R.I.P. VMP Forum

helllord said:
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.
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I'm with you. This new forum gives us all a chance for a clean slate.
 
Dash said:
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.
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I'd never want to moderate that fiasco. Just look at the final days. They dropped a bomb and just let speculation go apeshit. Then we were made to feel as if, by asking questions and playing into that which was created by design, it meant the toxicity was bred by us. It was like the most horrific of Twilight Zone episodes. They refused to divulge information about any of the issues they created from price hikes, overselling albums, missing shipments, and lack of replacements, to even what exactly they were selling and at what price. I can only imagine trying to moderate a situation like that when I'm not being provided with information myself. I envy nobody in that position.

Things chilled out to a degree when Pauly and Storf tried to step in and finally speak at the tail end, but it was still a bunch of double speak -- I preferred Storf's wrasslin' memes, to the bogus explanations. Think about what Pauly said. He said that he felt that being vague was the best approach? Seriously? If Matt was tone deaf, what was that? Lack of transparency was the core of the issues, because, you're essentially telling people they need to trust you, while continually giving them more and more reason not to.

But... that's all dead and I don't really want to give them anymore attention or energy -- I called them out for it there/then. I only mention it as a reminder of what we don't want and an acknowledgement of the position any moderators might have been in. VMP expressed that their focus was to reach new people and to create a different community. The clown with the YouTube channel and Billboard got info, while we were stonewalled. Any outreach here isn't to creat a "different" community, or an attempt to adjust this one to something that reflects a brand.

We already like us. We don't have that mission. We should be defending what's great here, not trying to work to bring in anything to change it. If what's good expands somehow, that's great, but again, expanding just to expand... I mostly just want to make sure anyone left behind can find us.

What's still so amazing to me is that there is no product here. There is no central focus on a brand other than us. Scouts left, found new land and sent out the alert. We came like little ants and rebuilt it better. People set up tents, constructed shelters, dug digital latrines and soup kitchens. It actually feels like that to me. Members are making their own spaces and spaces for each other. We're still setting up.

I respect and appreciate everyone who put in the time and energy to make sure this place happened. I also appreciate that you all haven't completely relaxed behind the scenes and are already focusing on the future and making sure it's sustainable. The fact that we made it here at all, however, does demonstrate that the community itself is sustainable, even when the structure is pulled out from under us. That's a powerful truth that should carry this forward. This dialog is important and it's good to feel like we are all on a similar page. Those who are administrators shouldn't have to feel alone in this struggle, like they may have in the past. We're all responsible for this place and regulating and maintaining it as it continues to evolve.
 
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Dead C said:
What's still so amazing to me is that there is no product here. There is no central focus on a brand other than us.
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Don’t get it twisted, I’m currently brainstorming how I can monetize this group of people for my own gain. Stay tuned for my record club...it’s a model I’ve seen employed with great success previously where I take your money on the promise of maybe eventually sending you a record. Then when you all buy my limited edition, I go and buy out all of the copies of whatever other limited edition is there. And when I have to cancel my orders later, I put up all the copies on discogs for 3x market price.

Don’t worry, my photo for my website bio will have lots of nice bokeh so it’s totally legit!
 
Heath said:
Don’t get it twisted, I’m currently brainstorming how I can monetize this group of people for my own gain. Stay tuned for my record club...it’s a model I’ve seen employed with great success previously where I take your money on the promise of maybe eventually sending you a record. Then when you all buy my limited edition, I go and buy out all of the copies of whatever other limited edition is there. And when I have to cancel my orders later, I put up all the copies on discogs for 3x market price.

Don’t worry, my photo for my website bio will have lots of nice bokeh so it’s totally legit!
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How much? When? Should I preorder from bullmoose or will you have a variant released 2 months after drop date? Do you accept plasma, or do I need to convert it to credits first?
 
Heath said:
Don’t get it twisted, I’m currently brainstorming how I can monetize this group of people for my own gain. Stay tuned for my record club...it’s a model I’ve seen employed with great success previously where I take your money on the promise of maybe eventually sending you a record. Then when you all buy my limited edition, I go and buy out all of the copies of whatever other limited edition is there. And when I have to cancel my orders later, I put up all the copies on discogs for 3x market price.

