DateLine | TagVillage
"Straight From The Horse's Mouth" - The Good and the Bad
Monday, May 30, 2011 - 5:47 PM
To my fellow tagvillage partners:
With the level of talent and trust among the members of our team here at tagvillage corporate headquarters, it is not often that I get news I was not expecting or that I did not want to hear. Unfortunately, however, this weekend I got such news. Rather than having one of our staff writers deliver this news to our members, I decided it would be best if I, the CEO, delivered it as they say “straight from the horse’s mouth”.
As all our members know, we have been working on two major projects simultaneously. First, we are translating our entire site into over 25 different languages complete with full native alphabet support. Second, we are developing the amazing Top Secret Project which will deliver millions of products and services to millions of shoppers at the amazing low price of $0.10 each, regardless of how much the item costs in the ‘real world’.
I am happy to report the translation project is running a bit ahead of schedule. We expect to fully translate the site and implement this new feature within the next 10 to 14 days. However, I am greatly disappointed that I must report the Top Secret Project has hit a snare. Due to some required changes, we regret to inform you that Top Secret Project will not be released for 3 to 4 weeks. However, there is a bit of good news within the bad news. First, after we implement all our changes, members will confidently be able to purchase items for $0.10 and receive them shipped to their doorsteps without paying any shipping or taxes. All shipping and import/sales taxes will be covered on behalf of the members!
As we were finalizing the development of Top Secret Project, we sent the completed operational models to our legal advisors for final review. Tagvillage is an international company. We have operations and members within hundreds of countries throughout the world. As such, we pay careful attention that we comply not only with the laws of Texas and the USA, but also various International Trade laws and the laws of countries where we specifically have operations. As our legal counsel was reviewing the operational procedures of the Top Secret Project, they identified some critical components that could be determined as outside the umbrella of the law in some countries where we have operations and/or members.
The last thing we at tagvillage would ever wish to happen would be to announce a major, revolutionary market concept that could make our members untold commissions, just to have it taken down for technicalities in various parts of the globe. We want our site to be globally affective and globally impactful. We will defend the ability (in our opinion the right) for our members in 3rd world countries, developing nations, industrialized and 1st world nations to equally participate and equally gain from our site.
We researched the legal parameters of the international marketplace we operate within and assessed our ability to deliver our product in fairness and equality throughout the globe. Fortunately, I am happy to announce that our brilliant team has found the creative answer. As a matter of fact, due to their creativity, the Top Secret Project, when finished, will actually be more beneficial to our members than originally planned. And, more importantly, it will completely comply with the law in our country and the international marketplace within which our members reside.
We have a solution that will greatly benefit all our members and provide equal opportunity to every tagvillager no matter where they live on planet Earth. However, the bad news is that we must rewrite hundreds of thousands of lines of code in order to implement these changes. Our development team estimates the sheer volume of work ahead of them will take at least 3 to 4 weeks to complete.
As we were discussing our strategy to complete the project, it was noted that this gives our company a great opportunity. All along, our development team has regretted that we planned to implement international translations along with an amazing new goods/services marketplace. They felt this was an overwhelming dual project. Due to the revision necessary in our Top Secret Project structure, we get to allow the Translation Team to release their project weeks before the Top Secret Project. The teams feel this will also greatly benefit our members, our website traffic, and the advertisers that plan to place goods/services into the Top Secret Project marketplace and target tags accordingly.
I personally apologize to our members for this delay. I know you are all anticipating the release of the Top Secret Project as much, if not more than I am. I wish there were any other way I could resolve this matter. If I could, I would snap my fingers and the project would be complete. However, this is the reality we face and we must deal with it. We are not a company with unlimited resources. We must work and plan within the scope of the reality of our capabilities. As it stands, we are only capable of completing this mountainous project in a 3 to 4 week timeline.
I don’t want to completely leave you with disappointment. Rather, I would like to focus on a few positives.
First, the delay of the release date means we will be able to secure relationships with more vendors and advertisers so that our members will benefit more when the project is finished. As of now, we can tell you that every product or service you can find on Amazon.com, Sony.com, and Apple.com will become available through the Top Secret Project after it is released. There are more vendors that will be marketing goods/services and targeting your tags, I just wanted to name a few so you can start gathering great Tags.
Second, the delay of the release date means we will be able to complete and publish the translation platform. Very soon tagvillage will be available in over 25 languages and native alphabets. This will greatly benefit our members when it comes to referring and training. Very soon new members will be able to interact with our site and learn about the site in their own native languages. This means you can recruit literally all over the globe!
Finally, the delay of the release date means our developers have more time to test and stabilize the Top Secret Project platform before we release it. It also means we will release both Tags and Goods/Services at the same time rather than in stages. So, once the coding is completed, we will be able to go from beta testing to live production much quicker than we originally estimated. Again, this will greatly benefit our members because it means less time between testing and actually buying things for only $0.10 and/or earning commissions from these transactions.
Tagvillage is an amazing company. We have some of the best developers in the world working on our project. We have a management team that is second to none. We have thought-flow processes that rival that of the biggest innovation companies on earth. Our project management is one of the most efficient platforms ever deployed. However, we hope our members understand we are taking on an incredibly daunting task. We are building something that other businesses have spent billions of dollars, millions of hours, and many, many years constructing. We are not simply copying/pasting code or using plugins and widgets. We are writing source code, innovating, creating brand-new technology, and engineering a database and software package unlike any ever built before.
There will be snags. There will be breaks in the system. At times we will look up and realize the mountain we are climbing is higher than we expected. However, we are ready for the challenge. We anticipate unknown hurdles to arise. We operate our business with the agility to regroup and rethink when it is necessary. When we presented our solution to the legal advisors, their response was simply, “Impressive! You guys are brilliant beyond words.”
My fellow villagers, I ask you to be patient. I respect you greatly. I always strive to ensure our company is completely transparent in our communication with you. When we have good news, we share it with you. When we have bad news, we do the same. We feel you are the most important partner in our mission. We know we can never achieve the goal to become the single greatest source of financial blessing for millions of humanitarian causes around the world without you. Therefore, I bring you openly and honestly the fact that we hit a snare and must climb over it. I assure you, together, we will be hugely successful.
Our website is just 6 months old. Already we are accomplishing amazing things! Very soon, we will be leaving the rest of the industry ‘in the dust’. Get ready! Our developers have assured me they can resolve the code within a month. I have been assured the resolution makes our site better for all our members throughout the world. Our vendors already committed to place goods/services into the marketplace appreciate the changes we are making. This is going to rock the world! And you get to say you were part of it from the beginning.
Sincerely,
David Ruebush
CEO
tagvillage, inc.
Bringing you A Fair and Balanced Reporting of News and Happenings
in the Village
Tagger
This week our developers will be running tests on the Top Secret Project and enhancing it based on test results. We are happy to announce that next week we will be letting our members start testing the Bazaar. If you have potential referrals or friends that wants to test with you, they must be registered by June 30 in order to participate in Bazaar testing!!!
