Far too complicated Karen. Why ?

Andykent wrote: I prefer the simple people who love long hair for what it is, not the commercial sides of it.

As a devoted TLHS fan myself (and grieving the loss of it!), I'm with you on this too.  It's the simple beauty of it..... 

 

There will never be another site quite like Frank's.

Hi Andy,

 

Thanks for your feedback. The reality is that HairBoutique.com can be as simple or complicated as you want it to be. 

 

Many people who visit HairBoutique.com only visit a few of the forums.  Some visit only one or two. In your case, the Long Hair Forum  http://talk.hairboutique.com/forum_topics.asp?FID=39 has many long hair fans from the Frank days. 

 

And after a simple setting on their favorites button they can skip right to the long hair talk - which is not commercial in any way - but people sharing their long hair thoughts.  We aggressively fight spam to make visiting HairTalk as commercial free as possible.

 

Other HairTalk visitors pop back and forth and visit many forums which is the beauty of HairTalk.  It is quite easy to set your favorites directly to the topic you enjoy and never venture from that space.

 

Just as super malls have literally hundreds of stores - when I shop, I always go to the stores that I enjoy and never set foot in the others.  Does that make super malls too complicated?  Not really, it is my choice to go simple or full boat.

 

Is HairBoutique.com complicated?  I guess it depends on whom you talk to.

 

As far as being like Frank's site....HairBoutique.com is run as a business and not as a hobby site.  That is true.  However, the forums are totally non-commerical and in most cases, the administrators are invisible. 

 

Early on in 1997 I figured out that I had to make money to pay for running the HairBoutique.com site and making sure it was 100% free.  It costs money (and lots of money at that) to have dedicated servers, hire webmasters and pay for T1 lines. 

 

After that first year of running the old "simple" HairBoutique.com when I realized I had to find a way to pay for the Hair talk forum so that people could always visit for free I took the path of growing HairBoutique.com into a super site, which it is as of 2007.

 

As of the beginning of 2007 HairBoutique.com contained over 600,000+ pages of always free content (articles, gallery photos, columns, news, boards) that is focused on mostly hair (with a little beauty mixed in). 

Literally many millions of people have received free information about hair and beauty, made life long friends in the forums and experienced lots of free benefits from HairBoutique.com since 1997.

 

And no Andy, my goal was never ever to copy Frank.  I think that is an important thing to note.  Yes, Frank was a pioneer with his site and a man who I will always respect and admire.  But never copy. 

 

While many people put up cookie cutter long hair sites that were mini versions of Frank's, I chose to honor and respect the path he blazed but follow my own vision, which I have done.  I am proud of the results and have committed ten years of my life to helping HairBoutique.com grow.  HairBoutique.com has been 100% funded by me and our e-store and no, we have never charged for a single service here.

 

I am sorry you find HairBoutique.com's Hair Forums too complicated but as hard as we try at HairBoutique.com we know that no matter what, we can't please all the people all the time.  And we have received many thousands of emails thanking us for the services we provide at HairBoutique.com and have for 10 solid years as of this August.  So we must be doing something right.

 

And yes Frank's site was popular, but HairBoutique.com has no plans to close as Frank had to do.  As long as I have breath in my body I am dedicated to offering the HairBoutique.com visitors a place to hang out for free and chat about their favorite hair and beauty topics.  Whatever they may be.

 

Good luck to you in your quest for a new home.

 

Andykent wrote: Hi Karen   Going back to the very early days of Frank on TLHS who I think you'll agree started everything. Long time eh ? I well remember you posting on several occasions around '97 as it was such a small and very friendly long hair world community back then. Great days and I lurked on and off there ever since.   Well Frank as you probably know has very sadly decided to call it a day and a real shame as I'm sure you'll agree, so I'm now looking around for another home. But my how your forum has changed and grown since I was last here !!   Unfortunately Karen there's just too much to take in. Way, way over the top - a lot of people simply haven't got the time to sit down and wade through so many forums so I gave up in next to no time. The point is Frank always kept his forum very simple didn't he ? I wonder if that was the secret of his enduring success and popularity ?    Sorry but it's definitely not for me - I prefer the simple people who love long hair for what it is, not the commercial sides of it.   Good luck of course all the same and a very Happy New Year   Andy

Edited by Karen Shelton - February 21 2007 at 5:33pm

 

Thanks Karen.  I truly have enjoyed the few months I've been visiting this forum.  New ideas from new people....