Jupiter Media Screws AntiOnline Founder

[JP]

Greetings All:

Well, after talking with several people on IRC, they suggested that I make a post about the latest happenings between Jupiter Media and myself.

As part of the agreement that we made when they purchased the site, Jupiter Media would withhold a portion of the acquisition cost until after the site was transferred to them, and they had time to do things like verify the amount of traffic that the site got. They would do the traffic verification over the course of 3 months, by measuring the number of banner impressions that the site received.

Well guess what, the site isn't getting as many banner impressions as it used to. They're blaming it on me, and are now refusing to pay me the rest of the acquisition cost that they owe me (and trust me, we're not talking about small change here).

I ask you, the members of AntiOnline, who's fault is it that AntiOnline isn't getting as many hits as it did when I had control of it? Hrmmmmm? I wonder if the fact that there aren't as many banner impressions now, as there were when I had the site, has anything to do with the following?

The fact that they still have put NO AD CODE ON OVER 2,700 pages of the site? I wonder if that would effect the ad count? Parts of the site that still contain no code include:

Security Downloads
Security Text Files
Fight-Back!
Hacker Jargon
Tools & Toys
How To Be A Hacker Profiler
Security Mail Lists
Security Certifications
Security Degrees
and others...

Their excuse? They don't know how to put ad code on those pages. Imagine, a huge publicly traded company who's revenues rely largely on advertising, doesn't know how to add banner ads to webpages. Does that make a lot of sense to anyone, because it sure as heck doesn't make a lot of sense to me. (They said that the 16 pages of documentation that I wrote up for them, on top of a half dozen phone conferences, plus the manual for vbulletin that the site runs off of, wasn't enough help. Perhaps I should have paid to have several of their employees sent to ITT Technical Institute, maybe that would have gotten them off on the right foot.)

Let's also take into consideration the fact that they removed over 20 discussion forums from appearing on the main page (something that I suggested would decrease traffic even before they did it). I wonder if that's decreased the number of discussions that have been going on, which would of course, effect traffic?

Of course, I won't even mention that fact that a ton of pages are showing up with database errors, and the fact that AntiOnline now has an UB3R-3L33T-H4X0R-L0G0 that makes the site look like a bad knock-off of hackers.com I also won't mention that fact that they've added no new features since they got the site, and no new content, unless you call those "security news" and "security products" boxes that they stuck all over hell "content". Of course, when they acquired the site, they were quick to GET RID of all sorts of features, including member subdomains, free e-mail accounts, and IRC.

They were also suppose to reimburse me for the expense of hosting the site for a month, after they purchased it. It seems that it took them that long to set up a server to move the site to. Of course, they haven't done that either (but hey, that's only a couple of grand). Hrm, they never even provided me an excuse for that one......

Oh well, I should have predicted this, but hey, what are you gonna do? AntiOnline looks like a sinking ship now, and Jupiter Media has decided that they wanted to take me down with it, apparently....

I guess now there has to be bad blood (I literally begged them not to turn thing nasty between us, but the VP of their company, who I have all of my dealings with, is an attorney, so you know how that is....) So, unfortunately the next place that I'll be seeing my friends from Jupiter Media is in court.....

[Dome]

hah, JupMedia doesnt even make their money, thats the sad part... they ruined the site.... AntiOnline used to be home to thousands of members, sure there were the good and the bad, but its like that in every community, they have taken down countless features of antionline, and havent posted anything new.... they dont listen to its members(which atleast JP listened to us qutie often).

this message is for JUP MEDIA ..... if you REALLY want AO back.... i suggest you let one of the old time AO members take care of ****.... add newer features..... come on... your moving the site back instead of moving it forward......

So get your **** together, and dont be a bunch of corporate morons that will be known as the ones who turned a goldmine into a pile of dirt.........

JP.... take these kids to school bro hahaha

YICS will dominate!

[HTRegz]

Hey Hey JP, Good to see ya around. Sounds like their being a bunch of bastards. Like I mentioned in Dome's post, if they provided me with a sub-domain I was willing to take care of the expense and maintance of an mail server, however they don't care about the community. Just about making money. They refused to provide me with a single subdomain with which I could have provided email for the AO community. We are no longer a community, we are a way for them to fill their pockets and at the same time we sit back and let them screw us over. They are a pathetic excuse for a business. I couldn't help but laugh when I read that they didn't know how to add ad code to those pages, that's hillarious. Anyways Yeah I just wanted to show my support and mention the email thing again, because I think that's pure bullshit on their part. Nothing but an attempt at screwing over their "community" once again.

