RIP to WATMM Discussion thread

  On 2/3/2025 at 2:44 PM, thedisavowed said:

Has @Joyrex posted what the monthly expenses are? Do we have a sense of the price tag is here? Does the community have any idea which users would be fit to lead if a compromise was struck?

We can't buy our way out of papa's decision to stuff it, I'm afraid.

Unless we're bringing so much money to the table that he becomes financially independent, can pay for his kids degrees, the medical bills, his marriage, and whatever else might be bothering him, atm. As Sean and others have mentioned, papa probably has some stuff in his life to deal with and can't and doesn't want to deal with running a forum such as this. I can imagine that it can ask a lot. It's a party that lasted for 25+ years, and the organiser just wants to kill it. And it's hard to understand for a lot of us why he's unwilling to pass the torch to someone else. We can only respect his decision. It all looks selfish to just end it completely. But - again - that's without knowing the full back story.

expensive tits

  On 2/3/2025 at 3:07 PM, auxien said:

^anyone but @Squee he’s just trying to turn this place into a Caligula’s den of decadence full of expensive pizza, expensive coffee, & nice tits. we can’t be like that, we need to attract more sad weirdos making insanely strange shit between jobs while they couchsurf through their lives. that’s what i’m here for.

A man can't live on pizza, coffee, and tits alone... Oh wait...

I foolishly tried to reply to the comments (so far) back on Friday, but got busy with other stuff and ended up being a futile exercise, plus not really having anything new to say beyond what I already have.

That being said, just to address a few things:

• I'm fine - life can't be better, kids are grown (they're older than some of you LOL), and has nothing to do with why I'm wanting to end WATMM.
• I don't want WATMM continuing on, in any form - just like it means various things to various people, it represents a chapter of my life that I at this point want to close, and move forward. Knowing it is out there an exists in some form is not something I want to deal with/be aware of.
• I think @chenGOD has the right idea and I am confident he can provide a new place for you to carry on however he and you all agree is the right way to go.
• Really, really surprised that @Sean Ae chimed in. Sadly, the last artist from the Featured Artists I'll likely ever hear from, but a testament to what a cool guy he and Rob are when it comes to their fans. Brought a smile to my face.
• As for costs, Invision hosts this forum (we're on the 99USD/month plan) and honestly took a LOT of the maintenance and stress off me a few years ago when we moved to them hosting it versus self-hosting. I only did this knowing that historically, WATMM brought in enough money monthly to cover those costs plus about a month or so in advance from new and renewing subs, and Google AdSense.
• Google AdSense is the devil. I wouldn't recommend if possible not running ads. I kinda regretted doing that, but thought it would encourage more subscriptions (not really).
• For all of you who disagree with my decision - sorry that you do. I think this (and me) will all be quickly forgotten once you have something new to occupy your time, and the excitement of something new.
• Change is good. Most people don't like change. Change can be hard.

  On 2/1/2025 at 2:58 PM, cern said:

brian tragenskin is just a twat

wrong! sarcastic, witty, absurd, abrasive humor has always been at the core of this electronic music scene, and tregaskin rode this wave pretty well. I miss his music theory discussions and the updates on his never ending air bnb tour across the Parisian outskirts.

Security update... and BlueSky embeds!

  On 2/3/2025 at 6:04 PM, Joyrex said:

I think this (and me) will all be quickly forgotten once you have something new to occupy your time, and the excitement of something new.

jfc man

  On 2/3/2025 at 6:15 PM, Alcofribas said:

jfc man

I could say the same... it's an internet forum

???????????????????

read the room bruh

  On 2/3/2025 at 12:29 PM, Sean Ae said:

hey i'd love to swoop in and save this ship but it would seem that the current owner would rather it sink into the abyss (for what i suspect might be specific and undisclosed reasons) - and anyway fair enough, poor guy's been at this for a quarter century

i have neither the time, inclination or skills to set up an alt board, nor do i know what that would even entail (especially wrt transferring posts and other stuff from here to there, which i suspect isn't part of the plan for @Joyrex anyway, so)

maybe someone (or loose collective of someones) here or elsewhere has some idea

maybe @Joyrex can publish some numbers so people have some idea what they'd be getting into 

maybe if you made a thread explicitly focused on setting up an alt board you might get somewhere, and if this place disappears suddenly then i suggest organising on discord (faster) and seeing how far you get

my gut feeling is that it's statistically likely that *someone* here would find it achievable, maybe even trivial to set up an alt board

tag me if you think there's anything specific i can do. currently watmm notifs end up in my junk but i'll keep an eye out

fwiw i think it's much better if one of you lot does it than letting someone from the outside world do it, and you def don't want any of the artists directly involved because that would get weird fast

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<swoon/> A reply from Sean on WATMM.  You can shut her down now lads.  JK

Thanks for your ideas and offer for help, it's great that you took the time to chime in.  Your contribution alone goes to show how important WATMM is!

This place means too much to too many people for it to just die off.  The community must coallese again!  I believe there are plans afoot though...

(Oh, and looking forward to seeing you guys in Manchester in a few weeks)

  On 2/3/2025 at 6:17 PM, Joyrex said:

I could say the same... it's an internet forum

how can you post something like that on page 24 of a thread dedicated to people sharing how important this place is to them? ffs, someone i met on here officiated my wedding!*

*am divorced. dms open

yeah lol insane thing to post after the general tenor of this thread.

I've spoken at funerals for watmm members. McGriff DJ'd my wedding. alco and i held hands and maybe kissed that one time no homo.

  On 2/3/2025 at 6:04 PM, Joyrex said:

I foolishly tried to reply to the comments (so far) back on Friday, but got busy with other stuff and ended up being a futile exercise, plus not really having anything new to say beyond what I already have.

