Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : Discuss Go2Net's acquisition of our beloved SI -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SI Brad who wrote (11)	4/23/1998 10:12:00 AM
From: DScottD	Respond to of 446

Brad, Congratulations! It appears you and your partners in crime have hit the jackpot. I trust that you will follow through on your resolve to maintain SI as a member driven site and honor the lifetime memberships. I hope you have demand registration rights so you can monetize your go2net holdings as soon as the SEC allows. Best wishes, DScottD

To: SI Brad who wrote (11)	4/23/1998 10:43:00 AM
From: mod	Read Replies (6) \| Respond to of 446

Brad, Congratulations on going public. Now you have to listen to your stockholders first, members second. ;-) As a GNET stockholder and SI member, I'd like to offer a few suggestions to boost your revenues: 1) Switch to a yearly subscription fee (for new members only), and ditch the lifetime fee immediately. I'd suggest $49.95 year to start. To get non-posting lurkers to pay this fee, see number 2. 2) Restrict some content to members only. One way to do this is to allow only members to view the last 24 hours of postings. Non-members will have a delay of 24 hours in reading postings. That should convert a lot of lurking non-members to members in a hurry. Dennis

To: SI Brad who wrote (11)	4/23/1998 10:50:00 AM
From: appro	Respond to of 446

Brad, Congratulations! I hope you take one day off from answering our concerns to relish your success. It is well deserved, IMHO.

To: SI Brad who wrote (11)	4/23/1998 11:26:00 AM
From: Sam Citron	Respond to of 446

Brad, It's funny. I had a dream about you and Jeff last night. We were having a discussion about advertising on the net. I asked if you had ever considered the PBS advertising model, which translates in this space perhaps to carefully limited advertising on log-in or perhaps on entry to specific channels or boards, which might have corporate sponsorship. Longterm, you have the potential for very high CPM because of highly segmented community base. Anyway, congrats on a job well done. I was wondering whether you and Jeff have a contractual committment to remain with GNET for any given length of time? Will your role at GNET be expanded in terms of managing other elements of Stocksite, or will you continue to focus on SI? Enjoy the sunshine while you can. ;-) Sam

To: SI Brad who wrote (11)	4/23/1998 11:28:00 AM
From: Skip Miller	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 446

Brad, Thanks....... I feel better already... and GO GO GO go2net........ Skip

To: SI Brad who wrote (11)	4/23/1998 12:37:00 PM
From: peter michaelson	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 446

Brad: Get real, man. You will no longer control SI. I would back out of this deal, were I you, and get private financing and build income with these great ideas that have been posted. Then go public and stay independent. You can do it! best of luck - peter

To: SI Brad who wrote (11)	4/23/1998 1:52:00 PM
From: Ann Corrigan	Respond to of 446

Hi Brad, Congratulations to you & your brother on today's announcement. SI has been a wonderful learning experience for me over the past 2 yrs. Hope its community spirit continues in the future. I'm sure it will if the important decisions remain in your hands. Just finished reading the Press Release. Everything sounded A-o.k. 'til the last paragraph when "Java enhanced" was mentioned. Since Java causes my computer to freeze, I avoid those sites like the plague. Then again, might be forced to spring for a new machine;-) In any event, once again congratulations and best wishes with your new endeavor. take care, Ann

To: SI Brad who wrote (11)	4/23/1998 2:20:00 PM
From: Cheeky Kid	Respond to of 446

Brad, Jeff, Jill: RE: techstocks.com go2net to Acquire Silicon Investor for $33 Million in Stock It is one of the top 10 trafficked Web sites in the personal finance category and is one of the top 100 Web sites overall according to PC Magazine Online. In addition, Brad and Jeff Dryer, co-founders of Silicon Investor, have been recognized by Institutional Investor magazine as being among 20 pioneers who are revolutionizing finance on the Web. ******************* Congratulations guys!!! Your hard work and quality has paid off big time. I bet you guys ate dinner in front of those computers, I bet there are pizza crumbs still in those keyboards. Or am I the only one that eats in from of my puter. : ) Silicon Investor Rules!!!**

To: SI Brad who wrote (11)	4/23/1998 2:36:00 PM
From: freeus	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 446

Brad: I have loved the improvements and have several times e mailed my thanks for them. You guys are going to keep running SI and have the decision making authority arent you? Will you physically move to Seattle? I thought you love being in Kansas! Freeus Of course with the nice profit, you can fly back and forth whenever you want!

