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BREAKING NEWS: New ownership

64537 Views 429 Replies 322 Participants Last post by  tdiallo, 
Ernie Romers
Dear watch friends, dear members, dear visitors,

Time has come for me to hand over my baby, Watchuseek, to a third party I believe and have trust in.

After 16 years of hard work (seemed like 24/7 all this time) building the largest watch forum in the world, it is time for me to step down, and focus on other projects. They will not necessarily be business projects, although I am planning to stay in the watch world (what else?), perhaps as a distributor for a few brands in the Benelux, I don't know.

What I do know is that I'm definitely planning to share more time with my wife and family. They have been coping with me for all these years. Never a real holiday (I always had to have internet access to work…). But they gave me the space to work and share my hobby with so many watch friends all over the world.

Time for a bit more relaxation, less work hours and less stress. The heart rhythm problems that occurred while I was at Baselworld last March certainly was a sign for me. A big one! It made me realize that working this hard (I also have a full time job as a team leader on a school for children with special needs) was not good for my health, and I was the only one that could do something about it.

During the many years I was approached by a couple of interested parties, but VerticalScope seemed to be the right choice at the right time.

Don't get me wrong, the decision was a very tough one, and it took me lots of time and headaches to finally make one. You don't give up on your baby that easy, I can promise you that. And there is of course my team, the wonderful people behind those usernames, the voluntary moderators, and the team of MaL's. It's hard to leave the team, almost just like that. It's tough, really tough, believe me. They have been doing an absolutely great job in the best possible harmony. Any company would wish to have such a dedicated and warm team. Thank you guys!

I would also like to thank all the sponsors and advertisers. Thank you for your business and your friendship. You made sure I could pay all the bills to keep the site up and running, and more.

Last but NOT least, I want to thank YOU, our members, every single one of you. You are an important if not THE most important part of the success of Watchuseek. Thank you SO much.

Dear friends, I hope you will understand my decision, the reasons why I wanted to step down, why this step is so important for me at this stage in my life.

The team from VerticalScope will not be doing any major changes to the site and your membership will continue like it has done all this time. I wish you and yours the VERY best, and hope this hobby and the ongoing discussions will last forever.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

Ernie Romers
Founder and former owner of world's largest, most visited, and BEST watch forum site … WATCHUSEEK !
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Thank you very much for Watchuseek, Ernie. I wish you best of luck and good health in the future.
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iinsic
trekDS said:
You can't call something a community if its leadership isn't accountable to it. Even senior management have KPI's in my workplace. If we were regularly losing good workers to other places it would soon be addressed. This might be looked at under VS. Losing the people who post good content regularly isn't a sustainable message board business model. Without these posters there won't be a business. I don't know about ideas like elected moderators, but some review is clearly required. Perhaps this is the dawning of a new era Lex!
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On the WUS fora where I regularly hang out, the moderators were almost always well-liked and respected members ... before they were asked to be mods. But, while every member is obligated to obey the forum rules, the mods must ensure that rules are followed. That might mean making unpopular rulings from time to time, but for the good of the entire community (which is why the forum has rules in the first place). You could have a Nobel laureate posting exceptional content, but if that person violated the rules of the community, the community would not be "sustainable" if that person was not required to conform. Regardless of the ownership of WUS, the mods do a pretty darn good job of maintaining an even keel (and Lex knows I have had my differences with some mods in the past). Of course, I am not talking about sponsored fora, where content - especially unflattering about the sponsoring brand - might not be well tolerated. I'm referring to the public fora where most traffic exists. Frankly, it's the main thing I hope doesn't change with the new ownership.
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Cobia
Maybe this is the thread to bring it up, we have a problem with the new search function, its been mentioned by others in other threads, example if you type 'ecozilla or eco-zilla in it only 3 matches come up, it used to have hundreds of matches coming up, now there is spam and no matches.
Type in 'sawtooth' into the search function, no matches come up, you used to get hundreds a week ago, the word sawtooth has been used thousands of times on here but no matches show up any more.
Type in 007, only 7 results are coming up when there used to be literally thousands, the 7 matches are all official WUS posts from sponsors and WUS, we have lost our search function.
The same can be done with plenty of searches, so in the last few days something has been done to the search function, the matches are also coming up in a red headline, that has never happened before, so i gather something has changed, can we have somebody look into this please, cheers
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Muddy250 said:
Would appreciate a little clarification here please, see excerpt from new Terms of Use and Notices below:
Preservation of Intellectual Property Rights .
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I don't know about the Canadian copyright legislation, but in the EU it would be worthless - it's not possible to lose your copyrights just by posting on the website, without an explicit and individual contract.
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Cobia said:
Maybe this is the thread to bring it up, we have a problem with the new search function, its been mentioned by others in other threads, example if you type 'ecozilla or eco-zilla in it only 3 matches come up, it used to have hundreds of matches coming up, now there is spam and no matches.
Type in 'sawtooth' into the search function, no matches come up, you used to get hundreds a week ago, the word sawtooth has been used thousands of times on here but no matches show up any more.
Type in 007, only 7 results are coming up when there used to be literally thousands, the 7 matches are all official WUS posts from sponsors and WUS, we have lost our search function.
The same can be done with plenty of searches, so in the last few days something has been done to the search function, the matches are also coming up in a red headline, that has never happened before, so i gather something has changed, can we have somebody look into this please, cheers
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Reported to Admin. Thank you.

