What will become of Orpheus?

[unknown]

Hi all

I have just been in contact with R-Comp re an email problem and were
informed that no one is currently maintaining the Orpheus server and that no
one or company is wanting to take it over so Orpheus could fold. Apparently
R-Comp have been in talks re Orpheus.

If Orpheus folds "who" would be the best server provider for RISCOS users?

Gordon

[Dr Peter Young]

Post by unknown
Hi all
I have just been in contact with R-Comp re an email problem and were
informed that no one is currently maintaining the Orpheus server and that no
one or company is wanting to take it over so Orpheus could fold.

Do we actually know that this is so? At least two people have had
replies from Dan the sysadmin, who we have been told is running the
show. Mind you, more of an announcement from him or others about
future plans would be encouraging.

Post by unknown
Apparently R-Comp have been in talks re Orpheus.

Any more information on this?

Post by unknown
If Orpheus folds "who" would be the best server provider for RISCOS users?

Yes, I've wondered that. And what happens of Orpheus suddenly vanishes
leaving many of us with no connection?

With best wishes,

Peter.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Post by Dr Peter Young

Post by unknown
If Orpheus folds "who" would be the best server provider for RISCOS users?

Yes, I've wondered that. And what happens of Orpheus suddenly vanishes
leaving many of us with no connection?

Since Orpheus was pretty well a one man business, I'd certainly give some
thought to that before it happens I can't imagine it was profitable enough
to be taken over by anyone - unless as a sort of paying hobby. This market
is extremely competitive.

As regards one which is 'RISC OS friendly', I'm still with Pipex - I set
up the connection ok using Oregano 1. But dunno if still could as it's a
few years ago now. Of course since then I now also have a PC - so it
doesn't matter what the ISP is - if it can be accessed by my router. And
for the basic connection it's probably that which has to be RISC OS
friendly.

[Dr J E Hurley]

Post by Dave Plowman (News)
As regards one which is 'RISC OS friendly', I'm still with Pipex - I set
up the connection ok using Oregano 1. But dunno if still could as it's a
few years ago now. Of course since then I now also have a PC - so it
doesn't matter what the ISP is - if it can be accessed by my router. And
for the basic connection it's probably that which has to be RISC OS
friendly.

I have just succsfully connected the RISC OS computers to BT broadband using
Paul's advice (posthumously). However it would be a great inconvenience to
lose our business Argonet e-mail addresses and would probably have to
replace them with our domain addresses and get these redirected. My hope is
that the inevitable disposal would be to a RISC OS provider though, bar R-
Comp and a few others they are scare commodities. Like others I hope that if
Orpheus does have to close we get due warning. Who is paying the bills?

John

[unknown]

Post by Dr Peter Young

Post by unknown
Apparently R-Comp have been in talks re Orpheus.

Any more information on this?

Hi Peter

My wife phoned R-Comp for help as friends were having problems emailing us.
A woman spoke to her and it was her who said this to my wife. The woman said
they had been talking to Genesis in Southend and that they had not gotten
anywhere and it was her opinion that Orpheus would disappear. That is it
"secondhand" from my wife.

Also Peter I recieved your email, it came down on my wife's computer. Ta.

Email reception seems to be back to normal as my wife's cousin's email
arrived ok today.

Gordon

[Stuart]

Post by unknown

Post by Dr Peter Young

Post by unknown
Apparently R-Comp have been in talks re Orpheus.

Any more information on this?

Hi Peter
My wife phoned R-Comp for help as friends were having problems emailing
us. A woman spoke to her and it was her who said this to my wife. The
woman said they had been talking to Genesis in Southend and that they
had not gotten anywhere and it was her opinion that Orpheus would
disappear. That is it "secondhand" from my wife.

Paul was part owner of Orpheus and so his share would presumeably form
part of his estate. What happens, therefore, depends to some extent on his
beneficiaries. If they decide they want the value of his share back, then
a buyer will need to be found.

It will also depend on whether it was actually meeting all its costs and
can continue to do so. I know that the server hosting charges ahd been
racked up dramatically and I suspect that Paul put a lot of time in with
no payment. To get the 24/7 support that Paul seemed to offer would, in
the normal way, require at least four people, who would expect decent
wages.

Transfering to another provider at the moment might be difficult because
I'm not sure who could provide a MAC and if people did start leaving, it
would certainly cause the demise of Orpheus. OTOH if it goes under I'm not
sure who would provide the MAC then either.

My suggestion is that we all just "sit tight" and "wait and see". It's
what I shall be doing.

[Dave Stratford]

Post by Dr Peter Young

Post by unknown
Hi all
I have just been in contact with R-Comp re an email problem and were
informed that no one is currently maintaining the Orpheus server and that no
one or company is wanting to take it over so Orpheus could fold.

Do we actually know that this is so? At least two people have had
replies from Dan the sysadmin, who we have been told is running the
show. Mind you, more of an announcement from him or others about
future plans would be encouraging.

I've certainly been in contact with Dan this week about an FTP problem. It
took him a couple of days to respond to my first post, but after that he
was returning my emails within 30 minutes, so there definately is someone
responding.

