At this time I’m attempting to go over some legal documents for a meeting I have later on this week, but I can’t seem to bring myself to focus on them. Right now, I believe it would be a great disservice to the website, my fellow siccness members and me if I didn’t speak about the recent events and the ramifications of the actions of members, mods, admins and owners of www.siccness.net.
I’ve been a member of this site for over a decade now. As a member of this site I’ve had a long and “controversial” history. As you all know I shoot from the hip and am very critical of certain institutions in our society. During my time here I’ve met people from all types of life who I’ve had the pleasure of meeting offline. Some I’ve met for business while others I’ve met simply because we shared common interests and the vibe was there. People on this site often come to me for advice or my opinion on a wide variety of subjects. They do this because they trust my opinion and they know that with “HERESY” or “:H:”, they’ll receive constructive criticism, words of encouragement, a joke or two, information they did have before and a chance to look at things from a different perspective.
However, I’m not an angel. There are times where I’ve said things that were out of line and done things that were uncalled for when I should have taken the higher road. I can be wrong as two-left shoes sometimes, but the fact is I can admit when I’m wrong, can provide a sincere apology if need be and can move on.
Years ago I was unjustly banned, and I’ll never forget how swiftly siccness members rallied to my aide to have me reinstated. The love I’ve received from the siccness has not been limited to the outcry that came with my banning, however. During my time here I’ve lost a lot of things that were important to me, most notably, my sister to cancer, my father and recently my grandmother. When I told the board about the deaths, they rallied behind me and offered support and love. In my time of need, my extended family, my siccness bretheren, did things for me online and offline that extended way beyond what some would believe.
What you have is not simply a site with members with a love for music. What you have here is a community, it is a family. At times it is a highly dysfunctional family, but nevertheless, whether you acknowledge it or not, that’s how this site operates. Yes, many of us are from different socioeconomic backgrounds, have different educations, have different life experiences, etc. However, the one thing we have in common is that we come here and we enjoy the environment and what this site has to offer.
I'm fully aware that the owners are running a business, this site uses bandwidth, etc. However, you are doing a disservice to your website and potential revenue streams if you simply look on your members as people who are expendable. You are doing a great injustice by looking at your members as numbers that will allow you to see a return on investment. You need to maximize and monetize, this is business 101, but the WRONG thing you want to do is look at your user base as nerds, disrupters, people who need to get offline and some sunshine in their lives or any other derogatory adjectives you can conceive to describe them. You should look at the membership as family, friend, customer and business ally. I say this because without your membership, there would be no exclusive content. Without the membership there would be no mods and admins. Without the membership, there would be no revenue from ad dollars. Without the membership, there would be no siccness.net and that is a FACT.
You guys are in business, and you obviously understand word of mouth is the BEST advertisement a company can garner. However, how will it affect your bottom line if your user base leaves in mass numbers? Do you have any contingency plans in place to stop it? What type of damage would you suffer if some of the more extreme users decided to go all out and wage a cyber attack? Would you really be prepared? These are the things you should ask yourself BEFORE alienation by mods and admins take place.
Am I implying that the membership is perfect and beyond criticism? No, but I can say that they need to be heard and listened to. I don’t know if any of you have taken classes pertaining to sociology or psychology but what has taken place here is a big “no-no” that can come to hurt you where it hurts most—your pockets. When you take away something simple as a feature like a “prop” button, you have to understand that you’re taking away something that people have grown accustomed to, something they look forward to and something they use as a tool to communicate with each other within the community. Yes, something as simple as a button can do that.
Anytime you’re going to implement change, or take something away from someone, the best thing to do is to warn them of the change, tell them why the change is coming, tell them why the change is for their benefit and gradually go into the desired change. This would have given the users enough time to contemplate the change and even offer feedback and tips on how they could have helped. People would have stepped up to the plate if they would have been given a chance to do so. Again, I don’t know if any of you are familiar with sociology or psychology but these are elementary principles that can be found in both studies. Now some of you might think to yourself, “we don’t owe them an explanation” or “I don’t have to tell them shit.” But that type of thinking is counter intuitive and makes the mods, admins and owners appear draconian even if they aren’t and have good intentions.
So the crux of this thread is to get you, the mods, admins and owners to think about the user base. You have a community that is rich in spirit and has stuck by the website through thick and thin. Have there been bumps in the road? Yes, but things will get worse if you don’t reach out to the community and provide information, which is what the community asks for. You don’t have to go into every detail, but you do need to consider the outcry that has happened within the last 48 hours. Siccness members like fillyacup and likwid called this place home and, before this, I’m sure you never had a problem with them. Moreover, their recent bannings and the problems it has caused should show you they were assets, not liabilities, who made contributions to the website.
I’m not making this post to shout from a soap box, but making it because I see fellow members going down in flames and speaking out because they feel they’ve been mistreated. Each person on this site, from the user with one post, to the user with over 10k, to the mods to the admins to those at the very top of the food chain, have contributed to the success of this site. In addition to that, each has a responsibility in hearing all sides and not falling victim to ego. The most important aspect of communication is listening, not speaking but I’m going to leave you with something.
As humans, we need oxygen to survive and the lack of oxygen can cause brain damage or death. However, if one is suffering from a lack of oxygen or needs to breath CPR can be the remedy to bring them back to. So my solution to the recent problems? C.P.R. In ANY relationship, I don’t care if it is between business partners, a spiritual relationship with The Creator, a relationship between family members, teacher and student, or two lovers, if it lacks C.P.R, it will DIE.
