Geekhack sold to—probably—ZealPC^WMassdrop

[AMongoose]

Point of clarification: MassDrop plans to support GH financially, but has no interest in "running" it administratively (they are leaving that to the existing admins/mods). The cynics among you can call this a misleading lie on the part of Will Bright, but I'm taking a hopeful, if not optimistic, wait-and-see attitude rather than assuming the worst.

Why would a company pay more than 30k to keep a forum running at loss?
I don't think I'm being cynical when I don't belive that massdrop won't use geekhack to make money.
And since to this day it has not made any money they will need be changes.

What i am being cynical and pessimist about is thinking these changes will be for the worst.

[Bass]

Point of clarification: MassDrop plans to support GH financially, but has no interest in "running" it administratively (they are leaving that to the existing admins/mods). The cynics among you can call this a misleading lie on the part of Will Bright, but I'm taking a hopeful, if not optimistic, wait-and-see attitude rather than assuming the worst.

Why would a company pay more than 30k to keep a forum running at loss?
I don't think I'm being cynical when I don't belive that massdrop won't use geekhack to make money.
And since to this day it has not made any money they will need be changes.

What i am being cynical and pessimist about is thinking these changes will be for the worst.

I think this is a fair point, although it really doesn't apply to just MD. In my opinion, anyone who is able to offer $10k+ on such short notice is probably either a single individual who is so rich and into the hobby that such an amount is nothing to them, or a company that sees an opportunity to make an investment. Even Zeal doubled his initial offer from $15k to $30k after iMav backed out. Can't say stuff like this doesn't make a little guy like me feel insignificant

[JP!]

I think this is a fair point, although it really doesn't apply to just MD. In my opinion, anyone who is able to offer $10k+ on such short notice is probably either a single individual who is so rich and into the hobby that such an amount is nothing to them, or a company that sees an opportunity to make an investment. Even Zeal doubled his initial offer from $15k to $30k after iMav backed out. Can't say stuff like this doesn't make a little guy like me feel insignificant

Yes but once you find that warehouse or ancient tomb filled with golden beamers you could buy Massdrop

[livingspeedbump]

.

[livingspeedbump]

Friendly reminder that we have a Geekhack refugee camp marketplace-f30/

Also I want to nominate this for the DT Ping award.

I was under the assumption this ordeal already had that locked down

In a plot twist iMav steals ping award from MD in #DTA2019"

[zslane]

Why would a company pay more than 30k to keep a forum running at loss?

Will Bright answered that question. Whether or not you believe what he says will, I imagine, depend entirely on your own feelings towards MassDrop in general. I've observed that among those with a strong opinion of MassDrop, not many are making much, if any, room for benefit of the doubt in their minds. C'est la vie.

[AMongoose]

Why would a company pay more than 30k to keep a forum running at loss?

Will Bright answered that question. Whether or not you believe what he says will, I imagine, depend entirely on your own feelings towards MassDrop in general. I've observed that among those with a strong opinion of MassDrop, not many are making much, if any, room for benefit of the doubt in their minds. C'est la vie.

By this point, hopefully you’re feeling cautiously optimistic, but you’re probably looking for the catch. How does Massdrop as a business benefit from buying GH if we’re not changing anything to monetize the site? Having a place for people to dive deeper into Mechanical Keyboards helps Massdrop create better products and leads to people being bigger Massdrop customers.

Yeah, he did, but that reason makes no sense because geekhack would still serve that purpose if it was owned by anyone else.

[Norman_]

Point of clarification: MassDrop plans to support GH financially, but has no interest in "running" it administratively (they are leaving that to the existing admins/mods). The cynics among you can call this a misleading lie on the part of Will Bright, but I'm taking a hopeful, if not optimistic, wait-and-see attitude rather than assuming the worst.

Why would a company pay more than 30k to keep a forum running at loss?
I don't think I'm being cynical when I don't belive that massdrop won't use geekhack to make money.
And since to this day it has not made any money they will need be changes.

What i am being cynical and pessimist about is thinking these changes will be for the worst.

Because if they move it from wherever iMav is hosting it to the same place that massdrop.com is hosted, it will be effectively free to them.