Dave

[Dr Peter Young]

Post by Dave Stratford

Post by Dr Peter Young

Post by unknown
Hi all
I have just been in contact with R-Comp re an email problem and were
informed that no one is currently maintaining the Orpheus server and that no
one or company is wanting to take it over so Orpheus could fold.

Do we actually know that this is so? At least two people have had
replies from Dan the sysadmin, who we have been told is running the
show. Mind you, more of an announcement from him or others about
future plans would be encouraging.

I've certainly been in contact with Dan this week about an FTP problem. It
took him a couple of days to respond to my first post, but after that he
was returning my emails within 30 minutes, so there definately is someone
responding.

I'm glad to hear that. However, a better public presence would be an
improvement. Would people like me to get in touch with Dan (presumably
on the support address), and ask him if he cares to tell us all what
the plans are?

With best wishes,

Peter.

[Dave Stratford]

Post by Dr Peter Young

Post by Dave Stratford
I've certainly been in contact with Dan this week about an FTP
problem. It took him a couple of days to respond to my first post, but
after that he was returning my emails within 30 minutes, so there
definately is someone responding.

I'm glad to hear that. However, a better public presence would be an
improvement. Would people like me to get in touch with Dan (presumably
on the support address), and ask him if he cares to tell us all what
the plans are?

Sure. Try and invite him to Wakefield this coming weekend as well. Even if
he doesn't have a stand of his own, just wandering around and answering
questions will be good.

Dave

[Dr Peter Young]

Post by Dave Stratford

Post by Dr Peter Young

Post by Dave Stratford
I've certainly been in contact with Dan this week about an FTP
problem. It took him a couple of days to respond to my first post, but
after that he was returning my emails within 30 minutes, so there
definately is someone responding.

I'm glad to hear that. However, a better public presence would be an
improvement. Would people like me to get in touch with Dan (presumably
on the support address), and ask him if he cares to tell us all what
the plans are?

Sure. Try and invite him to Wakefield this coming weekend as well. Even if
he doesn't have a stand of his own, just wandering around and answering
questions will be good.

OK, done all that, including the bit about Wakefield. I've also said
that I won't pass on any information that he considers to be
confidential.

We'll see, or not as the case may be!

Incidentally, spam seems to be up at present, too.

With best wishes,

Peter.

[Tennant Stuart]

Post by Dr Peter Young
Incidentally, spam seems to be up at present, too.

I've received the grand total of 8 (eight) spam in the last week.


Tennant Stuart

[Colin Matthews]

Post by Dr Peter Young
OK, done all that, including the bit about Wakefield. I've also said
that I won't pass on any information that he considers to be
confidential.
We'll see, or not as the case may be!

I for one would be happy to help subsidise a trip to Wakefield for him.
Perhaps other Orpheus subscribers might do the same?

Colin

[Dr Peter Young]

Post by Dr Peter Young

Post by Dave Stratford

Post by Dr Peter Young

Post by Dave Stratford
I've certainly been in contact with Dan this week about an FTP
problem. It took him a couple of days to respond to my first post, but
after that he was returning my emails within 30 minutes, so there
definately is someone responding.

I'm glad to hear that. However, a better public presence would be an
improvement. Would people like me to get in touch with Dan (presumably
on the support address), and ask him if he cares to tell us all what
the plans are?

Sure. Try and invite him to Wakefield this coming weekend as well. Even if
he doesn't have a stand of his own, just wandering around and answering
questions will be good.

OK, done all that, including the bit about Wakefield. I've also said
that I won't pass on any information that he considers to be
confidential.

I've just had a very reassuring reply from Dan; he says that his
answer isn't confidential, but I've mailed him to ask his permission
to quote it verbatim here. He can't get to Wakefield, by the way.

With best wishes,

Peter.

[Dr Peter Young]

On 20 Apr 2009 Dr Peter Young <***@ormail.co.uk> wrote:

[snip]

Post by Dr Peter Young
I've just had a very reassuring reply from Dan; he says that his
answer isn't confidential, but I've mailed him to ask his permission
to quote it verbatim here. He can't get to Wakefield, by the way.

I have his permission, so here is what he has written:

[quote]

I do not read the newsgroups so was not aware of any rumours but I can
assure you that they are very much rumours and I can only guess that
they are grounded in speculation

Our only concern so far has been making sure that we have a support
process in place while we complete other work, which is me via email
at the moment, and the other work has consisted of getting all the
customer records in order and migrating to a new billing system. We
now have all the customer data and we are in the process of utilising
our existing accountancy firm to take over the day to day invoicing
and bill payments, which would be in addition to the work they already
carry out for our yearly accounts.

The only other project we are working on is the migration of our
servers to a new hosting centre. This was an existing project dictated
by a large price rise from our existing supplier. Paul was negotiating
with new suppliers while I was planning the move. We have now signed
up with a new supplier and I will be migrating services through the
next 2 months. I will announce any planned maintenance on our status
page as usual. I will stress that this is very much a business as
usual project that Paul had already started and we have invested in
new servers so any service interruption will be minimal.

