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[Neverenoughwatches]

24 minutes ago, JohnR725 said:

yesterday I was resisting the temptation to place a public message of where the heck is Mark and why does he come back to his other group? So as a moderator have you

I did just that 2 days ago John and this morning I left a public message asking if he had plans to visit us this year .

[JohnR725]

3 minutes ago, tomh207 said:

Rich has posted there publicly today so we’ll see if that elicits anything.

yes I see the message so I gave it a thumbs up. If nothing happens maybe I'll post something on the message tomorrow and I just now noticed that Mark was last seen their four hours ago.

[VWatchie]

If Mark’s lost interest in this great site, then hey — it is what it is. We all move on from things. I’ve had hobbies I was super into for years, only to drift away from them when life took me in another direction. That’s totally normal. The thing is, this isn’t just about Mark — it’s about a whole lot more, and a whole lot of people.

I actually think WRT might have some decent commercial value. Take WatchUSeek.com, for example — it started off in a similar way and eventually got sold to someone who saw the potential to grow it and make money from it, mostly through ads from watch brands. Maybe I’m being overly optimistic here, since people who collect watches and those who repair them are pretty different groups — and not exactly equal in numbers — but still, I’d be curious to know if Mark’s ever gotten any offers to sell WRT.

Personally, I wouldn’t mind paying a small fee to keep the site going. Maybe there could be a setup where paying members can post, and everyone else can still read but has to see ads and can’t opt out.

Watch repair is probably one of the tiniest niches out there — but since the site’s available worldwide and we’ve got tools like AI now, it’s super easy to talk to anyone in pretty much any language. Case in point: this whole post was written in Swedish and then polished and translated by ChatGPT.

There are around 8 billion people on the planet, and if even one in 200,000 shares our interest, that’s still a potential audience of 40,000 folks globally. Maybe a quarter of them would be open to paying a little something and using English to connect. Who knows? I’m just throwing ideas out there — mostly to see if anything sparks some discussion.

What do you all think? Would you be willing to chip in a little to keep WRT alive if it came to that? Or maybe you have other ideas?

[AndyGSi]

I'd considered contacting a broken but have no idea if Mark did want to sell the site what it would be worth.

[Neverenoughwatches]

13 minutes ago, VWatchie said:

If Mark’s lost interest in this great site, then hey — it is what it is. We all move on from things. I’ve had hobbies I was super into for years, only to drift away from them when life took me in another direction. That’s totally normal. The thing is, this isn’t just about Mark — it’s about a whole lot more, and a whole lot of people.

I actually think WRT might have some decent commercial value. Take WatchUSeek.com, for example — it started off in a similar way and eventually got sold to someone who saw the potential to grow it and make money from it, mostly through ads from watch brands. Maybe I’m being overly optimistic here, since people who collect watches and those who repair them are pretty different groups — and not exactly equal in numbers — but still, I’d be curious to know if Mark’s ever gotten any offers to sell WRT.

Personally, I wouldn’t mind paying a small fee to keep the site going. Maybe there could be a setup where paying members can post, and everyone else can still read but has to see ads and can’t opt out.

Watch repair is probably one of the tiniest niches out there — but since the site’s available worldwide and we’ve got tools like AI now, it’s super easy to talk to anyone in pretty much any language. Case in point: this whole post was written in Swedish and then polished and translated by ChatGPT.

There are around 8 billion people on the planet, and if even one in 200,000 shares our interest, that’s still a potential audience of 40,000 folks globally. Maybe a quarter of them would be open to paying a little something and using English to connect. Who knows? I’m just throwing ideas out there — mostly to see if anything sparks some discussion.

What do you all think? Would you be willing to chip in a little to keep WRT alive if it came to that? Or maybe you have other ideas?

Two points H, if Mark has lost interest , then the decent thing to do, would be to tell us and help us arrange something else.  Last year when I brought up the same matter, he gave no indication of having such feelings. A bigger thing that's bothering me, all this discussion that we are having, is giving Mark ammunition to do exactly what you are suggesting - paying for the use of his site - . I don't believe it needs funding and think it is self funding.  Knowing what Mark probably now thinks - that the forum is so important to us- now has us over a barrel. 

Hasn't Chronoglide just made the same move ?

I think he completely fobbed us off last year

[VWatchie]

4 minutes ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Two points H, if Mark has lost interest , then the decent thing to do, would be to tell us and help us arrange something else.

Amen!

5 minutes ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

A bigger thing that's bothering me, all this discussion that we are having, is giving Mark ammunition to do exactly what you are suggesting - paying for the use of his site - . I don't believe it needs funding and think it is self funding.

No idea, honestly. I’ve been a monthly supporter for years though, and it’s always felt more than fair considering how much value his channels have given — and still give.

Just throwing another idea out there: maybe Mark could keep the site free for those who actually post useful stuff for others. Sure, it’d be kinda tricky and subjective to figure out who counts, but hey, just tossing ideas around.

[tomh207]

@VWatchie so you want to give the mods even more to do!

