WC bites the dust

[Enyaw]

Announced their closing.

 

[16ga]

Just read the post. Its sad but the forum I knew died a long time ago...

 

[snoball]

Such a shame but like 16ga said, it died long ago.

 

[Nufocus]

Yes, unfortunate…..
Let’s see what we can do to increase the number of members here dramatically!!

 

[Artyczar]

I just approved a few new people, but I honestly thought they were spam bots. We'll see.

 

[ZenDruid]

I just moved over from WC. I was there less than a year. Feedback was slow. Sad they have to close.

 

[laf.art]

Tis sad but they have had a good long run, shame so much work and info will be lost

 

[musket]

Traffic was already way down from the glory days, which wasn't their fault. But the new format was abysmally bad. Their endless promises to make it better were never kept. I visited only rarely.

Of course, for me the best part of WC was the much-maligned Debates, which was already all but DOA before the move.

 

[RobinZ]

Musket, the Debates were such a time suck and so fun. They were actually the best place for politics because there were informed, thoughtful posts from many, many points of view. I have had my mind changed on issues because of it. And I loved the people who disagreed with me, even, because they were thoughtful and had a reason behind what they wrote, not the slogans and memes that pass as debates in so many other places.

 

[Artyczar]

I'm sure there's gotta be forums out there (maybe not art-related) that have good political debate.

 

[Yorky]

Yes, they are planning to freeze the site and retain it as an art resource. No new members, no posting, hence the search for a new home for our artists. The timeline is Dec/Jan.
Of course, wetcanvas is a huge site but membership participation is down since the owners went bankrupt and the site was transferred to Golden Peak Media and Wordpress. It is likely that there will be a need for extra forums.
Doug

 

[musket]

Debates was about far more than politics. It was by no means the only topic, not by a long shot, though it tended to get more emphasis towards the end, when Debates had mostly degenerated into endless circular discussions about the same few hot topics.

Arty, rest assured I'm not lobbying for the inclusion of a Debates forum here, nor am I trying to get into a debate about Debates. Just setting the record straight.

For example, one of the longest threads, which I'm sure SLG would remember, was entitled, "The End of POMO?"

 

[Artyczar]

Debates about debates...ha ha ha.

 

[KreativeK]

I never got involved in the Debates forum there as rather be painting LOL.

 

[classic]

Advertising was the first (and only) part that worked perfectly in W,C. after the software migration. However successful advertising needs some valid content too.
I understand the frustration of volunteer moderators and administrators, among them Yorky, to support something that didn't work as needed, helping people to overcome problems when possible. Obviously the ownership had their own consultants.
Even read-only, the forum can still deliver advertising content to the visitors with a lower cost to them. Although many page are lost, the remaining content is really vast. It seems that google can replace their search system in some degree.

 

[musket]

I never found that moderate participation in Debates significantly cut into my art making time, but then, I couldn't work for more than three quarters of an hour without taking a break--too much strain on the eyes and the back. I actually kept an egg timer on the bench, because if I got lost in the concentration ozone I could barely stand up afterwards.

Despite its bad reputation, mostly among people who never even participated, Debates was a very good place to make friends (and, of course, some enemies).

And that be that.

 

[joe1It]

I loved the debates forum (but is it Café Guerbois? or do I confuse? post on current affairs, or various topics, perhaps with art in parallel) when I discovered it and started reading it (I didn't see it immediately but for 4 months, the first year I only followed drawing and sketching, that was already immense, as figures and every forum) and to recover previous posts, they were not only about politics, yes, I remember some interesting posts about politics and art (so that made me think about some of the aspects of art, moments in history in which art, artists made themselves heard or filmed the story,), topic mentioned here in a post, I also remember various posts in which they talked about things I wanted to ask, or posts that I liked to follow, sometimes I was going to write, a 3 times but then I deleted what I wrote, it seemed to me to lower the level, however wetcavans was incredible for all the galleries and tutorials, the information and the beauty present was something to be protected forever, the passage of the site made us lose most of the material and the possibility to search, a pity especially for the possibility of remembering and discovering many exceptional artists, when news of the bankruptcy and risk of closure came out for weeks, I didn't want to draw anymore. I'm so sorry that the site closes because what it represents is important, moderators then did a really exceptional job, it is true that even before the change of the site the traffic had dropped a lot over the years but thanks to the moderators the site was always alive, that is, they were still doing more work if I think of the forums that I followed such as figures and Drawing, as users fell they worked more to help those who connected perhaps for the first times and with an incredible passion and culture.

 

[musket]

At the pre-migration WC, Debates was a separate forum from Cafe Guerbois. At the new WC, Debates died but a more mild-mannered version of admin-approved topics was folded into Cafe Guerbois. Very few of the old Debates regulars were left by the time of the migration, and Debates itself had devolved into the same few hot button topics over and over again--it had very little resemblance to the Debates of the glory days. It was time for it to go.

 

[Dave Woody]

I am half talented, Even less tech savvy....Posting
my waffle on WC was great fun, members looked, laughed and replied
as humorously as my art was. As easy as I paint, posting was initially just as easy.

Then.......they changed the site and.......posting, navigating and interacting
became complicated.

 

[Dave Woody]

Katie Black....visionary, messaged me long ago about moving over from WC
to Creativespark, this...in her opinion, the best place to be.
I took her advice and .... she must accept responsibility for all of
you having my stuff clutter the forum.

Katie.....look after ‘Liz with Trump in Front’ for me.
I am looking after yours that we swapped.