I_like_cock

congrats to you. i have made many business partners and money by working hard and smart. to each his own.

chrislingle

yip, friends don't let friends link bait!

DruSam

cool, props to Kieron. One of the dudes I look up to after seeing his thread on sitepoint. learned a lot from him.

gdubs12345

i bet this place will get a ton of attention and new members because of this

lerchmo

And I really hoped that was the point, then he posted a 2nd time flaming everyone which indicated a level of seriousness.

wickedDUDE

jon i'm not saying that i dont like coming here. i'm not saying that you haven't done a lot for the community.. i know you have. all i'm saying is its hard to believe that a) somebody would offer 16 mil for a site that is making nothing, and b) that you wouldnt accept an offer like this and start the same site on another domain, and have all of us follow you over there, being that you could do this so easily.

also, on sitepoint didnt you say that you made about 500k a year? i remember you saying this somewhere. maybe it has gone up, i dont know. but someone making 500k a year would take 16 mil. in a heartbeat.

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Ted

A deal the size of $16M would come with a no compete clause. If the buyers had any sense (and if they have $16M then they must have a little sense) they would restrict Jon from starting or even posting on another forum.

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equity

Yeah, that is what happened to Bob Parsons when he sold one of his earlier companies. He was restricted from doing work for a period of time at least a year.

Jon

Hey asshole.. your avoiding the question... what exactly do you bring to the table here? I've never once seen you give out any sort of real advice or information, just non-stop bitching, moaning and poking fun at things that you usually have NO REAL INFORMATION to base it off of. Remember, I won't ban you, but if you leave on your own, I'd accept that too.

So before you thwart attention elsewhere, be a good boy and answer the question.

__________________

Jon

Yep! Another HUGE reason for me turning it down. I wouldn't be managing this place if I sold out, and they'd probably come in and clean it up a bit. What would WF be without profanity and boob pictures??

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Voodooman

I don't know. $16 million or even $11 million is a lot of money for a forum. I can't think of any forum that has been sold for that much. Web app and services, yes. But a forum, nope.

Jon, you could have done alot of great things for yourself and others with that money. As for the non-compete, please there are 100 and one ways around that shit. You could have taken the next 3 years off. You could invested into other business. Shit, it's almost like getting a blank check.

If I was you (and I know that I'm not), I would seriously reconsider the offer. At the same time, get yourself the best fucking lawyer that you could find to make sure that that dude doesn't shaft you.

In the end, for all those that say, thanks for not selling out. I tell you get the fuck out of here. Because that's what it's all about. Money talks and bullshit walks. We are pretty much all here because of one common reason - and that's money. Bottom line, it's all about the dollars. If not, go fucking start a charity.

-Voodooman
PS. Jon good luck with what ever you decide to do.

emp

OK, I'll get out of here now.

Cause Voodooman told me to.



::emp::

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pixabit

This must be the world record for forum offers?

You are trying to tell me some guy is offering 16 million dollars for forum less than a year old, with no earnings, and discussion based around a bunch of random shit?

Who is this guy? I have some sites with $0 income that are under a year old too; think I could get some six figure offers? that is peanuts compared to what you are being offered.

With 16 million you could retire right now and never have to work again. Like many others, I find this VERY hard to believe.

Can't you understand why people are skeptical? Are you just trying to create some buzz at your forum?

Jon

Again, after reading through all of these posts.. I never said I thought WF was worth what I was offered. Not even once! So why the hell are people bashing me? Did I make the insane offer? Nope! I came right out from the start of the conversation, and even told the person who set up the call from the beginning that I WAS NOT INTERESTED IN SELLING. But he kept telling me "just listen to what they have to say", so I figured, alright, doesn't cost me anything to listen, I'll just sit there and turn them down regardless.

Let me tell you, it is one hell of a weird feeling to hang up and realize that you just rejected an offer worth a lot of money for a site that doesn't bring in any revenue yet. I'm not doubting that for a single moment. I do appreciate the positive and some of the negative responses here. But this was MY decision, and if it was the right one, then I'll be one happy guy in the future, and if I was wrong, well, it's not the first time, but I am fine with my decision and I'll get over it. Just like I got over losing lots of cash in some really bad investments over the years, but then I look at the good ones, and they outweigh the bad ones like crazy.

