[Justin]

Hi everyone,

First and foremost - yes the spreadsheet is down, and yes we are aware of it. Nearly 100% of the errors mentioned in the previous posts are directly or indirectly caused by something beyond our control. We can't prevent it, but we can compensate for it by paying constant attention to the spreadsheet and making the necessary adjustments as often as required.

Those who have followed the evolution of the MOS Calculator for any length of time have no doubt noticed the countless features and additions to the spreadsheet. We've come a LONG way from the beginning! Heck one of these day's I'll post some pictures of the earlier days of the calculator just for laughs :) Most, if not all of these have been incredibly useful to many of us here in the community.

The problem is many of these additional features require the spreadsheet to use complex calculations which are based on the results of another complex calculation, and so on and so forth. This requires absolute perfect harmony with the data site it is attempting to extract the data from. If MSN Money changes the layout of any one of their pages even the slightest bit it wreaks havoc on the spreadsheet and nearly all of its calculations.

The last handful of releases to the spreadsheet were actually little more than adjustments to reflect the latest changes to the data site. Some are major, and some are minor. But they all have one thing in common: they take massive amounts of time to complete. To top it off, lately MSN Money has been making changes every week or two, and in some cases every few days.

Our volunteers have spent unfathomable amounts of time in trying to keep the spreadsheet up to date. Each has generously volunteered countless hours of personal time to keep this thing "running" as often as possible. Unfortunately, maintaining the spreadsheet has become a part time job at the very least. It has become increasingly difficult to reach the select few who actually understand the spreadsheet enough to work on it, and I simply can not place any further burden on these volunteers by asking them to continue making these nearly constant updates.

We’ve gotten TONS of positive feedback on the spreadsheet, both for its concept and its execution. I know it has saved me hundreds if not thousands of hours by letting me mow through entire stacks of symbols in no time at all. I am confident I am not alone in this regard. While I in no means advocate the use of any single source for data, I believe this has got to be one of the best preliminary research and analysis tools I have ever come across, especially for Rule #1 Investing.

I want to help maintain the spreadsheet - but as I mentioned above, there have been nearly a dozen programmers who have had a hand in developing the calculator. During the excitement of watching all of these additional features get plugged into the spreadsheet, I lost sight of what was really important here: Speed, Simplicity and Standardization.

My solution is to completely rebuild the spreadsheet from the ground up. The tool is going to better resemble its earlier days of calculation, using formulas that I do understand. Once I've finished this initial rebuild, and considering the amount of time I already spend on here I should be able to release the necessary future updates almost immediately.

I do have a full time job operating a family business, and we are heading into our busiest time of the year. Please understand that a complete rebuild of the spreadsheet is going to be a massive undertaking for me. If I work on it nightly I should be able to have it within a week or two.

Thank you for your continued patience and support everyone, I promise to make it worth your while.



Sincerely,

Justin Brand