Whirlpool is an independent
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
n website founded in 1998. Since then, it has grown significantly and has over 907,000 registered accounts. Primarily a discussion forum, some extra functionality such as
Broadband Choice was included, although this functionality has been removed from the site.
History
Whirlpool began as a community resource for users of
Telstra
Telstra Group Limited is an Australian telecommunications company that builds and operates telecommunications networks and markets voice, mobile, internet access, pay television and other products and services. It is a member of the S&P/ASX 20 ...
's
BigPond cable Internet
In telecommunications, cable Internet access, shortened to cable Internet, is a form of broadband Internet access which uses the same infrastructure as a cable television. Like digital subscriber line and fiber to the premises services, cable In ...
service; the name ''Whirlpool'' was a
parody
A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its subj ...
of ''BigPond''.
However, it soon expanded to cover
Optus' Optus@Home (now known as
OptusNet) cable internet service,
ADSL
Asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) is a type of digital subscriber line (DSL) technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide. ...
-based services, and other forms of broadband
ISP
An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...
s in Australia as they became available.
2Clix controversy
On 11 September 2007, it was announced that
2Clix Software
2Clix Software was a software developer based in Australia.
History
2Clix was founded in 1997 in Australia, but they also had an office in the United Kingdom. The company's flagship product, ''2Clix'' was a business management and accounting s ...
was commencing legal action against Whirlpool founder Simon Wright for posts made by users in the Whirlpool forums that 2Clix claimed were "false and malicious". 2Clix claimed it had lost approximately
A$150,000 income per month between January and July 2007 and sued for this amount plus legal costs. Whirlpool users responded immediately by sending
PayPal donations to assist with the site's legal costs, with some users claiming they had sent donations exceeding
A$1,000. The co-founder of
PIPE Networks personally pledged a donation of
A$10,000 towards the cause.
On 19 September 2007, 2Clix'
solicitor
A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally-defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and ...
s stated that they had received instructions to discontinue the case. 2Clix entered
voluntary liquidation in late 2007 and its director was subsequently declared bankrupt.
Broadband Choice
Broadband Choice allowed a user to find options available to them and to filter them by features such as price, speed and usage limits. In most cases, details about
internet service provider
An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...
s (ISPs) and their plans were maintained by staff of each ISP, which were then editorially approved by Whirlpool.
Broadband Choice was retired on 29 June 2015 with the link now redirecting to a page outlining their reasons for closure.
Whirlpool forums
The primary purpose of the forums is to provide a venue in which to discuss broadband and related areas (such as
networking
Network, networking and networked may refer to:
Science and technology
* Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects
* Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks
Mathematics
...
). Representatives from many Australian service providers, hardware vendors and merchants use Whirlpool as a strictly non-official support and communication channel.
Whirlpool uses custom
forum software
An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are often longer than one line of text, and are at least temporar ...
. Some features present on other message boards such as
signature
A signature (; from la, signare, "to sign") is a handwritten (and often stylized) depiction of someone's name, nickname, or even a simple "X" or other mark that a person writes on documents as a proof of identity and intent. The writer of a ...
s,
avatar
Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearanc ...
s and
in-line images are not provided. When
threads and posts are deleted or moved, placeholders are left allowing users to see the alleged moderation that has occurred. This is different from other common forum software where deleted material may simply disappear from view.
The forum also has areas for discussing more general topics, known as "lounges".
Some of these are only available to long-standing or highly active members of the community.
Knowledge base
Whirlpool has its own
Wiki
A wiki ( ) is an online hypertext publication collaboratively edited and managed by its own audience, using a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages for the subjects or scope of the project, and could be either open to the pu ...
. It is an accumulation of information put together by forum users in "sticky threads" over time, with the hope of cutting down forum clutter while also allowing more collaborative content development. It includes information that is difficult to find aggregated into one place elsewhere, such as the Australian Exchange Guide (a guide to the locations of Australian telephone exchanges), a list of Australian computer shops and a list of Australian VoIP providers.
History
Simon Wright, as founder and main developer, developed the site in
CFML. Phil Sweeney assists by writing news, and when it was online, by keeping ''Broadband Choice'' updated.
Previously, Whirlpool existed with no revenue stream. Unlike many forums, Whirlpool had no banners or paid advertising. However, in 2008, the owner began using
Google
Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...
AdSense in pages that result from Google searches, for users who are not logged in.
Most day-to-day administrative tasks are conducted by a team of unpaid volunteer members, who have been given varying degrees of
moderation privileges in the forums.
Awards
In its first few years, Whirlpool was nominated for several awards:
*''Best Technology Media Website''
Sun Microsystems MediaConnect IT Journalism Awards**Nominated, 2003
**Winner, 2004
**Winner, 2005
**Finalist, 2006
*''Best Technology Title''
Sun Microsystems MediaConnect IT Journalism Awards**Winner, 2004
See also
*
List of Internet forums
References
External links
Whirlpool
Internet properties established in 1998
Australian social networking websites
Internet forums