I just saw this on Twitter:
I got one of these messages too, last week. First time I've gotten anything like this from Discogs. But I already *have* this record. And if I got it because it's an "artist alert," well, the only reason I have that artist associated to my collection is because I HAVE THIS RECORD. Seems like a weird artist to test this feature out with.
Did anybody else get one of these?
omg, i've been on indefinite hiatus for so long from the old place that i didn't know y'all picked stuff up for hatbird. not that it surprises me, but that made me...so happy. y'all are good.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.”
I believe that response is what led a lot of people to quit VMP altogether, those who did can chime in of that indeed was the case
I get someone may feel that way, not sure that is needed, just my opinion
You have absolutely no reason to be embarrassed. You're an amazing person for making this case. I'm not an easy person to move I rarely get emotional in the sense that I display it physically. This moved me to tears. I've always felt out of place from the small Kentucky town I grew up in. I was always ostracized and treated like an outsider. I was withdrawn and created a false persona to keep people away. I was hesitant to open up to anyone even my own family. Especially about my personal life and sexuality. The only person I was able to fully open up to is my girlfriend (who came from out of state which is why I talk about her on here so much) but this fucking community has been a way for me to actually feel like I belong somewhere. I feel like I have true friends here. You guys are like family. When I found at that the forum was cancelled I was devastated but unfathomably relieved when I discovered this forum existed. Thank you for trying your best to preserve the only place that I really felt any belonging to.And now I’m all sad again but also embarrassed and flattered, lol. I really am surprised people took the time to save this.
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...
No screenshots but it was directly to me.
The most damning example of taking stuff from people on the forum is probably Experience Unlimited, right? That was one that really shocked me.
If Discogs are going to start taking money for direct advertising then the least they could do is drop their seller fees a little.yep, i've gotten a couple in the past week or two, both from vmp and not. idk if it's a service they're paying for, or discogs trying to be more interactive? i haven't done any research on it.
Sup?
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And then, of course... the fake story
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yeah agreed. still lower than ebay so ehIf Discogs are going to start taking money for direct advertising then the least they could do is drop their seller fees a little.
Thaht EU bullshit is absolutely fucking lame. I don't even knows what they have to gain there.
Sup?
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And then, of course... the fake story
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Thaht EU bullshit is absolutely fucking lame. I don't even knows what they have to gain there.
The craziest thing about that whole thing is why WOULDN’T you just take a moment to say “The great thing about VMP is that many of our members are more knowledgeable about certain genres or eras of music than we are, and occasionally the first time we’ve heard of an album is because somebody tells us about it and brings it to our attention. One of our members sent me a message about this album with a cool cover that I’d never heard of, and after listening to it, I agreed with him that the rest of the Vinyl Me, Please community needed to hear it, too.”Yeah. That was a really foul move. I'd heard mention about it here and there, so I asked if someone could finally link me to the situation while all the bullshit was going down. Then I went and screenshot it, because it pissed me off so much, and it was a pretty damning piece of evidence they were about to erase for themselves. There's a lot of stuff I wasn't able to save when the house was on fire, but that was the one thing that I ran in to grab, along with the addresses for a couple of Pay It Forward records that I needed to sell.
More time? With "more time," I might have filled my shoe box with even more shit like this, or... maybe I just would have focused on the more positive aspects of what we left behind.
Or a "Thank you, @Lee Newman , for the VMP Rising name." So few words. So much meaning and goodwill.The craziest thing about that whole thing is why WOULDN’T you just take a moment to say “The great thing about VMP is that many of our members are more knowledgeable about certain genres or eras of music than we are, and occasionally the first time we’ve heard of an album is because somebody tells us about it and brings it to our attention. One of our members sent me a message about this album with a cool cover that I’d never heard of, and after listening to it, I agreed with him that the rest of the Vinyl Me, Please community needed to hear it, too.”
Because that’s the truth, and he wouldn’t have looked any worse for admitting one of his customers turned him on to it. That’s the kind of response that would actually endear him to a lot of folks, I’d bet.
The craziest thing about that whole thing is why WOULDN’T you just take a moment to say “The great thing about VMP is that many of our members are more knowledgeable about certain genres or eras of music than we are, and occasionally the first time we’ve heard of an album is because somebody tells us about it and brings it to our attention. One of our members sent me a message about this album with a cool cover that I’d never heard of, and after listening to it, I agreed with him that the rest of the Vinyl Me, Please community needed to hear it, too.”
Because that’s the truth, and he wouldn’t have looked any worse for admitting one of his customers turned him on to it. That’s the kind of response that would actually endear him to a lot of folks, I’d bet.
For sure, but you’d think they’re smart enough to at least recognize that they should want people to think they respect the community. Like, maybe Cam doesn’t care enough to give the credit, but dude, it was on a public forum; at least make people THINK you care about it.if they respected the community, we wouldn't even be here.
For sure, but you’d think they’re smart enough to at least recognize that they should want people to think they respect the community. Like, maybe Cam doesn’t care enough to give the credit, but dude, it was on a public forum; at least make people THINK you care about it.
You have absolutely no reason to be embarrassed. You're an amazing person for making this case. I'm not an easy person to move I rarely get emotional in the sense that I display it physically. This moved me to tears. I've always felt out of place from the small Kentucky town I grew up in. I was always ostracized and treated like an outsider. I was withdrawn and created a false persona to keep people away. I was hesitant to open up to anyone even my own family. Especially about my personal life and sexuality. The only person I was able to fully open up to is my girlfriend (who came from out of state which is why I talk about her on here so much) but this fucking community has been a way for me to actually feel like I belong somewhere. I feel like I have true friends here. You guys are like family. When I found at that the forum was cancelled I was devastated but unfathomably relieved when I discovered this forum existed. Thank you for trying your best to preserve the only place that I really felt any belonging to.
Your funnyFor sure, but you’d think they’re smart enough to at least recognize that they should want people to think they respect the community.
@Indymisanthrope, I do agree with you, even through all the bitterness the reality is we don't really know, BUT, I would bet my left lung it has/had nothing to do with making the community better, or for the community in the long run. No way, no how, whatever the reason was it came from a place of selfishness. I've said it before, all they had to do was actually listen and not go on the defensive. Take a step back and say, "Wait, lets back this truck up a minute, take care of these little problems and then move forward"Part of me still thinks none of us has hit on the “real” reason, the true catalyzing event, for shutting down the old forum. A lot of the theories make sense, but none of them completely hold together for me. I suppose that this part of me just thinks that if I reflect on how VMP has done business in the past, there may very well not BE a single reason. They just...decided to do it, then started forming a rationale, whatever that happens to be, to support it, after they’d already concluded it was a good idea.
What’s incredible to me is that, if people are even halfway correct that it was an attempt to stop hosting and/or to decentralize criticism of their business, then not only did that fail when this forum got started, but they also VOLUNTARILY GAVE UP THEIR OWN ABILITY TO RESPOND TO IT. Now all of that criticism is in a place where they may not even be welcome, much less have control over the messaging (to be clear, I’m personally cool with any staff who were active on the old forum joining up here to be part of the community, just not cool with them joining up to act as official reps of the business).
That’s what makes this decision so terrible to me. The Google results won’t bring up VMP hosting its own bad PR anymore, sure, but what they get instead may be even worse for them: wild theories, extremely critical reviews, some (speaking frankly here, including myself in this) bitterness from former members who resent what they’ve done, and...absolutely no response from VMP. The only party they’ve successfully silenced is themselves. Truly baffling.