I agree that they will probably try and monetize it though, but i doubt it will be anything nasty. Ads probably.

[scottc]

Maybe they can use Massdrop affiliate links to make GH profitable.

Oh wait.

[matt3o]

you know what?! We should open a new independent community driven forum dedicated to mechanical keyboards!

... no, wait a second..

[AMongoose]

Because if they move it from wherever iMav is hosting it to the same place that massdrop.com is hosted, it will be effectively free to them.

Free to run, but they just spent tens of thousands of dollars to buy it remember?

[Norman_]

Because if they move it from wherever iMav is hosting it to the same place that massdrop.com is hosted, it will be effectively free to them.

Free to run, but they just spent tens of thousands of dollars to buy it remember?

Massdrop's business model is basically printing money, they profit indirectly by letting geekhack and mechanical keyboards grow as a hobby

I doubt they'll do much more than give it ads and monthly memberships with minor cosmetic perks like a lot of forums do, just so it has some income.

[ideus]

There is no point in continuing the speculation. I agree that it is entertaining but counter-productive. As long as there are no further actual data on possible changes, against the owner's statement that there will be no immediate ones the discussion is over.

Edit: It is really good to have someone with a business model based on economy of scale, instead of some with one based on profiting by over-rating its products.

[chuckdee]

Point of clarification: MassDrop plans to support GH financially, but has no interest in "running" it administratively (they are leaving that to the existing admins/mods). The cynics among you can call this a misleading lie on the part of Will Bright, but I'm taking a hopeful, if not optimistic, wait-and-see attitude rather than assuming the worst.

Why would a company pay more than 30k to keep a forum running at loss?
I don't think I'm being cynical when I don't belive that massdrop won't use geekhack to make money.
And since to this day it has not made any money they will need be changes.

What i am being cynical and pessimist about is thinking these changes will be for the worst.

Because it's good PR, and the whole of the community is in all reality symbiotic. Most people have historically learned about mechanical keyboards from Razer or Logitech or one of those. They move from there deeper into the hobby, and one of the hobby boards (DT, GH, Reddit). That in turn feeds MD. Where are most of the ICs really run? Not on MD. Where is most of the hype generated? Again, not on MD. A screw up here would screw up their whole mech keyboard section. Also it going to the wrong type of person would do the same. It was self interest as part of an established ecosystem. And with the money that they're working with, it's not a huge expense to write off.

[pr0ximity]

By this point, hopefully you’re feeling cautiously optimistic, but you’re probably looking for the catch. How does Massdrop as a business benefit from buying GH if we’re not changing anything to monetize the site? Having a place for people to dive deeper into Mechanical Keyboards helps Massdrop create better products and leads to people being bigger Massdrop customers.

Yeah, he did, but that reason makes no sense because geekhack would still serve that purpose if it was owned by anyone else.

Not exactly. If it were bought by a company that was seen as malicious by the community at large, or that quickly chnaged things, dissolved the admin team, heavily monetized, locked down GBs, vendor forums, artisan raffles, etc. then people might leave in droves for any alternative.

That kind of splintering would damage the pipeline MD has set up: enthusiasts gather in Geekhack (or reddit, or DT), create projects that they want to run group-buys for, and contact MD for help instead of running a buy themselves. In theory, it's in Massdrop's best interests to keep GH as it is now, and if anything promote the maker and designer side of it.

How it affects vendors and artisans in the long term remains to be seen, I think. Especially when group-buys go sideways.

[Blaise170]

I got an offer lately, but when I replied "ONE MILLION DOLLARS" I didn't hear back!

To management:

I'm Travis, part of the corporate development team at VerticalScope. We are a digital media company focused in the acquisition and development of websites in a variety of verticals such as automotive, pets, and health & wellness.

Currently, VerticalScope is looking to expand its technology-related portfolio, and I was referred to your site by a friend who's a frequent visitor of Deskthority. If there is interest from your side, I hope we can connect with the goal of making a cash offer to acquire your site.

I can send over our mutual NDA to get the process started. Please let me know.

THANK GOD. That company has completely ruined overclock.net...

[webwit]

So I go there and my privacy plugins blocked 25 trackers.

