Spiceworks Just Got Acquired by Publisher Ziff-Davis
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Just a note that I want to remind everyone of.... it is easy at a time like this to revel in the potential schadenfreude of the fall or the near fall of what we often see as a "competitor" in the industry. Spiceworks as a company has always been intimately tied to MangoLassi from the shear fact that ML was formed by SW deciding that all of us with ties to the MSP / ITSP space were not going to be allowed (without paying) on the SW platform any longer in early 2014, so even from the onset, ML felt a bit like a refugee camp for those that SW no longer wanted.
This "refugee" association created a natural feeling of being rejected, jilted, unwanted. Of course there was a feeling of "us vs them" because there was a "them" that had rejected "us". And now after what often feels like a hard fought battle, it is easy to want to rejoice in what feels like a victory, one that seems like it was hard won. But there are several factors to keep in mind.
First, what to us here feels like a long battle for survival that resulted in a close victory, simply isn't. ML has been on a solid climb for half a decade and any "battle" was over long ago. There might not have been some definitive moment, but achieving permanent viability is something ML did a long time ago and something that almost no other community ever manages. Being overly excited now will feel a bit like gloating - to us we think this is a recent event and "wow, we won", but to the SW community and company it feels like they "lost" years ago and have just been slowly fading away. To them, it was inevitable, and just a matter of time.
It is also incredibly important to remember that most people in the community, even most employees, have no idea that ML is made up of people mostly asked to leave SW long ago, or of how the relationship was before or after. To most everyone it is just "another community" that treads much of the same ground. We want to be warm and welcoming as people likely come to discover what has been taking place in ML over these last five years. And many who were involved were directed by management and had to participate in order to secure their livelihoods. Many feared for their income and investments.
Because of the nature of communities, it is easy for so much of what has transpired over the years to seem personal. And I don't want to downplay that at times it must have been. But by and large decisions made and actions taken were purely, or nearly, for business reasons. That doesn't make all decisions wise, but the nature of the business beast is that all of these things are highly complex - risky decisions made with only a limited view of the situation, gambling on human reactions, guessing at market futures, and so forth.
I lived through the downfall of Eastman Kodak, and for decades people have mocked them for "not seeing digital imaging" coming, but they did and were preparing for it for decades before it came, but it didn't change the fact that Kodak wasn't capable of weathering that storm, their business model simply didn't allow for it. Sometimes great decisions aren't enough to adapt. That's not to say that no mistakes could have been made, but hindsight can easily make good decisions made at the time feel foolish knowing how they would turn out.
What I really want people to see is that yes, we have great reasons to be excited about MangoLassi and its future. Not because another community appears to be going away, but because we are a great community of welcoming professionals who are hear to help one another to grow, to learn, to adapt. We are here for each other, even those of us that tend to be pretty grumpy. We don't do it for points or badges, we do it for each other; and we are open to all. These things make us special.
We had our moment to feel the schadenfreude, but it has past. Now it is time to invite, to welcome, to show off how ecumenical, how professional, how helpful, how welcoming we can be. A new era for ML is about to begin. The time is here to focus on how we can provide the best experience to each other, and to those who will be joining us on this journey.
It is our inclusivity that has made us strong, and will continue to keep this community vibrant and unique.
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@It-Unicorn said in Spiceworks Just Got Acquired by Publisher Ziff-Davis:
i'm sad panda
. Lee Y and Chris W. gone. Brilliant minds. 
Which one of those two are you?
Anyhoo, welcome to the community.Have a poke around before you get scared off from the huff and puff in this thread. After all, unicorns are hard to find.
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@scottalanmiller said in Spiceworks Just Got Acquired by Publisher Ziff-Davis:
lots and lots of words. A wall of text, if you will.
tl;dr
Righto you lot, cranky-pants off and professional pants on.Time to be helpful.