Don’t worry, my photo for my website bio will have lots of nice bokeh so it’s totally legit!
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My wallet is a sucker for a nice bokeh.
 
jaycee said:
What is this place about if it isn't about that other place, and there's nothing to market or hype? I think we're finding out, but so far it seems like it's just about people that buy and play records sharing their experiences, and that was always the best part of the other place. It seems clear that the difficult balance between being an open and welcoming place vs. protecting the place from economical or emotional trolling is part of the intent here and again so far so good.
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tbh i don't think we need to be about anything. main draw is appreciating vinyl, but part of the beauty is that the rest is not specific. we have one thing in common and can shoot off into other topics, knowing we have somewhere to start from. that initial icebreaker is part of what's so hard about making friends as an adult, and it's already done for anyone that finds there way on here (regardless of how/from where). i'll never be in any threads related to sports or jazz bc they're not my thing, but that's ok because a pop thread and a books thread and something else that will organically come to be is more my alley.

like you said, the best part of the other place, but without someone running it that's after income and business growth under the facade of genuine friendship. hopefully.
 
jaycee said:
Sorry they hung you out to dry bud. You did help a lot of people to understand things... and in this case I think being helpful became a negative because it allowed them not to take responsibility for their own community, products, organization or lack thereof.
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unfortunately, it is in my nature to be helpful, sometimes to my own determent worse than that
 
helllord said:
wow if this ain't me
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To be fair I DID try and recant it a bit, but honestly that was from the "pre-med psych student trying to stop using clinical terms in casual conversation" side of me more than the "I really I hope I don't hurt the feelings of the person pulling the plug on our community with little to no notice" side :p

sahomerrocks said:
To be fair, a large percentage of CEOs are probably psycopaths

Source
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As are a large percentage of people who screw ya over and talk about how much it hurts them to do and how any criticism of their decision is a personal attack on them... I'm seeing a pattern here 🤔🤔🤔
 
Heath said:
Don’t get it twisted, I’m currently brainstorming how I can monetize this group of people for my own gain. Stay tuned for my record club...it’s a model I’ve seen employed with great success previously where I take your money on the promise of maybe eventually sending you a record. Then when you all buy my limited edition, I go and buy out all of the copies of whatever other limited edition is there. And when I have to cancel my orders later, I put up all the copies on discogs for 3x market price.

Don’t worry, my photo for my website bio will have lots of nice bokeh so it’s totally legit!
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as long as you stick the word exclusive on it, I'm in....
 
Well, that was peculiar. I stepped off most of the internet about ten days ago- terrible things are happening in the real world at present but I shan't burden you with those. This evening, I didn't fancy turning the TV on so I thought I'd log to the VMP Forum. No dice. Took a bit of detective work to establish what had happened but props to everyone for putting this together. It's just like home except I can say fuck.

I'm not going to be around much in the immediate future but I'm sure I'll be ready to contribute more routinely at about the point where I'm completely lost about every forum in joke going. I'm good at that.
 
Ed Selley said:
Well, that was peculiar. I stepped off most of the internet about ten days ago- terrible things are happening in the real world at present but I shan't burden you with those. This evening, I didn't fancy turning the TV on so I thought I'd log to the VMP Forum. No dice. Took a bit of detective work to establish what had happened but props to everyone for putting this together. It's just like home except I can say fuck.

I'm not going to be around much in the immediate future but I'm sure I'll be ready to contribute more routinely at about the point where I'm completely lost about every forum in joke going. I'm good at that.
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Yay, Ed made it!!! Sorry to hear shit’s happening. Anything I can do to help, just let me know bud x
 
Ed Selley said:
Well, that was peculiar. I stepped off most of the internet about ten days ago- terrible things are happening in the real world at present but I shan't burden you with those. This evening, I didn't fancy turning the TV on so I thought I'd log to the VMP Forum. No dice. Took a bit of detective work to establish what had happened but props to everyone for putting this together. It's just like home except I can say fuck.

I'm not going to be around much in the immediate future but I'm sure I'll be ready to contribute more routinely at about the point where I'm completely lost about every forum in joke going. I'm good at that.
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Pleased you made it tho !
If things are supe shit one eve, get to the Beer thread and bring a bottle of the strong stuff.
Ive not made my way there and I plan to one day.
 
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