You could post Tabakin, too, but the shift was abrupt between the forum being there and the weeks that followed, even if it wasn't as abrupt as the shift from pro-VMP "downvote any critique" to torch wielding mob that reddit has seen over the last few weeks. The reason A$AP Ferg was a joke is because it was an anomaly and Tabakim ultimately still sold out because of the forum.
I remember the Crumb exclusive drop and the comments about how people were happy that nothing good was released, because it was so close to RSD. I commented that I actually thought it was good. Lee said the same. Then it was one person after another asking for a link until the shit snowballed and it was gone. Tina"d, Tina'd, Tina'd. How many members did you see buying Plantasia and commenting on how they didn't know why they were buying a plant album, but the forum hype got them to buy it?
It might seem like a stretch to believe we affected it that much, but not really. A lot of "non active" members chimed in as the forum sank about how they watched from afar to get those scoops. We hyped releases based on substance and recommendations, while having a stock thread constantly updating us. It was all at our fingertips which makes a difference when you're releasing a lot of stuff that nobody has any prior reference for. Everything was going out the door in a few days, if not the first day. Those were small runs. For weeks to months after the forum went down, several exclusives with runs of only 300 were still in the shop. I watched it slow down, because I relished in it at the time. VMP shifted their FOMO so that it was generated even more by the secondary market.
It's really not that complicated. How did Still Woozy sell out within 10 to 15 minutes after the drop? Is it because of the announcement that they sent everyone AFTER it was already sold out? It's because they were able to reform some variation of community on reddit that interacted and hyped each other up about it, not only to alert each other to look out for it, but to know that it was coming at all. Likewise, the customers of reddit are starting to heed warnings about even joining. I couldn't even see today's store drop on reddit, because it, apparently, got downvoted so hard. And that's the method that they've chosen to have staff do official announcements on?
It's true that most customers aren't aware of the scope or magnitude of issues with VMP, but they still know they haven't received their shit or gotten CS responses. They might assume they are the only ones with issues and it's a fluke, but check the last 10 or so IG posts and the comment section is nothing but fist shaking and demanding answers letting people know they aren't alone. They have 142k IG followers. 142 THOUSAND. Facebook is just as bad, if not worse, and they have over 276k.
I thought killing the forum was stupid, because they could at least control the platform. They got control of the narrative for a while on reddit, but have really let that get away from them as of late. But with their social media soaked with this much poison... I don't know how they contain this, but it doesn't feel like ignoring it and hoping everyone goes away is going to be too effective.
