General Question

scotthilk

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 15, 2019
Messages
7,127
Location
Left Coast
Hey all,

First and foremost, thanks for setting this up! I am really happy the transition felt seamless.

A few quick questions!

1) Who is currently running and moderating this website?
2) Since this forum was crowd funded, do the mods/owners have full say and ownership here, or is this a member-collective?

I merely ask these questions because, like and forum or company or island (see: Lord Of The Flies), things get political/hectic/crazy, especially when $ potentially gets involved (ROTM? Who knows!)

Anyways, just curious so that this baby can run smoothe like butta. Please let me know if I can assist in any way.

Scott
 
Staff is:

I don't know if it's been explicitly laid out in a forum constitution or anything, but I get the impression we're operating as a sort of a Republic. The showrunners have final say, but they're listening and taking suggestions.

Thanks! Curious to hear what the others have to say.
 
this is something we'll need to address. things happened so quickly and we've pretty much been focused on getting this going as best we could before the hammer fell. obviously transparency is important, given how this all transpired, the amazing number and amount of gofundme donations, and with the general faith shown to us in getting this up and running. hopefully when things settle down a bit, we'll lay out a collective vision of the community and how we got here. i know that's not an answer, but we hope to provide one soon.
 
this is something we'll need to address. things happened so quickly and we've pretty much been focused on getting this going as best we could before the hammer fell. obviously transparency is important, given how this all transpired, the amazing number and amount of gofundme donations, and with the general faith shown to us in getting this up and running. hopefully when things settle down a bit, we'll lay out a collective vision of the community and how we got here. i know that's not an answer, but we hope to provide one soon.
That's awesome! Kudos to everyone for getting this set up so quickly. Thanks, Andy!
 
They’re a young company. They’re learning on the job. They’ll get there so don’t worry, they got your back.....

Moohahahaha!

01FC36BE-A138-4AFF-B6FA-7FE021ABA1BB.jpeg

Seriously though great job guys!

I have a few suggestions for things that I think could be good going forward but I’ll give it a while to let you get on top of everything and then have a well deserved breather!
 
Staff is:

I don't know if it's been explicitly laid out in a forum constitution or anything, but I get the impression we're operating as a sort of a Republic. The showrunners have final say, but they're listening and taking suggestions.
I like the republic analogy. Or it's like a co-op but for shitposting instead of organic greens.

As for the money, all the mods trust each other, and hopefully you trust us as a whole (even if you think I suck). We tried to raise enough to keep the site running for a few years to start, so that's what it's for. As for the future, we'll make it the best place it can be and hopefully people feel like they contributed towards something that is worthwhile to keep in the world.
 
I like the republic analogy. Or it's like a co-op but for shitposting instead of organic greens.

As for the money, all the mods trust each other, and hopefully you trust us as a whole (even if you think I suck). We tried to raise enough to keep the site running for a few years to start, so that's what it's for. As for the future, we'll make it the best place it can be and hopefully people feel like they contributed towards something that is worthwhile to keep in the world.

I like the idea of a Republic too. I think that it worked in the VMP forum because a lot of respect was given by and to each other and that's how it should work. We are all here for fun, to discuss, to discover music and to relief some pressure when needed. In a perfect world, there would be no need for moderators. We are not in a perfect world though so I am very happy to have this team of great moderators to look after us.

Concerning the money, it's good to know that you'll have enough to keep the site running for a few years :) In case more money is needed at some point, I'll be happy to contribute again.
 
I like the republic analogy.
I like the idea of a Republic too.
Just a thought that has been running through my head...as this place calcifies into its own thing, *some* of the conversations from the old place are bound to come around again in a slightly different form.

It's nice to think of this as a republic, but at the end of the day somebody (or somebodies) *owns* this site. As much as we'd all probably like to think of it as "ours," especially in contrast to how the previous one worked, we're ultimately still all here at the pleasure of the people who created it -- even those of us who financially contributed to that. Are there/will there be any mechanisms in place to ensure that one person can't pull the plug on this site in the future if they get tired of it? Likewise, is there any way of guaranteeing that any revenue streams that get generated (ads, merch, etc.) are for the maintenance of the site and not monetizing for profit?

