Anythingbutipod site and forum down/dead?

[miikerman]

Does anyone know if the Anythingbutipod site and forum is down and/or dead? 

I haven’t been able to access it for the past week and fear either that it has been abandoned or taken down, or that its owner failed to pay its domain name fee and the site name has been purchased by another group.  (The URL now leads to a sign-in page for something called “Zealot,” which says it is a “Hobby Forum: Card Models, RC Cars, Trains & Railroads.”)

The site had/has lots of info. on the SanDisk players plus other audio players, as well as loads of other info., and was/is a good community.  If gone, will be very sad–at the very least, would be nice if it were around to consult.  Not many places like it around anymore.  

[miikerman]

Heard an answer back:  a tech. issue, to be fixed by Jan. 3rd.  Let’s hope so!

[tapeworm]

Good! I’d hate to see that forum disappear.

[miikerman]

It does remind one of the frailty of life, even virtual life . . . .

In the meanwhile, one can “backdoor” one’s way in by doing a search engine search on the phrase “anythingbutipod marvin” and selecting the first result, which takes you to the anythingbutipod profile of former SanDisk Guru Marvin there, and then navigating to where you want to go.  (You can do this with any anythingbutipod member’s user name–I like paying tribute to Marvin, who passed away earlier, sigh.  This also can be done with other search terms that appear within the anythingbutipod website.)  

[tds101]

Just an FYI: ABi has been completely DOA since last month, and there’s no way to even see all the valuable reference material that was in those stagnant threads. The site owners really let everyone down,…failure was inevitable.

[morgan1993]

Just so you know this is an issue way back in 2016, why bring it back now? 

[Lacene1]

I was a major contributor to ABi - as well as other past classic MP3 forums: DAPreview, Epizenter, iaudiophile, ilounge, etc. I started on a tiny little MP3 forum called DellDJSite for - appropriately enough, the Dell DJ. That started me into my MP3 player obsession. I had an acct. here too years ago - under my name without the “1” - but that acct. was using another email address that I have long since discontinued, and I can’t email that “Lacene” acct. back to me to reset my password (I’ve forgotten it), so I made a new acct.

The Era of internet message boards - for most anything, including MP3 players - are dying out, if not already long died out. And the MP3 player had a finite lifeline, with smartphones rising up. But ANY private message board will only live - not thrive, but live - on the efforts of its owner(s) wanting them to. Whenever the owners/administrators stop caring about the boards, is when they start to dry-rot, and the member-base can be just as loyal and dedicated as ever, it won’t matter. The original owners of ABi cared more about forwarding their personal careers, and using ABi as a way to make connections for that, than they actually cared about ABi or its member-base. Most of the subject matter - dedicated MP3/media players - have been phased out and replaced, but there’s still a lot of peripheral equipment and gear that’s still out there, and could’ve been used to keep the site going. It’s a shame, but hopefully the members still have their own photos or videos of their portable audio/video gear, and memories of their experiences with them. I have mine, and still use most all of my players (1 Clip, 2 e280s, 2 Fuzes, 1 Creative Zen:V) from time to time and at the gym. Long Live Music, and Any Way we have to play them!!

[Audio4]

Yeah, in the early days it was one of the few sources for good reviews on the so called dying mp3 player market. I remember when the turning point came as people who posted on their forums began asking advice on new mp3 players and the only responses were largely negative, and that there was no difference between bluetooth audio and anything else and it was all snake-oil if you used anything beyond your smartphone. Anyone who challenged them would have most of the community jump down their throat. The cynicism was palpable. I remembered thinking “what is the point of this site then?” It seems they too came to the same conclusion, as anythingbutipod simply became nothing-but-your-smartphone, so I am not surprised it is gone.But now it is rather ironic, since companies are still producing and selling devices in 2020 (and even Apple’s ipod outlived their site, ha!) and there is demand now for devices that are not connected to social media.