 

Tom

[Curare]

Help me out here, but with all the advertising on this site (which I don't mind) wouldn't it pay for itself or even make money for the owner ???

[JohnR725]

25 minutes ago, Curare said:

Help me out here, but with all the advertising on this site (which I don't mind) wouldn't it pay for itself or even make money for the owner ???

yes the advertising revenue should generate money. The question is how much money? Then as far as the cost of the website goes that's relatively easy to determine?

all you would have to do to grasp costs and profitability would be to go to the link below and you can actually get a website for free try it out for free I believe you get no advertising initially. They also talk about that they'll help you out they have marketing tools and some sort of paid subscription or something. So I guess were shopping for a whatever just ask them what would a maybe could use this one as an example in other words it's going to look basically identical to this is going to have advertising a paid subscriptions what's it going to cost? After all they want to sell or give us a message board like this they should bill answer the questions as they're the people who did the software for this. Yes they really said you can have a free discussion group at least to start.

https://invisioncommunity.com/

1 hour ago, VWatchie said:

I’ve been a monthly supporter for years though

I was curious about the monthly supporter thing where exactly do we find that on this message board? A quick search I'm not finding it so obviously I'm not looking in the right place?

[ChrisInOz]

5 hours ago, VWatchie said:

Oh, I didn’t know there was a Discord group! I know what Discord is, but I’ve never actually used it. How do I join?

 

The post below contains the link.

If you don't already have a discord account it will take you to the registration screen.  Registration is free.

 

https://www.watchrepairtalk.com/topic/31653-mark/?do=findComment&comment=279066

[way2wyrd]

Web sites are cheap. Message board are easy. Hosting both is less than 100 usd a year and small advertising would cover most of that.  In the discord group we did some 15 min poc and threw up a couple of different message boards on a domain i host.  

The real value is the data / information / hive mind

While I'm a rank amateur in watch repair the information and assistance on this board is invaluable.

The members on here are friendly, entertaining and a wealth of knowledge

This is what needs to be preserved 

--Jeff

[Mark]

On 4/15/2025 at 7:17 PM, VWatchie said:

Someone just made me aware that no images are showing in my post (

). Could someone with the proper permissions check this? I believe the images are ones I uploaded to the site, but they could also be ones I shared from my OneDrive, which had an issue some time ago.

Hi guys.

@VWatchie Those images are self hosted (not hosted on this server). Do a look at the page source and you will see this. I’m afraid, I can’t have control or backup images not hosted on this server.

( They seem to be served from here: https://qehvsw.bn.files.1drv.com/)

This server is backed up fully every night and the database is backed up and versioned every hour, all stored off site on Amazon S1 platform. It’s hard for us to lose data.

Ive got a huge overhead of space on this particular server the site is served from so no worries there

Sorry all for lack of response so far, I have been extremely busy and am embarrassed to say that priorities had to be set in place for a while.  Be assured that i’ve got constant monitoring and alerts should the site be in an extended problematic state (down etc) and work on these issues if they arise.

[Neverenoughwatches]

3 hours ago, Mark said:

Hi guys.

@VWatchie Those images are self hosted (not hosted on this server). Do a look at the page source and you will see this. I’m afraid, I can’t have control or backup images not hosted on this server.

( They seem to be served from here: https://qehvsw.bn.files.1drv.com/)

This server is backed up fully every night and the database is backed up and versioned every hour, all stored off site on Amazon S1 platform. It’s hard for us to lose data.

Ive got a huge overhead of space on this particular server the site is served from so no worries there

Sorry all for lack of response so far, I have been extremely busy and am embarrassed to say that priorities had to be set in place for a while.  Be assured that i’ve got constant monitoring and alerts should the site be in an extended problematic state (down etc) and work on these issues if they arise.

Why now Mark ?  And which contact has brought you here ? People have been trying for bloody months to get hold of you for reassurance. Shite way to run a forum tbh. Seven months since you last visited. I think we all need to have a long discussion with you about what happens if anything happens to you. Please look forward to lots of questions. 

10 hours ago, JohnR725 said:

yes the advertising revenue should generate money. The question is how much money? Then as far as the cost of the website goes that's relatively easy to determine?

all you would have to do to grasp costs and profitability would be to go to the link below and you can actually get a website for free try it out for free I believe you get no advertising initially. They also talk about that they'll help you out they have marketing tools and some sort of paid subscription or something. So I guess were shopping for a whatever just ask them what would a maybe could use this one as an example in other words it's going to look basically identical to this is going to have advertising a paid subscriptions what's it going to cost? After all they want to sell or give us a message board like this they should bill answer the questions as they're the people who did the software for this. Yes they really said you can have a free discussion group at least to start.

https://invisioncommunity.com/

I was curious about the monthly supporter thing where exactly do we find that on this message board? A quick search I'm not finding it so obviously I'm not looking in the right place?

Thanks for the link John, it will be interesting to find out how much it costs when they email me back.

