Thank you for your support.

To me this is the same thing as Wikipedia tomorrow deciding that access to their online encyclopedia is subscriber only.

It ignores the fact that many dogs have been added to the testmating database by contributors on the net. No one was held at gunpoint to add their dogs to the database and its breeding. It was a free contribution that has made this test mating database have its value.

Now - testmating is for subscribers regardless of who added to the database in the past.

This is precisely what would happen tomorrow if Wikipedia decided thanks for the content and your contributions - but we will charge for access going forward.

In the internet and online economy - when you start charging for what was previously free - these models fail ultimately. They become closed and proprietary because they lose sight of the initial contributors that provided the data in the first place.

Prior to the Internet existing, in sales and marketing the expression went "Lose sight of your customers and their needs - lose the customer".

I wish GD well - but this model to sustain a site is ultimately self-defeating. Information and intellectual knowledge only has value when everyone contributes.

By limiting 'add dogs', now testmating, ultimately data will go elsewhere and the entire value of the repository of information that has come to this site frankly from volunteers, will just go elsewhere.

That's my 2c - I don't expect any support for what I am saying - but to take information freely from the Internet at large and later on start charging for it seems a bit rich to me.

The 'Add Dog' function was limited due to vandalism of pedigrees which ultimately wasted resources and compromised the integrity of the data. This was a decision that was not taken lightly but was necessary. In reality over the last say 10 years very few members (whom the site is eternally grateful too) where inputting large quantities of pedigrees. In reality most other people that did input a dog where doing so for personal reasons such as advertising a dog and not for the greater good. A person who does not currently have the facility to add dogs can still add a dog to the database by emailing [email protected] with the details and a team member will do it for them.This adds a tremendous amount of extra work to the team but it still means that anyone can technically still add a dog.
We have put out many calls for support through membership and unfortunately we don't get enough support. To those that did support us over the years we are very thankful and they were helping to provide free access for everyone to use such tools as the testmating mating function. However this is still not enough to host the site and keep it running day to day. So we have to look at other income streams to keep the site afloat.

Jason, can I ask what model you would you suggest that we use to ensure the site remains able to function day to day?

Yeah I am assuming this is Tony? I will PM you. There are heaps better ways in the Internet economy than this approach. I would love to see this site stay alive. I think the time bomb is ticking on the current subscription model.

I acknowledge everything you just wrote above. It is simply how can you maintain costs for a site while catering to needs of the very people that are part of this site.

Wiki has a broader scale and it relies on donations. This site is umm specific to say the least. But cutting off your nose in spite of self wont maintain it. I can give you heaps value added approaches but we'll talk offline about that.

I don't want to see you lose the remaining constituency but even I am heaps turned off by this decision about testmating and I don't breed dogs ever and period.

I will give you a hint though to sustaining this operation.. who has the money? Think about it. Is it the readers and users here, is it the suppliers of products, is it something yet untapped. Who has the money that will sustain this operation? Who or what segment of all things greyhounds have the deepest pockets?

After you work out where the money really is to keep this site alive, how will you convince those folks that a want (nice to have) is in fact a need (I must have)? This is marketing and product management 101.

It really is simple we have to update the website or our service provider will pull the pin on it. To do this it is going to cost a lot money which we don't have.

Whether it is a popular decision or not it is one that is needed to keep us going.

I might add the support we have had has been overwhelming and we are now looking to contract an additional IT guy to start the work on the upgrade which will take around 6 months.

Thank you to all that have supported us and are continuing to support us.

Thanks again Michael, for supporting us.

thank you for your support.

Hi Paul, the team have no record of a payment in your name. Did someone else make the payment on your behalf?

thanks for supporting GD

I fully agree jason and out of respect for my former greyhounds since 1979 that are part of this database I now have to pay for to access them the way I want to . I won't be paying any money. BTW hypothetically another site comes out bigger and better with this testmating service free . Where would that leave this site ?

(Edited by Admin)

Here's a quote taken from Tony's reply to my comments --

"I might add the support we have had has been overwhelming and we are now looking to contract an additional IT guy to start the work on the upgrade which will take around 6 months."

So the support has been overwhelming, an additional IT guy is coming on board. It cannot be both at the same time.. either the response has been great and they are hiring or they are struggling for funds to stay alive.

There you go - thanks for contributing to the database.

I note noone ever contacted me when I did PM to offer an approach to raising funds (hint - it had to do with targeted crowd sourcing using Go Fund Me - particularly targeting your vets that hold straws and have a vested interest in seeing your testmatings come to them to be actualised in the real world)

So it seems to me, funds are not the true issue.

Friends and family program is alive and well it would appear.

I won't be paying a cent for this approach and if you'd like to cut off forum access to non-payers, why not. Myopia is Myopia in any case or circumstance. The ideas, thoughts, insights (valuable or not is in the eye of the beholder), will just go elsewhere.

Seems to me our own data and contributions are being held to ransome GD..? Pay up or else? .. despite overwhelming response and hiring another IT guy. GD - you have opened yourselves up to a class action suit by the way.. there was nothing ever about submitting data becoming your property on your site - specifically the pedigree database. So charging for intellectual property on the internet that was previously contributed of good-will freely is a very slippery slope to delve into.

To put this in real world context - you hold very few intellectual property rights on most of the information you retain including your dog database.. simply because no rights were assigned to you when people entered their dogs into the database. You could have elected to assign yourself those rights as a condition of database entry yet you never did. You don't own much of the database you hold yet now attempt to charge access to.

I personally don't want to take any legal action but you do need to understand that your terms of data entry are outmoded so charging now for the data is interesting and easily contested. For the most part you are merely custodians of other peoples intellectual property. That is why wikipedia will never go to a subscriber only model. Because they cannot.. the same as you legally cannot.

"Here's a quote taken from Tony's reply to my comments --

"I might add the support we have had has been overwhelming and we are now looking to contract an additional IT guy to start the work on the upgrade which will take around 6 months."

So the support has been overwhelming, an additional IT guy is coming on board. It cannot be both at the same time.."

Yes Jason you can have both at the same time. We have been very humbled by the amount of support our members have given us. We are also over the moon that we have funds to employ an IT. guy so that work can commence on the website to update it to the required level so that we can stay online.

Quote:
"So it seems to me, funds are not the true issue.

Friends and family program is alive and well it would appear."

I am not sure what the "Friends and family program is alive and well" even means.

But if you are suggesting we are lying by saying:

"So it seems to me, funds are not the true issue."

Then please come out and say it clearly and we will see you in court.

Jason, you simply do not get it. We all love Greyhound-Data and want it to run forever unfortunately this costs money.

If you had been in the greyhound game from the beginning of Greyhound-Data you would realise the passion we all have for it.

I hope your posts on this forum have been posted because you love the sport of greyhound racing and not simply to meet your own agenda, whatever that may be.