Response To The Rollback Complaints

[Admin]

It is frustrating with these rollbacks, but I think the Admin team does really well so I won't complain

So sorry about this guys.

This is rollback # 2, and (you guessed it) hopefully the last one we will ever have to do.

Rollbacks have happened because we are in a very unique situation right now. HairLossTalk has been mostly dormant (aside from the forums) for the last 7 years. It just ran itself for the most part. Unfortunately we've had to make massive changes to a very old website and that has caused a lot of growing pains. Some changes we make sometimes destroy our Google rankings and traffic. That's what happened this time. I left it alone for a few days just to see if we could live with it, but the traffic had been cut by almost 70% and it wasn't improving. It was an emergency rollback.

Ehi, the threads can be rewritten, and new information will be added

True, but rollbacks are simply unacceptable. I was physically sweating when this one was being decided on. You should've seen me pacing back and forth in my office trying to think of any other solution. Trust me im right there with you guys when this happens. Eventually - I saw our real-time traffic go from 140 per minute to 39 per minute and I just said "Screw it - I have to roll back, we screwed up, I'll prepare for the sh*t storm reaction".

My point? Usually the site isn't touched for literally years on end. It just runs itself. We will get back to that status soon. Right now everything has had to undergo major revamping. Literally tens of thousands of pages. So between February and today, its been a unique situation.

HairLossTalk.com is the worst of all hairloss forums in this category, seriously the only reason its still alive is because of new noobs coming all the time. Its a classic story of an 14 year old, who's self-asserting himself through moderating. The reason for why I can write this is because my membership is worth nothing to me. Dante, you're a cretin, and doing more harm than good. HairLossTalk.com would be better off without you, go f*** yourself.

So here's the situation. @drgs_not_hugs - your post was deleted by the moderators, but I undeleted it. I am honestly tired of the mentality on discussion forums where users are not allowed to speak their minds once in awhile. I've participated myself on some forums and (yes!) been banned for saying things that the owner didn't like. I think its an abuse of power unless its really warranted. I also ran this site for 10 years that way and learned from it. Its not how you manage a community.

You're entitled to speak your mind, and one-off inappropriate comments like this one are allowed as well. Just don't make it a habit. As for me: You can say whatever you want to me. I wish I was 14 right now. Seriously. If you have any suggestions on how I can improve the site please let me know. One of the big changes we are making will include bringing people back, who have valuable input and longstanding reputations. Those are the people who help the noobs out the most.

Admin

 

[Afro_Vacancy]

I really hate the rollbacks personally, but I'm surprised you got sh*t for it. It's clearly for a greater cause, a greater good.

You're being very transparent. If I understand you correctly, you want to increase the visibility of the website online, increase the google rankings, et cetera. That is a good cause, and it will help other men out there and other women as well learn that there are other options, learn not to spend money on laser helmets, et cetera.

The amount of information lost in the last rollback really sucks. But it pales in comparison to the amount of information that can be gained over time by increasing the visibility of the website. We lost a week's worth of content. If the greater visibility adds, say, two additional forum regulars, the forum's total content will end up above par. Eventually this will also give admin more credibility in going after the large research companies so as to interview them. They're more likely to respond if this website looks like a professional operation.

FWIW, I joined this website because threads were showing up on google searches for hair loss, a lot of good threads by MisterE. It had to be multiple searches in a row for me to bother making yet another user name and yet another password (one of my pet peeves).

 

[F2005]

So sorry about this guys.

This is rollback # 2, and (you guessed it) hopefully the last one we will ever have to do.

Rollbacks have happened because we are in a very unique situation right now. HairLossTalk has been mostly dormant (aside from the forums) for the last 7 years. It just ran itself for the most part. Unfortunately we've had to make massive changes to a very old website and that has caused a lot of growing pains. Some changes we make sometimes destroy our Google rankings and traffic. That's what happened this time. I left it alone for a few days just to see if we could live with it, but the traffic had been cut by almost 70% and it wasn't improving. It was an emergency rollback.



True, but rollbacks are simply unacceptable. I was physically sweating when this one was being decided on. You should've seen me pacing back and forth in my office trying to think of any other solution. Trust me im right there with you guys when this happens. Eventually - I saw our real-time traffic go from 140 per minute to 39 per minute and I just said "Screw it - I have to roll back, we screwed up, I'll prepare for the sh*t storm reaction".

My point? Usually the site isn't touched for literally years on end. It just runs itself. We will get back to that status soon. Right now everything has had to undergo major revamping. Literally tens of thousands of pages. So between February and today, its been a unique situation.



