The mystery of DT's new owner - SOLVED

[Muirium]

Said the man who liked the free parking spot without doing anything for it while talking entitled poison. Enjoy your free parking!

This is why I made my own Wiki with blackjack and hookers.

When the wiki is *just* blackjack and hookers, we have a problem.

[headphone_jack]

It's worse, I gave DT to the community but no one cared to run it.

I have personally heard of multiple offers from community members to buy the site from you. Unless there is some kind of miracle clause specified in the contract where you got a new kidney for selling the site, your motivations seem to be entirely dictated by monetary greed and a complete disregard for the community you constantly wash about "building up over 10 years", whether intentional or simply through ignorance. The fact that you haven't been run off the forum for your greed and your general pissant woe-is-me attitude is a testament to the tolerance of the few people that still bother to be active here.

On an unrelated note, ownership of the Deskthority discord is much more sympathetic to the actual needs of the community. And it is *far* more active than this slowly decomposing forum. Another positive: it doesn't have webwit on it!

Here is an invite link for those that missed the chat button on the hotbar: https://discord.com/invite/ddjx7WS

[ifohancroft]

We (the community) still have access to the IRC channel as well. acfraizer has it on Libera Chat, like it used to be when we were back on Freenode.

Unfortunately, there seems to be fewer people on it than I remember being on the Freenode one. Thanks Andrew Lee

[kbdfr]

[…] The fact that you haven't been run off the forum for your greed and your general pissant woe-is-me attitude is a testament to the tolerance of the few people that still bother to be active here. […]

Well, I am not aware of any rules violation by webwit which would have entailed any sanction whatsoever.

We may regret how things are evolving, but credit IS due to webwit for creating DT and running it for so long - without much help, by the way.

And those who chose not to be (paying!) "DT club" members (and do not have a "DT Pro Member" mention in their profile - just click the small down arrow under a poster's name) should obviously refrain from criticizing webwit's greed, imaginary or not.

[Slom]

[…] The fact that you haven't been run off the forum for your greed and your general pissant woe-is-me attitude is a testament to the tolerance of the few people that still bother to be active here. […]

Well, I am not aware of any rules violation by webwit which would have entailed any sanction whatsoever.

We may regret how things are evolving, but credit IS due to webwit for creating DT and running it for so long - without much help, by the way.

And those who chose not to be (paying!) "DT club" members (and do not have a "DT Pro Member" mention in their profile - just click the small down arrow under a poster's name) should obviously refrain from criticizing webwit's greed, imaginary or not.

Are those who donated money without wanting to become a club member allowed to ask where the money went?

[Slom]

How much did web hosting cost for deskthority at its peak? I've been curious about that.

at least 700 per year ...
viewtopic.php?p=455121#p455121

maybe more ...
viewtopic.php?p=454781#p454781

[kbdfr]

[…] And those who chose not to be (paying!) "DT club" members (and do not have a "DT Pro Member" mention in their profile - just click the small down arrow under a poster's name) should obviously refrain from criticizing webwit's greed, imaginary or not.

Are those who donated money without wanting to become a club member allowed to ask where the money went?

Of course they are, no question, sorry for not mentioning them. Here's the list, by the way:
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=2552

Those who accuse webwit of greed should consider how much work he had invested in DT in the past:;
viewtopic.php?f=40&t=14804
and certainly not to now be insulted by people who obviously think everything is due to them at no cost.

[wobbled]

When you sell something, anything, you always try and get the most for it... That's just the way shit is. Selling it to a community member for what was probably significantly less than what daddys bitcoin spender Mr Oliver J Watt could afford isn't smart business. And after 10 years of running it, maybe he wanted something in return.. I know I would.
You kind of get used to this mindset when you've been on here long enough to have seen Model Fs being practically given away by cindy, to them going for extortionate ebay prices.

I don't think webwit is greedy, I'm just pissed about how the shit sale worked out in the end. I personally gave 'keyboardjoy' a chance and was more defensive about the sale compared to a lot of the loud mouths on here simply because I thought onecommerce wouldn't fuck with DT too much and piss off the community that they paid money to acquire. I was half right, they never did anything with DT. With the exception of shit merch.

All we can hope for now is onecommerce sell the asset back to the community now that their focus has changed to... middle eastern period underwear? (wishful thinking )

[webwit]

Are those who donated money without wanting to become a club member allowed to ask where the money went?

Sure, when there was no successor to run the club, the club members voted 100% in favor for me to run it privately owned, and I gave the option for previous donators to ask their money back, which no one did, or else it would be used to running costs. The remaining funds went as such to hosting and others costs until these were spent and I payed for the hosting.

[Slom]

[...]. I was half right, they never did anything with DT. With the exception of shit merch. [...]

Well they pay the bills, so that makes them (at least) equivalent to the DT-Club members who only paid, or donators who only paid.

[voxleo]

DT will live on as a weekly newsletter

Wait! There's a DT newsletter?

That legit made me LOL. Ahh, what is it about this community that anyone could put their finger on? I have found it always good for a genuine laugh, mostly because I can relate to the sheer dorkiness...

But look what happens when I don't stick around - Everything devolves into chaos! This thread is more drama than I've seen in 2 years of pandemic Netflix binge watching. I had an idea to just see what my old pal Webwit was up to, maybe say hi (Hello, Duckie!), and immediately get sucked down the rabbit hole as I get captivated by the bickering...

Interestingly, 'twas a bit of drama over at GH years ago that occasioned my introduction to webby and prompted my joining geekhack years ago too. If monetization is questionable, perhaps there's an avenue to be considered in the entertainment sector. Sounds like a crazy idea until you think about how the browsing of posts on DT and GH for a half hour a day is almost guaranteed to elicit more frequent and genuine laughter than a half hour spent watching some of the recycled crap they are turning into sitcoms these days...

