Congrats to Brett and Jim - excited to see changes to come!

Congrats! Will be interesting to see what changes come about..

...and the "BestBBS" software? I've been holding my breath and waiting years for the release.

Congratulations to Brett and Jim!

> BestBBS

I have licensed it to Jim.
It is also the guts of the Pubcon backend (speakers, sessions, exhibitors, lead tracking, exhibit hall, shopping cart, venue, events, etc). So I am going to continue to work on it.

... has been acquired

For how much?

My question really is... was it worth it?

Best of luck Tedster ... enjoy your holiday and thanks for everything

>> WAS IT WORTH IT?

The price I paid for WebmasterWorld was not cheap by any means.it's the biggest investment I have ever made, But I know that Brett could have gotten more money if he had put in on the open market, or if he had approached bigger companies than mine.

I'm not worried about making a profit with these properties"that's not my goal. .. When people are happy, then I believe in Karma".business will come my way with out having to intrude on the community

I bought Webmaster World, and I'm building a better Ninja Dojo - by Jim Boykin

[edited by: bill at 4:48 am (utc) on Oct 19, 2012]
[edit reason] fixed formatting - RM redundant link [/edit]

Nice job, fellas! I've been around here for ten years and you guys are pure class!

Congrats and good luck!

Congrats to Brett and Jim. Where are Tedster and netmeg?

Congrats...

No i am not happy with it. This forum will also not for public and it will become commercial now. :(

Good to see spammer pinned down but not so promptly as it was used to be.

Congrats Brett Tabke

Hey Congrats to Bret and Jim!
I have been member on this forum for last 6-7 years.
WW has given me a lot, learned a lot so was really happy for development.
Really wonderful people here. All mods and all members thank you very much for your wonderful contribution.
I sincerely wish All the Best Wishes to the New Owner and hope and request them to keep WW what it is and improve upon it.

Thanks
Rajiv

Congrats to all.

It would be nice if the new owners improved the forum. The interface could be doing with being dragged into the 21st Century. Any plans for this?

Brett set the bar is pretty dang high for Jim. The site has been one of the few that actually improves the internet just by it's existence. Thank you Brett for all you have done and not done with WebmasterWorld over the years.

Jim, best of luck.

Thank you for all the support, well wishes, and congratulations. It has been pretty overwhelming this week talking with people.

I apologize if I have not gotten back to you in email yet. I had several hundred to go through, but I do intend to get through all of them.

> plans

The one thing Jim has said over and over, is that he wants to listen to the community and respect it's wishes over the coming years. He can't be involved in every thread about the site, and he is going to lean heavily on the moderators to help filter, digest, and iterate what the community wants.

I think we all agree, that a bunch of big changes right now, would not be the type of transition the community needs at this juncture. This site wasn't built over night and the long time members have come to trust and respect that it is going to be the same this year as it was five years ago. I have always believed that the focus of the site are members comments, questions, our policies, and contributions back to the community. Everything on the page should reflect that.

People have often asked what made webmasterworld so different and successful? It is that fact that we put members comments first. Everything else on the page is visual noise and required usability garbage. My litmus test over the years for adding new features and design has been simple: if it didn't directly support member comments in some way, then it shouldn't be put on the page. Over time, I think we all have been come a bit bored with what that looks like in real life, and I have respected the requests to add a few more things here-and-there; however, by-n-large we always have tried to keep the focus of the page directly on member comments.

There are dozens of forums/bbs software packages out there. Many of the latest variety are really leading CMS packages. However, all of the top 5 packages have one thing in common: they are designed to satisfy the needs of the site owner first, and the community second. They're primary focus is for site owner monetization first, and community development second. If you look at one of the top forum packages on the web, their latest beta offering, has about 100 new features on it - about 90 of those features are only for site admins and never seen by the real community members. Quality forum communities are not about the look-n-feel or functions-n-features - they are about getting the hell out of the users way and letting them communicate in a respectful manner.

I can't speak for Jim and what changes will be coming, but I do know:
- He was adamant about retaining the current software (We licensed it to IMN).
- He is focused only on changes that the greater community wants.
- Expressed several times publicly, that ads would not be part of the foreseeable equation.
- He is a big believer in Karma and thinks that ultimately the association alone will create long term business.

All-in-all, I know this is a good thing for the community. Jim brings resources to bear on WebmasterWorld that we can't. He has such a huge affinity for the community, that he is going to respect it's wishes.

Congrats

Honestly, I thought the post was a joke. "Internet Marketing Ninjas". But Congrats Brett Tabke and thanks for all of your hard work to make this a successful website.

Just hope that the community stays the same and we dont start seeing tons of ads on here to muddle up the community atmosphere we have here.

Congratulations!

Congrats to Brett and Jim.

Thank you Brett for the space you created for learning and sharing. And thanks to the dedicated admins, mods and even valuable forum members that help fuel the convos.

I have to admit, never heard of internet marketing ninjas. (edit: But I have heard of Jim) But knowing that if someone has had a site for this long and kept it virtually the same (no ads, siggie links, no spam links) I confidently transfer my trust from the former forum owner to the new one - just like page rank, but call it purchase rank - LOL.

Now, where is the champagne?

Congratulations to all involved, looks like an ideal move.

Kudos to Brett for creating WebmasterWorld and enabling such a great community to evolve.

congratulations, brett!

thank you for offering WebmasterWorld to a legacy member of its community.
this is an excellent opportunity to make WebmasterWorld a stronger community and even more authoritative with the resources of IMN.

having jimsthoughts at the helm will certainly help maintain the synergy with PubCon.

i talked at length with jim boykin and two key ninjas after the announcement (not sure if i should name them) and i welcome them all with excitement for the future of WebmasterWorld.

right arm!

Congratulations to Brett and Jim on what should be a good move for everyone. It certainly made Pubcon even more interesting this year in a totally unique way.

Interesting! Congrats to both of you.

the other side of this story it that i'm also really excited about how this acquisition frees up brett to go harder with PubCon and this is going to be good for both in 2013.

Quality forum communities are not about the look-n-feel or functions-n-features - they are about getting the hell out of the users way and letting them communicate in a respectful manner.

Yes, but that is quality moderation you are describinn. Having good, fully featured forum software does not a bad community make. ;)

Was great to be in the audience when the announcement was made at Pubcon. Even more surreal that Shak was about to do a keynote. So many of the crew that were at the Thistle in London back in 2002 were in the audience, sadly, no lazerzubb but I am sure he was with us in spirit.

A very well deserved award for tedster, sorry for nearly choking you when I came up behind you, keep fighting the fight.

Personally, if the advertising revenue was used for more free drinks at shows, some sort of stipend for the less fortunate, then I would not be averse to seeing it. It's like anything, blend it in and we are good, make it the main feature and you'll get haters, but then you'll get haters anyway.

Congratulations to all concerned.

Congratulations Brett and Jim!

Brett, thanks for starting this great community, which has meant a lot to a great many of us.

Jim, I'm delighted that you're the guy Brett's trusted with this place. I too am very much looking forward to what's ahead.

And Neil, I'm delighted you're carrying on. My best wishes to all involved.