Posted by Ezboard member,
MemoryandDream:
On the night of May 30-31st 2005, ezboard claims they were victims of a malicious attack. Labatt was quoted in various news reports that approximately 9,000 boards were affected. Coincidentally, ezboard was working on a new version of their message board software at that time but have stated that the sudden and abrupt loss of data across the entire network had nothing to do with testing of this software. Message boards across the network were unavailable. A white page full of errors would result when you tried to load forums. Members could not access their information, their boards nor their accounts for the better part of a day.
After OVER THREE WEEKS of no information, misleading announcements and downright lies, they failed to restore data on thousands of boards. Millions of posts were lost spanning upwards of FIVE YEARS.
The real slap in the face? Ezboard CEO Robert Labatt then had the nerve to tell people not only were they refusing to refund money that had been prepaid for service, but they were KEEPING all monies that had NOT EVEN BEEN APPLIED TO SERVICE YET. Yes, you read that right. Money that was being held by ezboard for potential future purchases is NOT being returned. That's called theft and it's wrong.
Please help spread the word. Don't let them get away with treating customer like this. Let's make sure they never have another new customer. Let's make sure together that they learn they can't rob you and get away with it. Let's make sure everyone knows exactly what kind of business they run.
http://www.ezboardsucks.net
The entire history of the attack, ezboard's responses, consumer fraud protection links and a forum to share your own personal story and get in touch with other admins who are also boycotting ezboard.
(Please feel free to copy this text and image - you can even remotely load them if you don't have webspace for the banner - and post it anywhere on the net so people can see it. Together, we can make them hear us.)
Ezboard Failure Info, please read
I appreciate the information here although it was posted in the wrong forum. I assume you're from ezboards, probably way back from when I used CG or Sinuous Fortuities, considering it was posted by Memory. Whatever, anonymity is fine.
But if you're posting something political like this I'm inclined to give my opinion on the matter. I've always had the understanding that money in community chests is non-refundable. Old RP posts being lost is a pain in the ass but that's all. I lost some stuff I should have saved, but that's half my own fault for not putting it on CDs. Getting money back won't help that.
Ezboards was always a bad service. I always treated it like a second rate junky assed system, which is what it's always been. It was always too expensive, ignored feature requests, lagged up, and lacked a lot of obvious necessities like a personal backup option. I will boycott their service and I will trash talk them for fun...
BUT I have to roll my eyes when I hear about boards that had hundreds of dollars in their chests and are obviously now going berzerk. For a hundred bucks one can hire a web designer, get a domain, and create a fully customized board. It was always plain to see that ezboards was antiquated and not worth that kind of investment. The word sucker comes to mind. Yeah, fine, I'm being a jackass and siding with the bad guy here, but as the saying goes "it's morally wrong to let a sucker keep his money."
Too much of the internet and too much software thrives on misinformed consumers who happily chuck money at companies and support more garbage (microsoft, real media, AOL, etc). Hopefully this will serve as a slap in the face for some people. Computers, and especially the internet, are tools, and ezboards was a low end easy way of doing things. People who threw lots of money at it were just throwing money at something rather than researching to find something better. A hunred bucks or more per year for JUST a board (no webspace), PLUS the cost of ezsupporter? Dude, you can blame them but only partially... They didn't do anything in the past that would indicate they gave a rats ass about the users, and people expected to get their money back? Why would they give it back?
Considering how not surprised I was when the hacking deal happened, I'm not inclined to link to a "hate ezboards" banner and website. I hate microsoft but I use windows because I'm lazy, not because I expect something good. If I get a virus and my computer dies I'll take it out on myself, not them. If consumers want to be more informed about their choices, the only way to do that is to learn the tools.
But if you're posting something political like this I'm inclined to give my opinion on the matter. I've always had the understanding that money in community chests is non-refundable. Old RP posts being lost is a pain in the ass but that's all. I lost some stuff I should have saved, but that's half my own fault for not putting it on CDs. Getting money back won't help that.
Ezboards was always a bad service. I always treated it like a second rate junky assed system, which is what it's always been. It was always too expensive, ignored feature requests, lagged up, and lacked a lot of obvious necessities like a personal backup option. I will boycott their service and I will trash talk them for fun...
BUT I have to roll my eyes when I hear about boards that had hundreds of dollars in their chests and are obviously now going berzerk. For a hundred bucks one can hire a web designer, get a domain, and create a fully customized board. It was always plain to see that ezboards was antiquated and not worth that kind of investment. The word sucker comes to mind. Yeah, fine, I'm being a jackass and siding with the bad guy here, but as the saying goes "it's morally wrong to let a sucker keep his money."
Too much of the internet and too much software thrives on misinformed consumers who happily chuck money at companies and support more garbage (microsoft, real media, AOL, etc). Hopefully this will serve as a slap in the face for some people. Computers, and especially the internet, are tools, and ezboards was a low end easy way of doing things. People who threw lots of money at it were just throwing money at something rather than researching to find something better. A hunred bucks or more per year for JUST a board (no webspace), PLUS the cost of ezsupporter? Dude, you can blame them but only partially... They didn't do anything in the past that would indicate they gave a rats ass about the users, and people expected to get their money back? Why would they give it back?
Considering how not surprised I was when the hacking deal happened, I'm not inclined to link to a "hate ezboards" banner and website. I hate microsoft but I use windows because I'm lazy, not because I expect something good. If I get a virus and my computer dies I'll take it out on myself, not them. If consumers want to be more informed about their choices, the only way to do that is to learn the tools.
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Blood Ravenous
- Battlemage
- Posts: 385
- Joined: Sun Jun 05, 2005 9:23 pm
- Name: Ryxa
- Race: Human
Yeah it really does figure that that would happen. I was already getting fed up with ezboard and I wish I didn't procrastinate so much, or we would have kept some important posts we lost on my board. But I moved, too, and I'm not going back. That was just a motivator... 'Course I'm only mad about the posts being lost but it was my friend's posts and she didn't save them on her own computer >sweatdrop<. And we didn't spend any money on their stupid little Gold stuff b'cuz it's just a waste of money and we knew that.
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Anonymous