[The3ntropy]

They don't give two shits about this site, and let everything steadily decline, while the sit back and watch the traffic. I wonder whose fault it is that people started getting pissed off and blocking ads when they put flash Micro$hit ads that took up literally the top half of every page, along with all of that enterprise IT crap. I always supported AO and clicked on the little ads on the top of the page lots, but once JupMed got a hold of AO and made the ads for Microsoft and enlarged them 10 times fold, it started to get annoying. When people are coming here for the first time, they used to notice that this site was different, it wasn't covered in huge flashing ads and its sole purpose wasn't to make money and line its pockets, but now AO has changed, significantly, of course the traffic is now going to change. Again with removing GCC and the other forums off the main page, this might get more security discussions going, but most people just want to post about useless crap and feel right at home. They removed GCC from the main page, and with it removed a lot of traffic. Also without the IRC server any more, which they took down because they couldn't blast ads all over, people do not have a sponsored IRC place to enter, and talk about AO or just answer questions to new people here, which would increase their chances of them coming back and the overall hit rankings of the site.

So surprise! You changed the site and degraded the hell out of a lot of stuff, removing key features and blasting ads all over the place while removing IRC, AO subdomains/e-mail, and not adding new features, and the hits changed, wow, I wonder why, maybe it was JP's fault, must have been.
(I think them blaming JP is on just about the same level as fat people suing McDonald's)

[Dome]

ok...... yeah the logo definately has to go.........


here i made it easier for you

edit:
woops forgot to add someting The3ntropy reminded me.....

ok u use FTP to upload the image to lets say http://antionline.com/images/mainlogo.gif

then..... you edit the index.php and add in


ok do we got it?!?!?! good boys and girls...... thats it for HTML 101, if you need further assistants call me at 1-888-I-AM-DUMB

[Deathkne11]

JP! Is this the end just after my begining?? I haven't been here all that long, but I've heard a little bit about 'trouble' floating around for you (I suppose after reading that, a 'bit of trouble' is an understatement).

It sounds like those guys are typical corporate *******s. (excuse my french)

I don't really have enough background information on the situation to comment any further, but just know that, as the founder and father of Antionline, you brough this place into the living world of cyberspace.

And for that - I, and many others, will be eternally grateful.

Thanks, and know that my support is with you....


D.

[thread_killer]

MEMO:

TO: All Jup Media Employees

FROM: Joe Schmuckateli, VP Corporate Greed


RE: Aquisition of Antionline


All---As we have gotten JP to agree to a 'trial' period to verify site traffic before paying him all the money we owe him, it is up to all of you to totally ruin the site. This will drive traffic down to a crawl releasing us from responsibility to pay. Once we have screwed him out of every penny we can, we will bring back all the features we eliminate and make a big P.R. hoo-haa about listening to the user. This may have a *slight* impact on total traffic, but nothing compared to the money we'll save by not paying JP.

You know the drill people! Make it happen.

Sincerely,
Joe Schmuckateli

[tonybradley]

There are alternatives for those who may wish to boycott AO or are just looking for a better / different community that may have more to offer.

One is Security-Forums.com. It is exceptionally similar to AO but without the AP's.

Another is my site. About.com is owned by a competitor of Jupiter Media- Primedia, but I control the Forums. I can't really add features and such though which are some of the prime complaints here. Nor can I provide subdomains or email, etc. I can however create whatever forums and sub-forums I choose to segregate the discussions.

Here are links to both:

Security-Forums.com

About.com Internet / Network Security Forums

[kadeng]

Hey JP when do you start a new place for us?

securitytalk.com????????????

[tonybradley]

I imagine JP has a non-compete clause. Although if JupMedia breached the contract maybe thats null and void.

Perhaps there is a deeper conspiracy. Maybe JupMedia let the site go and took away features and didn't add new features BECAUSE they were in their probation phase with JP before paying him.

Maybe after they weasle out of paying JP what he's owed they'll turn around and add all kinds of features and options that make the site great. Perhaps its all a ploy to save a buck or two.