A little history

Hey All,

Clearly there is some history with the announcement of a new owner and a restructuring of the devshed properites. I just joined and I am looking to be part of a technology community and want to help, but I kinda want to know what I am signing up for if there has been some big changes. What's been going on? Can I even ask that? I know I am new and if there was a big change there were probably feelings hurt, but I am curious to the happenings and eager to be part of the pheonix that rises from the ashes.

Doogie

For my part, I "signed up" because I needed some help for a task.

After that, I stayed to help other members and at the same time learning from those with more knowledge.

I know there is a new owner and some people are sceptical about it. But haven't really looked that much into all this "stuff".

Basically, as far as I am aware, the Devshed properties were bought up by Ziff Davis quite a while ago but all they really did was slap more and more and more advertisements all over the site trying to milk as much money out of it as they could without putting forth much effort at all.

It seems that know it's been bought out by a fellow who wants to put some effort into the site to get it upgraded and the community built back up. A great deal of the advertising has already been removed which in and of itself makes the site a lot nicer to use.

We'll see how things go over time but the grass is looking greener as far as I can tell.

I signed up awhile back because I needed help, then stayed on to assist where I could. I have seen the ups and downs of the site. For the past few years, it has been mainly downs... Ads all over the place, making it impossible to surf.

However, with the new owners, things have been looking up. The new owners have been around quite frequently trying to figure out how to make the sites better and to bring them to the next level.

There are many times I have considered just taking a long break, but now I am actually looking forward to seeing what they do and how they can improve the sites.

So far a lot of the advertising has been removed, they are inquiring about new features by taking user input, and they are frequenting the site quite often (previous admins would show up once in a blue moon), which all make me want to stick around for now. Seems to me they are trying to do right by the community...

So I would say stick around and see what happens... Things seem to be looking up for this site, but I guess only time will tell.

It's good to be skeptical, but I will echo the sentiments of kicken and hiker. We're already seeing changes for the better. I just hope that (1) the trend continues, and (2) people start posting here again. It was just good luck that I happened to check the site almost immediately after it started turning around, after a long absence. (Basically, I'm suggesting cautious optimism. :-])

It's nice to see those adverts gone!
Like a few others I started off here with a plea for help ... then just hung around, then started to notice things I knew and could help with so, with a little trepidation, started posting responses. Glad I stuck it out to see DevShed start returning to how it was when I first joined (which is not as long ago as some people ... )

How's it going everyone? I guess I'd come check the old joint out again.

****... they'll just let anyone come back nowadays, won't they?

I actually was unbanned a long time ago. I've just been insanely busy as of lately but I'm starting to get back into coding so I figured I'd come back here.

You know I was just messing with ya, anyhow...