hmm another gone, no backups, kid in hospital.

well lets start over again, we know two people who made $100 we will pay them
the rest will have to start over again
so how many members ?? 4000 if they all had $30.5336 in their account thats 120 thousand dollars not to be payed.

serverswitch and setting up costs this much?? according to a few webmasters i spoke not.

so what must we believe??

here is critons mail

As you may or may not have heard - there has been yet another problem with a server at Jay's Quality Hosting. GimmeMail.com was one of the many sites that was on this server, and as it looks, all data has been lost.

The main problem now with GimmeMail.com is that it looks as though no backups were saved for quite some time. I myself never done any backups as I thought mainly that the hosting company would do them on a regular basis, but of course, Jay has been away - and as it looks - still is, as we have not received final word that there is no backups - but we are almost certain there isn't.

As most of GimmeMail members will remember...the site was changed over while I was with my son in hospital who was having major eye surgery. Between this and trying to get ClickAddicts changed to a new host - I got careless. This is the only excuse I have.

So, in conclusion - everything is basically gone. There is not enough backup or recent enough backup to rebuild it.

Now we are not about to leave it and let people think it was some sort of staged thing - because it wasn't. We were making money on it, not losing money - there is no need for us to have this happen. It is now gonna cost more money on our part to move servers and restart the whole process. Members may have lost a few dollars in earnings - but we are going to lose hundreds in the end.

There were 2 outstanding payments that we know of who reached the $100 minimum, and we will pay them accordingly. As for everyone else, we don't know who had what etc. so it is probably more fair to reopen and start all over again. As you can see - this is a hard decision to make as we no doubt have lost a lot of respect from thousands!

more fair?

I doubt they'll get many members again....

'Members may have lost a few dollars in earnings'
l made a complaint 5 days ago-twice money had gone missing for me-at least $22
my total should be over $80,had many refs thru the downline-builder here at the forum,as many others!

webmasters not keeping backups?
can we have a poll on how many of us believing in epedemic stupidity amongst webmasters?
my educated guess would be that at least 90%of the money that is lost,are stolen from us be greedy people-
well,what goes around,comes around :ph34r:

Preaching to the choir.

seems to me that with the 2 members that had the $100 in payout requests broke them and well..of course there wouldn't be a back up...I don't know of any hosting company that doesn't have posted everywhere that while they do back up and all it is mainly up to the owners to back their site up themselves and not depend on the hosting co.Also, I find it hard to believe that they really didn't consider backing up their site if they had been thru other messes with the site crashing etc... seems like either they are thick headed eg: totally stupid, or an excuse...hmmmmmmmmm...wonder which one...(I'm thinking its the later, because even stupidity can be cured with one huge mistake in losing members earnings that are obviously well over just a "few dollars") and losing hundreds? Bull...changing servers isn't hard at all and alot of hosting companies will be happy to upload sites data and help..this is just like what I was referring to in another post.. while I went to college to learn how to not only be a webmaster/designer I'm also had courses in programming and scripting, I'm not saying that program owners aren't good at tending to their sitesand maintaining it all...however, there is a difference in being a real webmaster and a program owner.... it involves alot more than owning and running a website...not picking on noone nor trying to jump on anyone either...but lets face it...while beinggreat owners of a money making website...that is only being a program owner/manager etc...that is not truely being a webmaster...not at alll....
Thanks!

After getting the degree, I find myself wondering where the algorithm for honesty went.
Again, preaching to the choir.

btw did he send that email out to the memberbase? Or how did you get that email? If he's able to send it to his memberbase through his site then he must still have the database no?

Criton posted a "paid-to-visit" task at The-Jigsaw, which let people know what happened at Gimmemail.....

Also, I must say, Criton has always been very honest and willing to work with his members in the past....And I find it very hard to believe that the 'disappearance' of Gimmemail was an intentional act.

I have been a member of The-Jigsaw since it began in September, 2000 and have never had a problem being paid.

Laura

Laura, for the record, I agree with you Criton has far too much to risk by doing something like this on purpose. Yes, it was stupid not to have a backup and this has happened far too many times but I do not for one minute believe that this was an intentional act to get out of paying his members.

he did send it true the member database of jigsaw

lets asume it is not on purpose, lets even agree on that.

but still all the money is gone.

i clicked everything al the time, i did my job.

so i guess one can accept a webmaster to do his job to?

and as i said its only $30 for me

the only thing i actually lost was time and my upgraded membership.

and the money for the ads i send totaling $ 28.50 out of my pocket

do iget that back from him now he is not paying anyone?

let me ask him and i come back here with the answer.

I am sure that was not an intentional act,but
I think "on purpose or not" does not matter...
What does matter is whether they have a backup or not..

*Sad* I really liked them

Although I wasn't a member of the site, I have to say total BS.

There are just too many sites that use the database lost excuse.

