GH sale thread?

[HPE1000]

This community used to mean so much to me a few years ago. Haven't been too involved recently but I am still really appreciative of all the great people I met through this website. Even if this is the end of geekhack as we know it, the community will live on.

There are plenty of really smart people here and I am confident you guys will come up with a great idea for what comes next.

I agree. Even if the site does fail a new one will pop up in short time and take its place.

I'm imagining a lot of people are all going to try to take a stab at starting a replacement site and I hope that doesn't happen because that'll just turn into a mess.

[danielucf]

Ooof, owie. Why did I drink that bone hurting juice today of all days?

[Coreda]

Wait isnt VericalScope a datamining company? So iMav just sold all of the personal information on this site to a data mining company? Wow he sold himself out and everyone on this forum.

According to the screencap that was for the original offer (which was claimed would be kept confidential), it's unclear who is behind the latest offers. I'm not quite sure VerticalScope does with sites it acquires. Did see news of a password breach across some sites operated by them though.

I mean, iMav clearly reached a tipping point with the cost of running geekhack and I'm not going to slam him. Without much insight sooner into the maintenance costs or increasing struggle of operating the site I suppose there wasn't much awareness among the userbase to drive ongoing donations. Possibly by finding more affordable hosting as several suggested, making users aware of the difficulties, and offering alternative re-occurring payment programs like Patreon (maybe with some cosmetic perks for users) things could have gone differently earlier.

[vewy_nice]

I'm not quite sure VerticalScope does with sites it acquires.

Turn them into "vertically integrated roll-ups in high-consumer spending verticals.", obviously
(Exact verbage from their site)

[chuckdee]

Oh no! I just got on here basically! Hope we can all find a new home together.

Just go to reddit or join one of the discord things, those are all the rage and maybe the reason we are where we are, Ripster won. There is also Deskthority.

Those are absolutely worse options, the best option is to simply start a new forum if need be. It's easy enough to do. DT is cliquey and very vintage-focused, I don't know how much they'd appreciate a permanent influx of GH members. Reddit is reddit, and in no way is a discord or slack a legitimate substitute for a proper forum.

That's a misconception propagated a lot over time.  There's quite a bit of conversation on more recent boards, and in fact, it's where I built my first custom.  The misconception has made the population that migrate to it focused on vintage, unfortunately.

[hwood34]

Oh no! I just got on here basically! Hope we can all find a new home together.

Just go to reddit or join one of the discord things, those are all the rage and maybe the reason we are where we are, Ripster won. There is also Deskthority.

Those are absolutely worse options, the best option is to simply start a new forum if need be. It's easy enough to do. DT is cliquey and very vintage-focused, I don't know how much they'd appreciate a permanent influx of GH members. Reddit is reddit, and in no way is a discord or slack a legitimate substitute for a proper forum.

That's a misconception propagated a lot over time.  There's quite a bit of conversation on more recent boards, and in fact, it's where I built my first custom.  The misconception has made the population that migrate to it focused on vintage, unfortunately.

I mean maybe it was originally a self-fulfilling prophecy, but I don't know anyone that would argue that it hasn't been a heavily vintage-focused board for years now. Even customs that people make there often draw heavily from vintage influences.

[chuckdee]

Oh no! I just got on here basically! Hope we can all find a new home together.

Just go to reddit or join one of the discord things, those are all the rage and maybe the reason we are where we are, Ripster won. There is also Deskthority.

Those are absolutely worse options, the best option is to simply start a new forum if need be. It's easy enough to do. DT is cliquey and very vintage-focused, I don't know how much they'd appreciate a permanent influx of GH members. Reddit is reddit, and in no way is a discord or slack a legitimate substitute for a proper forum.

That's a misconception propagated a lot over time.  There's quite a bit of conversation on more recent boards, and in fact, it's where I built my first custom.  The misconception has made the population that migrate to it focused on vintage, unfortunately.

