Category Archives: Meta

by | October 10, 2017 · 2:00 AM

Sticky: How to Access the Newest Posts on the Site

To access the latest posts on the site, please scroll pasts the first two sticky posts. 

The first two posts on the site, including this one, are sticky. That means that they are always at the top of the page every time you come here. There is one post below this one that are also sticky. If you want to see the latest posts on the site, you have to scroll down past the first two of these sticky posts. So the newest posts on the site will always start at the third post down, past the first two sticky posts.

For information on the new changes to the private Delphi Murders and Other Crimes Forums and how to join them, see here.

For information on how and why the site is going to a (partially) paid model, see here.

4 Comments

Filed under Meta

by | October 9, 2017 · 9:00 PM

Sticky: Fund Drive at Beyond Highbrow

To access the latest posts on the site, please scroll pasts the first two sticky posts. 

https://robertlindsay.wordpress.com/contribute/

Hi folks, it’s that time again. Yep, another donation request. I do not think I am abusing this feature. Most for-pay websites that run on this model hit you up for donations on just about every article. I don’t do that at all.

Furthermore, this is not begging. I work very hard on this site. I wrote 5,000 words just the other day. That would be 10 pages in a book. A lot of times I work on and off all day on this site. And I definitely work seven days a week on it. So I put in quite a few hours of hard work.

The fund drive simply asks you to pay my salary for my writing. It’s like buying a subscription to a newspaper or magazine. It’s a way of supporting my writing and this site as a whole. And if there are some features you love such as the forums, you might want to donate just to keep them running. So if you like my writing or my forums, you might want to donate to keep them going. If you hate my writing and/or my forums, well then, don’t donate to keep them going. That’s your right, and I don’t blame you for not paying. Why pay for something you hate?

Once again, this isn’t begging or handouts. I am requesting that you pay part of my wage or salary for this hard work I am doing here. It’s only begging  or handouts if you ask for money without working. I am simply a worker who is requesting to be paid for my labor, just like any other worker.

The forum model worked very good for a few months. Quite a bit of money came in. I figure at least 200 people paid to become members of the forum. However, forum membership purchases have slacked off dramatically; in fact, they have collapsed.

I have several income streams. I have at least three different income streams off this site alone now that I am finally selling advertisements. I suppose selling ads is begging for handouts too, right? I also have three different income streams outside of this site, only one of which is active now. The other two are dormant. So as you can see, I have six different ways of making money via work or labor. So that’s like six different jobs in a way. Problem is that they have all collapsed to a very low level lately. As you can see, someone working six different jobs at once is obviously too lazy to work!

I did  pretty well for a few months there with the forum. Two months I made $3,000/month. I was quite proud of myself, as I have never made $3,000/month in my entire life.

Actually I probably have 20-30 years ago if you account for inflation. I was making decent money as a schoolteacher and a paralegal for a while. For about a year, I was working as a schoolteacher and a paralegal. I would teach school all day, and then I would go into the paralegal job after everyone got home and work until late at night. And then on Saturday and Sunday, I would look around to see if any cops were around and then I would hop the fence at the law office and go into work a lot of the day on Saturday and Sunday. As you can see, I am a bum and derelict who refuses to work!

I took a vacation recently to the Bay Area to meet a couple of people and have some fun. The trip was supposed to cost $500, but instead it cost $1,750, as my car broke down over there and I had to spend extra nights in the hotel and then had to eventually spend $850 to fix the car. So the $1,750 expense basically was all of savings that I had saved up from the months when the money was good.

I am now back in the hole like I always am. Before the start of the drive, I was $185 below budget actually. At this point in the drive, I am now $45 above budget, but I definitely have new car expenses, sadly. A huge thanks to everyone who donated! I love all you!

https://robertlindsay.wordpress.com/contribute/

12 Comments

Filed under Idiots, Labor, Meta, Republicans

by | July 26, 2017 · 9:40 PM

Traffic Going Through the Roof on Beyond Highbrow

On Monday, we had one of our biggest days ever, with 60,587 hits and 40, 642 unique visitors! That is absolutely incredible traffic for this site which averages ~8,000 hits and  4,000 unique visitors a day lately. In fact, it may be one of the biggest days ever on this site.