For people who doubt my predictions/projections for WickedFire, for my blog, and for my private affiliate program the only thing I can say to you is just be patient, and wait and see. Do you think I like waiting around? Fuck no! I am one of the most impatient people around. Ask our designer Ben. I'm constantly on his ass about doing things in an hour or less, impossible things too! My partner and everyone we work with will tell you the same. I hate sitting around and waiting for things to work out, but that's something I've been learning for years now. The two things that may not seem to go very well, hand in hand, but certainly need to be learned is patience and confidence. With those, you can make some really great decisions in life and business, and I've learned to trust my gut instincts, and 9 times out of 10 they are right. Could this be one of the 1/10 that it's wrong? Only time will tell for sure. Posting shit about how you believe it or not certainly won't.

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Voodooman

emp, your funny. Just look at your signature. You're sure as hell not here to offer something, right. Not in it for the money, sure. What will the name of your charity be then emp? You're trying to bullshit a bullshiter. Please try again. And have a nice day.


-Voodooman

rob

Anyone remember when Jon had the "Advertise here - $150,000/month" text in his signature?

pixabit

So on a serious note, if I started a community similar to wickedfire, since you aren't accepting the offer can you refer him to me? I could give him a great community for $1million.

Don't be pissed if we don't believe you and think you are just trying to create some buzz.

chrislingle

Um, Jon, I think you miss the point, it is not that there was an offer for wicked fire, but that you want us to believe someone offered you 16m for it!

emp

Hmm...

I really think this just sounds so fucking unbelievable one is fast to discredit it.
But then, what would Jon have to win with a story like this?

Companies like youTube are being bought for 1.6 BILLION dollars, so if this doesn't smell of bubble 2.0, I don't know.

And for all those going "but youTube is soooo coool". Yeah, it might be. But that thing eats bandwidth faster than your momma gorges down your retarded sister's chocolate cookies.
And there still is no monetizing YouTube in sight.

My guess would be that we're either seeing the bubble rise again or just someone trying to scam Jon.

Ads on this would barely offset costs (webmasters clicking ads?) but I am able to see the interest a forum like this could awaken in some people.

- Maybe a hosting provider, wanting easy access to a bunch of eager webmasters, from the old shatterhands to the young and restless.

- Maybe an affiliate firm, trying to bring the good people into their midst.

- maybe....

::emp::

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pixabit

YouTube was bought because it had the market share Google's failing Video program needed. That's not a very good comparison.

If this site was bought for $16million, the new owner would never see his investment made back.

No one is dissing the site, we just want people to be real.

emp

I don't even catch your drift.

Sure I want some money from this. I treated it as a hobby because I am in a well paying job, but RIGHT NOW I also want to get out of it.
I'll post a lengthy rant about it later. (or tomorrow, probably)

I never said anything about me being a charity, but all that advice and the articles were and are for free.

Nope, Jon didn't pay me 2K for them. Nor did he pay me to be active in this forum. Actually, no one is. So what IS your point?

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lerchmo

Alright jon, forget the outrageous bid.. how the fuck do you plan on this forum itself bringing in 2million dollars a year?

engaged

Ya, I don't help out much publicly, but I answer a lot of PMs... got a couple hundred in my box still. I'm sure some people attest that I'm pretty easy to get advice from privately. I've looked at dozens of templates, even showed people the best templates to use and where to copy them. What does a lightning round do for 1 hr... what BIG advice is being shared there?

This is 1 random sample about someone asking what a good arbi layout is:

this is just plain wrong if you want to do big volume arbi. look at the biggest players in any niche... hint: they aren't on low volume 7search.

Voodooman

I don't think that Jon is lying about the $16m. It's the dude at the other end that I don't find to be so credible. Yes, he might be good for it and all that. But I know others, who are in the business broking biz. And they hype up a small business owner to get them to talk about the business' internal numbers. They make the small business owners jump through hoops and do backflips. Once they got whatever information they needed, they simply come up with some bullshit reason as to why the deal can't go through. So it's not Jon that I question, it's more of the other dude at the other end.

pixabit

I'm curious as well?

chrislingle

emp - the 1 thing that kept being said about the youtube deal was that the bandwidth issues were nothing to google, they had the whole site covered with plenty to spare without taking over youtubes bandwidth.

I think part of the reason Jon posted this was that many people would say hell why would you say something like that if it did not happen and that would give some credibility to it.

emp

Voodooman, that actually makes sense.

So scam might still be an option.

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chrislingle

Voodoo - jon said in his own words that the guy was 100% legit etc. so I don't think that makes sense!

engaged

there is no person on earth that would not take $16mm if it was a real offer... < 1 yr of work, $0 being made, lots of time being spent... NO ONE would not take it if it was real... 3yr non-compete... fuck it... a million other things you could do... is having your own forum worth it... give me a break

Ben

This statement is 100% true, Jon is an asshole! I'm the fastest designer I know and he calls me "slow man".