I mean maybe it was originally a self-fulfilling prophecy, but I don't know anyone that would argue that it hasn't been a heavily vintage-focused board for years now. Even customs that people make there often draw heavily from vintage influences.

Heavily focused, but not by design, which is what the statement that they wouldn't appreciate GHers seems to imply.  My custom I made that I was talking about was less than 2 years ago and was a 45% before the JD45 or the Minivan.  The Whitefox came from there, and matt3o's working on a 3d printed version right now.  It's not a singular mind there- it just supports vintage more than other places IMO.

[PotatoTM]

This whole thing has been really unfortunate, I was just starting to get used to it all...

[wowremy]

Zealhack.org
calling it now

[dicarlobrotha2]

I'm iMav, and this is my keyboard forum. I work here with my moderators and my son, ripster55. Everything in here has a large amount of data, and a price of $40,000. One thing I've learned after six years, you never know WHAT chinese marketing company is going to offer to pay for my mortgage.

[noisyturtle]

Welcome to America where everything's for sale to the highest bidder, including your loyalty and privacy.

[Remsky]

This whole thing was fishy from the beginning. iMav needed help maintaining the site, yet never told mods the operating costs nor tried to make an announcement stating that he needed help? Then he comes out of left field saying he is selling the site to some company for 10k to pay off 3 mortgages. First, if you can afford 3 mortgages, you are probably making well into 6 figures, which I doubt iMav is making. Second, he was willing to say who the bidders were for GH, yet never tells us who this mysterious company is? Almost as if he never got an offer and pulled the 10k figure outta his ass. Hmmm. He then tells the community he will give the site to them for 10k, then proceeds to start a bidding war and backs out of his "final" prices.

iMav stopped caring for this community years ago, I just wish he would have handed it over to someone else before this all had to happen, but I guess he didnt care enough. On a final note, iMav, if you really can afford 3 mortgages at the same time, 270 usd a month should be chump change to you lmfao.

tl:dr iMav is a lying sack of ****.

Edit: iMav did reveal the first buyer, although later on. Still doesnt help that it is a data centric chinese company, in fact that is worse than a chinese vendor.

[portbaron]

Fair enough, so what's the best way to not miss out on GBs and ICs in the future? A mix of reddit and DT?

[M]

Fair enough, so what's the best way to not miss out on GBs and ICs in the future? A mix of reddit and DT?

Those and discord servers probably

Although at the moment I'm more worried about GBs that are currently going on

[Acereconkeys]

Fair enough, so what's the best way to not miss out on GBs and ICs in the future? A mix of reddit and DT?

Those and discord servers probably

Although at the moment I'm more worried about GBs that are currently going on

Start making sure any gb you're a part of you have avenues of communication with them besides just geekhack. Email, Discord, Slack, Text, something. Not saying geekhack will go away for sure, likely not, but it's probably a good time to secure multiple forms of communication.

[portbaron]

All the GBs I've seen (I've been part of over a dozen this year) are actually handled through other sites, GH is just advertising them, so that's probably ok.

[kawasaki161]

All the GBs I've seen (I've been part of over a dozen this year) are actually handled through other sites, GH is just advertising them, so that's probably ok.

You're only buying keycaps right? Because all keyboard GBs I've been part of were handled though the forum.

[portbaron]

All the GBs I've seen (I've been part of over a dozen this year) are actually handled through other sites, GH is just advertising them, so that's probably ok.

You're only buying keycaps right? Because all keyboard GBs I've been part of were handled though the forum.

Lol, I didn't think about that. Derp. Budget96 (has site), Noxary (has discord), TKC1800 (site), createboard wood, SKB. So I guess I'm in 5 of those lol. But all but the latter have been paid so they have another email to contact us by anyway already. Something to think about the rest of the year though.

[Yeoh]

If GeekHack is the only thing reassuring you that gbs in progress will be completed... I dont know what else to say.

[gutsack]

Boy, reading the original thread was a real rollercoaster, and it just keeps getting worse.

[noisyturtle]

Don't like to bring politics into this, but iMav is conservative right correct? Could that have played any part in all this considering GH is clearly a mostly left-leaning board?

