome.

I really think POs need to realize that members DO have real life circumstances to deal with and that their program just may not be the number one priority for some. I'm not saying that no one deserves to be deleted, I'm just saying I agree with what was posted on the other forum about suspending with a note inquiring about the prolonged inactivity. Would it really be THAT difficult to extend that courtesy to members?

Misty and Sam's cash didn't pay me at one point but everything was sorted out later.

tss...tsss... still wasting time with this site...