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Moonlight meanderer
Posted at

I just read this on comicbookresources…

Business | Platinum Studios has sold webcomics community DrunkDuck to e-book publisher WOWIO for an undisclosed sum. WOWIO was purchased in 2008 by Platinum and then sold in July 2009 to a holding company formed by Platinum President and COO Brian Altounian.

The DrunkDuck acquisition follows the announcement last week that WOWIO has raised $1.7 million in private financing and purchased WEvolt.com, an online community for creators to share and promote their work. Established in 2002 by Dylan Squires, DrunkDuck provides free hosting for webcomics, as well as forums and a feedback/review system. The site was purchased in December 2006 by Platinum. [press release]

Anybody have any thoughts on this?

Posted at

I wonder if this will have positive effects on the site.

No offense to Platinum but they did gain a little bit of a bad name after couple of incidents with comic creators.

Mettaur
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Posted at

Do you think the new owners will actually respond to requests on site improvements?

ksteak
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Posted at

*looks up in the top right*

I can see one change that was obviously very important to them.

HippieVan
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Posted at

*looks up in the top right*

I can see one change that was obviously very important to them.

Wasn't that already there?

——

Are the new owners the reason the ads changed? One of the things I've always really liked about Drunkduck is that the ads I get are always for Lupus or charity or whatever. The top one is still the same, but the side one and new bottom one are those terrible flashy moving ones now. Makes the site look like crap. :(

ksteak
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Posted at

How long has it just said WOWIO though? It used to be crap like 'look here' and some ascii nonsense.

HippieVan
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Posted at

I've seen it say Wowio before sometimes, but I don't think it was all in caps before.

Hawk
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Posted at

WOWIO was at one time owned by Platinum, having been purchased not long after Drunk Duck was purchased. Soon after the purchase WOWIO was seen pretty frequently up in the corner.

So now I guess WOWIO purchased itself back again, and then purchased Drunk Duck? Am I getting that right?

Chernobog
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Posted at

Didn't Ozone put this blurb in the news a few weeks back for a very brief time? It's interesting, in any event.

DAJB
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Posted at

Didn't Ozone put this blurb in the news a few weeks back for a very brief time? It's interesting, in any event.
Yes, there was definitely something posted in the News. From memory, this is just a reshuffling of the cards in Platinum's deck. Platinum still owns Wowio and so "selling" DD to Wowio is just moving it from one part of the group to another. Presumably there could be internal changes (new reporting lines etc) but I wouldn't expect much to change as far as anyone outside the group is concerned.

At least that's how I read it.

Ozoneocean
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Posted at

Didn't Ozone put this blurb in the news a few weeks back for a very brief time? It's interesting, in any event.
Yes, there was definitely something posted in the News. From memory, this is just a reshuffling of the cards in Platinum's deck. Platinum still owns Wowio and so "selling" DD to Wowio is just moving it from one part of the group to another. Presumably there could be internal changes (new reporting lines etc) but I wouldn't expect much to change as far as anyone outside the group is concerned.

At least that's how I read it.
haha, yeah, glad you guys caught it. :)

That was the week before last week or something, wasn't it? That's when the sale was actually finalised, but Wowio held off on the offical anouncement till they moved themselves from an LLC listing to Inc We were told we could annouce the sale back then, but that was due to a miscommunication.

Anyway, the official press release is here:
http://corporate.wowio.com/pr_100608/

I'll make another news post.

Posted at

Well, one of the biggest fundamental changes that I've noticed on this site is that I'm finally able to see the ads, that were previously denied from me.

Obviously a very important update :P

Posted at

This must be the reason why the Project Wonderful ad-space disappeared.

And replaced with Geek 2 Geek Dating sites.

Rejoice…

srhdt
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Posted at

This must be the reason why the Project Wonderful ad-space disappeared.

Yeah we had to get rid of the Project Wonderful ad because DD made a deal with an ad network, Giant Realm. So all the ads on the site will run exclusively through them from now on.

And I know some people seem to be confused about Wowio and its relationship to Platinum, but long story short, it's a separate entity/company now. Wowio is not owned/controlled by Platinum. skoolmunkee's news post explains it.

Oh one last thing. All your comics are safe. Wowio does not own them, nor will they use them for anything without your permission.

Posted at

This must be the reason why the Project Wonderful ad-space disappeared.
And replaced with Geek 2 Geek Dating sites.

Rejoice…
I've also noticed an ad for a dating site that only accept attractive people and another one for a site where you can find Muslim women to marry.

This has made me come to a solid conclusion…

The advertisement market firmly believes that the users of this site are desperately lonely people… who happen to be prone to strokes or contracting lupus.
Oh look! A new Admin! Are we going to be seeing you around?

Jonko
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Posted at

yay new admin!!!

Anyway this is interesting. How is WOWIO's reputation, never heard of them (although i'd never heard about platinum before either before coming here)

Posted at

srhdt has been around, he's not an admin-admin, he's one of the behind the scenes people. :] The admins are just me and Oz still, there's no need for more unless the site gets busy again. It used to take four of us to manage this place. :[ Maybe that means we're twice as good now?

Ozoneocean
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Posted at

skoolmunkee's news post explains it.
MY news post! MINE :gem:

It's such a perfect piece of my newsposting art. The high point of my entire newsposting career!
All my newsposts had been leading up to that magnum opus…

And now it's been miss-attributed! D:
Maybe that means we're twice as good now?
Not quite.
The truth is that you are three times as good and I'm only as good as before.

—————–
Look at the join date for srhdt under his avi peoples. He's been here since 2007. ;)
srhdt comes with us from Plat over to Wowio!

Randal
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Posted at

does this mean we'll get bug fixes and code updates? (Like maybe a better forum that allows you to do things like search or keep track of thread traffic and original poster?)

Ozoneocean
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Posted at

Like maybe a better forum that allows you to do things like search or keep track of thread traffic and original poster?
Ha! Maybe in Bizzaro world. :)


Hopefully, but not soon.

seventy2
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Posted at

my ads haven't changed :(

i never get any of the cool stuff.
———————

Everyone's rejoicing because of the lack of platinum, but i was never really affected by them, and i doubt i'll see a change. (except for that one time where images weren't allowed on the site for like 2 weeks)

srhdt
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Posted at

skoolmunkee's news post explains it.
MY news post! MINE :gem:

It's such a perfect piece of my newsposting art. The high point of my entire newsposting career!
All my newsposts had been leading up to that magnum opus…

And now it's been miss-attributed! D:
Maybe that means we're twice as good now?
Not quite.
The truth is that you are three times as good and I'm only as good as before.

—————–
Look at the join date for srhdt under his avi peoples. He's been here since 2007. ;)
srhdt comes with us from Plat over to Wowio!

I apologize. It was indeed a fantastic post. Thanks, ozoneocean!

Yeah, I've been on DD for a few years now, but mostly I leave the posting to the admins, who are far more intelligent and gifted than I in that regard.

Ozoneocean
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Posted at

I apologize. It was indeed a fantastic post. Thanks, ozoneocean!
Hahaha, that it was :)
I'll be living off the glory of that one for a while…
Yeah, I've been on DD for a few years now, but mostly I leave the posting to the admins, who are far more intelligent and gifted than I in that regard.
Far more obnoxious, loudmouthed and opinionated really… At least I am. ^_^

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Moonlight meanderer

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