[katushkin]

You know this could have all been avoided if you *******s just kept up with your $5 a month donations, right?

[swangful]

Don't like to bring politics into this, but iMav is conservative right correct? Could that have played any part in all this considering GH is clearly a mostly left-leaning board?

[xtrafrood]

So, there was actually very little transparency... I see.

[katushkin]

So, there was actually very little transparency... I see.

I'm hoping this is sarcasm because iMav has always been the most opaque person on the forum.

[Remsky]

So, there was actually very little transparency... I see.

I'm hoping this is sarcasm because iMav has always been the most opaque person on the forum.

>Stops posting on his community for years
>Mods are never told operating costs so they could never tell if a situation like this happens.
>Posts thread saying he is selling the community after years of inactivity. Doesn't make an announcement before hand saying he needs help with maintanining the site.
>donation tab and deals are dead/underadvertised.
>makes no other effort to raise funds, people don't even know there is a problem, not even the mods.

Are you really ****ing telling me he is opaque? Is your head on straight? You cant blame the community for a problem they never knew existed, get over yourself.

Edit: are you sure you meant to use opaque there, would totally change what you meant, lol

[Kilgarah]

Just to let you know, opaque is the opposite of transparent...

So, there was actually very little transparency... I see.

I'm hoping this is sarcasm because iMav has always been the most opaque person on the forum.

>Stops posting on his community for years
>Mods are never told operating costs so they could never tell if a situation like this happens.
>Posts thread saying he is selling the community after years of inactivity. Doesn't make an announcement before hand saying he needs help with maintanining the site.
>donation tab and deals are dead/underadvertised.
>makes no other effort to raise funds, people don't even know there is a problem, not even the mods.

Are you really ****ing telling me he is opaque? Is your head on straight? You cant blame the community for a problem they never knew existed, get over yourself.

Sent from my SM-G955U1 using Tapatalk

[Coreda]

>Mods are never told operating costs so they could never tell if a situation like this happens.

Are you really ****ing telling me he is opaque? Is your head on straight? You cant blame the community for a problem they never knew existed, get over yourself.

Hmm...



Hmm...



I will say I hadn't noticed the posts with the figures myself though I had seen that sticky before. My own fault tbh, it's not like it wasn't there for literal years. Though I wasn't aware of the compounding difficulties he was facing financially.

Also opaque = lack of transparency.

[CommonCurt]

Holy **** this is depressing 

[iamtootallforthis]

So, there was actually very little transparency... I see.

I'm hoping this is sarcasm because iMav has always been the most opaque person on the forum.

  )

So, there was actually very little transparency... I see.

I'm hoping this is sarcasm because iMav has always been the most opaque person on the forum.

>Stops posting on his community for years
>Mods are never told operating costs so they could never tell if a situation like this happens.
>Posts thread saying he is selling the community after years of inactivity. Doesn't make an announcement before hand saying he needs help with maintanining the site.
>donation tab and deals are dead/underadvertised.
>makes no other effort to raise funds, people don't even know there is a problem, not even the mods.

Are you really ****ing telling me he is opaque? Is your head on straight? You cant blame the community for a problem they never knew existed, get over yourself.

Edit: are you sure you meant to use opaque there, would totally change what you meant, lol

He meant opaque 

He knows what he's doing so your personal attacks don't help you

[xtrafrood]

Holy **** this is depressing 

Agreed

[katushkin]

I meant opaque. The initial post I quoted seemed surprised that there was very little transparency. I was hoping csmertx was being sarcastic because iMav has been distant these last few years, and with the ongoing money issues, has not always been very forthcoming about the operating costs.

I have kept up a monthly donation for a while now, and while I don't want to adopt the holier than thou attitude, if you didn't see the "Geekhack needs your donations" topic, you should have seen the "DEALS" button that has now gone.

[HardcoreDesk]

This is why we need Socialism.

