R.I.P. VMP Forum

[AnthonyI]

did that ever apply to the forum I thought it was more about the business side, at least my comments were referring to the business

Maybe, maybe not, but growth in either aspect is something you need to be prepared for and we just want to make sure we are. Obviously it's different from a business standpoint, but even from a forum standpoint we want to make sure everything is working and in place, we saw what happened with email approvals, just things your not prepared for and have to act quickly. We would prefer to be prepared instead of having to act quickly

 

[Enoch]

Maybe, maybe not, but growth in either aspect is something you need to be prepared for and we just want to make sure we are. Obviously it's different from a business standpoint, but even from a forum standpoint we want to make sure everything is working and in place, we saw what happened with email approvals, just things your not prepared for and have to act quickly. We would prefer to be prepared instead of having to act quickly

Why would you want to do that, we are accustomed to things going wrong

 

[Mr Moore]

I was amused to see so many mentions of Buckets when I accidently hit the link on my favourite bar the other day. NTR flashbacks, lol.

 

[Enoch]

I was amused to see so many mentions of Buckets when I accidently hit the link on my favourite bar the other day. NTR flashbacks, lol.

View attachment 1121

you mean there aren't two of them

 

[AnthonyI]

Why would you want to do that, we are accustomed to things going wrong

This didn't warrant a , but a giggle emoji would have been perfect

 

[Enoch]

This didn't warrant a , but a giggle emoji would have been perfect

I thought about the giggle but went with the "er.. what" which looks more like a dazed emoji to me

 

[Dead C]

I’m happy right now with having familiar members and after we get settled in, figure out our logo and drop the new look of the site, the admins will be discussing next steps on how to grow the forum. We’ve seen what happens when growth happens too fast, I want to make sure we’re ready.

Maybe, maybe not, but growth in either aspect is something you need to be prepared for and we just want to make sure we are. Obviously it's different from a business standpoint, but even from a forum standpoint we want to make sure everything is working and in place, we saw what happened with email approvals, just things your not prepared for and have to act quickly. We would prefer to be prepared instead of having to act quickly

Agreed. Plus, even if VMP didn't recognize and appreciate what a resource this community is, others will. I'd imagine that, eventually, we're going to start getting infested with people trying to exploit that, redirect traffic, and market to us. It's best to have the core foundation/community in place as much as possible before there are any attempts to derail it. It's really nice right now. People will find it.

How large do we want this to grow, anyway? What's the goal? If it doesn't happen organically, what are we inviting?

 

[helllord]

We’d already arranged with them to have the link up for like a week. I’m not sure what happened there with the date but we sent a message about it so it’s on them and I don’t really care at this point. The shortness of their linking to us is because it was decided it would be confusing to have VMP keep directing people to us. We’re not their unofficial forum and that’s what it would look like if they kept promoting us.

I’m happy right now with having familiar members and after we get settled in, figure out our logo and drop the new look of the site, the admins will be discussing next steps on how to grow the forum. We’ve seen what happens when growth happens too fast, I want to make sure we’re ready.

this is smart.

personally, i came back (or at least i'm trying coming back) because it's NOT the vmp forum. there was a lot of ..ugly over there, which caused me to leave in the first place (i was very active/involved in early days of the forum, if anyone reading this hasn't seen me around and is wondering where i come off commenting on this). i'm good friends with a lot of members, and miss interacting with other people i met here. i learned about a lot of great music, vinyl deals/exclusives, tech knowledge that helped me grow and repair my system, and a lot more.

i did not like being policed by a brand that treated me, and many other active members, like second rate trash. i did not like having valid concerns about a multitude of things (either forum or brand/product related) being ignored and moved and deleted. i didn't like being bullied and harassed by staff. i didn't like one of my friends getting straight up stalked and having no action around it. i didn't like getting flooded with people that were there to fight instead of make friends and talk about music.

i'm glad a lot of us are here. i hope it stays closer to what it was when i very much enjoyed logging on every day. i think, much like it did then, it will attract the kind of people we'd like to be here on its own. we can certainly look into promoting somewhere if people are interested, but i think keeping it separate from The Brand is a good thing.

 

[gouis]

this is smart.

personally, i came back (or at least i'm trying coming back) because it's NOT the vmp forum. there was a lot of ..ugly over there, which caused me to leave in the first place (i was very active/involved in early days of the forum, if anyone reading this hasn't seen me around and is wondering where i come off commenting on this). i'm good friends with a lot of members, and miss interacting with other people i met here. i learned about a lot of great music, vinyl deals/exclusives, tech knowledge that helped me grow and repair my system, and a lot more.

i did not like being policed by a brand that treated me, and many other active members, like second rate trash. i did not like having valid concerns about a multitude of things (either forum or brand/product related) being ignored and moved and deleted. i didn't like being bullied and harassed by staff. i didn't like one of my friends getting straight up stalked and having no action around it. i didn't like getting flooded with people that were there to fight instead of make friends and talk about music.

i'm glad a lot of us are here. i hope it stays closer to what it was when i very much enjoyed logging on every day. i think, much like it did then, it will attract the kind of people we'd like to be here on its own. we can certainly look into promoting somewhere if people are interested, but i think keeping it separate from The Brand is a good thing.

