Well is has been a very eventful three hours! The short story is that I'll be your humble manager here, I just met with Yusuf about an hour ago and acquired this website. The long story is a series of serendipities. A few hours ago I came upon a post made Kyt. I'm talking about this one here. In it he mentioned something about the site being sold, and being a curious guy I went ahead and contacted spdude to ask him myself. He informed me that he wasn't advertising or putting the site up for auction, but if an enthusiast came along and wanted to take control of it and run it, he was willing to part with it. For those who don't know Yusuf, the former owner, is a website dealer, he makes his living from running large internet communities. He buys and sells a LOT of websites. Compared to his other huge sites, ww2talk is a small fish, and he had never gotten around to changing things here. Like any smart businessman, he was in the process of unloading all his smaller websites and just focusing on the larger, more profitable ones. Here is where it gets really weird. I live in Chicago, but I'm currently visiting my parents at their home outside Toronto, I've been here for about four days. After bouncing back an forth a few ideas with Yusuf, he informed me that he also lives in Toronto, about 15 minutes from my parents house! I decided to stop by and visit Yusuf with the idea that I might be able to discuss the site with him. Mind you, we had only been communication for about 30 minutes at this point. So I drove over to his house (after stopping by the bank), made Yusuf an offer, and he accepted! We did the deal the old fashioned way, with cash and a handshake. I'm not sure if it is old fashioned but Yusuf served me some delicious mango juice on his patio. So basically the site got sold because of a post about the sale of the site! Thanks Kyt! For those who don't know me, I run a similar website to this one over at World War II Forums , I've been running it for eight years, and I've always had the members best interest at heart. I really like the ww2talk community, and am very serious about keeping it as is. From what I can tell the existing admin/mod team you have done a great job and I'm looking forward to maintaining & hopefully improving ww2talk.com with you. I'd like to especially thank Lee Wisener for all his hard work over the years, and and I would be delighted if he stayed on as before. Lee has built a great community here and I want to keep that trend going. For the record. I am not a website dealer, nor am I looking to flip this website to make a quick buck. I am a WWII enthusiast, I will do everything in my power to ensure your standards are not compromised. If you want any references, please contact any of the members (aka Rogues ) from over at ww2f.com and see what they have to say. I'm confident they will attest that I truly care about them, and I am concerned with the community. I'm know this is all very short notice (heck, I was drinking mango juice at Yusuf's house not 60 minutes ago), but the server is going to be moved in the next few days, so unfortunately we will have some down-time. If, in the meantime you have any question feel free to email be at ottobomb@gmail.com , I'll be glad to answer any and all questions. An eventful three hours indeed!
These are seriously good news. As a member of WW2talk with almost 1000 posts here and reaching 3000 at WW2F I believe I can say that Otto is a caring owner of that forum, who has always exercised his moderator functions in a sensible manner, and takes pains to listen to the members concerns. Not only that, he also has great technical skills, and at the moment is introducing very promising improvements at WW2F. If this forum had to change hands anyway, it couldn't have gone to better ones, sincerely!
While it might be reasonably assumed that as a long/longish term member and enjoyer of both sites I would see this as a positive, and not wanting to appear 'creepish' what I would say is that after trawling thousands of posts on his other forum I've never seen Otto lie to anybody. If I've been happy for SpDude/Yusef to keep us basically afloat as a 'sleeping' owner for a time then I'm much happier to see a confirmed WW2 enthusiast take over the technical reins, whether he has a.n.other forum or not. The biggest problem is perhaps a perception of a conflict of interests. The 2 sites have hugely different 'personalities' while still remaining (mostly) civil & entertaining, quite rare on the internet, particularly amongst 'general' ww2 forums. I would genuinely think that Otto is capable of keeping the 2 identities seperate. Many of us on both forums are aware of the other and have been for a long time, people have always been able to choose whether to join/post on one or both and will hopefully continue to be able to do so as long as they keep their distinctive flavours, and the flavour can only ever be made up by what we, the membership, choose to post. Ramble ramble. Blah blah. Adam.
Thanks for the support guys, I truly appreciate it. The only difference from before is that I see ww2talk as being much more stable now. It was owned by Yusuf, who is a very nice guy, but he was more interested in the financial aspect and had no interest in WWII. The site has been sold a total of four times in it's life! These sales and the accompanying uncertainty are at an end. Each forum is great in it's own unique way, by trying to unify/change things, I believe I would be diluting the qualities of both communities. I'll make every effort to maintain the culture of each website.
All the best Otto. I'm afraid I haven't visited your other site due to commitments but I respect what the other guys are saying. So, if they're happy with you owning this site, I'm happy! I guess I could say, welcome to the forum! LOL.
This is a good thing all the way around. Otto has been nothing but a good leader of WW2F and I see no reason it won't be same here. Good job Otto.
Well I don't know anything about the other forum but just glad to have someone in charge who has a genuine interest in WW2. Nice one matey!
I am delighted to hear this. We have truly built up a good knowledge base here and knowing it is now in the hands of someone who truly cares about our area of interest makes it all the sweeter. I have posted over on the other site and its very well run. Thank You Otto
Personally, I think this is a good move. The future of this site has been too uncertain, and it is pleasing to know that this time the new owner is a genuine WW2 enthusiast like us all. I have also been a member of Otto's other forum, and if his input here is as good as there, then it can only be welcomed.
As someone mentioned previously, if you type "WW2 forum" into Google, this is the site that comes out on top. The stability of a WW2 enthusiast as an owner was lacking since Lee was forced to sell. I am sure that Otto will be able to take the site to another level.
It is good to see that the forum has fallen into the hands of someone who cares about th subject and not just interested in buying and selling websites
Such positivity! Thanks all for your support, I'll do what I can to maintain and improve this place. Here is a little 'gift' from a member who is well known on the other forum, none other than the Generalissimus Peppy. I've added it to the smilies list for all to use: :welcome_to_ww2talk: Peppy is our graphics guru, he collects and makes WWII and combat smiley graphics from the far corners of the web. He is currently putting all this web art into a huge online collection that will serve ww2f.com and now ww2talk.com as well. He will keep this collection at Front64.com | Graphics for the WWII Network (no art yet, but you get the idea). Thanks Peppy!
