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 ...

BigPond 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 ...

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 Singtel Optus Pty Limited (commonly referred to as Optus) is an Australian Telecommunications in Australia, telecommunications company headquartered in Macquarie Park, New South Wales, Australia. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Singapore, Si ...

' 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 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 PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support online money transfers, and serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper ...

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 PIPE Networks (also known as PIPE) is an Australian telecommunications company, based in Brisbane, Queensland. It is a subsidiary of TPG Telecom. Its primary business is setting up peering exchanges. PIPE itself stands for "Public Internet Pe ...

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 Liquidation is the process in accounting by which a company is brought to an end in Canada, United Kingdom, United States, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, and many other countries. The assets and property of the company are redistrib ...

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). 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. 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 ...

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 ColdFusion Markup Language, more commonly known as CFML, is a scripting language for web development that runs on the JVM, the .NET framework, and Google App Engine. Multiple commercial and open source implementations of CFML engines are availab ...

. 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 Google AdSense is a program run by Google through which website publishers in the Google Network of content sites serve text, images, video, or interactive media advertisements that are targeted to the site content and audience. These advert ...

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 Moderation is the process of eliminating or lessening extremes. It is used to ensure normality throughout the medium on which it is being conducted. Common uses of moderation include: *Ensuring consistency and accuracy in the marking of stud ...

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

References

External links

Whirlpool
Internet properties established in 1998 Australian social networking websites Internet forums

History

2Clix controversy

Broadband Choice

Whirlpool forums

Knowledge base

History

Awards

See also

References

External links