I don't mean to impugn anybody's integrity here at all, so please don't take any offense at the framing of those questions. Just thinking about how, in the chaos of porting everybody over to a safe haven, some of the essential questions get sidelined: what is this site, who owns it, who makes decisions about it, do we have any more or less of a voice here than we did in the old place, etc.? Personally speaking, I was a heavy poster who felt like I had a small slice of emotional ownership at the last place, but got a quick reminder that I was just a guest there. It's similarly easy to feel like I'm more than a guest here, and I think everybody involved in running this site wants to foster that feeling, but at the end of the day that's perhaps both true and not true at the same time.

I know there aren't necessarily easy answers to some of those questions at this point. Just throwing them out there for some general mulling.
 
Just a thought that has been running through my head...as this place calcifies into its own thing, *some* of the conversations from the old place are bound to come around again in a slightly different form.

It's nice to think of this as a republic, but at the end of the day somebody (or somebodies) *owns* this site. As much as we'd all probably like to think of it as "ours," especially in contrast to how the previous one worked, we're ultimately still all here at the pleasure of the people who created it -- even those of us who financially contributed to that. Are there/will there be any mechanisms in place to ensure that one person can't pull the plug on this site in the future if they get tired of it? Likewise, is there any way of guaranteeing that any revenue streams that get generated (ads, merch, etc.) are for the maintenance of the site and not monetizing for profit?

I don't mean to impugn anybody's integrity here at all, so please don't take any offense at the framing of those questions. Just thinking about how, in the chaos of porting everybody over to a safe haven, some of the essential questions get sidelined: what is this site, who owns it, who makes decisions about it, do we have any more or less of a voice here than we did in the old place, etc.? Personally speaking, I was a heavy poster who felt like I had a small slice of emotional ownership at the last place, but got a quick reminder that I was just a guest there. It's similarly easy to feel like I'm more than a guest here, and I think everybody involved in running this site wants to foster that feeling, but at the end of the day that's perhaps both true and not true at the same time.

I know there aren't necessarily easy answers to some of those questions at this point. Just throwing them out there for some general mulling.
I hope nobody reads that as setting up an antagonistic relationship with the site. I don't expect straight-ahead answers from any single person. I guess it's just a more philosophical set of thoughts about the word of the hour, "community," and how that takes shape in a setting like this.
 
Just a thought that has been running through my head...as this place calcifies into its own thing, *some* of the conversations from the old place are bound to come around again in a slightly different form.

It's nice to think of this as a republic, but at the end of the day somebody (or somebodies) *owns* this site. As much as we'd all probably like to think of it as "ours," especially in contrast to how the previous one worked, we're ultimately still all here at the pleasure of the people who created it -- even those of us who financially contributed to that. Are there/will there be any mechanisms in place to ensure that one person can't pull the plug on this site in the future if they get tired of it? Likewise, is there any way of guaranteeing that any revenue streams that get generated (ads, merch, etc.) are for the maintenance of the site and not monetizing for profit?

I don't mean to impugn anybody's integrity here at all, so please don't take any offense at the framing of those questions. Just thinking about how, in the chaos of porting everybody over to a safe haven, some of the essential questions get sidelined: what is this site, who owns it, who makes decisions about it, do we have any more or less of a voice here than we did in the old place, etc.? Personally speaking, I was a heavy poster who felt like I had a small slice of emotional ownership at the last place, but got a quick reminder that I was just a guest there. It's similarly easy to feel like I'm more than a guest here, and I think everybody involved in running this site wants to foster that feeling, but at the end of the day that's perhaps both true and not true at the same time.

I know there aren't necessarily easy answers to some of those questions at this point. Just throwing them out there for some general mulling.
I think these are good questions to have. The people “in charge” were not chosen by anyone but just people who had the time, energy, and skills to help make this happen. No one was chosen or elected. Is this good or bad? I have no idea.

We’ve already tried to put the funds in a PayPal account that more than one of us has access to so that it’s not one persons sole responsibility.

No one knows what the structure or purpose of this place will be going forward. But it’s been like a week since we heard the news about the other place. Everyone has been way to busy just making this place exists to think about too much about these kinds of things.
 
I think these are good questions to have. The people “in charge” were not chosen by anyone but just people who had the time, energy, and skills to help make this happen. No one was chosen or elected. Is this good or bad? I have no idea.