Jeannie
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Cobia
GinGinD said:
Reported to Admin. Thank you.

Jeannie
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Thankyou Jeannie, appreciate it.
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lexvil
What I would like to see is an appeal process for some in the past who have been wronged by some of those in power, this simple change would go a long way.
WatchWerx said:
On the WUS fora where I regularly hang out, the moderators were almost always well-liked and respected members ... before they were asked to be mods. But, while every member is obligated to obey the forum rules, the mods must ensure that rules are followed. That might mean making unpopular rulings from time to time, but for the good of the entire community (which is why the forum has rules in the first place). You could have a Nobel laureate posting exceptional content, but if that person violated the rules of the community, the community would not be "sustainable" if that person was not required to conform. Regardless of the ownership of WUS, the mods do a pretty darn good job of maintaining an even keel (and Lex knows I have had my differences with some mods in the past). Of course, I am not talking about sponsored fora, where content - especially unflattering about the sponsoring brand - might not be well tolerated. I'm referring to the public fora where most traffic exists. Frankly, it's the main thing I hope doesn't change with the new ownership.
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iinsic
lexvil said:
What I would like to see is an appeal process for some in the past who have been wronged by some of those in power, this simple change would go a long way.
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Now, I would agree with that. The rules state emphatically that the decisions of moderators are final (in fact, this simple discussion of moderation violates the rules). Having a moderator tell you that he's dealing with you harshly because he's had a terrible day and you just were the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back does not do much to engender respect for the fairness of the system. However, I have learned over the last several years that this is very much the exception, not the rule ... most of the mods are as much fun to know and interact with as anyone else I've met here. But for those rare occasions when a moderator decision does more harm than good to the community, some sort of appeals process would make sense. It might not be practical, given the size of the WUS community, but it makes sense.
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There is an appeals process. It's the admin button at the bottom of this page. Just because the appeal didn't get the ban overturned didn't mean it wasn't reviewed.

This discussion ends now. The next question about moderation needs to go directly to admin via the button. Period.

Jeannie
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andsan
Thanks Ernie for everything you've done for this forum.

Anders.S
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lexvil
I don't see such a button, can you tell me what it looks like? maybe my browser just doesn't render it properly.
GinGinD said:
There is an appeals process. It's the admin button at the bottom of this page. Just because the appeal didn't get the ban overturned didn't mean it wasn't reviewed.

This discussion ends now. The next question about moderation needs to go directly to admin via the button. Period.

Jeannie
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lexvil said:
I don't see such a button, can you tell me what it looks like? maybe my browser just doesn't render it properly.
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Try clicking here?

Text Font Line Screenshot Logo
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lexvil
Thanks, I guess I missed that it says contact "us" and who "us" is.
Der Amf said:
Try clicking here?

View attachment 1708722
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lexvil said:
Thanks, I guess I missed that it says contact "us" and who "us" is.
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I guess over the years we see so many sites with meaningless "contact us" details that the eye filters them out? ;-)
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Ray MacDonald
Just use the Report Post icon (small triangle with exclamation point.) That'll send a report to the appropriate place.
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lexvil
I thought since when you click that it has specific list of "reasons" for its use, maybe if it said "other" issues it would be approite
Ray MacDonald said:
Just use the Report Post icon (small triangle with exclamation point.) That'll send a report to the appropriate place.
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270778
Hey Everyone,

Happy thanksgiving to all our fellow Canadian's, Phil and I will try to be online today. We both have family dinners tonight, so please excuse the lack of frequency on here today. If you need something answered and it is an emergency, please PM me.

Thank you for the understanding!

Helena
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lexvil
MOD EDIT: Use the Contact Us button for Admin.
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MOD EDIT: Use the Contact Us button for Admin.
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lexvil
GinGin, your inbox is full
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