[katushkin]

So, I found out about this whole iMav putting GH up for sale thing about 90 minutes ago from the Deskthority Wiki Twitter bot who said the Geekhack page had been updated.

After reading the majority of the actual selling post, most of the posts in here and other places, I think people are jumping to a lot of conclusions and making a lot of bad impulse decisions and doing what they all think is best for the community without actually having a general consensus or aim in mind.

Making new pages, deleting your profiles, ****ting on iMav, all those things might seem like great actions to take when you've been told that a community that you have made your home, made friends on, is going to be changing. Nobody knows how much it will be changing. Just be patient, see what happens, then make your decisions.

Just don't flee a sinking ship to find you're then stranded on a desert island and the ship isn't actually sinking.

TL;DR - Wait and see. Don't do anything rash you'll regret if GH stays around.

[xtrafrood]

I'm not sure what to say... there was transparency... it seems like everything is fine... 

I posted that when everyone thought Zeal was buying GH. But, it would seem that that ship has sailed.

[lemur]

I sure hope that all of this crap doesnt move to discord and reddit.

reddit is terrible with the downvotes hiding useful information that the kids dont agree with..... also, it is basically one endless 'show your keyboard' post..

discord is just stupid and shouldnt be a thing even being considered as some place to flee a dying forum.

[dimo]

You know this could have all been avoided if you *******s just kept up with your $5 a month donations, right?

iMav gave no indication he can't afford it. If his rat ass told the community formally a few months ago we would have been fine.

The larger problem is that he really doesn't give a ****. The $35k difference between Zeal's offer and the Chinese is not worth what the community's state is for him.

It's just in his interest to grab 50k, get a new car and disappear from here with the thought that what he left behind re-cooperates into some new forum.

Noisyturtle's point that he's affording 3 separate mortgages is definitely in some indication that 200 a month should be nothing in comparison.

[katushkin]

You know this could have all been avoided if you *******s just kept up with your $5 a month donations, right?

iMav gave no indication he can't afford it. If his rat ass told the community formally a few months ago we would have been fine.

The larger problem is that he really doesn't give a ****. The $35k difference between Zeal's offer and the Chinese is not worth what the community's state is for him.

It's just in his interest to grab 50k, get a new car and disappear from here with the thought that what he left behind re-cooperates into some new forum.

Noisyturtle's point that he's affording 3 separate mortgages is definitely in some indication that 200 a month should be nothing in comparison.

Well as pointed out 9 posts above yours, there was a post in the announcements thread three years ago about the site needing donations.

iMav also said, as is widely known amongst those who have been around a VERY long time, he was very active in the beginning and helped turned this forum from nothing into an actual community.

Like with all of us, as time goes on, you lose interest in certain hobbies, reach your end game, whatever. He reached that point a long time ago I feel but had to have some semblance of connection with the forum as he was paying for the whole thing.

He also said that the money would be used to pay off his personal debts so I feel you are just reading around some of his more personal posts and just looking at figures.

[M]

You know this could have all been avoided if you *******s just kept up with your $5 a month donations, right?

$35k difference between Zeal's offer and the Chinese is not worth what the community's state is for him.

even less of a difference actually, Zeal offered 30k as a final bid.

[katushkin]

It is not public knowledge who is buying the site.

You should reserve all judgement until after the sale has been made and the details have been made public.

Going off rumour and what may have been said between people or what you've heard from a guy through another guy on slack via discord is not something to base wild assumptions on.

[Petch]

Just be patient, see what happens, then make your decisions.

This is the worst thing to do if you're concerned about someone being irresponsible with your personal data

[katushkin]

Just be patient, see what happens, then make your decisions.

This is the worst thing to do if you're concerned about someone being irresponsible with your personal data

What personal data do you keep on/have you given to Geekhack?

[Belfong]

Just be patient, see what happens, then make your decisions.

This is the worst thing to do if you're concerned about someone being irresponsible with your personal data

What personal data do you keep on/have you given to Geekhack?

