HiFi Subjectivist ¦ Audio Forum ¦ NVA User Group

The Wig-Wam forum appears to have gone as buggy as hell. My current work-around to get into it is to log my account in or out.
Probably some weird cookie shit going on.

I am currently the last person to have posted on the 2 Channel section of the forum. 2 days ago.

Feels like I'm the last person left on a sinking ship.

Which is a little bit sad, because that forum has been a force for good over the years. With the bake-off and annual show culture.

I suppose nothing lasts forever...

The owner has withdrawn IT support. Most that were active on the WAM are now at the Maverick forum, which was originally set up for the enthusiasts show but became a timely lifeboat, and now has much broader content.

savvypaul wrote: ↑Fri Mar 08, 2024 9:24 am The owner has withdrawn IT support. Most that were active on the WAM are now at the Maverick forum, which was originally set up for the enthusiasts show but became a timely lifeboat, and now has much broader content.

Has ownership changed?
It’s weird that someone would kill a large active community like that.
I remember you saying there were internal conflicts, and the team split.
The site sprung back to life for a week or two, but seems dead again.
A lot of people must be in limbo, not knowing of the Maverick site. I only heard of it through you in a post here.

This is the basic story from what I can understand, but I can't be entirely sure of all of the details...

The WAM owners had very little interest in hifi. They bought the forum as a business venture. It was run by Peter Sowerby, but the forum was owned in his partner's name. They had plans to grow income, but they did not succeed. At the same time, costs grew significantly.

When the couple separated, the partner was left with the forum, and the ongoing losses. The WAM then had a temporary revival when dedicated IT support and software upgrades were introduced, and the shows restarted. However, IT support was withdrawn some time during the summer of 2023 and the forum subsequently became unreliable. Then, the owner stopped communicating with the volunteer team of admins / moderators.

The WAM has very little commercial sale value (if any), and has five figure annual losses. In it's current state, it is life expired with no hope of that changing. The admin and mods read the tea leaves towards the back end of last year and set up The Maverick forum, themselves, just in time. Initially, the Maverick was set up to serve the enthusiast show after the WAM owner said that they would no longer underwrite future shows. From what I can see, the vast majority of active WAM members quickly joined the Maverick, and the content has become far broader than just the show. The WAM owners obviously have no interest in telling people about the Maverick forum.