I brought cupcakes 🧁
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@It-Unicorn said in Spiceworks Just Got Acquired by Publisher Ziff-Davis:
i'm sad panda
. Lee Y and Chris W. gone. Brilliant minds. I think they had a great idea, but screwed up on implementing it. Their back end was insanely complex when there was no reason for it to be.
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For ML to actually be a real competitor to SW, this node.bb will not suffice in it's current state.
It's great as a categorized bulletin board or forum, but beyond that it's not enough. At least not as it's currently laid out. There are more aspects to the SW community platform that make it better than ML's besides the discussion threads themselves.
I like the SW platform for this kind of thing more.
This is my firm opinion of course
I'm not saying the SW platform is perfect... There are a ton of bugs and annoyances and lots of room for improvement. But at a high level, that's my opinion.
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@Obsolesce said in Spiceworks Just Got Acquired by Publisher Ziff-Davis:
For ML to actually be a real competitor to SW, this node.bb will not suffice in it's current state.
We actually hear the opposite all of the time. We get regular feedback that this is the best platform that people have used. We hear people come here and talk about how SW doesn't compete on the platform level.
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@Obsolesce said in Spiceworks Just Got Acquired by Publisher Ziff-Davis:
There are more aspects to the SW community platform that make it better than ML's besides the discussion threads themselves.
Such as?
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@scottalanmiller said in Spiceworks Just Got Acquired by Publisher Ziff-Davis:
@Obsolesce said in Spiceworks Just Got Acquired by Publisher Ziff-Davis:
There are more aspects to the SW community platform that make it better than ML's besides the discussion threads themselves.
Such as?
Over zealous moderation.
Come on, I want to be abused by the people in charge.
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@DustinB3403 said in Spiceworks Just Got Acquired by Publisher Ziff-Davis:
@scottalanmiller said in Spiceworks Just Got Acquired by Publisher Ziff-Davis:
@Obsolesce said in Spiceworks Just Got Acquired by Publisher Ziff-Davis:
There are more aspects to the SW community platform that make it better than ML's besides the discussion threads themselves.
Such as?
Over zealous moderation.
Come on, I want to be abused by the people in charge.
Kinky?
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@IRJ said in Spiceworks Just Got Acquired by Publisher Ziff-Davis:
@DustinB3403 said in Spiceworks Just Got Acquired by Publisher Ziff-Davis:
@scottalanmiller said in Spiceworks Just Got Acquired by Publisher Ziff-Davis:
@Obsolesce said in Spiceworks Just Got Acquired by Publisher Ziff-Davis:
There are more aspects to the SW community platform that make it better than ML's besides the discussion threads themselves.
Such as?
Over zealous moderation.
Come on, I want to be abused by the people in charge.
Kinky?
Just the thought process of a SpiteWorks moderator on their first day.
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Well I for one never knew this forum existed until yesterday, after doing a search for additional information regarding Spiceworks being sold, but I'm happy to be a new member and help contribute. Pass the cupcakes please!
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I must admit the main draw for me to Spiceworks was the auditing capability. The community was a welcome addition and something that continued to bring value to the product over time, but I must admit I was with Spiceworks since version 1.7, so pretty much from the start.
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@bstilts6301 said in Spiceworks Just Got Acquired by Publisher Ziff-Davis:
Well I for one never knew this forum existed until yesterday, after doing a search for additional information regarding Spiceworks being sold, but I'm happy to be a new member and help contribute. Pass the cupcakes please!
That's awesome, welcome!
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Thanks Scott, glad to see a familiar face
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@scottalanmiller said in Spiceworks Just Got Acquired by Publisher Ziff-Davis:
@bstilts6301 said in Spiceworks Just Got Acquired by Publisher Ziff-Davis:
Well I for one never knew this forum existed until yesterday, after doing a search for additional information regarding Spiceworks being sold, but I'm happy to be a new member and help contribute. Pass the cupcakes please!
That's awesome, welcome!
@scottalanmiller - Knowing you had discussions with them, I figured I would ask first. Would it be wrong to mention Mangolassi in reply to a post in that discussion on SW. Someone asked about additional forums but I have not replied yet.