If I write up treatment or cobble together a script at this point, though, does that mean the new owners are entitled to a cut? Maybe my idea comes too late at this point... It is a half-baked idea, but it might have the potential to be something palatable if it cooks a bit more. Hmmmm ... Maybe a joint venture with the corporate owners as some investment backing for the project?

Oh well, the only thing constant IS change, I guess. And that despite all the paranoia in the beginning about how permanent our words would be in the digital age of watching what you say since it will be around "forever". Even data cannot be stored indefinitely.

Wow. This whole thing just added to my midlife existential crisis in a huge way. Ugh. I hate being 50.

[AndyJ]

Well, at least the forum wasn't sold to VerticalScope...

[adhoc]

How much is such a site worth, anyway? Are we talking 3,4,5,6 digits?

[Muirium]

Well, it's not worth their bother even checking in every once in a while. But quite what they paid for it? I'd like to know…

[adhoc]

Well I'm guesstimating with zero experience or knowledge on the subject whatsoever - but this particular hurdle has never stopped people making assumptions before, so why should it stop me? - that this forum probably sold in the low 4 digits number.

I'm not interested that much in what duck got for it, everyone knows this is not the optimal way of making money, but if the community could gather the money and try to buy it back. Low 4 digits we could do, I think.

[Rayndalf]

AFAIK it was quite a bit more than 4 digits.
Not that you can easily put a price on a community in the first place.

Hell the DT Discord server seems to get more traffic than the DT forums proper.
And that's a shame. Discord is a nightmare to search and it all exists at the whim of a somewhat capricious company.

[Muirium]

That’s my impression of Discord, too. Maybe it’s meant to be more chatty and informal than forums? Well, dunno if you’ve noticed, but we’re chatty and informal right here. All while thoroughly searchable, self archiving and not owned by a whimsical, unaccountable, essentially external company…

Ahem.

Would be nice if we owned it, eh?

[adhoc]

AFAIK it was quite a bit more than 4 digits.

I believe you, but it's quite surprising considering DT isn't monetized enough to even cover the costs of running it, or at least that's what we've been told. It also shatters the illusion of us, the community, possibly buying it back.

[Muirium]

The inestimable power of incompetence.

[webwit]

Well I'm guesstimating with zero experience or knowledge on the subject whatsoever - but this particular hurdle has never stopped people making assumptions before, so why should it stop me? - that this forum probably sold in the low 4 digits number.

I'm not interested that much in what duck got for it, everyone knows this is not the optimal way of making money, but if the community could gather the money and try to buy it back. Low 4 digits we could do, I think.

There's a non-disclosure in the sale contract about the dealings with onecommerce, but for order of magnitude, the second highest bid was not low 5 digit number.

[Muirium]

There's a non-disclosure in the sale contract about the dealings with onecommerce, but for order of magnitude, the second highest bid was not low 5 digit number.

Well, that's one fine investment they made! All that money and they can't even be arsed maintaining basic admin.

[adhoc]

Wow, I was way off. I do not understand this investment at all. You'd imagine they'd at least collect the donations and check up on DT Pro membership. Administration is a cost, not bothering with that I at least understand. Then again, in big companies, collecting donations is probably more cost in hours than just paying the fees outright.

I'm guessing DT was just one of those investments to get rid of some money for a tax break, then was handed over to one guy who switched position in the company and this website was simply forgotten it even exists. Since the costs are in the 4 digits annually to maintain, no-one even sees this expense. Onecommerce is a 200-man company that is 7 years old. Not really a huge conglomerate either.

Not the absolute worst position to be in. Better than aggressive marketing and ads all over the place, I guess. The more I learn, the more I am confused about the situation.

[soyuz]

Wow, I was way off. I do not understand this investment at all. You'd imagine they'd at least collect the donations and check up on DT Pro membership. Administration is a cost, not bothering with that I at least understand. Then again, in big companies, collecting donations is probably more cost in hours than just paying the fees outright.

I'm guessing DT was just one of those investments to get rid of some money for a tax break, then was handed over to one guy who switched position in the company and this website was simply forgotten it even exists. Since the costs are in the 4 digits annually to maintain, no-one even sees this expense. Onecommerce is a 200-man company that is 7 years old. Not really a huge conglomerate either.

Not the absolute worst position to be in. Better than aggressive marketing and ads all over the place, I guess. The more I learn, the more I am confused about the situation.

Pretty sure you got the wrong onecommerce, the one that bought DT is a startup with like 20 guys

[adhoc]

If that's right, the situation makes even less sense...

[hellothere]

There's a non-disclosure in the sale contract about the dealings with onecommerce, but for order of magnitude, the second highest bid was not low 5 digit number.

Well, that's one fine investment they made! All that money and they can't even be arsed maintaining basic admin.

FWIW, several years ago, I sold a website that had about as much traffic as Deskthority, for about $15K US, adjusted for inflation. The new owners wanted to monetize it, but, after a couple pages were set up to do that, they dropped doing anything further.

Just taking a random hosting website, you're talking about $40 US a month -- although you have to pay up-front for 3 years. A message board and a wiki don't really need much in the way of hosting power. Onecommerce may have their own server, so this point may be moot.

[webwit]

OneCommerce contacted me and told me because they are doing something completely different now, they are looking to sell off legacy assets like DT, and wondered if I'm interested to buy it back at a lower price. I'm not, but told them I'd poke around. If anyone here is interested or knows someone who is, let me know and I'll send you contact details.

[soyuz]

such good stewards of the website

a very good decision that entirely was not focused around "biggest number" for sure

[webwit]

[scottc]

lol

[headphone_jack]

A result absolutely nobody could have seen coming. Here's hoping the site falls under community control again.