[VWatchie]

5 hours ago, Mark said:

Those images are self hosted (not hosted on this server). Do a look at the page source and you will see this

Yes, now that you mention it, I think I remember (it was a very long time ago) creating a link for each picture, and that was massively time-consuming.

I'll edit the post once I get the time for it. By the way, it's good to see you back on the forum!

11 hours ago, Curare said:

Help me out here, but with all the advertising on this site (which I don't mind) wouldn't it pay for itself or even make money for the owner ???

I have no idea how much the ads are bringing in, but I hope it’s at least enough to keep things running — and maybe even leave Mark a bit extra for stuff like food and rent.

Not sure if everyone can do this, but you can actually turn off the ads. Just scroll down to the bottom of any page, click on "Theme," and pick one of the "No Ads" options.

[tomh207]

@VWatchie I believe that function to turn ads off is a Patron and moderator perk as they contribute to the site with money or time respectively.

 

Tom

[VWatchie]

5 hours ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

I think we all need to have a long discussion with you about what happens if anything happens to you.

This is probably the single most important point.

One of my best friends, 48 years old at the time, suffered a massive stroke about 15 years ago. He barely survived, but his life was never the same after that. If you had asked me back then to guess which of my friends might have a stroke and nearly die, he would have been the very last one I'd have picked. He was perfectly healthy, played tennis three times a week, ran a successful business, was full of life, and had a wonderful wife and well-behaved teenage kids. The harsh truth is, we never know when it’s "game over."

@Mark, I truly wish you a long, happy, and successful life. But have you given any thought to some kind of backup plan for WRT in case the worst should happen? Is there anyone who could keep the site going? If you can reassure us in some way, it would mean more than a lot to us!

[Neverenoughwatches]

Same question that was asked last time Hakan, and emphasis was placed on it. It was ignored. The thread should still be there, if not I have a copy of his reply. 

[Mark]

6 hours ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Why now Mark ?  And which contact has brought you here ? People have been trying for bloody months to get hold of you for reassurance. Shite way to run a forum tbh. Seven months since you last visited. I think we all need to have a long discussion with you about what happens if anything happens to you. Please look forward to lots of questions. 

Thanks for the link John, it will be interesting to find out how much it costs when they email me back.

Did you just swear at me matey??

1 hour ago, VWatchie said:

This is probably the single most important point.

One of my best friends, 48 years old at the time, suffered a massive stroke about 15 years ago. He barely survived, but his life was never the same after that. If you had asked me back then to guess which of my friends might have a stroke and nearly die, he would have been the very last one I'd have picked. He was perfectly healthy, played tennis three times a week, ran a successful business, was full of life, and had a wonderful wife and well-behaved teenage kids. The harsh truth is, we never know when it’s "game over."

@Mark, I truly wish you a long, happy, and successful life. But have you given any thought to some kind of backup plan for WRT in case the worst should happen? Is there anyone who could keep the site going? If you can reassure us in some way, it would mean more than a lot to us!

I’m sorry, I’m not divulging personal information but there’s always personal reasons. There’s not much more than I can do other than plod along as best I can. However, my health is good now and I’m regularly getting plenty of exercise to keep it that way

You know what. The ads don’t even cover a small percentage of what it costs to serve this site. I find most of it personally. If there are complaints then so be it. I do my best. 

in fact - I have zero issues turning them off. Would that make the complainers happy?

[AndyGSi]

@VWatchie I think under the current climate you're better keeping whatever the Patron fee is for you and your family.

As for me, I think I've seen enough.

[Neverenoughwatches]

1 hour ago, Mark said:

Did you just swear at me matey??

If you want to consider the word bloody swearing Mark, there has been a lot more considering the frustration. 

You haven’t actually answered anything Mark.

Can I ask why you popped your head in today please.?

We all have priorities Mark , we all have personal reasons for doing things. We are not asking you to divulge anything.  

But would there be a reason your priority allows you to be at your facebook group and not here . Is that group more important than this one ?

3 hours ago, Mark said:

However, my health is good now and I’m regularly getting plenty of exercise to keep it that way

 

No Mark ! That doesn't answer the question that VWatchie posed and was asked the last time. what happens to the forum if a killer whale has YOU for dinner while scuba diving one day.  What EXACTLY do we do ?  Apologies for being blunt, but the big burning question is..... can we have access to all the information that the members have created ? Who does that actually belong to please ?

[Mark]

1 hour ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

If you want to consider the word bloody swearing Mark, there has been a lot more considering the frustration. 

You haven’t actually answered anything Mark.

Can I ask why you popped your head in today please.?

We all have priorities Mark , we all have personal reasons for doing things. We are not asking you to divulge anything.  

But would there be a reason your priority allows you to be at your facebook group and not here . Is that group more important than this one ?

No Mark ! That doesn't answer the question that VWatchie posed and was asked the last time. what happens to the forum if a killer whale has YOU for dinner while scuba diving one day.  What EXACTLY do we do ?  Apologies for being blunt, but the big burning question is..... can we have access to all the information that the members have created ? Who does that actually belong to please ?

WITAF.