To: SI Brad who wrote (11)	4/23/1998 3:55:00 PM
From: Trey McAtee	Respond to of 446

brad-- i dont think anyone would begrudge you for wanting to make some money off of SI. to be honest, the two years i have been here have been great and i always expected to be charged at some point in the future. i simply could not believe you guys never charged us. on a personal note, regarding advertising,i would rather pay subscription fees than have to read the stupid adverts. that is as long as they aren't too high<G>. one of the things i hope you do NOT change is the interface. i have at various times used motley fool, yahoo and that stock shack thing(or whatever it is called). i have found that their interfaces are no where near as good as SI. PLEASE DONT CHANGE IT TOO MUCH. all the impovements you have made are great. thanks for all the fun and information. good luck to you and the rest of the team, trey

To: SI Brad who wrote (11)	4/23/1998 4:04:00 PM
From: Terry D	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 446

Congratulations to the three new millionaires - on paper, anyway. As a few others have mentioned, at some point I also expected to have to pay something. And I respect your stated intention to honor existing lifetime memberships - which, the more I think about it, makes a lot of sense. While you three provided the forum, the worth of this site has always been the content. All of which was provided by the members - especially those heavily bookmarked and followed few. So this is their way of participating in the hard earned good fortune. Best - td

To: SI Brad who wrote (11)	4/23/1998 4:50:00 PM
From: see clearly now	Respond to of 446

Proof of the value of an Idea is wonderful reward...I have been looking for a local group to take on a unique subject Idea with a similar model to yours...never considering your group..I have only the idea and knowledge..? Arni

To: SI Brad who wrote (11)	4/23/1998 5:09:00 PM
From: Jonathan Edwards	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 446

Do you know yet (and are you at liberty to reveal) what will happen to those who signed up with SI early enough to have never paid for access? I signed up in March 1996 and either got in before charges were instituted or fell through the cracks. (WSJ Online has yet to charge me for my first year there.) I don't know if that means I have a free lifetime membership or if I should get out the credit card. (I'll use the same one I used with WSJ Online. Maybe it'll be lucky twice...)

To: SI Brad who wrote (11)	4/23/1998 5:44:00 PM
From: Janice Shell	Respond to of 446

Brad & Jeff-- Way to go! GNET's the only internet stock I follow that was up today. And up nicely. Ummm, wish I owned some... Best of luck in future! Janice

To: SI Brad who wrote (11)	4/23/1998 7:11:00 PM
From: TFF	Respond to of 446

I was wondering why you guys like this thread so much;) Subject 20344

To: SI Brad who wrote (11)	4/23/1998 7:18:00 PM
From: MENSO	Respond to of 446

>>> We will not bombard you with banner advertising or other forms of solicitation. Specifically, banner ads will not be placed in the message boards for members (If we do, you will have the ability to turn them off) <<< Silly question perhaps, but are you speaking only for yourself or for the company that will now own your site? I hope sincerely that you are right and, as a matter of fact, it has been done before. Look at AOL's promise -- which they have kept to date -- not to touch my beloved CompuServe. BTW, congratulations to all of you and the best of luck in the future.