Why didn't they back-up? Instead of blaming Jays hosting for not backing up, why didn't they do it themselves?

Its the same with CashDepotEmails, same thing happened and they had to retort to the last backups they had...

From JANUARY?

I'm totally sick of these bone idle webmasters/webmistresses that are to lazy to BACK UP!

Then the best ting, they blame their hosting companies? Everyone knows that hosts will have mishaps and hosts are not going to back-up every day or even every week, jeeze could you imagine the work they'd have to do backing up all the sites they host every day. weeks, etc. I totally blame LAZY wM's!!!

If they're not prepared to back up, they shouldn't be running sites!

As I said, to have no backup was stupid - PERIOD. This is not something I am disputing.

But I do not believe in anyway, shape or forum that this was done intentionally as a way of avoiding paying members money that was rightfully theirs. There is nothing in The-Jigsaw Network's reputation to suggest otherwise. I've personally always been paid very promptly everything that was owed to me.

.........So that's it? It's just over? All my clicking and for what?

NO DATABASE BACKUP?????????
GOOD GAWD THAT'S INSANE, LAME, STUPID, AND FEW OTHER CHOICE WORDS.

And why hasn't Criton posted that here? Why not let everyone know what's up in the forum?

Okay, so I can't ask for my $20-something dollars BUT I had 4 ads on rotation and that $6.00 is, well, that's like having to read and click at least 600 emails........

GimmeABREAK..........

Grr, argh.

Well no, I don't think it was intentional... but anyway, not having backups while there were so many server/site problems recently (burning, crashing, hacked, etc...) was really irresponsible.

I liked this site fairly, have not been a member for long, but I am hesitating now whether I would sign up again when he puts up a new site.
Need to think about that first!

What a joke!
No backups, lol, if that's so then please don't bother re-launching just go away and read up on how to make a backup.

You shouldn't be allowed to run another program.

Just glad I deleted my account (with some 300+ referrals) some 4 weeks or so ago.

Lame excuse!

Don't kill the messenger, but if you read this thread you'll see that GimmeMail isn't the only that was affected by this.

Lets say he did not stage is and it was accident,
Well he must be the happiest webmaster in the world for this freak accident
He was correct he was making money, expecially since
he doesnt have to payout anyone. All profits.
I lost $35-45 on advertising to build a downline.
Had about $55 in earnings

I bet you over 1000 people lost over $10 in advertising money
to build a downline.
He lost nothing. He sold all our work and cashed in big time
His words are sickening and shameful.
He should ask all his members for forgiveness
Is pathetic
A new site. Whatever.
I hope the new site rots in ######

I still can't get over the idea of the comment about "assuming" that the hosting service was backing up the site so it was felt that no other was necessary...thats bull and an excuse class1 A. Like I had said before, any decent and concerned site owner, a "real" webmaster, and alot of regular ppl too I might add, makes not just "a" back up but many many backups...specially in todays cyber world,unless that person is living in the "dark" ages and doesn't get any news period about hacked sites, server crashes,etc...also... every hosting service that I have EVER seen, or dealt with just about every page is preaching while they back up constantly, its up to the site owners to also make a back up for the site...they are backing up their servers for the info on the site and owner,not on content most of the time...they have way to big of a project to back up their business to worry about 1 website if that makes sense...also they tell you that its not their responsiblity to make a backup, its a courtesy...
Another point too... if that site has a couple of thousand members, but the owner/manager only remembers 2 that was redeeming...does that sound right to any of your other owners out there? I don't know about other programs operations but with my program with just a small membership (because of being new and just launched for a few months) there I know atleast 1/2 of the most active members because they contact me about various issues or whatever... and believe me its way more than just 2 redeeming... there is no way that I can believe that only 2 are remembered...
And a reply to someones comment about the post of where it was made and not in this forum... my opinion, welp easy, they knew that if they/she posted in here that ALOT of members and others would see it and would immediately be able to see straight thru the excuses so many others has made as to why payouts can't be made or whatever...it was posted on some obsecure place where the viewing would be limited... If my site was in that situation for real, back ups wouldn't even be in the oh I didn't know column, nor earnings, payments or whatever be thought of except for when the database was to be reloaded on whatever server host machince, tp make sure all info would be correct...thefew that it may effect would most likely be b/c they hadn't been a member afew days at the most... I truely think that this owner is making alot of excuses of "why"and whatever... but ppl shall believe what they wish...but hey, I was once told a true statement that this reminds me of this and alot of other things,
"If your going to be stupid, dumb or claim innocence, then you have to be tough"
lol
Sorry for being long winded...just it erks me at how some believe the idea of how stupid everyone is...welp guess what alot of "US" isn't as stupid as your trying to convience yourself that we are...we just choose not to make it a world event that u are the stupid one...we're atleast smart enough to leave ya alone and not get screwed again... fool me once shame on u, fool me twice shame on me!
Have a good one!!!