So here's the situation. @drgs_not_hugs - your post was deleted by the moderators, but I undeleted it. I am honestly tired of the mentality on discussion forums where users are not allowed to speak their minds once in awhile. I've participated myself on some forums and (yes!) been banned for saying things that the owner didn't like. I think its an abuse of power unless its really warranted. I also ran this site for 10 years that way and learned from it. Its not how you manage a community.

You're entitled to speak your mind, and one-off inappropriate comments like this one are allowed as well. Just don't make it a habit. As for me: You can say whatever you want to me. I wish I was 14 right now. Seriously. If you have any suggestions on how I can improve the site please let me know. One of the big changes we are making will include bringing people back, who have valuable input and longstanding reputations. Those are the people who help the noobs out the most.

Admin

Admin, I am going to reply here because the other thread which I was initially going to reply to was deleted. Anyway, you have a very interesting story regarding finasteride, and it was good of you to post it. I also got terrible side effects from finasteride as well and it's important that these stories are told. Some people think that treating hair loss is as simple as getting on finasteride and getting slight hair transplants to fill in the gaps. Could not be further from the truth. What if you have side effects from finasteride? Then what are you supposed to do? Keep getting hair transplant after hair transplant to fill in the gaps. And what if you have diffused thinning? Sure, it's great if you're a responder to finasteride, but what if you still lose hair even with finasteride (as many people have) or you get terrible side effects as many people do. Lots of times I post threads filled with anger because we really do not have anything close to a mainstream solution for hair loss, despite what anyone really says. If we did, then there wouldn't be so many bald men out there, even famous ones. I am also very glad that you clarified that Merck does not fund this site in any way. One of the things that I cannot stand about the other main hair loss site is that these scrupulous hair transplant surgeons fund it, and therefore have major influence.

 

[Admin]

I am also very glad that you clarified that Merck does not fund this site in any way. One of the things that I cannot stand about the other main hair loss site is that these scrupulous hair transplant surgeons fund it, and therefore have major influence.

Its so funny how people phrase it. "Merck funding the site". Phrasing it this way makes it sound sinister. It makes it sound like merck wasn't just paying for a banner ad, but they were also now in control of the site in some fashion.

Merck asked us to put up a JPG and paid us for the number of times it was "viewed". That's it. Yes - technically you could say they "funded" the site, but the unspoken implication that they were somehow "part owners" or "in control" in any way, is absurd.

Also, the assumption that just because someone is allowing advertisers on the site, they are also a crooked sell-out wh*** with no integrity, is honestly ridiculous.

In my case, I could have Merck, Rogaine, and every single hair transplant doctor on this planet sending me money to advertise, and I would sooner end my relationship with them before I would ever let them compromise what I believe on any topic.

More importantly: Advertisers don't even request this from site owners in the first place!

Advertising relationships are entered into all the time. I have never heard of an advertiser signing up and then demanding that the site they're on change things for them. It just doesn't happen in 99% of cases.

The entire motivation behind Vinny777's temper tantrum was the same mentality that you just expressed. If someone is advertising, automatically the site can't be trusted. Its nonsense, because in the real world, the extent of the relationship is "Give us exposure and we will pay you for it". That's it.

No advertiser has the balls, nor the audacity to try and tell the site they advertise on that they need to change how they run things. I simply have never seen this happen.

So I hope this entire assumption / mentality gets filed under "crazy talk" soon.

One thing I have failed to do for the last 17 years, is grow this business. There isn't a single website on the internet that doesn't have advertisers, sponsors, and ways to monetize the content. You can be 100% assured that there *are* going to be advertisers on this site in the coming months, and numerous sponsors coming on board. And there isn't a damn thing wrong with that, because as I've said now many times, I have integrity. And also, as part of our contract, we will have agreed up front that our relationship will include *no* influence over how the site is run, or what ideology it promotes.

If people want to run around like crazies screaming that Nike is making me say I love Propecia because they see a Nike ad on the site, then that's up to them. I am going to fully, 100% ignore it however.

Admin

 

[g.i joey]

Ever since this whole forum was updated a couple months back it hasn't been the same. No offence at all admin but I found myself enjoying being on here with the previous layout. I hope this helps ferther enhance the forum. I also feel like we lost a lot of reputable members here in the past month, hellouser is the first I think of when I think about it. Is he even still active here?