Otherwise everything else is very much business as usual and I have
been dealing with all the usual day to day activities (e.g. renewing
domains and provisioning additional services). There hasn't been any
other discussions and that's more than enough work for us at the
moment. There isn't anything confidential in this and we have been
very open with the above to anyone who has asked.

I won't be able to attend the Wakefield show as my time is very much
tied up with my workload and my family have already been missing me
too much!

Regards,

Dan

[unquote]

With best wishes,

Peter.

[Tennant Stuart]

..making sure that we have a support process in place while we
complete other work, which is me via email at the moment...

What is Dan's support email address, please?


Tennant Stuart

[Dr Peter Young]

Post by Tennant Stuart

..making sure that we have a support process in place while we
complete other work, which is me via email at the moment...

What is Dan's support email address, please?

***@orpheusinternet.co.uk

HTH,

With best wishes,

Peter.

[Tennant Stuart]

Post by Tennant Stuart

..making sure that we have a support process in place while we
complete other work, which is me via email at the moment...

What is Dan's support email address, please?

Thanks, Peter - last we heard, that address wouldn't be answered.


T

[Dr Peter Young]

Post by Tennant Stuart

Post by Tennant Stuart

..making sure that we have a support process in place while we
complete other work, which is me via email at the moment...

What is Dan's support email address, please?

Thanks, Peter - last we heard, that address wouldn't be answered.

I've had several replies from him in the last few days; I'll post
about thin later, as it's good news.

With best wishes,

Peter.

[Dr Peter Young]

Post by Dr Peter Young
[snip]

Post by Dr Peter Young
I've just had a very reassuring reply from Dan; he says that his
answer isn't confidential, but I've mailed him to ask his permission
to quote it verbatim here. He can't get to Wakefield, by the way.

[snip Dan's message]

I'm slightly surprised at the deafening silence that has greeted this
message, which I thought contained good news. This is in contrast to
the FUD which was posted about Orpheus's imminent collapse, following
unsupported information from a RISC OS firm that should have known
better! I'm not getting at you, Gordon, but at the source of the info
that you provided.

I have now had several very helpful messages from Dan about the
problem with Orpheus customers posting to the StrongED and zfc lists,
and he has now solved this problem. I think we can now feel that
Orpheus is a glass at least half full rather than half empty. <Crosses
fingers>.

With best wishes,

Peter.

[Dr J E Hurley]

Post by Dr Peter Young
I'm slightly surprised at the deafening silence that has greeted this
message, which I thought contained good news. This is in contrast to
the FUD which was posted about Orpheus's imminent collapse, following
unsupported information from a RISC OS firm that should have known
better! I'm not getting at you, Gordon, but at the source of the info
that you provided.
I have now had several very helpful messages from Dan about the
problem with Orpheus customers posting to the StrongED and zfc lists,
and he has now solved this problem. I think we can now feel that
Orpheus is a glass at least half full rather than half empty. <Crosses
fingers>.
With best wishes,
Peter.

Many thanks for your work clarifying matters Peter. Better one person
corresponding with Dan than a herd! This certainly helps with the immediate
future for which I am grateful to all concerned. If Orpheus can continue as
a going concern then excellent. I guess many of us believe that it was so
much Paul's baby that it is not likely to be viable in the longer term. It
would be preferable for there to be an orderly transfer in that case to
another RISC OS friendly provider (if there is one). But if the company can
be reformed to enable it to continue then that would be the best of all
solutions.

John

[Stuart]

Post by Dr Peter Young
I'm slightly surprised at the deafening silence that has greeted this
message, which I thought contained good news.

It does indeed and I have already forwarded it to two other Orpheus
subscribers who, I know, don't read the newsgroups.

[Ben Crick]

Post by Dr Peter Young
I'm slightly surprised at the deafening silence that has greeted this
message, which I thought contained good news.

[opens mouth]
Many thanks, Peter, for pursuing this matter with Dan for us all.
Good News indeed!

Back to looking and lurking...
[shuts mouth]

Ben

[Colin Matthews]

Post by Dr Peter Young
I'm slightly surprised at the deafening silence that has greeted this
message, which I thought contained good news.

Yes, excellent news. I think everyone has got too used to doom, gloom
& negativity on the newsgroups.

[unknown]

In article <***@pnyoung.ormail.co.uk>, Dr Peter Young
<***@ormail.co.uk> wrote:

snipped

Post by Dr Peter Young
I'm slightly surprised at the deafening silence that has greeted this
message, which I thought contained good news. This is in contrast to
the FUD which was posted about Orpheus's imminent collapse, following
unsupported information from a RISC OS firm that should have known
better! I'm not getting at you, Gordon, but at the source of the info
that you provided.

I've not been on the newsgroup for a few days due to shift work so I have
only just "got" your posting. It is great news from Dan. I don't have any
connections with said RISCOS firm so you can't offend me 8-).

Thanks Peter for your time in "taking up the baton" re finding out the
future of Orpheus.

Gordon