To: SI Brad who wrote (11)	4/23/1998 8:00:00 PM
From: peter michaelson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 446

cbs.marketwatch.com Brad/Jeff: Nice interview. I appreciated your points about joining with a small company and gaining 2 years on building an organization. Also appreciate that you did a lot of homework (dating) before getting hitched. Wish you the best. peter michaelson

To: SI Brad who wrote (11)	4/23/1998 11:45:00 PM
From: c darrell	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 446

Brad and Jeff: Enormous congratulations to you on your GNET merger! SI has been the one beacon of light that I have turned to daily. I pray it will continue to be a site driven by members. I have been a member since 1996. I do not know if I am listed as a lifetime member or not. How does one find out? Bless you both for an outstanding job. Connie Darrell

To: SI Brad who wrote (11)	4/24/1998 1:12:00 AM
From: Obewon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 446

Brad, In addition to adding my congrats on your hookup with go2net (their Metacrawler search engine is the best I've found yet), I was curious as to the synergy between SI and StockSite. Do you invision significant saving for both parties concerning the fees the sites pay to various data sources (ie stock quotes, news, charts, etc.)? Do you use the same sources? I am NOT adverse to advertising on the message boards or elsewhere on SI. I AM adverse to adding features which significantly slow loading of pages. I currently monitor about 10 diverse threads (some of which have up to 200 posts/day like CPQ) and already spend too much time trying to keep up with them all. OB BTW, hope you, Jeff and Jill enjoyed the great weather we enjoyed out in Seattle this past week. ( It doesn't hurt either that Ragen MacKenzie, one of the best regional brokerage and research firms in the Pacific Northwest (IMHO) is only four floors down from go2net. ) For others - I believe that go2net also provides Internet access here in Seattle as another revenue stream.

To: SI Brad who wrote (11)	4/24/1998 10:45:00 AM
From: mod	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 446

<<Specifically, banner ads will not be placed in the message boards for members (If we do, you will have the ability to turn them off).>> Brad, More unsolicited advice. Offer to PAY those of us who turn ON ads. I must look at 100 messages/day, at least. With no ads, your ad revenue is zero from me. With ads, why not offer to split the revenue with me? You can track my ad revenue by how many posts I look at, and either offer cash or merchandise credits. What's a banner ad worth these days, a dime? (I don't know, just guessing on that). That's $10/day revenue, offer me half or $5/day, that's at least $1,000/year to each of us. Other than a little up-front programming, your marginal cost of generating this revenue is close to zero. Good deal for both parties. Dennis

To: SI Brad who wrote (11)	4/24/1998 11:43:00 AM
From: Follies	Respond to of 446

$33 million and all I get is a T-shirt ;-) Congratulations, and the very best to you. Thanks for creating one of THE best sites. PS Ginger and I will wear them with pride.

To: SI Brad who wrote (11)	4/24/1998 1:45:00 PM
From: raymond marcotte	Respond to of 446

brad, always thought you guys and jill ran a great operation. classy and effectively nourished to current state. it is reassuring that you will have control for a while. i have confidence it will be worth my loyalty. ray

To: SI Brad who wrote (11)	4/24/1998 2:01:00 PM
From: NYBellBoy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 446

Brad, Jeff & Jill -- Congratulations. SI is my primary source of information, wherever I am. Your customer base is firmly behind you. SI is the best way to stay in touch with our investments. The discussions with my friends and colleagues are worth their weight in Gold. All the new features you have added in the last year are terrific. Jill keeps us in line when we loose are cool, which keeps the quality of SI #1. The funny part of developing friendships on SI is that whether rich or poor a person's opinions are heard. There are technology specialists, lawyers, CPAs, MBAs PhDs and all rolled into one, Pat Mudge. The sharing of knowledge is astounding. It is ironic for me that this thread was started by Purecntry5. He and I have been on opposites sides of EGGhead.com, but we agree that Silicon Investor is great. Go2net made the acquisition of the century. We are firmly behind you. We will start watching Go2net's stock. If you need us, we will buy Go2net and you 3 can run Go2net. Yes, Jill I have been behaving myself; better than the average New Yorker. OK, I'll try harder. :) BellBoy

