In case you’ve been living under a rock somehow and missed the news that Vox has decided they no longer want to keep WIIM around, here’s where things stand right now:
Well, Vox has decided they no longer want to keep WIIM around.
Originally, the plan was to end our contracts on February 28th. I wrote a big-feelings goodbye about my intention to step away from running things when that happens and we all had a large bit of catharsis and then the blog kept going.
Since then, the SBN Hockey site managers were approached with options on allowing the network to be sold to somebody else and essentially joining up with that new place or to be given the necessary pieces to go independent. We weren’t given enough information to confidently sign over each of our sites in returns for contracts we wouldn’t be shown beforehand and the decision was made that our contracts would be extended through the end of March, during which time the site managers would be given the data transfer necessary to move our sites to an independent option.
That’s where things stand now. There are a number of managers working to figure out what that solution means, but I still don’t know the full extent of what’s to happen. My understanding as of right now is that WIIM will go completely dark on April 1st and sometime before then I’ll have all of the data that Vox has handed me.
What I would like to have happen is that somebody is willing to move forward with an independent iteration of this site and continue to run things. I don’t know if that’s going to happen. I’ll be the one holding the site, but I have not moved from my position that when the contract is done, my days of being a blog manager are done as well.
My intent is to continue running this site through the end of March. That might mean things are slightly different than they are now. I don’t know if we’re going to have the same level of coverage. I plan to continue to have Quick Hits posts, gamethreads, and something resembling recaps. Essentially, each day is going to be a series of open threads.
I want to keep the community going here to allow you to discuss with each other in a place you’re comfortable. If things do come down to needing to coordinate plans on staying in touch elsewhere, the unofficial Discord being run by members of our community will be a good place and I will continue to be willing to help folks willing to share email addresses privately.
I’ll know more when I know more, but for the time being, we’ve got at least a temporary reprieve.