Yesterday was also very good, with 21,349 hits and 13, 509 visitors.

The whole reason was this post. It has not yet been picked up by the MSM, but it is all over Facebook. I think on the big day, I got ~40,000 hits from Facebook.

The income coming into this site has also been very good in recent days. The past two months I made ~$1,000 of the site in addition to my normal income of ~$1,000.  $$2,000/month is more than I have made in a long time. You would have to go back to 1989-1990 and adjust for inflation. This month should be quite a bit better. So the decision to monetize the site appeared to be a good one. For those of you thinking of making money off the Internet, keep in mind that I have been running this site for I believe 12 years, four years on Blogger until I was banned from Blogger and eight years on WordPress so far. So it took me 12 years to build up to this point. A warning in case you are thinking this can be done in the wink of an eyes and a fortnight.

I would like to thank all my Delphi donators in the private forum for all their help. They are helping me to survive in life without having to borrow regularly from those close to me. So far, most all of the money has gone for car repairs which have totaled ~$3,000 this year so far. The large figure is because my car engine blew up recently after 228,000 miles. I do not think I caused it. I think it just blew from time and mileage. But hey, car repairs are a necessity too you know. You pretty much need a vehicle in the US nowadays.

5 Comments

Filed under Crime, Meta, Midwest, Regional, USA

by | July 23, 2017 · 1:20 PM

Major Changes to the Private Delphi Murders Fora

To access the latest posts on the site, please scroll pasts the first two sticky posts. 

Despite or possibly because of the smashing success of the private Delphi forum, we have had to make some major changes in the forum.

First of all, someone called Desirably Torn on the Topix site has declared war on the site, trying to destroy it in the process. Apparently he simply hates me. He is extremely self righteous, and he seems to think I am evil, so he is determined to destroy my site. Either that or he is just a destructive person who likes to destroy things for fun.

This person and an equally self-righteous woman he is in cahoots with also posted the names of some forum posters, all women, and started posting on the Topix public forum using the names of women on my forum. In one case, the pest used a woman user’s maiden name and married name. These women got very upset and threatened to quit. Everyone felt that the forum had been compromised, and the women were seriously concerned about their personal safety. So this man and woman were terrorizing the female posters on my site. You proud of yourselves? Later he somehow got access to the paid forum and posted the passwords on the open Internet for everyone to see. Obviously this is a very serious security breach.

Another troll actually paid $15 to join our site, and then strolled in and started picking fights with me of all people. Posters immediately launched into him, resulting in a huge fight spanning maybe 100 posts. He then went over to the Topix forum and started trashing our site. He was banned, all warring posts were deleted, and his money was kept.

This is a very serious problem. We have had have people who dedicated much of their time to destroying our site. These are extremely serious security breaches, and we had to take immediate action.

From now on, the donation requirement has gone up to a minimum of $20. We figure the higher fee might keep the pests and destroyers out, but who knows? If you have already paid at least $20, you are in. If you have paid less than $20, you will have to pay at least $5-10 more to equal a $20 contribution. I have records of all of your payments, so don’t worry.

Donation page.

Each post in the forum now has a separate passcode that is pretty much impossible to remember. The passwords are secure from a dictionary attack also for reasons I will not go into.

In addition, we have undertaken even further security measures to safeguard the forum users.

Hopefully these new policies will at least keep the security breaches to a minimum.

I would like to point out more thing to the people who are  dedicated to destroying  this site for whatever insane reason they have. I realize that you and quite a few others out there have an extreme, off the charts hatred of me for some retarded self-righteous reason. Fine.

