Twin Wolf Technology Group

Really Pat and Susan? "Who cares?" First, I would think YOU would care as all your hard work for the Rolodex group is on the chopping block. Your statement surprises me. Next, I believe the advertisers care. They paid for advertising on a site with a certain demographic and membership base. The massive change leaves the advertisers looking for answers. I believe the community cares because Ning has long represented the values and the people themselves. It is now an artificial representation that excludes some of the most important members of the community. Lastly, it appears that several people still ponder the dramatic change and this is the one place they are allowed to discuss it. Nobody in this discussion was being malicious, merely speculating. If you do not "find it at all interesting" (your words) then I question why you responded and did not simply move on? I can only guess that the dramatic ning change is a source of discomfort for you as well as everyone else and you are wishing it would just go away. I think everyone here is grateful. Grateful to have a place were both you and I can have opposing opinions, post them and discuss them without being banished. I continue to read this blog for more important topics. Perhaps you might start the Rolodex feature here, that would certainly be important and interesting. If not starting it here, perhaps you and I could work together to get that information to another site that would be useful to the entire community. Respectfully - Dan

Well there is a disappointment. I guess Keith does not want to "come clean" and put the rumors to rest. At least he responded, albeit in Patrick style. The funny thing about secrecy is the truth always comes out in the end usually embarrassing those who tried to keep things hidden.

I will let Keith answer for himself but I am 99% sure that Keith was never part owner. He had a short term as moderator before Ambreen took over. I suspect that Keith was kept as much in the dark as Fran was. From everything I have been able to learn, the internal structure was kept a secret from even the moderators. Keith?

Bonnie - correct. If you just hover over the members icon, the abbreviated profile does not show the real name. You have to actually click on member icon or link to get the full profile that shows the real name. As for verification of real names, I would imagine that the short delay while the administrators review the new member application help to weed out those with obviously phony real names. A quick search online, such as Facebook, can also be used to spot illegitimate applicants. Ultimately, it would take some sort of photo ID and multi-factor authentication to sort out a problem if more than one person claimed to have the same real name or was sufficiently disguised.

I believe that was their intent all along. Just speculating here, but it may explain their desire to remain anonymous too. One technique that is used online to give legitimacy to sales is to point to other "independent" websites that backup their claims. So in this case, a real estate/property investment site would point to ning as proof that this is the paradise they are selling. By remaining anonymous, the average person has no way to realize that both the sales/investment site and the ning site are owned and operated by the same group. It would then appear to be an independent view of life in Boquete, giving them the window dressing they need to help sell real estate or investment properties. When I look at everything, the one thing that sticks out is WHY would you want to remain anonymous? There has to be a benefit and a reason to the secrecy. It takes great effort to try to remain anonymous, especially to a membership of thousands. Again, this is pure speculation on my part. I can think of no other reason why someone that does not live here, would spend money to purchase the ning site. While it makes money from the current 9 advertisers, there has to be some sort of larger long term financial gain we are not seeing. I believe they appear inept to us because ning is just window dressing for something else. This is certainly not the main way JLM Foundation makes its money. Then again maybe I am a conspiracy nut case and they are actually incredibly inept... time will tell.

Your real name is visible if a member clicks on your profile. I believe that Bud has found the happy balance here. Your real name is not displayed on every post but it is visible if you want to know more about a particular member. Your email address is not visible to anyone and this is also as it should be.

Oh, and by the way... if you click on the search box but leave the space empty and then select Members from the drop-down menu in front of the search box, you will get a complete list of all the members. I hope I am not giving away any secrets Bud - just found it by playing with the search feature and thought you should know too. I am impressed with its search capabilities.

Actually, you can get there another way by using the Search function at the top of the page. Put in the member's name in the search box and you will notice that an additional drop-down menu pops up in front the the search box you are filling in - use that to select Members before you click to do the search. Now when you search you will get the link to the members profile. From there you can see her activity. The search function in this software looks to be very good and with a little creative use you should be able to get exactly what you are looking for without going thru pages and pages of past posts.

