Thanks JJ

[BrianN]

Wow.  I can't believe this.

I appreciate your heads up.....

Based on what I'm seeing now,

EVERYBODY CAN FORGET ABOUT ONLINE PROFILES AVAILABLE IN THE FSU ON KISS.COM

FORGET ABOUT EMAIL TO THEM TOO.  IF THEY HAVE NO PAID MEMBERSHIP, THEN THERE WILL BE NO COMMUNICATIONS.

THIS IS NOW A 100 PERCENT PAY SITE.

PERIOD.

http://wwwb.kiss.com/asp/membershipinfo.asp

I'm really thankful to you jj for the 24 hour heads up on this.  If not, then I would have been waiting forever for a response that never had a chance in heck of showing up.

Thanks again.

[pat]

... in response to Thanks JJ, posted by BrianN on Oct 4, 2001

there is sth here i don't understand..what the f.. if kiss has changed and you have to pay?? there are still plenty of free websites, with no need to pay for ANYTHING

For example:

-Romanc ero. net(good(i met my potential future wife there) but you can't put your profile online anymore, just answer adds, because apparently the moderators aren't working anymore)
-eec l. org: good and effective, but has recentely been bought by maxim(yoshkar-ola. com), so some of the profiles are from their agency, so you have to pay after 5 mails
-lov eme. ru
-girlco ntact. com(haven't been there for a while though)
-ma tch. com
-che rchez .try. md(good, moldovian site but lots of profiles from russia)
-of course, russia nconnect. com, a bit anarchic but soo many people listed there!!
-alyonus hka. com(not so many profiles, but worth a look)

and a few others i don't remember right now...but if it comes back i'll post hem later

[jj]

... in response to Thanks JJ, posted by BrianN on Oct 4, 2001

I can not read any mail from the past becuse the country she is from "Ukraine" is not in their database there for there is no link.  This is as bad as the WTC attack ...  well maybe not as bad ... but a disatser the same.  F__CK..

[jj]

... in response to Its worst again, posted by jj on Oct 5, 2001

I think they are working on it.  I could access some accounts but they were registered as being in Russia...

Still need to veryify the Ukraine issue. Last time I looked there was an issue still.  Please post if anyone knows it is fixed.

[BrianN]

... in response to Its worst again, posted by jj on Oct 5, 2001

They cannot send or receive email via Kiss.

Time for hotmail dam!

[wsbill]

... in response to Thanks JJ, posted by BrianN on Oct 4, 2001

All the dot.com companies are asking for money... Yahoo is now requiring money to use their personal services.  I did go to Kiss.com today and saw they didn't have Ukraine.  They probably forgot to type it in there.  From what I understand is the agencies over there subscribe to have in depth information about "you and your profile".  I am sure there is probably a very good reason they dropped Ukraine or forgot it.

Kiss did expand their profile questions, so as to allow a much wider exploration of the inner workings of the individuals profile.

The new format is a bit unsual and not as user friendly as in the past.  But I think they just brought online today.  So it will be some time before they get the bugs out.

[jj]

... in response to Re: Cash crunch, posted by wsbill on Oct 4, 2001

These things should have been discovered in beta test mode.

To not include Ukraine is a big mistake.  They should have picked this up buy checking the data-integrity data analysis to discover any orhaned records.  This is a very basic step in any database upgrade.  Again I stress this should have been discovered in user testing.

In the old model if you were a premium member your mail could be read by a free account holder.  Now they expect every one to be a finacial member.  Well they just lost 95% of the FSU market.  Both Male and female clients.

No point in holding a fisherman's license if there is no fish.

You can not contact even those women that are regisitered in Russia becuase they can not read you mail.  So ineffect if you have a current membership you have been denied the right of service that you signed up for.  I intend to right a compliant.  To think I was about to sign up for a month.  Now I will wait and see what transpires.

[jj]

... in response to Thanks JJ, posted by BrianN on Oct 4, 2001

.

[jj]

... in response to Thanks JJ, posted by BrianN on Oct 4, 2001

I think we need to do something.  I don't mind being able to search on East Europe but it is better if I can search on a country.  What is worst is that all these girls are not paid up members.  Before only paid up members could send emails and everyone could read them.  Now... even if it was that free members could only read mail sent from paid up members this would be ok.  But as it stands they will be wondering what to do.  Try switching to megafriends I think you will find it better.  I certainly do.

jj

[BrianN]

... in response to I thought it would effect us all, posted by jj on Oct 4, 2001

JJ, you have no idea how much this has t'd me off.  I've got a real nice 39yo lady friend from England that i've been corresponding with also, and she does not have a "premium" account.... this has been going on for a while, but whatever... All of the girls at my RW's agency in Novosibirsk have been literally tos'd out the window with no way to respond with this latest change.

I cannot believe the slam dunk that kiss.com has done!

[BrianN]

... in response to Thanks JJ, posted by BrianN on Oct 4, 2001

If any of you guys have info, emails or whatever on Kiss.Com, I highly recommend you copy and paste the correspondence to a word or notepad document and save it.

This is not funny.  I have a feeling that ALL of the FSU today will wake up to no ability to respond to any emails sent to them, unless they've got a credit card approved account.

I hate to be one to make the stupid cry of "the sky is falling", but based on what I've seen on this so far... It really just might be the appropriate reaction now.

This SUCKS!  NO WARNINGS!  UNREAL!

[jj]

... in response to Re: Recommendations, posted by BrianN on Oct 4, 2001

They metioned that they were changing but hey I don't think they knew their market.  This is one big stuff up.  Boy is it slow. some nice features but....  some annoying ones too,  this Kiss "Interest thing" could drive you batty,  I seams that is the best a free member can do.  I have not tried sending a mail from a paid account to a free account to see if this is can be read.  It could be that they have changed some flag somewhere.  I do know that free members can not read emails sent before the update (Even from paid member).  IT SUCKS BIG TIME and will cause a lot of heart ache.

[wsbill]

... in response to There was a warning .., posted by jj on Oct 4, 2001

That's a no brainer, why would they continue a conversation to go on with only 1/2 of the party not paying for the use of their bandwidth.

This is probably why they're really pushing everyone to pay.  We've all see, how there were a few profiles of the same person photo posted under a different text.

The fee, is to twart gang activities.  Who knows maybe Osawa Bin Laden may have communicated via the free personals.  Now, he will have to pony or donkey up $$$.

[BrianN]

... in response to There was a warning .., posted by jj on Oct 4, 2001

You could put up a profile, picture, and respond to emails that had been sent to you, without paying a cent.

The only difference between paying and free was that you could not originate an email to someone on the system... You had to wait for them to contact you first.

For what that's worth, I've never corresponded with anyone on Kiss that had a premium "paid-for" account, unless I sent myself an email that is!

I'm still floored by this....  Good thing, I got a "back up system".

[jj]

... in response to Re: But JJ... that was the strength of t..., posted by BrianN on Oct 4, 2001

I agree but Megafriend is good in that you can try before you buy.

I don't want to be seen as an agent for megafriends but I must admit I like there interface.  And if you are not a paid up subscriber you can get limited access( Send all the mails you want, Read one letter a day and veiw 10 Profiles a day)  This is a good marketing strategy now that Kiss.com has "bailed out of the market".  The truth be known they will have to address this issue very quick even paid up members are disenfranchised.  "Ukraine is odd the database.  Ooouch.