 

[Samson123]

I second gi joeys opinion that the old format was better. This one is too busy with too much bullshit. This isn't effing facebook. We are here to help each other, especially new users, and that's my main problem with this and other hairloss forums. The absolute first thing that any hair loss sufferer should know within minutes of visiting a hairloss forum is that ANY hairloss treatment can worsen your situation, often times permanently. I'm speaking primarily in regards to finasteride as that drug has permanently destroyed my hair in every way, even on the sides and donor area. It literally did the exact opposite of what its supposed to do. IMO, this is a problem related to dosage. Some will do better with a low dose vs the standard dose because everyone reacts differently to the drug. And the oft repeated .2 mg is almost effective as 1 mg' is, in my real life experience, complete bullshit. In my real life experience, not some bullshit study, is the 'flat dose response' starts at .5 mg. The only guide that exists to what finasteride dose someone should take is what their DHT levels are. This should be completely obvious by now , especially with 25 years of finasteride use. Men who are losing hair with low DHT levels will most likely not benefit from a DHT inhibitor and might end up just accelerating their hairloss. No study shows that finasteride can worsen hairloss but it clearly can in some people (think about the 'studies'. If any had shown an increase in hairloss then Propecia would have been DOA) This sh*t doesn't have to be a shot in the dark.

 

[g.i joey]

IMO, this is a problem related to dosage. Some will do better with a low dose vs the standard dose because everyone reacts differently to the drug. And the oft repeated .2 mg is almost effective as 1 mg' is, in my real life experience, complete bullshit. In my real life experience, not some bullshit study, is the 'flat dose response' starts at .5 mg. The only guide that exists to what finasteride dose someone should take is what their DHT levels are. This should be completely obvious by now , especially with 25 years of finasteride use. Men who are losing hair with low DHT levels will most likely not benefit from a DHT inhibitor and might end up just accelerating their hairloss. No study shows that finasteride can worsen hairloss but it clearly can in some people (think about the 'studies'. If any had shown an increase in hairloss then Propecia would have been DOA) This sh*t doesn't have to be a shot in the dark.

100% agree with everything you said right here.

.5mg is most probably the lowest dose where this drug will actually start working on someone. One thing that gets me so nervous is that the same people who preach micro dosing are the ones who say the study for side effects is flawed. OK, so one aspect is flawed but the other cant be? Just because theres really no reason or hidden motive to play with a response curve doesnt mean it could be wrong.

Since starting Propecia in jan 2015, i played with SOOO many doses and realized anything under .5 wasnt doing anything for me. Its almost 2 years im toying with the drug and see a pattern. As soon as i think im at a comfortable point with my hair i reduce the dosage to .25 and always lose in the next months.

 

[g.i joey]

What if some people have high dht levels but less follicular sensitivity to it, or the vice versa. IMO, i think this is where we get lost with finasteride.

 

[Afro_Vacancy]

100% agree with everything you said right here.

.5mg is most probably the lowest dose where this drug will actually start working on someone. One thing that gets me so nervous is that the same people who preach micro dosing are the ones who say the study for side effects is flawed. OK, so one aspect is flawed but the other cant be? Just because theres really no reason or hidden motive to play with a response curve doesnt mean it could be wrong.

Since starting Propecia in jan 2015, i played with SOOO many doses and realized anything under .5 wasnt doing anything for me. Its almost 2 years im toying with the drug and see a pattern. As soon as i think im at a comfortable point with my hair i reduce the dosage to .25 and always lose in the next months.

The dosing studies are measuring objective and very specific numbers: DHT inhibition in the skin and the scalp as a function of dose, as well as quantity of hair growth. Those are individual numbers for which there is much less room to number other than explicit fraud.

Do you agree that propecia's effect is due to reducing DHT in the scalp and in the serum?

 

[F2005]

This one is too busy with too much bullshit. This isn't effing facebook.

I agree with this, but for another reason. It's one thing to post a shot of a person's hair, but I also see people literally posting glamour shots of their face, and with all different kinds of poses. Attention whoring on a hair loss forum is just ridiculous.

 

[Samson123]

David, people are way too gullible as far as the studies regarding finasteride go, especially since too many people are having reactions, adverse and otherwise, that never showed up in ANY study. I have my own adverse reaction and have read of many others. The studies need to be taken with a boulder of salt because the truth is that a hairloss medication that worsens hairloss would have never made it to market. So, obviously, there was a huge incentive to manipulate the data, for example, the men that experienced accelerated hairloss? oh, let's just call them 'non-responders'. Yes, because pharma companies have never lied about anything before. Gi joey started on .25 mg and got no results until he upped it to at least .5 mg. I dropped my dose from .5 mg to .26 mg and lost a years worth of hair literally overnight.

 

[Dench57]

in other news, k9gatton has completely lost the plot (again) and is pretending to be admin/swoop/wolf pack in the chatroom

 

[g.i joey]

in other news, k9gatton has completely lost the plot (again) and is pretending to be admin/swoop/wolf pack in the chatroom

the progesterone got to his head, literally.