Exciting News About DailyStrength!
Hi DailyStrength friends. I want to be the first let you know about some very exciting news that we're announcing today. DailyStrength has merged with HSW International (HSWI), a leading provider of authoritative content on the Web. HSWI has deep expertise in creating quality, locally relevant content for consumers, and we're excited to merge our wonderful community tools with their excellent content. I bet you're thinking two things: a) "Why?", b) "Now what?" or "How does this affect me?" Let me try to answer both. Why? The inspiration for DailyStrength was, and remains to this day, my cousin Andrew Kirsch, who died of cancer at the age of 20. I wanted to make Andrew proud by helping others on his behalf. With Andrew in mind, I developed a theory which ultimately became DailyStrength. The theory was that I could create a successful for-profit business, but, at the same time, help others in a profound way. I wanted to provide a product or service that improved the lives of the people that used it every day, and I didn't want the people who came for help to have to pay for it. The last 3 years have been a wonderful struggle to prove that theory. Running a business, especially in this economy, has been a challenge, but every time I got down, I'd jump in to one of our communities and see the emotion, the support and the love that you all were offering each other, and I'd be re-energized. Everything we did, from hiring folks to building new features to making money, was done with the view that it must ultimately benefit the folks who come to us for help. HSWI has seen the tremendous value of DS, and wants us to keep doing what we do best. They are offering us the resources to invest heavily in new content and features to improve your experience and bring the power of DailyStrength to others. Now What? How Does This Affect Me? The only effects for you, my friends and fellow DS members, are positive. We can finally throw long-needed resources towards the features and needs of DS. We can expand the reach of communities and content we offer. Most importantly, we can continue to be here in your time of need. In the short term, nothing will be different. Over the coming months, however, you'll start to see both big and small improvements to your DS experience as we offer new and improved services to you, our members. The philosophy will remain the same; we'll just have more folks to help us help you. I can't thank you enough for being a part of DailyStrength and spending your time with us. We look forward to continuing to help improve your life. Doug
Replies
There is a lot of commentary here.... A lot to absorb... Will you still handle DS? What exactly are the changes... and as someone pointed out not all of us and probably it is a majority can afford to pay for DS! What are doing to make sure of this? My husband worked for a company 2x that\"merged\" it was horrible! i\'m hoping this is better than previous experiences. in this day and age I understand what you did but PLEASE don\'t leave us all in the dust. It would not be the same tribute as you were making it should that happen.....
Your site has senn me through a lot of time I was unsure I would make it....Please don\'t let that change Doug. With respect and love...
my biggest concern is privacy and security for myself....
might I suggest that when the merge happens to possibly have a function so that we can delete our profiles ourselves and be able to change our usernames ourselves. keep up the good work guys x
Thanks for all of your comments. We are reading them. As I said above, we are excited to make improvements, and most of our improvements will be inspired by you, our loyal members. I\'ve just returned from my first \"deep dive\" meeting with members of our new team - we\'ve identified who\'s going to be doing what, and we\'re getting started. I will make sure to share more with all of you soon.
So there will be management changes in the hierarchy within DS structure? As long as those new people who come in ....give ear to our voices.....I think all should be well.......but that\'s just my opinion. When someone \"merges\" It\'s cause they saw an ability to \"gain\" something and improve something. So nonetheless I hope whatever changes are coming are for the benefit of the communities here on DS. Thanks for letting us all know. Much appreciated.
~Tek Joe
I still don\'t like this idea. How do we know if anything will be better? You have to fill us in more about whats going on. We, the people who use this site, have the right to know about this stuff. If something happens that none of us like, we will leave and if there are no members left on DS, it has no reason to stay open. Doug, I really hope you remember why you did this. Don\'t lose sight of your purpose for this site.