That being said, just to address a few things:

• I'm fine - life can't be better, kids are grown (they're older than some of you LOL), and has nothing to do with why I'm wanting to end WATMM.
• I don't want WATMM continuing on, in any form - just like it means various things to various people, it represents a chapter of my life that I at this point want to close, and move forward. Knowing it is out there an exists in some form is not something I want to deal with/be aware of.
• I think @chenGOD has the right idea and I am confident he can provide a new place for you to carry on however he and you all agree is the right way to go.
• Really, really surprised that @Sean Ae chimed in. Sadly, the last artist from the Featured Artists I'll likely ever hear from, but a testament to what a cool guy he and Rob are when it comes to their fans. Brought a smile to my face.
• As for costs, Invision hosts this forum (we're on the 99USD/month plan) and honestly took a LOT of the maintenance and stress off me a few years ago when we moved to them hosting it versus self-hosting. I only did this knowing that historically, WATMM brought in enough money monthly to cover those costs plus about a month or so in advance from new and renewing subs, and Google AdSense.
• Google AdSense is the devil. I wouldn't recommend if possible not running ads. I kinda regretted doing that, but thought it would encourage more subscriptions (not really).
• For all of you who disagree with my decision - sorry that you do. I think this (and me) will all be quickly forgotten once you have something new to occupy your time, and the excitement of something new.
• Change is good. Most people don't like change. Change can be hard.

Expand  

are you planning on archiving the content of this site anywhere. this is important to know

  On 2/3/2025 at 6:30 PM, dr lopez said:

yeah lol insane thing to post after the general tenor of this thread.

I've spoken at funerals for watmm members. McGriff DJ'd my wedding. alco and i held hands and maybe kissed that one time no homo.

sorry but this was actually homo

  On 2/3/2025 at 6:04 PM, Joyrex said:

• I don't want WATMM continuing on, in any form - just like it means various things to various people, it represents a chapter of my life that I at this point want to close, and move forward. Knowing it is out there an exists in some form is not something I want to deal with/be aware of.
• For all of you who disagree with my decision - sorry that you do. I think this (and me) will all be quickly forgotten once you have something new to occupy your time, and the excitement of something new.
•  

Expand  

I know it's pointless to argue, but apart from being incredibly bleak you're also contradicting yourself here.

If moving on is so simple, why don't you just move on and pass the torch to someone else? You'll quickly forget about WATMM once "you have something new to occupy your time, and the excitement of something new." 

Geez

  On 2/3/2025 at 6:31 PM, mushroom said:

are you planning on archiving the content of this site anywhere. this is important to know

+1.

I wrote a long post on friday (not even a joke, also got distracted by real life) about how much this place meant for me the past 22 years but it feels a bit weird now :^) I am reminded of why chatmm made a tape release named after something Joyrex said to us:

https://memoryglands.bandcamp.com/album/the-same-20-odd-people-wasting-their-lives-away-jabbering-on-about-nonsense

Love you all though, thanks JR for all your work and dedication, RIP watmm. Hope to see everyone at this potential new place, if I can help in any way let me know. 

  On 2/3/2025 at 6:11 PM, Joyrex said:

Security update... and BlueSky embeds!

Testing?

  On 2/3/2025 at 6:17 PM, Joyrex said:

I could say the same... it's an internet forum

WATMM is much more than an internet forum Joyrex.. Just like Bangface isn't just another party. Used to lurk this place in my teens admiring people's ways of writing. Norm McDonald comes to mind. Longmont Potion Castle and The Big Lez  All the talk surrounding the music I grew to love and subsequent shanaenigans I will never forget. Sounds like you don't really feel this way anymore? It's just a bit.. strange to see you get rid of it in a handful of posts. Thanks for all the work that made this possible  

Maybe in the next life we will all meet again on a fish forum or something. Looking at each profile picture I can already see it, mine's just surprised smiling, Squee is fighting the water, Herr Jan with the fin up, Satans Helper smoking a pipe, Alco with the funny hat. Dr Lopez is just a terrorist fish. Okay I'm done. RIP you beautiful place out in the internet

Gentlemen, it was an honor. This was one of my favorite message boards from the time of the internet before everything seemed to get consolidated around reddit and other social media discussion hubs. I found a lot of good music through here and had some good laughs.

Jazzband and batcock forever.

  On 2/3/2025 at 6:04 PM, Joyrex said:

 

• For all of you who disagree with my decision - sorry that you do. I think this (and me) will all be quickly forgotten once you have something new to occupy your time, and the excitement of something new.
• Change is good. Most people don't like change. Change can be hard.

Sorry but this just makes it pretty clear that u are bitter and just extremely tired of running the ship and I totally understand it and IT IS OKEY to feel that! 

I think it is just straight up silly that u are like "uh the featured artists don't release anything, U all gonna be quickly forgotten this place" 
Yeah maybe u wanna have that "bad motherfucker" approach and business kinda guy just want to end it quick but there is loads of dedicated people here that actually enjoys being here. 

Change is good and I believe change can be done in a good way and not in a fuck off way! 
 

Wow end of an era. I first posted here back 2001-ish (maybe earlier?). Guess old posts were lost at some point? Sort of fell out of posting here around 2006 (memory is hazy) but still browsed every so often. Met some really neat people here (both virtually and real life, though I don't think anyone I met IRL posts here anymore) and getting some really great lols. Ended up going to ATP with a few of them back in the day. Anyway kudos to Joyrex for building this community, I remember a few very bumpy periods in the early days. I think this thread is a great indication of how strong this community is and I'm sure it will carry one somehow, whether here or elsewhere. 

  On 2/3/2025 at 6:17 PM, Joyrex said:

I could say the same... it's an internet forum

lol