Interesting PM I received....Let me set the record straight. Time for a RANT!

[Nan]

You know there is ALWAYS someone who is going to "rock the boat".  My mother always told me that people who were hurtful with their words of criticism were pretty much **jealous** of our accomplishments.
This website has been a saving grace for me.....I come here when I am depressed, excited and/or need an education or a shoulder to lean on. I can come here WHENEVER I need it, it is here waiting for me....Thank you!

[mallory]

I don't know how to run a website, but I do know a lot about technology costs because of my job.  I don't see any way in the world Epoman could be making money off this site.  In fact, I'd be surprised if he was breaking even, I think he must still be paying for a lot of the cost out of his own pocket.  I am proud to be the first Premium Member signed up, and, I would be proud to be a Premium Member every year from now on.

Don't let it worry you, Epoman.  This site, truly, has saved my life.  I talk about it all the time, just ask my sister.  Without it, I don't know if I could face dialysis.  In short, let me just say:

"I hate dialysis, but I love IHD.com!"

[Sluff]

"I hate dialysis, but I love IHD.com!"

Great T-Shirt Idea.

[RichardMEL]

I want to thank Epoman for being so upfront and transparent with his run down of various expenses involved with running this site. Not only does it counter the claims against him, but it says quite a bit for his character and openness and the way he wishes to run this site.

I'm no "HTML Jedi" however I am in the business of running webservers, application servers, database servers and the like. No, I don't have any vanity websites out there (though I do have a dull blog at livejournal) though I used to be out and about with a few websites in the past.

I think Rania is coming from a different experience base... and underestimating the amount of resources a large site like this would consume, and the bandwith costs Epo is willing to take on to make this site so fast to access for us all. If he kept the costs down no doubt some self same users would whinge at how slow things were, or that they couldn't upload images or whatever because of space restrictions.

The other thing that amazes me about this whole thing is that I am a relatively new member here, but Rania is even newer and already questioning the administration of the site? Frankly I think if you have issues with the site feel free to leave and set up your own "for free" and good luck with that venture to become half as good as what this site is.

Thanks again to Epo and the whole team for putting in so much hard work into IHD and related sites.

[kitkatz]

Geez! and here I thought you were making the big bucks off of all of us poor sick people! (You need a sarcasm icon to put here)

I truly hope, Epoman, that one day these sites and the many more you will come up with make you a very rich man. You are leaving the world a better place than you found it and will leave something for your family and friends to be proud of. I have no problem with you making money off sites you spend so much time serving  and developing.  I know if you run into financial difficulties all you have to do is ask on this site and we will respond somehow, someway! As Goofynina says: You go Bossman!

[glitter]

http://www.geocities.com/narcism_central/

 

[kitkatz]

In addition, Mods you have MY permission to correct spelling errors for me. You all KNOW I need a scribe!

[Epoman]

http://www.geocities.com/narcism_central/

 

LOL, Thanks "glitter" I think this proves me point EXACTLY. 

- Epoman

[vandie]

http://www.geocities.com/narcism_central/

 

I caught it before it was "unavailable."  Oh my is all I have to say.

[Epoman]

http://www.geocities.com/narcism_central/

 

I caught it before it was "unavailable."  Oh my is all I have to say.

Yes, I wasn't going to mention it but since you did Her site reminded me of how websites looked back in the early 90's "A bunch of crap thrown together" I am not saying I am any better than her, but I don't go around callng myself a "HTML Jedi"  like she does.

- Epoman

[Jill D.]

http://www.geocities.com/narcism_central/

 

I checked it out, and since I don't want to say anything mean or rude, I will just do this....
 

[meadowlandsnj]

Sorry to my members, if you are thinking to yourself "oh shit, Epoman is freaking out again" sorry but I take comments like this very personal and I just wanted to clear up some issues, and you know me I speak my mind and let it off my chest as I encourage you all to do. The night I chatted to that member in the chat room about her questioning my integrity, I didn't sleep wondering what else everyone thinks of me.

Epoman
I felt so bad reading this because I know how you give your heart and soul to this website.  The people who know you, your friends here have no questions about you or your integrity.  Don't let ignorant people get under your skin.  Geez, I really feel bad that this a-hole affected you like this.   
I'm giving you a big hug 
Donna

[sandman]

Did you even know anyone can be a webhost? I mean LITERALLY anyone can be a webhost EVEN from their home computer. But the "guy in his home" vs. "a professional company" is what separates unreliable sites and reliable sites. Let me put it this way If you had a store, a real store would you want your stores electricity provided from some guy with a generator or would you want your store powered by the local power company?

So, you mentioned your own dozens of websites, do me a favor and show me some of your sites. List some here, lets see how popular YOUR sites are. Please show me what makes you a "HTML Jedi" as you call yourself, and please don't show me sites that you used a template or a CMS to create. Sorry but running a blog does not make you a webmaster.

- Epoman
Owner/Admin

Yeah, just take my site for example.  www.killerz.dns2go.com  I host it from my spare home computer using a 8mb / 768kb home dsl service.  I am not calling myself a "webmaster" but I know enough to create and maintain my own site with minimal effort.  I may not have a garenteed 100% up time but I do pretty darn well considering that I host from home and it costs me nothing more then what I pay for in electricity and the broadband connection.

Epoman does have a good point.  A good, successful site can not be hosted soley for free.  Even I had to rent a high bandwidth host for content reasons.  I may get more bandwidth and more hdd space then epoman does and for far less money but I don't rent a dedicated server like he does so I do face some aggravation that he does not.

