So NATS is down...but are they out?
 

I kinda kept the role of observer on this whole NATS error stuff...Being in ownership of a software development company myself, i find it best to stay out of it when others in the same industry are going through a rough patch...

So, my question to you is...


Will this be the end of NATS? Or nothing more than a quick fix and an appology letter and we all get on with our lives?

No way...they are a great company, offering great products and support. These things happen. C'est la vie.

There it is :thumbsup

it was a bug why would it end a company they fixed it within an hour and took care of the problem better then most companies would.

how would that end them? One bug??

If that was the case... Microsoft never would have left the development stage.

I agree. But I just want to hear what the board as a whole thinks. I mean, the reality is....Part of debugging IS releasing the product. Granted usually this has to do with compatibility issues...and this was a flat out misfire....

But still...i hear good things about them so it seems this wouldnt be more than just a bump in the road.

The only thing that surprised me is. If i understand correctly...they are telling their customers about it but not willing to make the fix for them? If this were my product and i'd have the level of success that they have had i'd have my tech team in there system's right away to get things straightened out. :2 cents:

Maybe i misunderstood that statement though?

lol so true

Okay...glad to hear this repsonse. After reading that 7 page thread i thought people may have been going down the path of blowing this WAY out of proportion but sounds like everyone has a pretty level head here :thumbsup

I think this whole situation reveals a lot more about the people that found and exploited the NATS bug, and the people that posted details about the affected sponsors, than it says about those sponsors or NATS.

Nats can fix the bug, and the sponsors will continue to improve their sites and conversions, but unethical behavior runs deep.

Steve Lightspeed

Stop saying the same thing as me or else I may start to think I know what I'm talking about. :upsidedow

http://www.gofuckyourself.com/showthread.php?t=471057

well to be fair i think many of the people posting the info and discussing it in detail were/are not aware of the scope/value of the data exposed..

Just my observation though.. but other were doing it full well knowing the information wasn't kosher to be tossing around

Nats will grow stronger.
also, there never was one issue in nats where affiliates were being screwed. Everything could be explained by a simple exploit or postback error. NEVER has anything unethical been uncovered. Right there is proof enough in my book.
Duke

Duke is my Daddy!

NATS will be just fine
a lot of the drama was started by competitors and haters...

Also, too many people forget, that a lot of things like this are resolved off the boards and there is really little need to report everything that happens on the boards...

Some people just can't live without drama.......

good comparism lol
also agree to what steve said

fool me once, shame on you.... fool me twice.....

My thoughts exactly. We all know system and software bugs, its inherent in our business. What matters is how you handle it. John and company have always been straight up and responsive with us.

It seems a lot of people spend alot of time trying to make these guys look bad. More power to NATS-any press is good press.

I think is false - but then again, I've just been watching and reading this entire thing unfold. Sadly, a heck of a lot of unprofessionalism from some of the folks in the industry became very clear within hours. I'll try to digest the situation with Smokey's explanation & that it was just people who didn't understand the importance of the information.

Well said!

As for NATS - I read the thread after the second post was made - I opened a window and didn't even type and Nathan had already responded that if it was regarding the bug, they were already on it and correcting the situation.

Do I think what happened is acceptable? Not at all - but shit happens, it's how fast people respond that's important.

I doubt it's the end of NATS, they'll be around for a while and still do very well.

I just don't see them apologizing for this.

When a host goes down, they apologize for the down time, not sure what happens when programs have an exploit. I would think a simple, "sorry about that" would be appropriate, I just can't imagine them saying sorry for this.

And Lightspeed made a great post in this thread too, read what he said too, great points.

Actually, we've appologized to our clients and fixed them in a timely fashion. Perhaps we don't do it on a public board becuase we don't feel the need to fuel the drama and trolls.

I think they handled it as good as they could. Sometimes stuff slips through and people see that as a chance to exploit the situation. I know that if I find an issue i'll bring it right to the company who has made the mistake.

Thank you.

As we did when during integration we found a hole in a biller bigger than the grand canyon which exposed ALL customer data including emails, names, addresses, amounts charged, etc. for every merchant using that biller. We immediately got the biller on the phone and let them know of it. Too many kids in this industry who would have done as we saw here; run to the boards with it.

Yep agree ! Some glitches is not going to pull your program down that is just foolish for people to even think so , infact I think its doing quite the opposite , by making it stronger . ALL of these affiliate software runs into issues but everytime seems like someone discovers a glitch on NATS it exposes fast . Why ?? Because NATS is so popular used by so many programs and therefore tons of webmasters access the NATS data as well.
If there was another affilate software as big as NATS it would be the same thing. Just think about how strong NATS has become now , because of the amount of users they have , so many cool new features and better support now and you just can't beat the price .
Nothing out there at the moment is better than NATS as far as I'm concerned
Talk to you soon John + Charlie :thumbsup

Hi Bluewire,

just to clear this up... You did misunderstand, well, or my english is just worst at 8am after 3 hours of sleep ... :)

The bug was posted on another board and shortly after I was informed of it by John. (That was around 6am my time.) We then immediately fixed the issue and started updating our clients (at around 6:30am my time). We were done with the updates of all clients we could access after around 1.5 hours.

These times might be a little off, but the time periods are correct.

We then sent a mail to all our clients informing them about the issue and to be sure also told them how to update their systems themself once they see the mail. They could still of course just contact us with access info and we did it for them then.

I think the only people who may stop using them (if anyone does at all) are the ones who had their asses handed to them by talking so much shit, come to find out they do very little business.

Thanks for clearing that up Nathan :thumbsup

I dont think that this is a major thing.

A bump, not even a major one.

Ouch.

I agree with Lightspeed as well.

I'm sure they will be fine, software always has some sort of leaks. The information that people is something that will hurt them and some of the sponsors. But it won't take their whole business down.

i wish success and good fortune to all nats clients and know that doing software for others has its up's and down's.

unfortunately, an oversite as huge as this would cause me to run for the hills if I was a client of a vendor and there were so many other options. The damages from the exploit were easily preventable and could signify a bigger root problem.

there are pro's and con's on the argument and hopefully this was the last nats booboo and I feel for the losers who were affected and am appauled by the data being posted around.

XPays ceased licensing our software for Virtual Affiliate (TM) programs years ago and my opinion here is geared towards the smaller webmaster owners out there who are deciding between their different options available.

I still think that if you have a program and cannot build your own affiliate package or buy source code, hack it and maintain/update it and manage it- that it is best to utilize the affiliate program packages built in to the processors btw. This is the least conflict of interest in my professional opinion :2 cents: