Eng-Tips.com Has Been Sold to WTWH Canada, Inc.

[NOLAscience]

Did you all realize that Eng-Tips.com has been sold to WTMH Canada, Inc.? I recently had to log in due to clearing the browser cache and read a notice on the log-in page. See attached photo.

I also found, from a quick search:

https://www.finsmes.com/2023/12/wtwh-media-acquires-engineering-com.html

I sure hope this new company leaves us alone and doesn't try to create a "New & Improved" version of Eng-Tips!

Not sure where to post this. If you can think of a better Forum, just let me know and I will move it.

 

[JohnRBaker]

This is not new news. This took place in December of last year.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[geotechguy1]

Half of Chat GPT's / Microsoft CoPilots engineering related answers seem to be EngTips threads, want to bet on months / years before they get sued?

 

[NOLAscience]

I am aware that this happened in December of 2023. I would not call that "old news". December 13th to today was less than 11 weeks before my post.

My question is whether this sale has been discussed here.

 

[GregLocock]

Not in the general forums, no I don't think so.

Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

 

[glass99]

Who owned eng-tips previously?

 

[zeusfaber]

It's had a few changes. Ones I know about:

Created by David and Jim Murphy in 1997 under the banner of the Tecumseh Group.

Sold to engineering.com inc. in 2015

engineering.com acquired by wtwh media in 2023.

A.

 

[IRstuff]

And through all of that, the site has remained mostly unchanged, although engineering.com did implement a seemingly more productive work flow for getting rid of spam and errant posts in recent years.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg

faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list

http://www.eng-tips.com/forumlist.cfm

 

[SnTMan]

Yeah the whole "change to Project Board format" thing seems to have went away.

Fortunately

The problem with sloppy work is that the supply FAR EXCEEDS the demand

 

[IRstuff]

Yeah, PB has nothing on PB&J

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg

faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list

http://www.eng-tips.com/forumlist.cfm

 

[SnTMan]

Heh. Very much inferior

The problem with sloppy work is that the supply FAR EXCEEDS the demand

 

[zeusfaber]

For anybody puzzled by the last few posts: About five years ago, the then owners were contemplating migrating eng-tips to a different platform as used by another of their titles, "ProjectBoard". It was never completely clear whether the proposal was just to use the same platform, or actually to merge the userbase with that of what is now Makerojects. Many here who valued being part of an exclusively Engineering Professionals' club were horrified at the prospect of being lumped in with hobbyists, the new platform wasn't a great fit for the way things are organised here and, after a lot of noise, the idea was killed off.

A.

 

[CWB1]

Something I recently discovered and a reason I have been considering leaving this site/owners permanently is the copying of posts from this forum to others as if we all post on multiple forums. I am a member here, participating in conversation with this specific group, at a specific time, with specific knowns/unknowns, specific responses/corrections mid-conversation, and do not post on other forums yet my username and posts appear on the "sister" forums as if I did. Copying my comments under the same username gives the appearance that I had the discussion with a different group of people, with different knowns/unknowns, different considerations in the conversation, and it distorts the opinions shared. As many of us rely upon our reputation in litigious fields with attorneys who will quote our social media posts in court, I strongly dislike this and find it highly unethical. Given the Canadian ownership and that duplication is a popular tactic used to grow Asian-owned forums, it also makes one wonder which wing of the CCCP has our data.

 

[cranky108]

Be careful what you say, you might just disappear.

 

[GregLocock]

CWB1, mirrors of eng-tips have nothing to do with eng-tips management, they are just copies. Scraping programs just copy the html for an entire site. O/T Rather more worrying than CCP copying is the use of ChatGPT to generate seemingly authoritative engineering advice. I'd imagine down the track you'll see it give references back to the original posts.

Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

 

[IRstuff]

The copying of ET postings wholesale has been around for at least a decade, particularly when Chinese sites were apparently trying to gin up traffic to them. There was a case where someone on ET supposedly copied member contact information and added them to a competing site in the US.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg

faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list

http://www.eng-tips.com/forumlist.cfm

 

[BrianPetersen]

Copying and duplication of material here, including copying posts verbatim, is beyond the control of whoever owns this forum. It may be within their legal bounds to go after whoever's doing it, but if they are outside the country in which the forum owners reside, there may not be much that can be done.

 

[dvd]

I would not mind seeing some changes to these forums - unchanged vs unimproved?

 

[SnTMan]

As I recall, following the time when DAVE (Sainted be His Name) sold the site, it was made known that the old, clunky platform on which it was based was considered toooo antiquated to permit any sort of updating...

Edited due to fat fingering...

The problem with sloppy work is that the supply FAR EXCEEDS the demand