R.I.P. VMP Forum

mcherry said:
He responded kindly but it was to me
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I respect this, and I don’t want to take anything away from it, but he didn’t have a damn word for the rest of us (and the only words Matt had are, well...infamous now). That was one of the reasons I canceled. That community was partly his doing, and he couldn’t even say a word over its grave.
 
A Lost Highway said:
I actually think their main reason for getting rid of the forum was that you *could* be a member without being a customer.
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I'm not sure. But even so, if someone joins the forum then becomes a customer, is that so bad?

If you are right, that also means they shut down the forum because people became customers in the "wrong" order.
 
Count_Vader said:
PLEASE tell me there are screenshots. I have full faith in you guys that you roasted him alive for that shit. What a thing to say to some of your most faithful and enthusiastic customers...
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No screenshots but it was directly to me.

He apologized in a DM the next day but the damage had been done (he also posted an apology in the thread that was verbatim). He told me that he “genuinely wanted to know what we would do with more time” and came off like a robot.
 
gouis said:
No screenshots but it was directly to me.

He apologized in a DM the next day but the damage had been done (he also posted an apology in the thread that was verbatim). He told me that he “genuinely wanted to know what we would do with more time” and came off like a robot.
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He came off like a jerk and an idiot.
 
Count_Vader said:
What was the plea? This gets worse by the minute. I mean I liked a l ot of the people that work there but CEO (Tyler?) Sounds like a blue ribbon asshole.
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I copy and pasted it to Evernote because it was beautiful and moving and I felt the thread or forum could go at any moment:

I wrote this earlier to Cam. I’ve been trying to find words for all of you but this is all I’ve got for now so I’m sharing publicly:

“I’m just gonna ask: please don’t do this.

This forum isn’t like anywhere else on the internet. Publicly accessible and for the most part pretty damn friendly. Where else are you going to find music heads of all ages, shapes, and sizes, mingling together and sharing their knowledge, sharing pieces of their lives? You have a gear question? Head on over to our gear threads where people will try to answer and won’t judge you for your set up or your budget. Wanna shoot the shit? There’s any number of threads looking for a tangent or try the Cafe where discussions range from venting about a job, sharing a family tragedy, or just communing with good-natured folks. How many people have been walked off the ledge in the Depression Support thread? I don’t know but you read through that thread and you know that it’s happened, that this forum has helped them. That people feel safe enough here to share their fears and their suffering, that this community will listen and not judge. Read through the Welcome thread and you’ll see a recent post from One Who Walks Away who explained that when he first joined, this forum was an escape for him while his wife was dying in the hospital. Did you read through the Record Store Day thread and see how this year a group of us banded together to buy Corycm his must-haves because he was too sick to go himself? The PIF thread you know but did you also see the Random Acts of VMP Kindness thread where some have shared how they’ve benefited from fellow members with gifts out of the blue? The daily challenge threads, the what’s spinning, so many small communities linked here together. Yes, some of these things happen in other places. But not all these things in one place.

I get that the forum has grown into something that may not match what you guys are today but you should still be proud of us, of what we created. Like any fully formed being, we bite occasionally, but there’s so much more good here than bad. So much more. If staff needs to take another extended time out, please do that instead of shutting us down in two days. Two days isn’t enough time to wrap this up, to end what we’ve become. Spin this off as an unofficial forum, make us admins, give this place to us. Anything. Please. Please don’t do this.”
 
jaycee said:
Anyone who was on that forum was being mined for information and I'm sure they will continue to do so on reddit or anywhere their products are being discussed. Our opinions about artists, our likes, our dislikes, our suggestions, even our humor was informing that company. Sometimes we were asked directly. Usually not. They didn't give us credit. They even toke names for their services directly from forum suggestions. Was anyone paid for it. No. Were people thanked. Maybe...but then when they continued to fail from a logistics, QC, and operations standpoint and dissent grew and people suggested that they change their tactics they took a big 💩 on the people who backed the company at every turn (see above). I know lots and lots of people here want to believe that these folks are just naive, dumb-dumbs who happen to have a company that sells records, but they very "intentionally" shut down that forum. They are not just stoned rich Colorado white guys. They are people with venture capitalist dollars to be beholden to. They are people with an image to maintain and they happen to sell records that are often warped.

I buy records from all kinds of crappy people and companies. As @HiFi Guy said I can get them anywhere, but what made Voldemort me please a place that I wanted to buy them from was that they were presenting themselves as part of the cohort of the forum and not soulless corporate bankers that wear flannel and work in an open concept office. They want to be the classy Newbury imo. The want to own the market between the old white guys that buy jazz and rolling stone records and the people that shop strictly for colored vinyl because it looks good. So instead of it being about the "story" of the music it's about the market their product can fill.