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@pmoncho said in Spiceworks Just Got Acquired by Publisher Ziff-Davis:
@scottalanmiller said in Spiceworks Just Got Acquired by Publisher Ziff-Davis:
@bstilts6301 said in Spiceworks Just Got Acquired by Publisher Ziff-Davis:
Well I for one never knew this forum existed until yesterday, after doing a search for additional information regarding Spiceworks being sold, but I'm happy to be a new member and help contribute. Pass the cupcakes please!
That's awesome, welcome!
@scottalanmiller - Knowing you had discussions with them, I figured I would ask first. Would it be wrong to mention Mangolassi in reply to a post in that discussion on SW. Someone asked about additional forums but I have not replied yet.
Not wrong at all. Spread the word as much as you like anywhere.
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@pmoncho said in Spiceworks Just Got Acquired by Publisher Ziff-Davis:
@scottalanmiller said in Spiceworks Just Got Acquired by Publisher Ziff-Davis:
@bstilts6301 said in Spiceworks Just Got Acquired by Publisher Ziff-Davis:
Well I for one never knew this forum existed until yesterday, after doing a search for additional information regarding Spiceworks being sold, but I'm happy to be a new member and help contribute. Pass the cupcakes please!
That's awesome, welcome!
@scottalanmiller - Knowing you had discussions with them, I figured I would ask first. Would it be wrong to mention Mangolassi in reply to a post in that discussion on SW. Someone asked about additional forums but I have not replied yet.
Mentioning ML would be awesome!
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@Obsolesce said in Spiceworks Just Got Acquired by Publisher Ziff-Davis:
@pmoncho said in Spiceworks Just Got Acquired by Publisher Ziff-Davis:
@scottalanmiller said in Spiceworks Just Got Acquired by Publisher Ziff-Davis:
@bstilts6301 said in Spiceworks Just Got Acquired by Publisher Ziff-Davis:
Well I for one never knew this forum existed until yesterday, after doing a search for additional information regarding Spiceworks being sold, but I'm happy to be a new member and help contribute. Pass the cupcakes please!
That's awesome, welcome!
@scottalanmiller - Knowing you had discussions with them, I figured I would ask first. Would it be wrong to mention Mangolassi in reply to a post in that discussion on SW. Someone asked about additional forums but I have not replied yet.
Not wrong at all. Spread the word as much as you like anywhere.
Exactly! Get the word out. Everyone is welcome here.
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@scottalanmiller
Thanks for all your considerate words and careful thoughts about this. I'm very appreciative of this thread, and particularly this post of yours, SAM.I wasn't (yet) kicked of SW, but have always found it an extremely odd place with many demonstrating being either very new to IT, or painfully constrained in their thinking based on knowing only what they know (due to their given opportunities thus far, in terms of exposure and "experience"), and often confusing any calls to review their established and limited (sometimes, not always) and/or ingrained assumptions about a problem and how to best approach it, with personal criticism. Which is also commonplace for people new to IT or particularly defensive about their knowledge of IT (and the manifold topics and considerations that "IT" encompasses).
I was also sad to see you go/be forced out of SW, but theres much history there that I wasn't party to, nor (would I ever) care to be. While I already was definitely aware of MangoLassi long ago, when I saw that dbeato had joined here and/or become more active, I was happy to see it, and made a point of checking in here more often.
Very interesting to get some of your behind-the-scenes perspectives, SAM. All of this certainly gives some pause in terms of what will happen now or eventually with SW and anything we post there.
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@DustinB3403 You can now google, "spiceworks layoffs" and a lot of topics will come up. They had to file with WARN because they laid off so many people... https://patch.com/texas/north-austin/austin-based-tech-firm-spiceworks-inc-lay-59-workers
They stated 59, but I believe it was actually closer to 80. If you read about warn, 59 is the minimum amount of employees they had to terminate to trigger WARN.