hello forum members,

first - thanks usdollars for letting me know there has been disputes here regarding gimmemail - i haven't had any chance to check forums to see what has/hasn't been said.

let's start with the beginning...


gimme was moved from a server which we were renting solely. all our sites were on this server (the-jigsaw,automaticcash.net,clickaddicts,theinfoboy & gimmemail). the server was running "plesk" not cpanel, and if any know about this stuff, plesk is not good with bulk emailing - at all! so with all these sites now sending lots of bulk emails, as our memberships grew to thousands, we had to move and fast!

we looked into jay's as we did some whois searches and found quite a few using his services - so i jumped in...needless to say, i did not know that there was also so many trying to get out also!

jay - simply put - doesn't run a great setup!

i thought that regular backups would be done - at the very LEAST on a weekly basis. In fact - he may even do this - the fact is - Jay is nowhere to be found since all this happened. why? most likely not wanting to face the music.

if you read his forums, there are messages upon messages about "when is my site going to be working", or to that effect. any answers - nope.

the site was converted by john (who i want to say a quick thank you too) at exactly the same time as my son was having major surgery. no, i did not plan this to happen at the same time - and who would have thought this was going to happen within a week of changing over? i had no backups done of the new mysql database - as ..
1. i have never worked with php before and still learning.
2. i was away from the computer a lot for reasons explained.
3. i also thought backups, god forbid, would be done by my hosting company - i mean what the f* do i pay him for?

for those that think this was purposely done - then obviously you don't know me very well

for those that think we "ran out of money" obviously have never been part of many of our sites. as usdollars has stated - we have been going a loooong time and payed out thousands! in fact - gimme was bringing in as much money as our major site the-jigsaw.net. so why would i want this to happen?

if i purposely did this...why have i spent hundreds on it in the past 2 weeks alone to make it bigger & better? anyone that knows john, ask him - he has my cash!

i don't know what to say to get people's trust back - i know it would be hard to "forgive & forget". all i can do is apologize for the events and promise something bigger and better!


for those that have not heard - gimmemail.com is back!

we are now on servers supplied by go-mama-hosting! with backups done daily by them & us! guaranteed!

we have changed our setup completely so that new & old members will feel more comfitable. have a look:

-$1 signup bonus
-$6 payout (egold/paypal)
-3 referral levels 20,10,5

there is 20 PTC on site. all paid emails sent to us in the past 2 weeks will be resent - so your $6 is gonna happen quite quickly!

to conclude - i apologize to all members. those that no longer wish to be with us - sorry again - though i would love to have you back!

my email address is sinnyboy@yahoo.com if you need me!

Best Wishes

Hey that was a great speech! Good PR.

I'm going to have to agree with Hyper. I wouldn't want to be part of a program that doesn't do their own backups. I have never seen a hosting company that takes responsibility for their user's database site backup without a premium charge.

Those MySQL tables can easily be backed up in SDF or CDF (Semi-colon delimited File, Comma Delimited File).
Basically a text dump.

If the server you are using does not have that feature in the admin, they aren't thinking clearly. There should ALWAYS be disaster recovery when the information is important.

And I would think that most members feel their downlines and money in their web accounts is important.

You guys are handling people's money, and messing with their time. Not having a backup is just plain irresponsible. Unless this is fixed, I wouldn't want to see anyone join this or any other program that does not regularly (nightly at least) back up their database. That's just insane.

At the risk of being a spoilsport or antagonistic, we get hammered at times about reading the TOS and terms of sites. Aren't WM held to the same accountability when it comes to reading the service level agreements and terms of their hosts? Granted, there are some pretty bad ones out there, and yes there will be mistakes. But to "assume" that a provider will do backups is like me assuming that I can get paid out whenever I want despite what the terms of site say.

Ahhh but we've discussed this very subject over and over and over (the dead horse has gone to the glue factory), and still, there are repeated problems about "I didn't know" or "I only do it every so often" or "I thought they did it" or "it's corrupt."

I for one am tired of those who don't take responsibility and expect us to just deal with it, and then wonder why they get no advertising dollars or mass defections after these things happen.

Look around at the programs that have lasted -- they took responsibility and they educated themselves about how and what to do BEFORE jumping in with both feet.

Sorry to sound so harsh, but DON'T ask me to advertise, DON'T ask me to refer, DON'T ask me to search == until YOU'VE demonstrated you know what you're doing, you've taken the TIME to learn what you're doing, and you've tested and tested and then retested to make sure it all goes smoothly.

No one can help a bad host and this doesn't necessarily apply to those WM who have suffered because of bad hosts -- UNLESS you didn't do a correct backup daily and made sure it was good. A quick search shows many, many utilities out there for php and mysql backups and testing them.

