DCS Support Forums closed and archived

I feel very sad

More than six years ago I joined the private DiamondCS forum as one of the very first members (was it as member 5 or 6 , I don't remember; I have to look in my archives).
We had an absolutely great time. We all learned so much from each other. Many became friends.

The Wilders board was started; lots of changes were made during the years. I had the privilege to be one of the two first global mods.

A public DiamondCS forum was started at the Wilders board.

I absolutely loved my TDS-3.
It has never been a secret that I had more than one AT. But never ever did I tell secret information from one AT vendor to another.
For some time I was beta tester for DiamondCS.
I have tried to do my best to give support for (in particular) TDS-3.
It was a question from my buddy Blaze that made me try to make the "basic configuration" thread(s) for TDS-3. I loved to do it.

TDS-3 was discontinued.
It was a shock.

Due to personal circumstances I was only capable to have an old Win98SE machine for a long time; much too long but I had no other choice. So I couldn't run ProcessGuard.

The DiamondCS forum here at the Wilders board is now closed.
I feel very sad

===

If I may add:

Dear Wayne,

Thank you so very, very much for everything you have done for us.
Thanks for telling me once "we should hire you for our think-tank".

From the bottom of my heart I do wish you ALL the very best !!!!!

I do hope to see DiamondCS coming back in some way.

For now: thanks mate for everything, all my very best wishes !!!!!

With my most warmest regards to you Wayne,
Jan.

 

I respect FanJ very much and I also love reading comments by both he and Blaze in this forum.

[I should probably keep my mouth shut, but I can't help it]

FanJ,
How can you write a thank you / best wishes letter to someone that would be a criminal in the U.S. (probably is in Australia) for the things that he has done to the very customers that supported him?

 

The way things are going, one would probably be better off just using Free Software. I do use NOD32, and BOClean, but I have seen Avast and Avira do commendable jobs in terms of detection. I think Diamond's problem was it was too techy and too specialized.. The fact Wayne has less than stellar business ethics didn't help..

 

While I see this step as being sad but necessary, how about having a new forum for unofficial user support? While there were issues that only DCS could have resolved, there have also been many questions that other users have been able to provide solutions to (even if only to recommend an alternative product).

DiamondCS provided some innovative security products that were well ahead of their time. If this is an indication of their impending demise, then it is a blow for users and a sad day for the security industry. Only the malware pushers have genuine reason to celebrate.

 

A "criminal"? I'm not sure about that! Users who did not get unlock codes have gotten, or will have gotten, their money back via Digital River.

I was rather a late comer to DiamondCS products but once I got ahold of ProcessGuard it became one of my handful of favorite applications. Plus, after trialing other competitors products several months ago because of curiosity, I appreciated PG even more!

Sure, I got frustrated recently with the deteriorating support but I also recall when that support was excellent. I still have PMs from Wayne from earlier this year and those showed a high level of support and concern regarding my problems at the time.

Jan is simply writing from his heart. I too wish Wayne all the best and hope that somehow his business will back one day. I don't think any of us know why this has happened and that is the hardest part for me (aside from knowing that PG will not be further developed). I have seen no proof that Wayne just decided to abscond with the money and spit on his customers and on his father's good name. Rather, I see a huge mystery here including why has Gavin been silent? He hasn't run off anywhere and I don't know that Wayne has either. I don't know what has happened. Maybe Wayne is dead or has a fatal disease and went into a deep depression....or...or...or....I'm not going to judge him when I don't have the facts. Instead, I will pray for him, offer any support that I might be able to give, and hope that he will be able to right this situation somehow.

 

To all:

There are really some topics of discussion that fall outside the bounds of decorum. Let's keep the discussion centered on the closure and not wild speculation behind potential causative factors that none of us have even a fleeting handle on.

It is indeed a sad time, not because a perfect organization with pristine customer support has run into some difficulty, but because a very human group with all their faults and all too human weaknesses have done precisely the same thing. The higher you aim, the more glaring the gap when you fall short.

I'll speak only for myself, but schadenfreude seems rather inappropriate in the current circumstance. I purchased (or ended up with) multiple/unlimited copies of every product DCS offered. I suppose I could be angry, but disappointment seems the most apropos sentiment, and even that is an emotion that is best set aside since it doesn't benefit me, nor anyone else for that matter. It may seem simplistic, but I prefer to focus on the good wherever that lies, and simply let go of the rest when that is possible.

Blue

 

That has become, to me, a virtue that I have come to hold in the highest regard. We come to judgements each and every day, but to come to good judgements, we need sufficient data. I wish everyone had the ability to withhold judgement until they had sufficient information, but unfortuantely too many are too willing to accept speculation and personal feelings as a substitute for that information.

As a customer I'm certainly disappointed in the way things have gone over the past year and a half or so, but as a person I do hope for the best for Wayne and company. I would not believe that Wayne had any ill intention to his customers, after all they/we pay his bills. Regardless of what has happened, I'm sure that Wayne is not happy about any of it. DCS is not a multi-billion dollar corporation, I'm sure it did not make him rich. So with that in mind I do hope the best for him and his, and hope to see him back soon.

 

I have a few questions about the recent events regarding Diamonds CS:

Is the company still operating? Are they still selling their sofware?
Support from their website is also terminated?