To: SI Brad who wrote (11)	4/24/1998 8:04:00 PM
From: Vanni Resta	Respond to of 446

How much were you paid in the deal? Happy Investing! Vanni

To: SI Brad who wrote (11)	4/28/1998 8:44:00 PM
From: Jesse	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 446

I hope you get all from this that you desire ..... however if it was a $ thing I would rather have kicked in an annual fee ... enough to cover cost make you rich beyond your parents dreams but keep SI private ....... selling add space will end up being the wrong way to go .... as in CABLE TV , people will pay a fee monthly to receive and control content. I see people making $ in fee service for content, direct selling of service and product and not selling add space .... Hey but what do I know ..... only what I will spend $ on and what I want .... The question is am I the EVERYMAN PS I also see people doing this for fun and free. Jesse

To: SI Brad who wrote (11)	9/29/1998 7:41:00 PM
From: Josef Svejk	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 446

Humble question, Brad, since while cruising SI, I just had a banner ad pop up, should I assume that SI has changed policy, and you are busy eating these words of a promise you made, in the message to which I am responding? (3) We will not bombard you with banner advertising or other forms of solicitation. Specifically, banner ads will not be placed in the message boards for members (If we do, you will have the ability to turn them off). Sure as hell hope it was just some kind of a wierd fluke!!! Cheers, Svejk abitare.it

To: SI Brad who wrote (11)	6/17/1999 7:02:00 PM
From: kathyh	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 446

hi brad, thank you for sharing with us exactly how advertsing will be handled on si... could you please let me know how i can turn it off, as per your post on the subject? Message 4174238 thanks for your help, kathy :)

To: SI Brad who wrote (11)	6/17/1999 7:06:00 PM
From: The Philosopher	Respond to of 446

(3) We will not bombard you with banner advertising or other forms of solicitation. Specifically, banner ads will not be placed in the message boards for members (If we do, you will have the ability to turn them off). So what's with the puke green Datek ad??? Please tell me how to turn it off.

To: SI Brad who wrote (11)	6/18/1999 12:46:00 AM
From: X Y Zebra	Respond to of 446

3) We will not bombard you with banner advertising or other forms of solicitation. Specifically, banner ads will not be placed in the message boards for members (If we do, you will have the ability to turn them off). Greetings Brad.... Would you please tell me how can I turn the Datek add off ? TIA.

To: SI Brad who wrote (11)	6/18/1999 10:03:00 PM
From: zonkie	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 446

>>>>you said>>>>(3) We will not bombard you with banner advertising or other forms of solicitation. Specifically, banner ads will not be placed in the message boards for members (If we do, you will have the ability to turn them off). If you have any other questions, please ask.>>>>> ____________ thank you......I do have a question... _______________ Brad I've always thought of the people at SI as being people that you could bank on if they told you something. Please tell me how to turn off the add. The damn thing says "sponsered by Datek", that makes it sound as if this is a free site that they are providing for us. We paid for the privilege of not having to see an add on every page.

To: SI Brad who wrote (11)	2/27/2000 4:38:00 AM
From: marcos	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 446

Brad, it's just not working out. They've killed real SI as of a few hours ago. This go2net thing can't do ascii character sets properly, there are no hundred-ranges with which to scan old posts, it loads like a pig, the subjectmarks page is completely wonky and legible only with considerable eyestrain, go2net can't even find the home page on my browser, lol - techstocks.com 'we duh can't find the document you requested' I sure hope you dumped your paper ... there could be a buck in it trading the other way now - Subject 33644 "...the spirit of SI as a member-driven site" - ah, those were the days ... you really meant that when you said it ... you and Jeff and Jill and Bob have a great deal of which to be justly proud, you made the best damn site on the internet and it will be a long time before anybody makes another up to Dryer standards ... que te vayas bien