Forums >General Running>Running Wizard & Nobby disappearance
Wow. OK. Thanks for the explanation Eric. Sorry to hear you haven't been compensated. Hope things get straightened out for you.
Bacon Party!
Eric - thank you for the explanation and for all you've done to bring such a valuable tool to life (not to mention your consideration in keeping it live for the runners who are mid-plan).
Grinds my gourd though, as an early purchaser of a RW plan and a fan of RA.
Liz
pace sera, sera
Consistently Slow
Hi all, As you know, I created Running Wizard for Nobby / the Lydiard Foundation back in 2011 in an understanding that I will receive a percentage of each plan sold. Despite years of asking for payment, I have yet to receive any compensation for my work. In April, I disabled the shopping cart and gave them until Oct 15 to come up with a contract and compensate me or the website will be shutdown completely. I took the two step approach so that you can continue using the plans that you have paid for and not be caught in the dispute. Hopefully, this is sufficient time for you to finish your training programs. The algorithm behind the training program is quite elegant. I like how it is customized for each person instead of a boiler plate plan. I do hope that they can get their act together but I'm not holding my breath. I have not talked to Nobby in about a year. I have a feeling that he's too focused on the Lydiard coach certification clinics, which is where the money is. If you enjoyed the program, feel free to send an email to nobby415@msn.com and let him know how you feel. eric
Hi all,
As you know, I created Running Wizard for Nobby / the Lydiard Foundation back in 2011 in an understanding that I will receive a percentage of each plan sold. Despite years of asking for payment, I have yet to receive any compensation for my work. In April, I disabled the shopping cart and gave them until Oct 15 to come up with a contract and compensate me or the website will be shutdown completely. I took the two step approach so that you can continue using the plans that you have paid for and not be caught in the dispute. Hopefully, this is sufficient time for you to finish your training programs.
The algorithm behind the training program is quite elegant. I like how it is customized for each person instead of a boiler plate plan. I do hope that they can get their act together but I'm not holding my breath. I have not talked to Nobby in about a year. I have a feeling that he's too focused on the Lydiard coach certification clinics, which is where the money is. If you enjoyed the program, feel free to send an email to nobby415@msn.com and let him know how you feel.
eric
eric You should design plans and market them on RA.
Run until the trail runs out.
SCHEDULE 2016--
The pain that hurts the worse is the imagined pain. One of the most difficult arts of racing is learning to ignore the imagined pain and just live with the present pain (which is always bearable.) - Jeff
http://bkclay.blogspot.com/
old woman w/hobby
Eric - thank you for the explanation and for all you've done to bring such a valuable tool to life (not to mention your consideration in keeping it live for the runners who are mid-plan). Grinds my gourd though, as an early purchaser of a RW plan and a fan of RA.
+1
And eric-
Seems I remember that you saved Nobby's Running Wizzard bacon when you agreed to create
RW after his last partner left him?
steph
I hate that, Eric. I'm really disappointed in him for that.
Out there running since dinosaurs roamed the earth
Feeling the growl again
I'm not all-knowing about the situation, but I know there are more people involved in RW than Nobby. So I'm not sure who is responsible for what has happened on the business end of things. I hope it gets straightened out and Eric gets what he is owed and RW can get on its feet and deliver for customers. I have respect for both parties so I just find it sad that things have ended up at this point.
"If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does. There's your pep talk for today. Go Run." -- Slo_Hand
I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills
The original site, which was under the name Go2Lydiard.com, was horribly designed. Granted, the formula is very complex. The original version was an Excel spreadsheet with 256 columns and 743 rows. The first developer that Nobby approached said it was too complicated to be made into a website. The second developer did it by manually transcribing all the equations in the spreadsheet into a web page. Each distance has several variations of the plan, each depending on your abilities. There were dozens of plan pages, the largest one has over 200,000 lines of code. To make matters worse, every element on the page was manually styled. It looked horrible and impractical to restyle.
If you wanted to buy a plan on the original site, you would have to buy it through PayPal. PayPal sends a confirmation to Lorraine (the co-founder of the Lydiard Foundation). She sends an email to the developer. The developer then creates an account for you and sends you an email with instructions on how to use the site. It can take several days for you to receive the email. The current site still uses PayPal, but at least everything is automated so you can get to your plan as soon as you pay. That just scratches the surface of all that was wrong with the website.
It took the previous developer 2 years to create the initial version. It was because he was highly unreliable that Nobby came to me for help. I rewrote the whole thing because nothing in the original site was worth keeping. When it was completed, the website went from a few million lines of code to abut 5,000.
According to Nobby, he was considering shutting down RW and the foundation if I did not intervene. I didn't do it for the money, which isn't much relative to the amount of time I spent on it. I thought the program is really cool. There is nothing like it in running and I know that runners will find it useful.
After I gave them my notice, it did elicit an immediate response from their lawyer friend. Note he's not their lawyer and he does not represent them. He was asserting copyright of the software, and demanding that I re-enable the cart. His email included an outline of the agreement that I've been asking for all these years. I know enough legal lingo through osmosis to know it's time to let my lawyer handle it. Just like all my previous requests, they have yet to respond to my lawyer.
This is where we are now. It's not hard to come up with a contract. Any lawyer can come up with one in a few hours. Money is no longer a road block because they've sold plenty of plans. I don't have much expectation that they would come around given their track record.
I know I'm doing a disservice to the running community by shutting down the program, but I know you'll agree that they shouldn't continue to profit off my work without compensation.
I know I'm doing a disservice to the running community
Wrong. You've already done a service for the running community. Unfortunately, some aren't keeping up their end of the bargain.
There was a point in my life when I ran. Now, I just run.
We are always running for the thrill of it
Always pushing up the hill, searching for the thrill of it
-1. Your bandwidth is limited and you do the community a lot of good outside of RW. Continuing to spend your time in an area where you are not compensated, but detracts from all else you do, does not help the community.
I don't work for free, even though a certain community would benefit if I did, so I can't imagine any other community thinking you should.
No, you're not doing a disservice to the running community and you certainly deserve to
be compensated for your work.
RunningAhead is a service to the running community.
There is no free lunch! I have give to RA since my first year on the site.
tomatolover
Eric - thank for explainingand your work on RW...i had used the former Lydiard site a couple of years prior and RW was absolutely a new and much more awesome beast. I'm sorry that you got bubkissss out of the deal and I'm really disappointed with the actions, or rather inactions of Nobby. in summary: what a bummer.
Will Crew for Beer
I wonder if they would be willing to license the RW formulas to you. Seems like that would be a more favorable business position for you and a win for RW users.
Rule number one of a gunfight, bring a gun. Rule number two of a gunfight, bring friends with guns.
"If you have the fire, run..." -John Climacus
Oh roo roooo!
I also thought the RW plans were great and am bummed that they're gone now, but there is no way you should be working for free, Eric. I'm grateful for all you've done even tho you were not compensated, and I sure do hope at some point you receive what you deserve for all your work.
I agree w/WhoDat above, it would be wonderful if RW could be licensed to you, altho I would never pretend to know if something like that is even remotely possible.