Finally How long would ProcessGuard last 'as is' before it was labelled obsolete?

I'm neither thankful nor sorry about what's happening, I think too many people get emotional about software makers as if they were dealing with family.

 

Well, if they have simply closed up shop, that would be a really stupid move. It has been my experience that the hardest thing to develop in the business world is a good reputation. And a good reputation is worth quite a lot of money. Until the TDS fiasco, their reputation was stellar. They had everything going for them.

1. They were a cornerstone member of one (if not the most) of the prestigous security forums around (this one!), rubbing elbows with the likes of ESET, creator of the best AV around.
2. As someone stated earlier, creator of leading edge security software.
3. Known for supporting their products and responding quickly to user's questions / concerns.

Even after the TDS situation, they recovered to a large degree. Sure, they were not as widely known as McAffee or Norton, but that's just marketing. A good business person could have taken this company to really great heights.

Really a sad day. I used to be one of their greatest supporters. Due to a lack of response to PG issues raised here, I'm sad to say I have recently uninstalled PG and purchased a license for SSM. I really hope they wake up and turn things around.

 

The website is still up, weather or not they still do business there is another mater. If the website is abanded, Wayne only knows. Maybe he is out hunting roo's or something.

 

Nothing changed on that site since july 21, 2006

Gerard

 

Well, if something changed on July 21st, I sure didn't notice. It still says " BRAND NEW WEBSITE AND PROGRAMS COMING SOON!", and that has been there for at least a year. Maybe the folks in Perth have a different definition for "soon".

 

Remember its just around the corner

 

TDS 4?

 

To FanJ

A great post indeed from you that far better imo encapsulates the DCS saga to date.

@ Blue, Dazed & Confused, Mele, Notok, Paranoid et al: kudos to you all.
Just putting the boot in does not recognise what a remarkable creation DCS was up to recently..

I've been burnt too.
Disappointed yes, PO'd yes, tragic yes, still hopeful: YES.

In memoriam:
one of the ABSOLUTE cutting edge apps in TDS-3;
PG still a benchmark.

No dispute re closing the forum, obviously a difficult step.
What ever nightmare DCS is trapped in now, we can still perhaps think of a phoenix.

LOL we get burnt by MS every day and still come back for more.
Best wishes for 2007 to all.

 

six years ago I spent what? $30? and got TDS3
and certainly got my money's worth out of it, then was granted a license for Processguard which Im still using.

They have done right by me,
and a special thanks to all the former mods & beta testers that helped me as well (especially everyone's favorite imp, Jooske )

 

I agree , I got my moneys worth and DCS always treated me very well.

 

I agree that this is a sad event that was foreseeable, though. I still think that DCS's problems began when Jason left the company to form Ghost Security - the end of TDS was just another step down the hill. It became clear very soon that the further development of Process Guard and other DCS software lost its momentum. As a consequence I had deinstalled PG more than a year ago.

It's a twist of fate - and I hate to say this - that Jason's virtually non-existing participation in the forum during the past months is a strong indication that Ghost Security might be going to its doom, too. I'd be happy if he proved me wrong.

 

tlu,
In my opinion, you hit the nail on the head. It seems as though Wayne was riding on the back of Jason's tallent [pure speculation]. However, if that were true, then what explains the fact that Jason's Ghost Security appears to be heading for the same fate?

 

To all:

Let's not speculate on members or vendors personal capabilities or situations, nor on topics beyond DCS.

As for support issues and so on, as virtually anyone involved in an on-going business knows, one must plan contingencies for many things including on-going specialist coverage in the event of illnesses/terminations/resignations/other availability issues/etc.. I deal with this daily in my own job, and the simple fact of the matter is, if I were remiss in planning for these types of contingencies (via cross-training or detailed skills assessment during hiring), I would be neglecting a very key part of my job.

Individual shortfalls can and should be expected, we all have them. However, a lack of organizational contingencies is simply not excusable. The why's or how's behind that gap are really not our concern, nor should they be the uninformed fodder of our discussions. A customer should really just assess whether there is a support gap of importance to them and, if there is, adjust their purchase decisions accordingly.

Blue

 

One minor point to make - following the Support link from the DCS site takes you to the archived forums without any indication of why they are closed. How about including a stuck copy of the announcement in the DCS forum itself?

A number of previous posts here have mentioned deinstalling Process Guard. While this is a personal decision to make, I would also say that it is not a necessary step - PG is still effective in the areas it covers and even with an alternative like SSM, it can still be used as a backup (though this may involve some extra work when installing a new application).

There should be no conflict in keeping PG (I've had PG running alongside SSM for a couple of years now) and there can be security benefits in running it alongside similar software (specifically to do with layered hooking, any software checking for hooks will only see the most recent).

 

I am forced to take the Mele20 and Notok approach on this. I have no data except what I have read. I have read most of the postings in this thread. I am rather surprised. I knew little of these folks and rarely visited their forum on the Wilders Board. I have never purchased or even considered obtaining their software.

No slam just the cold hard facts...it is my hope that closing them will make a slot, for a future security product support group to come to the Wilders. How about it Admins. a possibility for the future somewhere down the road. ??