Deliguy

Very good point! I had a guy try do this for one of my real estate sites. Looked up his company and found out his company wasn't even worth the amount of his offer.

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emp

THat made me spit out my tea...LOL

So Jon is like Fry after his 100th cup of coffee?

Yeah... odd futurama refernces... blame piggy.

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chrislingle

Deli - again, jon said this guy was 100&#37; legit so he thinks the guy has the money to do it so that is not it!

emp

chris -
I could still see this happening, even IF the guy has the money.

Just trying to get the other guy (Jon in this case) to disgorge some real numbers, then decide.

Or even worse, then decide about another biz or about moving into that niche yourself.

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engaged

Let's go over this one for a bit... I was talking to you months ago and said I'd be willing to help you out with your survey affiiate program and spend a few hundred/day to test it out... you said it would be ready in a week... it has been about 3 months or so since then... how can you be off by so much?

how about the 10 million niches thing I heard about that each make $1/day... do you know how impossible that is??? about.com is probably the closest thing to that and they aren't even close to making that kind of revenue. i've had more than 10mil pages indexed when i used to do bhat and it was easy... barely made 2k/day...

so come on... things are getting hard to believe.

Deliguy

Yeah thats definitely true but his point is at least its worth considering

Doesn't sound to me like he even had enough time between the phone call and the post to even research if this guy really was who he said he was.

Just making an observation.

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Voodooman

Chris,
It's not that the guy has the money or not. He might have 10x's as much. But maybe, he's just hyping Jon, to get Jon to fork over or do something for him. If Jon, would have said, yes, the dude would have backed out. The point being, it was all a sham to get Jon to do something for him. It happens all the time.

seocracy

Try pontificating on something that actually matters.

Speculation is like masturbation: self-serving, self-centered, and addictive.

Holy fuck. What is wrong with you people?

For that matter, what the fuck is wrong with me? Pontificating? Where do I get this shit?!?!

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engaged

when i hear guy who snaps up big properties i think barry diller... unfortunately we are talking sites like ask.com, not wf

Deliguy

don't forget painful in large quantities.

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chrislingle

seocrappy, pontificate on dieeso - deli- voodo - I hear what you are saying but those theory's are about as likely as the 16m offer! sure it could happen but I think I will fuck Carmen Electra before either of those things happen or happened!

chrislingle

deli - your last post um? hu? do we need to buy you a hooker in vegas?

seocracy

Yeah, thats why when I 'speculate' I always use baby-oil and a deer-skin glove.

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emp

Seocracy... too much information, man.

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Deliguy

seems we only have three things on this thread.
claims, theories, and a whole lot of bunched up panties.

Yes i will gladly accept carmen electra as my hooker. Could please you send her down to reno and tahoe, thats where I'll be during ASW?

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chrislingle

Deli there was nothing about you fucking her, you are on your own there I was talking about me, wtf do I care about you?

Voodooman

Here's an example of what I'm saying ...

Let say you own a nice luxury car (I don't know a $100,000 Mercedes). I come to you and say, "I love your car and I need to have it. I'll give $300,000 for it".

You say, "Sure". Because shit you could buy 3 of the same car for that price. But then I tell you, "But first, I need to take it for a spin. Let me get it for 1 night".

You want to get the $300k. So you give me the keys.

Without you knowing, I take your car to all the nightclubs. I fuck half a dozen chicks in the back seat. The next morning, I give you back your car. And tell you that I didn't like the way that it handled and that it has a nasty smell.

Yeah, you were offered $300k for the car. And I could have been good for the $300k. But what did you get in reality? One stank nasty funky smelling car.

So, anyone has a $100,000 Benz they want to sell for $300k?

lerchmo

What else is there? do you propose we let this go unflamed? I say when you make a wild claim its your responsibility to back it up with a little more info instead of one giddy post about the experience.
And if you make a claim like that chances are high that people are not gonna leave it alone.
so either speculate in high quantities or don't speculate but no one is gonna speculate for you!

lerchmo

And here is what you DONT do, you don't get on a forum and tell everyone you turned down a serious $300,000 offer for a used car that is $100,000 new.
even thats only like a 3x markup and we are talking 30x markup here.

chrislingle

consider the audience this was presented too, are we known for doing anything else? so this was either because there was slow traffic on the site and he wanted some links - I have not done a flame thread in quite some time (I kid) or he has mental issues that he needs worked out.

If it is the first, he sure picked a poor way of driving traffic cause all he has done is make himself look like a fibber