Commitment.
Priority.
Respect.
From all parties involved...
HERESY/:H:
I’ve been a member of this site for over a decade now. As a member of this site I’ve had a long and “controversial” history. As you all know I shoot from the hip and am very critical of certain institutions in our society. During my time here I’ve met people from all types of life who I’ve had the pleasure of meeting offline. Some I’ve met for business while others I’ve met simply because we shared common interests and the vibe was there. People on this site often come to me for advice or my opinion on a wide variety of subjects. They do this because they trust my opinion and they know that with “HERESY” or “:H:”, they’ll receive constructive criticism, words of encouragement, a joke or two, information they did have before and a chance to look at things from a different perspective.
However, I’m not an angel. There are times where I’ve said things that were out of line and done things that were uncalled for when I should have taken the higher road. I can be wrong as two-left shoes sometimes, but the fact is I can admit when I’m wrong, can provide a sincere apology if need be and can move on.
Years ago I was unjustly banned, and I’ll never forget how swiftly siccness members rallied to my aide to have me reinstated. The love I’ve received from the siccness has not been limited to the outcry that came with my banning, however. During my time here I’ve lost a lot of things that were important to me, most notably, my sister to cancer, my father and recently my grandmother. When I told the board about the deaths, they rallied behind me and offered support and love. In my time of need, my extended family, my siccness bretheren, did things for me online and offline that extended way beyond what some would believe.
What you have is not simply a site with members with a love for music. What you have here is a community, it is a family. At times it is a highly dysfunctional family, but nevertheless, whether you acknowledge it or not, that’s how this site operates. Yes, many of us are from different socioeconomic backgrounds, have different educations, have different life experiences, etc. However, the one thing we have in common is that we come here and we enjoy the environment and what this site has to offer.
I'm fully aware that the owners are running a business, this site uses bandwidth, etc. However, you are doing a disservice to your website and potential revenue streams if you simply look on your members as people who are expendable. You are doing a great injustice by looking at your members as numbers that will allow you to see a return on investment. You need to maximize and monetize, this is business 101, but the WRONG thing you want to do is look at your user base as nerds, disrupters, people who need to get offline and some sunshine in their lives or any other derogatory adjectives you can conceive to describe them. You should look at the membership as family, friend, customer and business ally. I say this because without your membership, there would be no exclusive content. Without the membership there would be no mods and admins. Without the membership, there would be no revenue from ad dollars. Without the membership, there would be no siccness.net and that is a FACT.
You guys are in business, and you obviously understand word of mouth is the BEST advertisement a company can garner. However, how will it affect your bottom line if your user base leaves in mass numbers? Do you have any contingency plans in place to stop it? What type of damage would you suffer if some of the more extreme users decided to go all out and wage a cyber attack? Would you really be prepared? These are the things you should ask yourself BEFORE alienation by mods and admins take place.
Am I implying that the membership is perfect and beyond criticism? No, but I can say that they need to be heard and listened to. I don’t know if any of you have taken classes pertaining to sociology or psychology but what has taken place here is a big “no-no” that can come to hurt you where it hurts most—your pockets. When you take away something simple as a feature like a “prop” button, you have to understand that you’re taking away something that people have grown accustomed to, something they look forward to and something they use as a tool to communicate with each other within the community. Yes, something as simple as a button can do that.
Anytime you’re going to implement change, or take something away from someone, the best thing to do is to warn them of the change, tell them why the change is coming, tell them why the change is for their benefit and gradually go into the desired change. This would have given the users enough time to contemplate the change and even offer feedback and tips on how they could have helped. People would have stepped up to the plate if they would have been given a chance to do so. Again, I don’t know if any of you are familiar with sociology or psychology but these are elementary principles that can be found in both studies. Now some of you might think to yourself, “we don’t owe them an explanation” or “I don’t have to tell them shit.” But that type of thinking is counter intuitive and makes the mods, admins and owners appear draconian even if they aren’t and have good intentions.
So the crux of this thread is to get you, the mods, admins and owners to think about the user base. You have a community that is rich in spirit and has stuck by the website through thick and thin. Have there been bumps in the road? Yes, but things will get worse if you don’t reach out to the community and provide information, which is what the community asks for. You don’t have to go into every detail, but you do need to consider the outcry that has happened within the last 48 hours. Siccness members like fillyacup and likwid called this place home and, before this, I’m sure you never had a problem with them. Moreover, their recent bannings and the problems it has caused should show you they were assets, not liabilities, who made contributions to the website.
I’m not making this post to shout from a soap box, but making it because I see fellow members going down in flames and speaking out because they feel they’ve been mistreated. Each person on this site, from the user with one post, to the user with over 10k, to the mods to the admins to those at the very top of the food chain, have contributed to the success of this site. In addition to that, each has a responsibility in hearing all sides and not falling victim to ego. The most important aspect of communication is listening, not speaking but I’m going to leave you with something.
As humans, we need oxygen to survive and the lack of oxygen can cause brain damage or death. However, if one is suffering from a lack of oxygen or needs to breath CPR can be the remedy to bring them back to. So my solution to the recent problems? C.P.R. In ANY relationship, I don’t care if it is between business partners, a spiritual relationship with The Creator, a relationship between family members, teacher and student, or two lovers, if it lacks C.P.R, it will DIE.
Commitment.
Priority.
Respect.
From all parties involved...
HERESY/:H:
