Ask Admin

tasbiha · Joined: 27 Mar 2004 Posts: 101

I have a question, and I don't know if this is the proper forum to ask it of the moderators.

This site is tremendous, especially the history section. You do not ask for money, you do not ask for volunteers, so - who are you guys?

Is this site paid for by MHI or are you a group of wealthy retired Ismailis with tons of HTML skills?

Almost every website asks for either money/please buy something/please volunteer. Makes me wonder.

curious2 · Joined: 05 May 2005 Posts: 142

Is there a question section on admins and moderators of this board? I would like to see all the questions answered there.

Admin · Joined: 06 Jan 2003 Posts: 1759

YAM,

This site was started 11 years ago by some friends who decided to volunteer some of their time. At the time of conception, it was not supposed to grow this fast and this big. It was the time of gopher and Archie, not yet of the www, the Internet was not yet popular. Someone started an Internet business and allowed us to keep a server free of charge on his network. Few more joined to type-in information, scan photos, encode ginans etc... on week-ends and holidays.. All we wanted to do was to preserve existing information on our faith and archieve whatever new information would be created during our lifetime so that the next generations can benefit from it.

Then the site started looking bigger and bigger and almost went out of control. More servers, drives, memories, power and bandwidth were needed and there was a temptation to either put a banner or ask for donations or find some ways to finance the project but this was against the premisses on which the site was started so we never sold any publicity nor accepted any donation.

When the PHP portion was introduced, we started registering members and many felt part of the project because they were members. They started also to send photos and informations and volunteered to type info etc.. It was decided that any one that would travel to cover a story would do so at his own cost, not at the cost of the Heritage Society.

So up to now, we have been able to sustain the web site just from ressources within the small group that started the project 11 years ago.

Not taking money or donations from anyone and not selling advertisements and banners has also allowed us to remain completely independant. I think that is the biggest strenght of this site. I like to think also that we have inspired some of the later web sites dedicated to our faith and our Imam, even if it is in minute ways.

To reply to your question, no, we are not <wealthy retired businessmen>. Believe me all of us are more perpetualy broke then wealthy or should I say maybe broke but certainely not retired

The principle we established in 1994 was that none of the volunteers [Umedwards] working on this site will get any credit for their work nor ever disclose their name. therefore, if you send correspondance and receive an answer from Umed [Wards] do not be surprised

Umed.

tasbiha · Joined: 27 Mar 2004 Posts: 101

Wow, thanks. That's an awful amount of work you people are doing for this site.

kmaherali · Joined: 27 Mar 2003 Posts: 9915

During all of his visits to the Canadian Jamats, MHI has always expressed confidence in the ability of the Canadian Jamats to demonstrate intellectual leadership for the Jamats world wide.

This site in my opinion represents that aspiration and I hope it continues to grow in the future.

ONiazi · Joined: 05 May 2003 Posts: 56 Location: Deerfield, IL, USA

Ya Ali madad!

How fascinating! I thought "Umed" was a name.

Good work, guys (and gals, if any)!

Mowla hafiz,
ON

Aly_shallwani · Joined: 10 Jun 2004 Posts: 101

I have always heard in the announcements in JK that there is only one site on the net which is of IIS and is registered; i want to ask Admin that is this this site also registered? because it is the better site than of IIS!

Admin · Joined: 06 Jan 2003 Posts: 1759

www.iis.ac.uk is the only authorised web site of the Ismaili Institute.

www.akdn.org is the only official web site of the AKDN.

www.ismaili.net is the onlt authorised web site of the Heritage Society.

raheemhp · Joined: 05 Aug 2004 Posts: 24 Location: Mumbai

yaa ali madad,
well IIS AND AKDN is official site ...as per my knowledge this is not a official site ...but i appreciate the contribution and work from the ismaili.net team .....thanx to the team of ismailinet keep it up and god bless u all.

Admin · Joined: 06 Jan 2003 Posts: 1759

curious2 · Joined: 05 May 2005 Posts: 142

Admin, how do you prevent yourself from breaking any copyright laws? I mean, I saw you created the transcript of an interview given by MHI to CBC TV. Isn't that a violation of some sort? Just wondering, how do you deal with those situations with other things.

ONiazi · Joined: 05 May 2003 Posts: 56 Location: Deerfield, IL, USA

Ya Ali madad!

An official website would not be able to provide the wealth of information that this website can. An official website would provide only information it can endorse without any hesitation whatsoever. I doubt an official website would even permit a forum. I cannot recall any official website of any hierarchical religious group, Muslim or otherwise, that has a forum or that is lax in its presentation of material.

An unofficial medium would have greater room for movement and would be able to offer a medium through which participants may discuss and debate.

A website such as this is extremely valuable. It enriches both members and non-members. It also helps to destroy lies, falsehoods, and misunderstandings that may be purposefully or mistakenly perpetuated. All one has to do is peruse the information provided or ask on the forum. Easy!

The official organs of the Hazir Imam (AS) do not engage in much apologetics or defense of the faith. They have more important things to focus on. As such, as sad as it may be, claims by enemies of the Imamat (more often fellow Muslims) go unanswered. As the image exists in my mind, this website is like a sharp sword in the hands of murids to slay the venomous lies of enemies of the Imamat, and it is like a fragrant flower for murids to brighten their souls and enrich their minds.

Mowla hafiz,
ON

star_munir · Joined: 21 Apr 2003 Posts: 1602

I agree with ONiazi and even I used to thought that Umed is name of admin. You are doing great work. May Mowlana Hazir Imam bless you all.

curious2 · Joined: 05 May 2005 Posts: 142

Admins, I like your chat idea, but when I login, I see few folks on the list but no one seems to be talking or at least that's how it seems from my end. I keep sending Hi's and Hello's and I see that my messages are showing up but no one wants to reply. This is the same experience I had at ismailiconnect.com site with their chat sessions.

Any idea? Perhaps something's wrong from my end.

Admin · Joined: 06 Jan 2003 Posts: 1759

To reply to the last 2 post of Curious2:

1) We are in the process of debugging the chat server which has just been installed. I tried it a couple of time yesterday and it worked fine but my technician says that names of people who close their browsers without login out is somehow remaining in the list because our server does not know that the person has closed his browser. Same happens with users that block pop-out. So what we are trying to do is just that the server removes from chat list anyone that has been inactive for 15 minutes or so.

2) The Chat server is really good, very easy and flexible. It is also powerful, you can invite a user to chat and you can also block your name by making it busy so no one can disturb you while you are browsing or are gone from your desk for few minutes.

3) There is some functionalities to change password and making your email hidden in "My Profile" under the Left Menu of the main page on ismaili.net

Admin

Welcome to The Heritage Web Site