Here here!

 

[mcherry]

Agreed. Plus, even if VMP didn't recognize and appreciate what a resource this community is, others will. I'd imagine that, eventually, we're going to start getting infested with people trying to exploit that, redirect traffic, and market to us. It's best to have the core foundation/community in place as much as possible before there are any attempts to derail it. It's really nice right now. People will find it.

How large do we want this to grow, anyway? What's the goal? If it doesn't happen organically, what are we inviting?

Exactly. And tbh I’m not sure I want us to grow so large, like the Hoffman ones for example. It gets big and impersonal and the overall community becomes multiple communities who don’t interact with each other much. I like organic growth. We’ll see. Lots of ideas right now.

 

[gouis]

Exactly. And tbh I’m not sure I want us to grow so large, like the Hoffman ones for example. It gets big and impersonal and the overall community becomes multiple communities who don’t interact with each other much. I like organic growth. We’ll see. Lots of ideas right now.

Yes. Growth for growth's sake was at the core of VMPs continued business issues.

 

[helllord]

Yes. Growth for growth's sake was at the core of VMPs continued business issues.

yes. and honestly? i don't care if it stays exactly this size? it won't, and growing and new people is good, but i agree very much with @mcherry. i like knowing everyone. community for the sake of community. not huge to be huge. reach isn't really necessary since we aren't promoting something or growing a business.

 

[Heath]

yes. and honestly? i don't care if it stays exactly this size? it won't, and growing and new people is good, but i agree very much with @mcherry. i like knowing everyone. community for the sake of community. not huge to be huge. reach isn't really necessary since we aren't promoting something or growing a business.

Yes to all of this! Part of what attracted me to the other forum way back when was how small it was...made it feel more accessible, and like it was a group of hundreds of potential friends, rather than a company’s forum (which generally I would never engage with)

 

[Chucktshoes]

A smaller, tightly engaged community is far preferable to a large fractious one. One of the three forums on counts its members in tens. We have less than 50 active members, and we like it that way.

 

[Mr Moore]

yes. and honestly? i don't care if it stays exactly this size? it won't, and growing and new people is good, but i agree very much with @mcherry. i like knowing everyone. community for the sake of community. not huge to be huge. reach isn't really necessary since we aren't promoting something or growing a business.

Absolutely this. I'd way rather be a part of 500 really engaged folks talking about their passion for music over 000s of peeps who just wanna hype the next exclusive or conversely, shit all over it.

 

[Dash]

this is smart.

personally, i came back (or at least i'm trying coming back) because it's NOT the vmp forum. there was a lot of ..ugly over there, which caused me to leave in the first place (i was very active/involved in early days of the forum, if anyone reading this hasn't seen me around and is wondering where i come off commenting on this). i'm good friends with a lot of members, and miss interacting with other people i met here. i learned about a lot of great music, vinyl deals/exclusives, tech knowledge that helped me grow and repair my system, and a lot more.

i did not like being policed by a brand that treated me, and many other active members, like second rate trash. i did not like having valid concerns about a multitude of things (either forum or brand/product related) being ignored and moved and deleted. i didn't like being bullied and harassed by staff. i didn't like one of my friends getting straight up stalked and having no action around it. i didn't like getting flooded with people that were there to fight instead of make friends and talk about music.

i'm glad a lot of us are here. i hope it stays closer to what it was when i very much enjoyed logging on every day. i think, much like it did then, it will attract the kind of people we'd like to be here on its own. we can certainly look into promoting somewhere if people are interested, but i think keeping it separate from The Brand is a good thing.

A lot of these reasons double as reasons why I quit being a moderator. Though I was never bullied by staff, I did feel like we moderators were left to fend for ourselves a lot, with growing (legitimate!) dissent from some of VMP's most loyal customers. There were many arguments in threads that would have been better handled with a voice from VMP, not the people who volunteered to help out and in exchange for hours of work, got an occasional free record or store credit.

Were we perfect? Of course not. But we were trying. I'm sorry for moving stuff around @helllord but I'm so glad you're back. Those early days were so great.

 

[Dash]

Yes. Growth for growth's sake was at the core of VMPs continued business issues.

 

[helllord]

A lot of these reasons double as reasons why I quit being a moderator. Though I was never bullied by staff, I did feel like we moderators were left to fend for ourselves a lot, with growing (legitimate!) dissent from some of VMP's most loyal customers. There were many arguments in threads that would have been better handled with a voice from VMP, not the people who volunteered to help out and in exchange for hours of work, got an occasional free record or store credit.

Were we perfect? Of course not. But we were trying. I'm sorry for moving stuff around @helllord but I'm so glad you're back. Those early days were so great.

oh i'm fully not trying to come for you or any other mods or dredge up old drama. that was more fostered by vmp as a whole than individual mod power. just citing it as an influence on what snowballed into a hostile environment for a lot of early users.

 

[Skalap]

Where do I sign? Every time I log in I feel like I come into a bar, ask for a drink and sit down to a table with a group of friends.

 

[Dash]

oh i'm fully not trying to come for you or any other mods or dredge up old drama. that was more fostered by vmp as a whole than individual mod power. just citing it as an influence on what snowballed into a hostile environment for a lot of early users.