But do you any of you realize that this site is very important to the LE working on this case? Well, it is. I know that for an absolute fact. I am not going to tell you how I know that, but I do know it. So in trying to destroy this site, do you realize that you are trying to destroy a valuable trove of evidence that LE is utilizing to attempt to solve this case? You are directly attacking the LE who are working on this crime. Why don’t you just go over to the Delphi Center and start slashing police tires and cutting phone lines to the tip lines? You are doing something similar when you deranged haters try to destroy my site. You are hurting LE efforts to solve this case in a serious way. Why do you want to do that?

Protected thread 1:

https://robertlindsay.wordpress.com/2017/05/28/post-to-discuss-poi-in-the-delphi-murders/

Protected thread 2:

https://robertlindsay.wordpress.com/2017/06/04/post-to-discuss-all-of-the-various-pois-and-theories-in-the-delphi-murders-from-the-crime-to-the-present-protected-to-avoid-libel-and-character-assassination-problems/

Protected thread 3:

https://robertlindsay.wordpress.com/2017/07/08/protected-post-to-discuss-all-of-the-various-pois-and-theories-in-the-delphi-murders-from-the-crime-to-the-present-protected-to-avoid-libel-and-character-assassination-problems-3/

Protected thread 4:

https://robertlindsay.wordpress.com/2017/07/23/protected-post-to-discuss-all-of-the-various-pois-and-theories-in-the-delphi-murders-from-the-crime-to-the-present-protected-to-avoid-libel-and-character-assassination-problems-4/

Protected thread 5: 

https://robertlindsay.wordpress.com/2017/09/11/protected-post-to-discuss-all-of-the-various-pois-and-theories-in-the-delphi-murders-from-the-crime-to-the-present/

Protected thread 6 – Non-Delphi murders and mysteries:

https://robertlindsay.wordpress.com/2017/10/03/protected-post-to-discuss-any-other-major-crimes-or-mysteries-other-than-the-delphi-murders/

97 Comments

Filed under Crime, Law enforcement, Meta, Midwest, Regional, USA

by | July 21, 2017 · 7:42 AM

Clearing up Some Things about the Move to a Subscription/Donation Model

Tulio: You can do as you please to monetize your site. I hope it works out for you. Just consider that some people just don’t expect to pay to read blogs and that may depress your readership. There are other ways to monetize a blog besides subscriptions. You can place ads on the site as well. If you get high traffic there’s also sponsored posts. There’s Patreon. You can self-publish a “best of” compendium and sell it as a book on amazon that people can read offline. This is the model these PUA types like Roosh with no real job do for income. They blog about what they like, people read it for free and they live off selling e-books.

Not telling you what to do, just saying that requiring subscriptions in an environment that people expect to be free(and 99.9% of blogs are) could cost you readership. It’s up to you to determine if the reward of subscribers outweighs any risk of losing readers.

I am not requiring subscriptions to use the site. I am requiring them to use the private password protected fora, and there is a huge response to that. I have had ~150-200 people sign up for that. The rest of the site, all 4,000 posts, is 100% free! However, you do need to subscribe if you wish to be a frequent commenter. Frequent commenters must subscribe, but it is only $10, which is nothing, and then you have a lifetime sub.The site has not gone fully subscription. Like m any pay sites, you can use a lot of this site for free, but if you want the full experience or if you want to do certain things, you will have to pay. Many pay sites operate on this exact model.

On the contrary. It has been only six days since going to the subscription model, and traffic has not slowed down at all. In fact, it has gone through the roof. It has exploded from 7,500 hits/day to 12,000 hits/day, but that may be coincidental. I do not expect a major drop in readership just because people have to pay to comment all the time. Comments may drop off, but a lot of people will probably just read and not become regular commenters. How many people are going to refuse to read here just because they cannot comment all the time? Not many.

6 Comments

Filed under Meta

by | July 15, 2017 · 1:05 AM

Website Going to a Subscription/Donation Model

To access the latest posts on the site, please scroll pasts the first two sticky posts. 

I am really getting sick and tired of this endless bashing of me by scumbags for trying to make some money off my website. It is really quite incredible.