Also, I don\'t like this idea. I have a bad feeling about this. Make sure you listen carefully to what everyone has to say and what those guys who are changing DS have to say. They\'ll make you promises and swear they\'ll keep them until the day you need them. They\'ll just screw you over at the last minute then everything goes to hell. What I\'m afraid of most is that you\'ll go through with this, DS doesn\'t get better and you lose it completely to someone else and we have to pay for it afterward. Don\'t let that happen Doug. We have a lot of faith in you. Don\'t let us down.
you are excited to make money. you dont care about the members. you just want money. I am so disappointed. You should have sent PM\'s to everyone to ask our opinion, after all we are members and what you did afffects us - but as you see, were not impressed, and I think thats why you didnt do it openly. I also read some of your comments on that link I sent you, and again I was not impressed.
I have been on DS from shortly after it started, under a different name - changed because of security concerns - and have seen this wonderful site go from a very caring people-friendly pace where we could send messages to you or other staff members (who were not all that many at that time) and we would get a reply (not just a computer generated message with never, in my case, any further follow up) and something would be done to try and sort out whatever the problem happened to be. That changed earlier this year and then we have trumpeted that we have 300,000 which we celebrated. Then when you decide to sell all of us to the highest bidder (perception) it is put up in a couple of very small lines at the bottom of a box on home pages.
Tight now many people are having problems with various things on DS like Chatroom - mine has never worked despite repeated messages to the staff - and people reporting other members and getting banned for no reason it seems other than they were reported. It seemed like no investigation was made.
No I like many others here have a really bad feeling about this whole thing. It would have been nice if you had brought this up to us before you made the decision and if it were a matter of money perhaps enough of us could have paid so that you did not have to sell us. But to announce this after it has been done was really not in what I thought was the true spirit of DS, and to not even send out a message to members. Well I am sorry Doug but I think that you have let us down and as some people who are on DS have nothing else to hold on to I fear that this might just tip them over the edge.
I am fortunate, I am not one of them, but there are many who are and I feel for them and hope that something or someone can reach out and help them. But unless we know who they are (and often we don\'t) there is little we can do.
I am, in a word ANGRY as well as disappointed and unimpressed. That about sums it up. If anyone has found another \"home\" please spread the word as I feel this is no longer \"home\" now. Thank you
Is this what it DS is all about after all?? MONEY?? How disappointing, how underhanded to do all this sneakily as you knew full well that members would be concerned about how it would affect us, of course we are only the people that keep this site going aren\'t we?? What a let down!!
I\'m sorry about this, Doug. I do more than appreciate the service that DS affords, but when I see words as vague as, *a leading provider of authoritative content on the Web*, all I can see is a veiled way of saying commercialism/money, and I can hardly think of a time when money was paid for less than eventual monetary gain.
* HSWI has deep expertise in creating quality, locally relevant content for consumers*. Well, okay, that\'s swell for them, but I have to say that when I read this, I felt I was being patted on the back and stabbed in the stomach at the same time. It\'s SO unforthcoming, in terms of the reality fo this, which is that this is a business venture, make for gain, period. Even if I didn\'t like what you were doing, I would have respected candor, as opposed to double-talk that attempted to veil the truth of the matter.
Thank you for the update. I was a little concerned when I first read of what was happening. This site has been a God send for me, as I know it has been for so many others. Thank you for doing everything you have for so many!
i am not sure how to take this. 2 years ago, DS was my strength. now it has changed so much. i hope this revamp will improve things, and not hinder the healing and growth of members. it\'s pointless to get angry about this \'merging\' it is a done deal. if people don\'t like it, we can always leave. maybe if the numbers start dropping it will show the powers that be that we miss the old days, when it wasn\'t about money, but about support. i sincerely hope that all this will improve the site and all those on it.
Frankly, I\'m concerned. DS has felt like it\'s really been all about us members. We get the support that we need without being forced to purchase things or give out private information. And based on some of the things I\'ve read today, I\'m worried that this will change with the new acquisition. I love my groups. They\'ve been very informative and have helped me through some very tough times. But if things go the direction that I fear it\'s going, I\'ll have to bow out....and I doubt I\'d be alone.
doug, i know you are doing what is best. but the rumors are flying that this is going to become a pay site and if this is not true, you need to nip this and nip it quick.