If you have traded or bought stuff in GH, and have PM people your address, telephone number and PayPal emails, you have given personal info out.

We need people like @Bunnylake, @BroCaps to start a new forum and pull everyone back together!

[brianjking]

You know this could have all been avoided if you *******s just kept up with your $5 a month donations, right?

I really hope this is sarcasm.

[xondat]

Just be patient, see what happens, then make your decisions.

This is the worst thing to do if you're concerned about someone being irresponsible with your personal data

What personal data do you keep on/have you given to Geekhack?

If you have traded or bought stuff in GH, and have PM people your address, telephone number and PayPal emails, you have given personal info out.

We need people like @Bunnylake, @BroCaps to start a new forum and pull everyone back together!

Can we stop with the sarcasm? )

[katushkin]

If you have traded or bought stuff in GH, and have PM people your address, telephone number and PayPal emails, you have given personal info out.

We need people like @Bunnylake, @BroCaps to start a new forum and pull everyone back together!

So you trust those you sell things to you've never met than a company that's governed by high levels of regulation?

New forums are the last thing we need if GH stays around in any form similar to what it is currently.

The last thing Bunny and Brocaps pushed on the community was Slack, and that almost killed GH without any money involved.

You know this could have all been avoided if you *******s just kept up with your $5 a month donations, right?

I really hope this is sarcasm.

It isn't.

[user 18]

I just want to clear up some of the uncertainty about the sale of the site.  The new owners have reached out to the mod team, and we've had a productive conversation.  They are not a data mining company or interested in the site for its users' personal data.  Instead they invested in the site out of a desire to preserve the community and nurture the keyboard hobby. 

A formal announcement will be coming tomorrow morning, and everyone will have an opportunity to ask their questions.

[livingspeedbump]

You know this could have all been avoided if you *******s just kept up with your $5 a month donations, right?

I stopped eventually because of reasons, iMav being part of that reason. And honestly I'm not convinced that would have solved this. $300/mo for a site like this, with minimal effort, is not hard to scrape up, many solutions would have worked, many very good for the community. With how iMav left things the last few days I think it was inevitable and beyond what anyone here could have done.

Now it really is just hoping for the best and waiting to see what comes next. There is still room to be positive and hopeful I think.

[katushkin]

I just want to clear up some of the uncertainty about the sale of the site.  The new owners have reached out to the mod team, and we've had a productive conversation.  They are not a data mining company or interested in the site for its users' personal data.  Instead they invested in the site out of a desire to preserve the community and nurture the keyboard hobby. 

A formal announcement will be coming tomorrow morning, and everyone will have an opportunity to ask their questions.

I'm glad i'm not a sceptic in all aspects of my life.

You know this could have all been avoided if you *******s just kept up with your $5 a month donations, right?

I stopped eventually because of reasons, iMav being part of that reason. And honestly I'm not convinced that would have solved this. $300/mo for a site like this, with minimal effort, is not hard to scrape up, many solutions would have worked, many very good for the community. With how iMav left things the last few days I think it was inevitable and beyond what anyone here could have done.

Now it really is just hoping for the best and waiting to see what comes next. There is still room to be positive and hopeful I think.

So with money being the main reason behind his selling GH, you don't think that giving him more money would have prevented him selling? Why is he one of the reasons you stopped donating?

[chuckdee]

If you have traded or bought stuff in GH, and have PM people your address, telephone number and PayPal emails, you have given personal info out.

We need people like @Bunnylake, @BroCaps to start a new forum and pull everyone back together!

So you trust those you sell things to you've never met than a company that's governed by high levels of regulation?

New forums are the last thing we need if GH stays around in any form similar to what it is currently.

The last thing Bunny and Brocaps pushed on the community was Slack, and that almost killed GH without any money involved.

You know this could have all been avoided if you *******s just kept up with your $5 a month donations, right?

I really hope this is sarcasm.

It isn't.

I'll admit... I donated $60 for the first year at once, and promptly forgot about it.  With no reminders, that happens.

* chuckdee shrugs