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Could be due to the anti-GW troll crowd?

Ha! This is funny. It has been kind of fun in a morbid way to see a large company slowly self destruct the way GW has been (in my estimation).

 jah-joshua wrote:
as a member of the page, and a frequent poster of my work there, i can say that it was not just GW minis being posted on the page, nor was it simply the work of the studio...
it was a page that any member could post minis on, from any manufacturer, and there were links to ebay auctions...

since i posted minis from a variety of companies, and links to my auctions (since it was not against the rules), i am part of the problem...
i am sad to see the page go, as there were a lot of great work posted there, and many ex-'Eavy Metal guys that we got to reminisce with, but it is not a surprise, considering that people were posting (myself included) Warmachine, Wyrd, Confrontation, Ebay links, and such...

obviously, they should have tightened the rules, but instead they pissed in the sandbox...
well played, GW, well played...

cheers
jah

I love how you say that there was "a problem", but then go on to say that they should have just tightened the rules...

Which would have resulted in the exact same crap.

 Gallahad wrote:
Ha! This is funny. It has been kind of fun in a morbid way to see a large company slowly self destruct the way GW has been (in my estimation).

We have a while until they self-destruct. For now they're just constantly making bad business decisions and surfing the wave of angry gamers without too many problems.

 Kanluwen wrote:

 jah-joshua wrote:
as a member of the page, and a frequent poster of my work there, i can say that it was not just GW minis being posted on the page, nor was it simply the work of the studio...
it was a page that any member could post minis on, from any manufacturer, and there were links to ebay auctions...

since i posted minis from a variety of companies, and links to my auctions (since it was not against the rules), i am part of the problem...
i am sad to see the page go, as there were a lot of great work posted there, and many ex-'Eavy Metal guys that we got to reminisce with, but it is not a surprise, considering that people were posting (myself included) Warmachine, Wyrd, Confrontation, Ebay links, and such...

obviously, they should have tightened the rules, but instead they pissed in the sandbox...
well played, GW, well played...

cheers
jah

I love how you say that there was "a problem", but then go on to say that they should have just tightened the rules...

Which would have resulted in the exact same crap.

i'm just saying i can see why management would have a problem with the page, not that i agree with management...

my point was that if the Admins had not allowed minis from other manufacturers, and ebay links, than we may not have upset the higher ups...
i'm confused as to how disallowing non-GW stuff, and sales links, would have resulted in the page being shut down...

cheers
jah

 Medium of Death wrote:
Maybe they're bringing back the GW forum...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

GW is far too powerful a company to have to worry about such trifles as social media.

 jah-joshua wrote:

my point was that if the Admins had not allowed minis from other manufacturers, and ebay links, than we may not have upset the higher ups...
i'm confused as to how disallowing non-GW stuff, and sales links, would have resulted in the page being shut down...

I think the idea is that if the admins changed the rules there still would be an outcry about GW doing something, not that it would be shut down.

 Kanluwen wrote:
Or it could be that they don't want the painters being able to essentially have a "free advertisement" for their potential services to other companies...

Yeah. I'm sure that's it.


You will defend anything, won't you?

 jah-joshua wrote:
as a member of the page, and a frequent poster of my work there, i can say that it was not just GW minis being posted on the page, nor was it simply the work of the studio...
it was a page that any member could post minis on, from any manufacturer, and there were links to ebay auctions...

Well of course it was. It's Facebook. People can reply to posts and post their own pictures/links. Is that such a shock?

 Palindrome wrote:

 Medium of Death wrote:
Maybe they're bringing back the GW forum...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

GW is far too powerful a company to have to worry about such trifles as social media.

After all, their revenue is measured in millions. MILLIONS!!

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 Kanluwen wrote:
Or it could be that they don't want the painters being able to essentially have a "free advertisement" for their potential services to other companies...

Yeah. I'm sure that's it.


You will defend anything, won't you?

You'll just jump in everywhere, won't you?

 jah-joshua wrote:
as a member of the page, and a frequent poster of my work there, i can say that it was not just GW minis being posted on the page, nor was it simply the work of the studio...
it was a page that any member could post minis on, from any manufacturer, and there were links to ebay auctions...

Well of course it was. It's Facebook. People can reply to posts and post their own pictures/links. Is that such a shock?

Except even on Facebook, much like forums, you don't just get free reign.

exactly, Kan...
some groups are public, some are open to invite only, some are private, some have stricter rules than others...

the 'Eavy Metal group never felt like an official GW page, which was nice...
i'm not surprised that they shut the page down, but i am surprised that they could...

there were actually a lot amazing minis posted on that page...
now everyone is moving over to the Demon Painters group...
the show will go on...

cheers
jah

 angelofvengeance wrote:
Could be due to the anti-GW troll crowd?

When I worked at SCEE that problem was solved by allowing "trolls" and "white knights" to offset each other in the comments.