[angieskidney]

Ya or even anyone paying for the internet, a lot of providers give you a free space. I have one through my provider but when it comes to sites as huge as Epoman's IHD (and the rest) they would definately not be enough.  I can understand the reasoning behind her post saying she feels Epoman is riding on the "give me money for the site" boat but in all honesty her site can't compare to IHD and Epoman does have every right to make a little money when he is spending nearly a grand! Epoman has invested so much time in his site to make it as it is. You can't get that from a free site.

Take Bravehost as mentioned earlier. That is a good offer but if you read the details there are a lot of limitations. For me I would hate the no-frames allowed limit as you can see my gaming site I have (not that popular) uses frames. Also php and sql! Also how bravenet said they give 5 domain names. That is misconceiving. They use a Bravehost subdomain (ex: yourname.bravehost.com) or you can register (pay) for a domain name. They only will HOST them for free..

Epoman paying for his site lets him have total control to bring forth all the ideas he has in his head to make it better!
A free site can't really compare! 

[Joe Paul]

F CK em ALL...this is the bestest place I found for people to understand whats up.





Fixed Thumbdown art - Rerun - Moderator

[tubes]

i dont know a thing about running a site like this or even a blog. 
if epoman was making any sorta profit from this then...freaking fantastic.  he truly deserves too.  this site is the best place to come to if you want to be informed or need to rant or just want to meet people in the same boat as you that understand what you are feeling.
i hope one day to become a premium member, but i just blew my money on 3 more shirts.   hehehe

you know what epoman....just sweep the rubbish right out the door. 
no need raising your bp and blowing your fistula.   get it...blowing a gaskit....blowing a fistula....ok bad joke....  
anyways epoman....im truly grateful for the work you and the admins put into maintaining IHD
i look forward to making new friends, reading new posts and contributing to this site for a long time.

Thank You.  

[jedimaster]

Even if you were making money of this site, you are doing a great job. Keep up the good work!!!
Also, please remind HTMJedi, that I AM the REAL Jedi, not only Jedi...JediMASTER....I even might trade mark my name...

[boxman55]

I need to get a life.I just read all the posts on this subject. First I would like to thank Epo for all your hard work I hope Baxter calls with a $500,000 ad for you. But, in the mean time could you but a game in the arcade, you know those guys that punch each other and one has his head pop up when tagged really good. Raina vs Epo (fight to the finish)

[RichardMEL]

I have another comment here and this is not about Rania but about Epo.

Seems to me for someone who has gone through so much as Epo has, many would likely prefer to stay in their shell with all the stuff they have to deal with, but Epo wants to do something positive for the community instead... and that, I think, is to be commended.

[Epoman]

Well I would like to thank all of you for all of your support and all the kind words from many of you. To those that mentioned they hope one day I do make money off this site, well I hope I do to, but only so I could pour it back into the site and make it EVEN better for all of you. I was really touched by some of your comments and to me that is just as good as money.

- Epoman
Owner/Admin

[AlasdairUK]

Just read all the posts on this subject and I would like to give a very big thank you to Epoman and all the mods/ admin.

This is an excellent free site where you do feel part of the family. Even if Epoman made some money from this site. I'm sure he would use it to make it better for us and with all the hours he puts in he deserves to. I know that is not why you created this site, but to offset the amount of time you put in it would be great if you did earn some money off it.

I remember just the other day Epoman was proud of having his 500th member, this just shows how quickly the site is growing. Epoman needs our support and we want to give it to him.

Best Regards to IHD family,

Alasdair.

[Fighter]

I'm an IT consultant and I have helped to develop and maintain large government websites in Belgium and I can testify to the complexity and sheer cost that it entails. A team of colleagues of mine work full time on the maintenance of one of these, get paid full time and the manager drives a BMW.

I know a lot about hosting and maintaining websites and I am in awe of what Epoman has achieved with IHD.com and its siblings. Knowing HTML is just the tip of the iceberg. If you want to create a real interactive website and expect thousands of hits daily, it requires a great deal of resources, Internet smarts and, above all, a heavy dose of dedication, day-in, day-out. Also, to ensure the popularity of the site, the webmaster needs to have a 'vision' of what he wants his site to be like and how it will be managed. The day I found this site I immediately witnessed Epoman's perfectionism: Site Rules with good common sense policies, clearly divided thematic forums, Moderator review, and a constant effort to bring new and exciting features to keep everyone interested, and to make the site fun to use for everyone. And that, again, is just what we see as regular users. A lot more work happens behind the scenes.

On a more personal note, this site has made kidney disease more bareable for me. The warm and welcoming atmosphere that Epoman has promoted has made a difference in my life and his personality has drawn many other kind and generous people by his side, to either help him run the site or just to post regularly. Anyone who comes here often enough will consider them as friends (sorry, I mean family!).

So I just wanted to say Epoman, don't lose sleep over this kind of attack. If you do anything that is popular and acquires a certain amount of visibility, you are bound to get criticism, but this does not mean that this criticism is justified in any way. I think you should definitely be paid for coming up with the idea(s) of this great site and for your hard work and commitment that bring real added value to an entire community. And by paid I don't mean a once monthly restaurant with your family, even if it's a three-star joint. I mean a real living. I'm sorry I'm not yet a Premium Member, I can't afford it yet but I plan on becoming one in the future.

Thanks for everything.

[letaek]

Just ignore them. I am happy I found this site and once I get a job (soon I hope) I will definately become a premium member. Keep up the good work!

[Fox_nc]

OMG

 

yeah - that's all I have to say . . . .

[okarol]

This is such a long thread from 3 years ago, and while some things have changed, much remains the same. It gives you a good idea of what Epoman was like and how much IHD meant to him, and others. I am so proud of our admin team and thank each and every one of them for keeping all of Epoman's hard work on this site running smoothly. And we have a great deal of gratitude to the Premium Members who continue to support the site year after year!
 
okarol/admin