Re: Only 29 Forums?!?
The beef, at least with me is the way they communicated the change. People that are well funded that weren't considering getting into the pro audio media space now see this as an opportunity. The issue with FUD is you need someone that can code in house. That was known when it was originally implemented. They were warned four years ago what would happen and given a comprehensive report on what to do. Part of what happened in the previous transition is the person that that wrote the RFQ and proposal for the contractors did exactly the opposite of what was recommended though I think it was a mistake based on misinterpretation.
Forums aren't about tools or software. That's rule one. I ran the LAB on a funky old perl script for many years. What I don't think EH understood, or even understands now is that it's about the way they interact with the community. Which has been very poor. Had they listened to you guys in the first place this won't be an issue. They came in and in not so many words told the users to fuck off, they were doing it their way, regardless. That alone shows a huge disconnect in how to deal with an interactive community. They deal in a publishing realm, not a social media realm and the lack of experience and understanding shows. Another example is taking the site off line every night for a couple of hours west coast touring guys are just getting done or in the morning when the UK and Europe are starting the day.
They'll still maintain a critical mass though I think most of the higher level posts will migrate elsewhere or some of those folks will stop posting together. What needed to happen is whom ever really runs the biz dev side of the property (is it still Jeff?) needed to or needs to come out, apologized, accept responsibility for the poor decision and explain what the long term vision and goals are for the community. They're relying on the mods cred with the community to patch it over. They aren't controlling the conversation, they're reacting to it.
This isn't about software. It's about trust and respect.
Good to see you here my friend.
Dave
