An alternative history of Which?*

The missing bit…

I had written (but was unable to include owing to length) about just how groundbreaking Which? had been in the mid-’90s.

In 1996 Which? became the first UK content and function producer when it launched its very own ISP. These days we take ISPs for granted, but back then it was very much the Wild West in internet terms. Then along came Which? in the guise of Dave Roberts and Alan Stevens (Director and senior manager) who not only created the ISP but also introduced what was, at that time, a revolutionary concept: the Which? Online forum.

It’s hard to explain to those who weren’t there just how astonishingly innovative this was at the time. From years of reading the magazines, eagerly anticipating the next edition and poring, carefully over every golden nugget of wisdom, we were suddenly able to talk to the powers behind the curtain; the wizards appeared and – crucially – engaged with us all.

Imagine: you’ve been a devotee of the institution for many years, seen how it became a fixture at every library in the land, used it as the Gold Standard whenever a friend asked about the ‘fridge they ought to buy, or the paint they ought to use when, abruptly, the actual person who wrote those reports starts talking to you on a forum. Of course, it sounds very run-of-the-mill now, but back then it was truly ambitious.

And from the word ‘Go’, the aim of the organisation was to build a caring community online. I still have the original email I was sent in reply to a minor query I raised in 1995 (which was, in fact, asking when Which? was going to get its own website…), and I was told ‘We’re starting an online forum next week; you should get into it – there are some very caring and decent folk joining us right now”.

It fulfilled its early promise. The gardening researcher would come on and explain how they arrived at the result they did, and the paint researchers would spend time telling us about the five-year paint testing facilities. It was fun, certainly – but it was much, much more.

Those in Which? (then the Consumers’ Association) who joined in the fun on the forum included Sheila McKechnie, whose foundation supporting those seeking to bring about positive social change continues today, many of the Directors including Kim Lavely, Sheila’s deputy and many others. It’s incredible now to think that any major organisation’s top people would engage on a forum, even if, as in W?’s case, it was restricted to W? members at the time.

But that was its strength: Michael Young had envisaged an organisation which would draw on the co-operative nature of community to produce something that would be greater than the sum of its parts. The early forum, by getting the very top of the organisation directly involved, bore testament to its outstanding integrity.

That was crucial, too; by engaging directly with the members they did something at the time that no company I know of has done since. And, sadly, neither has Which? There is a members’ forum in Which? but its name bears little relation to its effect. It’s hidden away, difficult to find, difficult to enter, has no senior staff support and, in short, has been designed to discourage use – something of a betrayal of Young’s original vision, to say the least.

There are worrying signs that Which?, over the past 20 years, has become markedly resistant to change, and that’s a shame. In these days of social media Which? should be trumpeting its values from the rooftops, not hiding them in a drawer in an executive’s office.

Which? Conversations is different, of course. Led and crewed by young, bright and perceptive people it goes a long way to compensating for the loss of the early forum, with each and every one of them engaging and participating frequently. Which is what it’s all about.

Will the institution be around for another 60 years? That’s hard to say – obviously – but in the days when society is moving towards engagement at all levels, it’s unlikely to survive in its current form. Engagement is the key – and not simply for those who work in that part of the operation. The problem starts at the top. To survive Which? has to start talking with its membership, and involving its membership far more than it does at present. Some of the people who need to engage are the members of Which? Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of the charity but with immense power, and the very top people.

These conversations work best when the authors revisit them and engage with the contributors. When they don’t the topic will often simply wither but, more worryingly, the impression created, at a time when social media demands people respond, will be negative and may well lose the attraction for the younger and potentially valuable audience. Which? has the people to drive its star very much higher, but they’re in the lower levels of the hierarchy. There’s only so much they can do. Some of those who steered Which? through its golden period of the first forum were ‘let go’ or moved on, and they’re doing extremely well. I hope history doesn’t repeat itself and Which does learn from its mistakes.