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!!