Perhaps GW in some way attracts many more critics than fans, and cannot manage that?

 Accolade wrote:
In Kirby's GW the message is clear:

Whether you're a disatisfied customer or a did-hard loyal fan, just shut the hell up and give us your money.

Well, let's be fair now. That's always been his message.

 jah-joshua wrote:

now everyone is moving over to the Demon Painters group...
the show will go on...

cheers
jah

The 'Eavier Metal group that was set up in response to the closure of 'Eavy Metal has like nearly 2000 members from the last group, you should check in there.

GW genuinely has little to no care for interaction with customers via social media, save spamming us with buy this product videos etc sadly.

....then they expect those of us who use the internet in such a way to then trek to a GW store to be sold to?

...Hmmmmm....

DiM

That's a shame about the group closing there. Again, no clue why they would do that. There will be a reason somewhere of course. But as others have said, they are cutting themselves off from customers even more.

Is there not some way to oust Kirby from GW?

 Squidbot wrote:

 jah-joshua wrote:

now everyone is moving over to the Demon Painters group...
the show will go on...

cheers
jah

The 'Eavier Metal group that was set up in response to the closure of 'Eavy Metal has like nearly 2000 members from the last group, you should check in there.

thanks, but i was added to 'Eavier Metal yesterday morning, as i woke up to this fiasco...
nice to know that the studio guys follow my work, and think of me...

cheers
jah

 angelofvengeance wrote:
Is there not some way to oust Kirby from GW?

Buy enough stock to gain a significant voice and then vote to remove him assuming you can convince a sufficient number of other investors that the short term profit isn't worth the long term effects (which most of them will not be around to be affected by, or which they feel is a positive because it will lead to their stock being converted into that of a real company like Hasbro).

 Kilkrazy wrote:

 angelofvengeance wrote:
Could be due to the anti-GW troll crowd?

When I worked at SCEE that problem was solved by allowing "trolls" and "white knights" to offset each other in the comments.

Perhaps GW in some way attracts many more critics than fans, and cannot manage that?

So true. And that is why the Official Forums were closed down. Too much negative talk because GW would not address or fix the issues. Don't want GW look to be in a bad light and also Not Let other people know there are Other Games that exist outside of GW.

The interesting thing with a void is that, as often quoted, nature abhors it and fills it. So when GW creates a void around it on social media, on forums and generally in not giving out rumors etc, the community of players, fans, painters, collectors etc fills that void with their own conclusions, ideas and speculations.

Some of this can be far fetched, some of this can be negative, but it isn't ever countered by GW. GW could be doing very basic things, but never says 'we're just doing basic things, here's why'. And so what they are doing is viewed with suspicion, puzzlement and sometimes interpreted as hostile, which, without GW saying 'no, it's not hostile, we're just doing x for a legal reason or for something we may wish to do in the future' and so those of us without palantirs, ESP or time machines are often left with the distinct impression GW is being hostile.

And perhaps, given that they don't bother to ever explain or communicate with their customer base, perhaps they are being hostile, perhaps they do hate our guts, who's to know, because they DON'T TALK TO US ANY MORE. In the absence of explanation, we seek our own answers. They might be wrong, but GW refuses to counter them, and so they become perpetuated.

Whether or not GW is Wayland Yutani, the Umbrella Corporation or actually just a company that makes toy soldiers that's often vilified for no good cause, one charge can be leveled very readily at their door, their communication and interaction with their customer base is abysmal.

While within their rights to do so, this seems like another "penny wise, pound foolish" decision by GWS. I have to think that having world-class artists advertising your product might generate some sales, but... par for the course I guess.

Also, for the people saying that the 'Eavy Metal team shouldn't be advertising their own studio commissions (subtly or not); could you forward me a copy of their contracts with GWS? I'd love to read them, and you must have a copy since you appear to be referring to a noncompete clause no one else has yet been able to read.

 angelofvengeance wrote:
Could be due to the anti-GW troll crowd?

Victim-blaming never works.

This is just because GW thinks the internet is a passing fad, hates their own customer base, wants to control everything about "the hobby" to the point of controlling speech about it, and has no idea what public relations are. Every other company in the world manages social media despite "trolls". You think EA and Microsoft don't have "trolls"? You think the US military, Republican Party, and Israeli gov don't? Well, all of these aforementioned groups have prominent social media.

 Harriticus wrote:

 angelofvengeance wrote:
Could be due to the anti-GW troll crowd?

Victim-blaming never works.

This is just because GW thinks the internet is a passing fad, hates their own customer base, wants to control everything about "the hobby" to the point of controlling speech about it, and has no idea what public relations are. Every other company in the world manages social media despite "trolls". You think EA and Microsoft don't have "trolls"? You think the US military, Republican Party, and Israeli gov don't? Well, all of these aforementioned groups have prominent social media.