[savantstrike]

I got an offer lately, but when I replied "ONE MILLION DOLLARS" I didn't hear back!

To management:

I'm Travis, part of the corporate development team at VerticalScope. We are a digital media company focused in the acquisition and development of websites in a variety of verticals such as automotive, pets, and health & wellness.

Currently, VerticalScope is looking to expand its technology-related portfolio, and I was referred to your site by a friend who's a frequent visitor of Deskthority. If there is interest from your side, I hope we can connect with the goal of making a cash offer to acquire your site.

I can send over our mutual NDA to get the process started. Please let me know.

THANK GOD. That company has completely ruined overclock.net...

Yeah, it's depressing how bad things are at OCN. I don't know how it's even possible to screw up https, but VS has even bungled that.

[davkol]

It seems like most people ignore it or don't realize it, but Massdrop _is_ a data company (just like most new companies in the tech business).

It gets treated as a storefront or a platform for selling niche items. Kind of like Amazon, but slower and smaller. But Amazon is a data company too: it became been successful _because_ of the recommendation system based on customer behavior analysis.

Massdrop gets lots of data about customer demand and behavior.

Sounds unlikely? Well, who would have thought a dildo startup (WeVibe) could have been mining users' data? Meanwhile, Massdrop isn't even a 'product' company, they're a marketing business (note: marketing != advertising).

[vivalarevolución]

Lol, what a development. Looks I have a good excuse to stop visiting geekhack.

[Elrick]

Massdrop isn't even a 'product' company, they're a marketing business (note: marketing != advertising).

Much like Ogilvy, Accenture Interactive, Deloitte Digital and Dentsu.

So what's the problem here?

[vivalarevolución]

Also interesting, the keebtalk forum is blocked on the public wifi I am using.

[Hypersphere]

Just now discovered this thread, the closed one on GH, and the reopened topic in another thread on GH.

As many others have expressed, I feel uneasy about a community site such as GH being purchased by a corporate entity.

Has the notion of charging an annual membership fee been floated and possibly rejected?

[Elrick]

As many others have expressed, I feel uneasy about a community site such as GH being purchased by a corporate entity.

Has the notion of charging an annual membership fee been floated and possibly rejected?

So what would be the difference between letting a "Corporate Entity"
to own Geekhack, verses asking money from EVERYONE visiting that forum?

If anyone is stupid enough to start charging for visiting their forum site, then watch ALL traffic start to disappear. Simple economics at work, far better to go elsewhere to get your FREE keeb-fix .

[webwit]

Seems like marketing companies love sites like this. Mostly young people who spend money. I've got three offers of the past couple of months. Apparently you all are great TARGETS to sell crap to. I guess they want the data and/or the ad space.

[Hypersphere]

Seems like marketing companies love sites like this. Mostly young people who spend money. I've got three offers of the past couple of months. Apparently you all are great TARGETS to sell crap to. I guess they want the data and/or the ad space.

It's at least all three of the above.

[JP!]

Seems like marketing companies love sites like this. Mostly young people who spend money. I've got three offers of the past couple of months. Apparently you all are great TARGETS to sell crap to. I guess they want the data and/or the ad space.

I wouldn't take less than $1 million With that you money you can invest it to fund the purchase of a private island for the new and improved DT empire. The flock will of course follow.

[webwit]

Well I'd take $1 million, but otherwise don't worry, for me one of the points of a hobby is that it isn't about business.

[Blaise170]

I love the old favorite sites of mine that were acquired and subsequently ruined by marketing companies (overclock.net). Nothing but thinly veiled attempts to sell crap and full of ads (not that it matters since I block ads anyways).

[Elrick]

Well I'd take $1 million, but otherwise don't worry, for me one of the points of a hobby is that it isn't about business.

Here, here, this is ONLY a hobby and nothing more. Please don't make it another business conglomerate that would stifle the genuine love for old keyboards.

Business only reduces the interest rather than increases it and it will force most to go elsewhere in looking for another decent place to share and enjoy their Love of Keyboards.

Hoping the Mrs doesn't read this, my complete fascination for 101 and/or 104 keyed sirens.....