Status of ww2talk.com

Otto · 27-08-2007, 10:56 PM

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!

the_historian · 27-08-2007, 11:36 PM

Hells bells; I need to salute you here now too?!

Congratulations, Otto!

Za Rodinu · 27-08-2007, 11:43 PM

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!

von Poop · 28-08-2007, 12:45 AM

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.

spidge · 28-08-2007, 12:59 AM

Well said VP.

Good synopsis of the present and the way forward.

Otto · 28-08-2007, 01:06 AM

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.

Andy in West Oz · 28-08-2007, 01:55 AM

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.

Slipdigit · 28-08-2007, 02:06 AM

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.

Peter Clare · 28-08-2007, 09:22 AM

Welcome Otto, here's to stability.

marcus69x · 28-08-2007, 10:15 AM

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!

27-08-2007, 10:56 PM	#1 (permalink)
Otto GröFaZ Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Chicago Posts: 50	Status of ww2talk.com 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! Last edited by Otto; 27-08-2007 at 11:29 PM.

27-08-2007, 11:36 PM	#2 (permalink)
the_historian Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Scotland Posts: 488	Hells bells; I need to salute you here now too?! Congratulations, Otto! __________________ Regards, Gordon History Vault Bookshop http://www.UKBookworld.com/members/historyvault Fortress Scotland-http://photobucket.com/albums/y20/Historian/

27-08-2007, 11:43 PM	#3 (permalink)
Za Rodinu I'm getting soft! Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Where the sun doth shine :) Posts: 3,709	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! __________________ Herodotus on the Persians: "It is also their general practice to deliberate upon affairs of weight when they are drunk; and then on the morrow, when they are sober, the decision to which they came the night before is put before them by the master of the house in which it was made; and if it is then approved of, they act on it; if not, they set it aside. Sometimes, however, they are sober at their first deliberation, but in this case they always reconsider the matter under the influence of wine."

28-08-2007, 12:45 AM	#4 (permalink)
von Poop Adaministrator Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: The Abbey of Thelema Posts: 8,596	Strange and rather surprising news. 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. Last edited by von Poop; 28-08-2007 at 12:53 AM.

28-08-2007, 12:59 AM	#5 (permalink)
spidge Very Senior Member Join Date: May 2005 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 7,268	Well said VP. Good synopsis of the present and the way forward. __________________ Spidge, My project is the collection of over 11,200 RAAF Headstone/Memorial photos located in 67 countries during WW2 and the 360+ from WW1. Can you assist? Do you know someone that can? ------------------------------------------------------- My Avatar is the State flag of Victoria. My dad, Gunner Frederick Edwin Swallow "C" Company, 2/8th Battalion, 19th Brigade, 6th Division AIF. Critically wounded on the first attack on Tobruk, January 21st 1941.

28-08-2007, 01:06 AM	#6 (permalink)
Otto GröFaZ Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Chicago Posts: 50	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. Last edited by Otto; 28-08-2007 at 01:26 AM. Reason: I have the spelling of a three year old

28-08-2007, 01:55 AM	#7 (permalink)
Andy in West Oz Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: House of Bedfords, Perth, Western Australia Posts: 609	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. __________________ Cheers Andy Apres moi le deluge But there are deeds that should not pass away....And names that must not wither - Byron HMAS Sydney II - lost with all hands and waiting to be found

28-08-2007, 02:06 AM	#8 (permalink)
Slipdigit The Dixie Division Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: American by birth, Southern by the grace of God Posts: 1,647	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. __________________ Warmest Regards, Jeff The Bonnie Blue Flag * Last edited by Slipdigit; 28-08-2007 at 02:47 AM.

28-08-2007, 09:22 AM	#9 (permalink)
Peter Clare Very Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Second star to the right, straight on till morning. Posts: 8,260	Welcome Otto, here's to stability. __________________ Avatar - Liberator I AM917 F/120 Squadron RAF Coastal Command. Top U-boat killers of WW2

28-08-2007, 10:15 AM	#10 (permalink)
marcus69x I love WW2 meah!!! Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Middlesbrough Posts: 1,750	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!

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