And you are charged to pass the lamp of knowledge onto those who follow after…
Ten years. It's been ten years since I first launched www.DakkaDakka.com as a site initially dedicated to simply tracking the league activities of a small group of 40k players in New England. Over that time, it has grown into something much bigger. It is now a worldwide, online community of miniature gamers that share their ideas and opinions, and a place where small businesses involved in the hobby can share their new business ventures with the gaming community.
I'm very proud to have been involved with Dakka and am thrilled with the opportunities it has provided. Through the Dakka fan community I've been able to see elements of the miniature gaming hobby and industry from a wide variety of angles that I'd otherwise never have experienced. Dakka Dakka has always been a labor of love, and it is nice to see that effort appreciated by fans and miniature gaming industry leaders alike.
Over those 10 years my life has also changed, in ways even more amazing than the growth of Dakka. I'm now a father of two young girls and I find that being a parent is really where I'd like to focus most of my free time. I just can't put the kind of time into Dakka that it deservers, or that you the Dakka community, deserve.
So, after much soul searching, I've decided that it is time for me to pass Dakka Dakka on to someone else who can continue the community and hopefully take it to the next level, whatever that level is.
I want to pass the site onto an individual, group, company or organization that is serious about the endeavor. In an effort to help ensure this, I'm going to put Dakka Dakka up for auction on E-bay. I'm not sure what the actual true 'value' of the DakkaDakka.com web site is, but having to put up at least some money to acquire it will hopefully ensure that the new owner(s) will have thought through their plans to keep it running and growing.
The auction will include the site, its current content, the URL (www.DakkaDakka.com), the Dakka Dakka burst Trademark, etc. If you'd like details on Dakka's traffic, Google Adsense revenue, our advertising, operating costs, monthly traffic, etc. please e-mail me at webmaster@dakkadakka.com and I'll send you the details.
The auction will begin at 9pm EST on Tuesday July 24th, 2007 and run on Ebay for 7 days. Thank you again to all the Dakka Dakka fans who've supported us over the years and frequented the site. Special thanks to our dedicated moderators.
Good Luck & Happy Gaming, Russ Wakelin Webmaster DakkaDakka.com 1997-2007
Two things grab me about this.
1. What will happen to the website and it's community? I think Dakka Dakka offers something unique in terms of it's gaming philosophy as it caters for the more hardcore tournament players. As a result its 'You Make the Call' rules queries forum was excellent. If I ever wanted a proper answer to a rules query, Dakka was the place I'd go. There was a certain bluntness to many of the poster's attitudes but once you got used to this there was actually much good advice, and a little humour, in the forums.
2. Selling a fan website on e-bay? I'm not sure I agree with Russ' belief that the highest bidder will have the greatest desire to run the site - what about bored little rich kids who fancy a laugh? In any case, anything that Russ gets he deserves for all the hard work he has put in over the years, but just what will the site sell for? I'll be watching the auction with some interest to find out.
Whatever happens in the future, I think that Dakka Dakka has declined in relevance over the past couple of years. I got into it relatively late but there were still good posters there who could stimulate discussion - Yakface of course is still prominent there, but JT was excellent on Tau tactics, HBMC for IG and even Mauleed, who polarised opinion. Now Mauleed seems to have left 40k behind, JT mysteriously disappeared and HBMC became increasingly cynical.
So perhaps its for the best. Maybe it will just fade away to be obscured by newer brighter lights, or maybe it will be reborn and head in a new direction. Who knows? We'll just have to watch that e-bay auction and wait...
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