So why should this even be as major a problem as it seems to be on a daily basis? Once in a great while is expected -- but sheesh -- how many times has this happened in just the last 2 months?

M

You said it. Has anyone ever watched that Saturday Night Live with the "network guy"? The one that goes around and thinks everyone is stupid?

This should have been thought of. Disaster recovery people. It's not just for large companies. It's a basic business concept. Anyone that doesn't apply it when money is involved, relies on the low self-esteem of its member base. That to me = scam!

There is NO EXCUSE for this happening. There should ALWAYS be a backup when dealing with OTHER people's info. People that don't apply this, should NOT be in business. This is NOT Okay!

Their statement surely sounds pretty fishy to me.
I had an account there too, a nice growing downline and a not so far from reaching my first cashout.
Now I lost everthing on their program, which simply equates on them being a scam, either they did it on purpose or not. Even if they didn't it on purpose there's no excuse for having no users database backups.
I think that it should be clearly stated on all marketing programs that members are employees since every member get paid and generate revenue to the program owners and cheating on employees or not caring about their work and rights to be paid (unless they are cheaters themselves which should just be kicked off the program in that case) after having generated revenue for your program is something that shouldn't and can't be tolerated.
I think that strict rules in marketing programs and something like a certification of some sort that can be trusted, at least to know that the program is safe to join and time spent on it won't be lost and it will get paid, would surely help honest marketing program owners. Don't you think the same ?

new site up already??

and the story goes on,

I sent two mails to criton so far he doesnt seem to find time to answer them maybe he wil do here.

mail i send:


i did send the original paypal reciept with it!!



mail i send:

Well, I think that they should be banned and reported as a scam program.
Unfortunately I didn't take a screenshot of my earnings page to complain now.
Anyway these kinda issues either happened on purpose or not shouldn't be tolerated.

FYI Criton is out of town until Monday or Tuesday. You'll probably get your reply after that. But it specifically says on their site:



So don't worry about having to pay again. All that needs to be done is your account flagged as gold.

No Data, No Backups......
Have you all noticed how many people have resigned up? I just clicked on a email from Trinity's:
1539 Active Members. Seems thats alot of members who don't care if their accounts disappear again.
However, wanna bet how many will be complaining at the forums again if it does.
Have a great weekend all!
Hugs,
Kim

If you were a gold member before the server crash and have not yet been upgraded on the new site... please do the following...

-Send an email to support@gimmemail.com
-Include old username, new username & how the membership was paid for

Thank you. I am going through all this stuff as fast as possible.

For those that don't believe us, you can think of us as a scam or anything else you wish - but please don't spread around untrue information. The run of events we have had in recent times is enough without having to deal with accusations like these also. If anyone has something to say to me - then please email me - I am always available.

OK

I am getting emails sent to me saying..


"Why didn't you reply..."

or

"I have emailed you 3 times I will post a complaint in the support forum".

Maybe before you go to extreme think that maybe your email boxes are full or something as I have replied to 2 people that are complaining like this 3 times - YES 3 TIMES. I have even tried 2 different email accounts to send you the replies.

If you are not getting them - how can I reply?

Please people...
Jay STILL has not fixed the email problem associated with these sites...
@the-jigsaw.net
@automaticcash.net
@theinfoboy.com

Please send emails to sinnyboy@yahoo.com while Jay is too busy being a SOB. He is nowhere to be found since the server crash a week & a half ago and we are in the process of moving all these 3 sites as well.

You may want to consider opening support folders here, with the member count at GPF it is the easiest way to spread word about issues fast.

i thought i did usdollars, but i could not find them anywheres.

i have some in jof but i don't want nothing to do with that sob.

Criton, I did get your messages back, although they were out of order so there might be a problem with your email, although could be mine too, I don't know.

I AM glad that you emailed me back and the only reason I emailed you about bringing this up here at the forum was because those emails were over a 2 week period and sent from every email I could find for you.

Now that I know Jay's hosting is still down and you weren't getting that email, well, it makes sense. I WAS angry but sweetie, it was because I hadn't heard anything about my advertising in a couple weeks. Nothing personal Criton and I really didn't know your webmaster@ via GimmeMail AND jigsaw were both not working.

When I got your emails tonight (one from your personal account and the other via Gimme) I was all happy again. I think my getting freaked after so many host troubles with regard to paid advertising is kinda reasonable.

ANd after all is said and done, everyone here should know that Criton DID email me back, DID take care of my ad questions AND has my full support with regard to being a bit PEEVED with a certain Mr. Jaybird.

xo melyssa

Well whatever happened to it, I'd suggest you get one again. There certainly were a lot of GPF members that supported you during this time and brought in one heck of a lot of members back to GimmeMail, just take a look at the referral exchange folder. For a while there all I saw was "I want to join GimmeMail".

*phew*