So for now and into the future, the website will no longer be a free website. It will move to a donation model of many pay websites. However, like a lot of such sites, you will still be able to access a lot of content for free. For instance, all of the articles on the main site can be read for free forever! However, if you wish to comment on articles, there are now limits. If you become what I consider to be a regular commenter, you will have to give a minimum of $10 for a donation. After that, you can comment forever on the regular website’s thousands of articles forever!  You are certainly free to donate more than $10 if you wish, and many people do. I regularly get donations of $50, $100, $200, $250 and rarely up to $500.

People who like the site often give quite a bit of money to keep it going. I do not have a high income, as I have made ~$14,000/yr for the last several years. By donating/, you are mostly just helping me to survive.

Of course, when you go on those pay sites and read their free stuff, they hit you up to buy a subscription or buy whatever it is they are selling on a regular basis. It’s logical. Do you walk into a store and assume you are not going to buy anything? Of course not. You go into a store, and the owner assumes that you may well buy something. Same at the pay sites. So you get nag screens, pop-ups, limits on free viewing, etc. pretty regularly when you access their free content. And why not? Accessing the free content is like walking into a store fully intending not to buy a thing. The nag screens, requests to donate or buy a subscription, popups, etc. are like the owner repeatedly asking you if you want to buy something. The limits on free viewing are like when you spend an hour in some store not intending to buy anything, and the owner finally asks you to leave.

As this is now a pay site, it’s perfectly logical that I should have announcements or comments seeking people to donate to our services.

I am a journalist. I have a BA in Journalism from a good university. I have previously worked as an editor at a major magazine. I worked for a while as a freelance writer for money. And I am now a published author. Most authors don’t go to work for some newspaper or magazine and expect to work for free. They expect a wage or salary. Book authors don’t give their books away. No author who makes his living off writing gives his writing away for free. Why should he? Everyone else works for money. Why shouldn’t authors work for money too? Apparently my critics think I have no right to work for money! I have no right to offer my writing for sale instead of giving it away like an idiot. I am supposed to give all my material away for free and I guess starve or live on the streets and beg or something.

So if you hear, “Lindsay’s always hitting people up for donations,” first of all, this vicious lie of my critics is not even true. I only occasionally ask for money on here. A few site services now cost money, and people are told that if they wish to access that material, they must pay a fee.

Second, why they Hell can’t I ask people to give a donation?

You go to the New York Times, Washington Post or Guardian, and they hit you up for money all the time. The Times and Post only let you read a few articles for free a month, and then you are cut off. If you wish to comment on the Times or Post, you need to purchase some sort of subscription. The Guardian hits you up for donations at the end of every single article you read. And why not? Are the Times, Post, and Guardian supposed to give their product away for free? Why? How are they supposed to stay in business? How are they supposed to survive? They run a business. Why do you expect businesses to give their products away for free? They will all starve and live in the streets if that is the case.

Why should I be any different? This is also a news site run by an accredited, experienced, and published journalist/author. He doesn’t give his writing away for free. Not exactly anyway.

It is quite amazing what you can read on here for free. On the other hand, like many pay sites, to obtain full use of the site, you must make some sort of a purchase.

I am getting sick and tired of hearing idiots screeching that I ask for money. Damn right I do. This is a pay website, and like the rest of them, we will hit you up for donations like any other news outlet on the web. Why it is outrageous that I wish to work and survive and get paid for my labor in America is beyond me. This is something I will never understand.

If you enjoy the hard work that goes into this website, please consider a contribution to support the continuation of the site. Donations are the only thing that keep the site operating.

35 Comments

Filed under Journalism, Labor, Meta

by | July 12, 2017 · 12:06 AM

Attention Delphi Murders Private Forum Members!

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT:

I am seriously considering changing the password to the site. In fact, I am going to do so right now. Everyone who donated will still be able to access the site. Unfortunately you will have to email me for the new password. If you have made any friends on here who you email with, you can get the password from them or you can distribute it to other known members with whom you talk.