I've been around long enough to remember the GW forums...it really is the fanbase who is at fault here. Gw attract far more flak than companies who actually hurt/kill people (like Coca Cola murdering trade unionists in Latin America) and most of their efforts to reach out to the community have been ruined by the community itself. The community collectively gak its breaches over the Spots the Space Marine thing - which, regardless of your opinion of the studipidity of GW's actions, clearly isn't on the same scale as the crimes of say, the Russian Government - and as a result we lost our Facebook page.

It's amazing that so many people are so angry at GW...and yet put so much effort into wanting to complain about them. There are tonnes of things I regard as crappy/overpriced and yet I don't spend my free time on the internet complaining about them.

KommissarKarl wrote:

 Harriticus wrote:

 angelofvengeance wrote:
Could be due to the anti-GW troll crowd?

Victim-blaming never works.

This is just because GW thinks the internet is a passing fad, hates their own customer base, wants to control everything about "the hobby" to the point of controlling speech about it, and has no idea what public relations are. Every other company in the world manages social media despite "trolls". You think EA and Microsoft don't have "trolls"? You think the US military, Republican Party, and Israeli gov don't? Well, all of these aforementioned groups have prominent social media.

I've been around long enough to remember the GW forums...it really is the fanbase who is at fault here. Gw attract far more flak than companies who actually hurt/kill people (like Coca Cola murdering trade unionists in Latin America) and most of their efforts to reach out to the community have been ruined by the community itself. The community collectively gak its breaches over the Spots the Space Marine thing - which, regardless of your opinion of the studipidity of GW's actions, clearly isn't on the same scale as the crimes of say, the Russian Government - and as a result we lost our Facebook page.

It's amazing that so many people are so angry at GW...and yet put so much effort into wanting to complain about them. There are tonnes of things I regard as crappy/overpriced and yet I don't spend my free time on the internet complaining about them.

And yet coca cola still have a facebook page because they understand that shifting attention away from the bad stuff they do is a necessary part of business...
You can't blame a customer base for being upset with a product if they feel they are seeing much more bad than good and no one within the company is doing anything to try and change that...

Wait. Did someone just make the argument "Games Workshop isn't killing anybody*, so we don't get to complain about them on the Internet"? Part of the whole point of having a hobby is to not have to think about the gakky parts of the world for a bit, and if the people that buy GW product to take part in the miniature wargaming hobby want to hold GW to a customer service standard set by practically every other company in either the gaming or model-building world, they have that right (and make a very accurate point).

Trying to say "as long as X is worse than Y, you can't complain about Y" is the laziest of dodges, one only worthy of politicians and freshmen philosophy majors.

*: that we know of. They have been pretty darn militant about Squats over the years.

At the end of the day its their group and they can do what they want. Its not like a new group wont just pop up and take its place. kind of a shame that the archive of pictures on there will be lost though.

Of course they can do what they want, that's just not saying anything. It was still a dick move

I've never seen a company run so fast and so directly away from social media. It's crazy.

 Magc8Ball wrote:
Wait. Did someone just make the argument "Games Workshop isn't killing anybody*, so we don't get to complain about them on the Internet"?

Yes. The white is strong with that particular knight.

KommissarKarl wrote:

 Harriticus wrote:

 angelofvengeance wrote:
Could be due to the anti-GW troll crowd?

Victim-blaming never works.

This is just because GW thinks the internet is a passing fad, hates their own customer base, wants to control everything about "the hobby" to the point of controlling speech about it, and has no idea what public relations are. Every other company in the world manages social media despite "trolls". You think EA and Microsoft don't have "trolls"? You think the US military, Republican Party, and Israeli gov don't? Well, all of these aforementioned groups have prominent social media.

I've been around long enough to remember the GW forums...it really is the fanbase who is at fault here. Gw attract far more flak than companies who actually hurt/kill people (like Coca Cola murdering trade unionists in Latin America) and most of their efforts to reach out to the community have been ruined by the community itself. The community collectively gak its breaches over the Spots the Space Marine thing - which, regardless of your opinion of the studipidity of GW's actions, clearly isn't on the same scale as the crimes of say, the Russian Government - and as a result we lost our Facebook page.

It's amazing that so many people are so angry at GW...and yet put so much effort into wanting to complain about them. There are tonnes of things I regard as crappy/overpriced and yet I don't spend my free time on the internet complaining about them.

I am old enough as well to remember. Lots of "complaints" were just asking for rules clarification and GW being silent on them. So it's the fan base who are to blame for GW sloppy writing at the time? Wait, they still have sloppy writing so nothing has changed there. But it's my fault or your fault or anyones fault for asking a simple clarification for a rule? Then people try to explain it and then you have 2 sometimes 3 camps saying how a rule should be and GW locks the threads then?