Sorry for the rant. :cautious:
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The most damning example of taking stuff from people on the forum is probably Experience Unlimited, right? That was one that really shocked me.
 
johnpisme said:
I copy and pasted it to Evernote because it was beautiful and moving and I felt the thread or forum could go at any moment:

I wrote this earlier to Cam. I’ve been trying to find words for all of you but this is all I’ve got for now so I’m sharing publicly:

“I’m just gonna ask: please don’t do this.

This forum isn’t like anywhere else on the internet. Publicly accessible and for the most part pretty damn friendly. Where else are you going to find music heads of all ages, shapes, and sizes, mingling together and sharing their knowledge, sharing pieces of their lives? You have a gear question? Head on over to our gear threads where people will try to answer and won’t judge you for your set up or your budget. Wanna shoot the shit? There’s any number of threads looking for a tangent or try the Cafe where discussions range from venting about a job, sharing a family tragedy, or just communing with good-natured folks. How many people have been walked off the ledge in the Depression Support thread? I don’t know but you read through that thread and you know that it’s happened, that this forum has helped them. That people feel safe enough here to share their fears and their suffering, that this community will listen and not judge. Read through the Welcome thread and you’ll see a recent post from One Who Walks Away who explained that when he first joined, this forum was an escape for him while his wife was dying in the hospital. Did you read through the Record Store Day thread and see how this year a group of us banded together to buy Corycm his must-haves because he was too sick to go himself? The PIF thread you know but did you also see the Random Acts of VMP Kindness thread where some have shared how they’ve benefited from fellow members with gifts out of the blue? The daily challenge threads, the what’s spinning, so many small communities linked here together. Yes, some of these things happen in other places. But not all these things in one place.

I get that the forum has grown into something that may not match what you guys are today but you should still be proud of us, of what we created. Like any fully formed being, we bite occasionally, but there’s so much more good here than bad. So much more. If staff needs to take another extended time out, please do that instead of shutting us down in two days. Two days isn’t enough time to wrap this up, to end what we’ve become. Spin this off as an unofficial forum, make us admins, give this place to us. Anything. Please. Please don’t do this.”
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And now I’m all sad again but also embarrassed and flattered, lol. I really am surprised people took the time to save this.
 
Count_Vader said:
PLEASE tell me there are screenshots. I have full faith in you guys that you roasted him alive for that shit. What a thing to say to some of your most faithful and enthusiastic customers...
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webcache.googleusercontent.com

Important Announcement Regarding The Forum

Why are you only giving us two days? what would you do with more time?
webcache.googleusercontent.com webcache.googleusercontent.com

Also, I believe it was in one of Pauly's posts apologizing/damage controling for Matt's comment that he claimed it was a genuine question and no one gave real responses, although you can see even within the same page as the comment there are legit responses but Matt never came back except for his super-lame two sentence bullshit apology that was I think at least a day later.
 
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mcherry said:
And now I’m all sad again but also embarrassed and flattered, lol. I really am surprised people took the time to save this.
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Honestly, before I read this I had only been posting on the forum for about a month, and even then it was almost entirely limited to the jazz/Blue Note threads. I had followed the VMP Anthology thread all the way and that plus the sudden shut down announcement had made me really start to see what a great community the forum was at it's core. I likely was going to follow to the new forum just based on that, but after reading this I really felt like "these are some seriously awesome people" and I wanted to really become part of the community. I copied it over immediately, fearing a VMP Anthology takedown was imminent. It felt like a Jerry McGuire memo moment for me, lol. It was absolutely the perfect words at the perfect time, to me. It's wonderful and shouldn't be embarassing at all. You might say IT LITERALLY CHANGED THE GAME.
 
Indymisanthrope said:
I respect this, and I don’t want to take anything away from it, but he didn’t have a damn word for the rest of us (and the only words Matt had are, well...infamous now). That was one of the reasons I canceled. That community was partly his doing, and he couldn’t even say a word over its grave.
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When I first joined Cam was a solid presence (along with Sev) and I really dug and respected his posts because he was in escence VMP's "music guy" right? Over the years he disappeared and have heard some excuses that he was too busy. It is pretty weak that he didn't/wouldn't hop on to say ANYTHING, no matter how difficult that might be.
 
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SanSeattle said:
Cam was a decent presence (along with Sev) and I really dug and respected his posts because he was in escence VMP's "music guy" right? Over the years he disappeared and heard some excuses that he was too busy. It is pretty weak that he didn't/wouldn't hop on to say ANYTHING, no matter how difficult that might be.
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he got fresh with @Lee Newman there in the last few months of the forum
 
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