When you write me, remind me of who you are. If I know who you are, I will give this new one right out. If I do not remember you and you donated, just tell me what email or name you donated under. I have tried to keep records of all donations, and anyway even if I missed you, Paypal has a record of you. If I waived you, remind me of that. I may have records of that. If not, search in your records. Problem is I did not necessarily keep records of all of my waivers. If I can’t find you, I may not be able to let you back in. No soliciting the password on the main site. Some of you talk to me by phone. Just call me for the new password. Others were given my # but never called me. You may call me or not as you wish to get a new number.

This is all because of some loathsome piece of dirt named Desirably Torn who is impersonating me and has somehow obtained a password to the forum. He is leaking data from here in a very dirty and evil way every day, and lately he has started leaking some names of some of the posters. Two women were named today, and they seem a bit frightened about that. I swear to uphold the safety of my commenters, especially my women commenters, as they have more needs in this area.

There are also scumbag trolls in some of the Facebook sites who have gained the password somehow. At the beginning I was giving out passwords for free, and they may have gotten in that way.

If any of these loathsome worms somehow paid me to gain access to this forum, this trick will not work. We will just have to see if this works or not. I seriously doubt if any of these scumbags were willing to give me $10. They hate me so much. When you hate someone that much, you don’t want to give them one red cent in general. I know I would not piss on my enemies if they were on fire, nor would I throw a nickel their way for anything. If you are paid to be a spy, of course it is different, and you will pay all sorts of money to your enemies to get information.

New password will go into effect on Post #3 tonite. LE has been given the password, and they will not have the new password. I suppose they need to get it from me, or if any of you know any LE who read the site (and yes, they definitely do read the site) simply give them the password. Access is free for LE as a general rule.

43 Comments

Filed under Crime, Meta, Midwest, Regional, USA

by | July 5, 2017 · 11:30 AM

Trash Is Being Banned Again

Reasons:

  • He derails threads all the time. He was banned for this.
  • He annoys the living Hell out of me.
  • He repeats himself endlessly, even word for word almost. He writes one post, and then he posts it again rewriting it somewhat.
  • He has these obsessions that he hammers on endlessly and always derails about.
  • Most of all, lately he picks fights with other commenters. I am not sure if he used to do that before. He starts fights with other men for no reason other than his insecurity or psychological stuff.
  • He uses the site as some sort of a stage to strut around on to gain fans or narcissistic supply.
  • I am not even sure if he is writing to write. I think he is writing to show off and to hear his own voice.
  • One more thing I just realized, and it makes me sad. The poor man has no sense of humor. I finally figured that out. He never laughs at jokes. I make funny posts, and he never laughs or cuts up. He reacts seriously to them. He never cracks jokes, even though some of his stuff is rather funny. He’s dead serious all the time. I don’t get it. I think it’s wrapped up in his psychological stuff.

Reason for banning: General annoyance. It says in the Rules that I can ban you for any reason or no reason if I feel like it. I almost never use that clause, but now I will.

Recommendation: He needs to get his own site. Then he can peacock around all he wants.

20 Comments

Filed under Meta

by | June 6, 2017 · 12:23 AM

New Comments Thread for the Contact Page

The Contact page’s comments are full. This is a new page to comment on the Contact page.

If you think this website is valuable to you, please consider a contribution to support the continuation of the site.

18 Comments

Filed under Meta

by | June 4, 2017 · 8:37 AM

New Policy on Donations

The waiving of donations for Delphi Murders commenters will continue. However, many donated anyway, and some have donated several times. Delphi commenters are under no obligation to donate, but it’s always nice.

I am going to make an amendment to that. There are a number of Delphi commenters who I am emailing with a lot. Emailing with them is taking up a lot of my time. Bottom line is if you are taking up a  lot of my time, you need to pay me for that time because in my opinion, it’s work. If you don’t pay me, you are making me work for free. Not fair.

Most of these people emailing me a lot have already donated, so this only applies to a few people. And if you only email me a few times asking for say a password, then the donation policy continues to be waived.

Some of these people have done some work for me with photos and whatnot. That took some of their time to do that. I think I can waive the donation requirement for them as the work they did for me was an in kind donation.

Thank you for your cooperation.

6 Comments

Filed under Meta