We’ve already tried to put the funds in a PayPal account that more than one of us has access to so that it’s not one persons sole responsibility.

No one knows what the structure or purpose of this place will be going forward. But it’s been like a week since we heard the news about the other place. Everyone has been way to busy just making this place exists to think about too much about these kinds of things.
Yep, that's totally fair. I don't think anybody could reasonably expect that it's all worked out at this point, and I definitely don't raise those questions to put pressure on you guys as much as I wanted to put some of those thoughts into the air so we can all turn it over in the backs of our heads. Some of those questions would be great to get visibility to sooner rather than later (State of the Union anybody??? :) ), but others are obviously much longer term questions that we may not have answers to until circumstances reveal them to us.
 
Yep, that's totally fair. I don't think anybody could reasonably expect that it's all worked out at this point, and I definitely don't raise those questions to put pressure on you guys as much as I wanted to put some of those thoughts into the air so we can all turn it over in the backs of our heads. Some of those questions would be great to get visibility to sooner rather than later (State of the Union anybody??? :) ), but others are obviously much longer term questions that we may not have answers to until circumstances reveal them to us.
We’re working on it ;)
 
Just a thought that has been running through my head...as this place calcifies into its own thing, *some* of the conversations from the old place are bound to come around again in a slightly different form.

It's nice to think of this as a republic, but at the end of the day somebody (or somebodies) *owns* this site. As much as we'd all probably like to think of it as "ours," especially in contrast to how the previous one worked, we're ultimately still all here at the pleasure of the people who created it -- even those of us who financially contributed to that. Are there/will there be any mechanisms in place to ensure that one person can't pull the plug on this site in the future if they get tired of it? Likewise, is there any way of guaranteeing that any revenue streams that get generated (ads, merch, etc.) are for the maintenance of the site and not monetizing for profit?

I don't mean to impugn anybody's integrity here at all, so please don't take any offense at the framing of those questions. Just thinking about how, in the chaos of porting everybody over to a safe haven, some of the essential questions get sidelined: what is this site, who owns it, who makes decisions about it, do we have any more or less of a voice here than we did in the old place, etc.? Personally speaking, I was a heavy poster who felt like I had a small slice of emotional ownership at the last place, but got a quick reminder that I was just a guest there. It's similarly easy to feel like I'm more than a guest here, and I think everybody involved in running this site wants to foster that feeling, but at the end of the day that's perhaps both true and not true at the same time.

I know there aren't necessarily easy answers to some of those questions at this point. Just throwing them out there for some general mulling.

Yeah completely agree with this. This and potential issues with IP law were concerns that came to my mind. I trust all the team involved but for now I agree with the idea of steering clear from allowing merchandising or using the logo for anything that can be sold, despite the enthusiasm we all have early doors. There may need to be a legal consultation, or at least investigation, before that kind of stuff comes in to play and it may end up being too expensive up front to justify the money coming in. For now I’m just really thankful that all involved have gotten our little web Community a new home and that going forward “they’re working on it” 😜
 
These are all great questions and completely valid. I'll be honest, I'm still impressed how we kind of just came together, and over a chat channel collectively made this spring from the interwebs, lol. Trust me, as we all work on getting the site functioning properly we all know there are a lot of things to address, but we're trying to be systematic about it and we are working on delivering a State of the Union of sorts to at least give the members some information and understanding of what's going on and what's on the horizon.

Hang in there.........6 days ago non of this was here ;)
 
Its pretty incredible that not only is this up and running... its heading towards 4 figures of members in a week! Theres 275 THREADS with over 12,000 messages. That's mindblowing. A massive well done to all involved!

Imagine the kinds of sites that would love that kind of regular traffic and attention.
 
Its pretty incredible that not only is this up and running... its heading towards 4 figures of members in a week! Theres 275 THREADS with over 12,000 messages. That's mindblowing. A massive well done to all involved!

Imagine the kinds of sites that would love that kind of regular traffic and attention.
Imagine the kinds of sites that would give it up ;)
 
A thought, in terms of the Republic discussion, we could elect some people to a position and them along with the mods would rule on any controversy type things in a PM thread. Of course, then the question is how to elect people, how many, how long a term, and what happens if there is a change in the mod number or an elected person drops out.
 
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