I am sure we will learn of another new site if in fact Ning has an additional affiliate site. Somehow, I doubt they do because of the way they are mismanaging the current site. It is clear they are not interested in an open community website. so why start another one? My ultimate conclusion on the new Ning is that the JLM group is probably similar to International Living, and is concerned with selling real estate and inciting people to move here. What and see who their future new advertisers are and that will give us all a clue. They originally added tabs called "Spotlight Boquete" and "Property Spotlight". I am guessing those tabs will link to some sort of real estate and property investment website. In fact, that might be what she was referring to. Both Ambreen and Bob Hunter seem to have trouble communicating clearly, in part because they are trying to remain as anonymous as possible. Clearly this is a red flag if they are going the route of real estate and investments. Watch and see... its is another chapter in the soap opera called Ning.

Going out of business sale - Like it or Not. Buy 15 likes and get 15 dislikes FREE. How much would you pay? BUT WAIT, There is MORE !! If you order now, we will throw in a six pack of imported Budweiser (Thanks Bud)

I have "likes" for sale - $1 each. If you have used up your daily allotment, you can buy some from me and I will "like" for you! LOL

Bonnie - just my guess but I suspect you are suffering slow downs and bandwidth problems out on the Internet and not at your home. If you are getting the large amount of bandwidth at your home that you have reported and are getting that bandwidth at the time you are having issues with IPTV - then it is very likely the problem is network congestion out on the Internet or issues at the IPTV service provider. Any network congestion on the Internet is going to cause problems like you are seeing. Also, as the programming is routed from the original source to the IPTV provider before going to you, this adds another layer for these bandwidth problems to occur. A "more powerful router" is very unlikely to solve the issues since it sounds like the problem is not at your home. I would encourage you to check out KODI as Don Ray has been describing or talk to Juan Arauz about it. It is one less layer of "service providers" and a more direct route to the source of the actual programming, thereby minimizing the possibility of running into network congestion. The other benefit is that KODI accomplishes the same thing you are trying to do with IPTV at little to no cost.

Bud, thank you for your reply. I always prefer to go to the source to ask the questions. While I am sure you are busy with the management of the site and a hundred other things, it is my opinion that taking time to respond here as you did will help comfort your growing membership. Openness and transparency are the one key feature everyone is searching for. I am still seeing the Real Name as Admin. See attached screen shot.

OK, so the blog post has been moved. I can appreciate the effort to keep the site organized but most of us are more interested in the questions being asked. 1. Is Bud Huber still the owner of the site? 2. Why was his name removed from "Real Names" ? 3. Why are there suddenly 5 Admin accounts? 4. Jamie's orginal post from Ambreen would seem to indicate that this site is linking to or becoming part of the boquete.ning operation. For the sake of clarity, honesty and openness that your current membership is searching for, please take a moment to respond now that your housecleaning task of moving this thread to a new location has been complete. Thank you.

For those of you that only look at the Forum section and not the Blog section you might have missed this.

Watching it is sort of like a car wreck... you don't want to look but you just can't help slow down, look and shake your head while muttering "poor bastard - what was he thinking!" As for Lee, he probably started a site called HeavensGuide and his first post is entitled "Bedevil Ning" or "What the Hell..."

This forum was created in part due to the new ownership and direction that Boquete Ning has taken. While Ning has always been a for-profit website, the community supported it because it welcomed all points of view. The balancing act of allowing discussions to be passionate but not abusive was not always maintained but advertisers saw the value of an open forum and supported it with their ads. In other posts I have pondered what the current advertisers think and what they will do with regards to the dramatic change. Unlike personal blogs and non-profit sites, advertisers are the money and a major reason that a sites like Ning exist. Currently, (Oct 12, 2015), the following advertisers/sponsors and these links are on the front page of Boquete.Ning: Internet ActivoAirbox ExpressSerenity VistaBoquete Condos (Roger & Jorge)Finca Santa MartaPlanet Telecom Julio Espinosa Bown - Lawyer (Link to Lee's personal blog at BoqueteGuide.com)Ana Mercdes Ruiz - Accountant CPA (Link to Lee's personal blog at BoqueteGuide.com)Boquete HandbookI will be interested to visit Boquete.Ning from week to week and see which advertisers continue to maintain their support of Boquete.Ning and their policies. I find it interesting to see where dollars meet ideals. Values are easy to talk about but actions show the true moral character and beliefs of those that support such a site.