i dont like to post actual opinions on here, because someone smarter than me is always around to chew me out, however someone said i should express some of my thoughts here
i dont know any of the mods reasoning etc for this, so im speaking only on my experience and what i think/assume
so im in a spot where this can really affect me, and i see it from both points of view so ill quite possibly contradict myself a lot
for full disclosure ill catch you up with my current position
so i / ctrlalt have run many gbs among other things, ctrlalt used to have a vendor forum (now we have an artisan sub) that we would use for products other than gbs as well as ctrlalt announcements etc, and then separately run gbs in the gb sub forum
when the artisan sub forum was created recently, it was proposed we move from a vendor to artisan sub, and separately after that a decision was made to move my gbs from the gb thread to my artisan sub and was then changed back again
i was upset with both of these changes initially, but i, like many others are still now, were only really looking at the short term impact
but speaking as someone who was super against any change, ill try and explain why i now think its the right move
so really, we are all here to consume data, thats all a forum really is, so when a forums user base is small, you dont need many sections, but as the community grows, you have to separate things further, what initially feels like an inconvenience because things you are used to looking for are no longer where you think, will later turn into a convenience where itll be easier to only consume the info you want
as a community we need to be forward thinking, as the community grows, not only do we need to make it easier to navigate to things people wanna see, but also protect ourselves, as the community gets bigger and bigger, we will experience more and more growing pains
things such as scams and failed gbs will become more prevalent, the bigger the community grows, and at that point, having dedicated areas for the work of trusted vendors or community members will be a great thing, you wont be marred by the potentially unsafe gb section, but can live on just your reputation, obviously moderation has to occur as to when and who justifies there own sections, either as vendors or artisans or something new
what may start as an initial hit to visibility, that will change as people learn to view the board differently
the trouble with subtle changes is, peoples viewing habits dont change, i think as time goes on, and the hobby or community grows, eventually the structure of the forum will change to find the best fit to accommodate things
i guess as an example, look at how the media thread works, what most likely started as post your keyboard, turned into post your poker, post your Korean keyboard, post your duckies etc, or even post your brobots or post your clacks, now instead of going through pages and pages of pics trying to see pics of things you want, you can narrow your search, if you just wanna see pics of unicorn vomit boards, there is a place for you
gbs should be no different, it just hurts a bit at first, particularly for people who make a profit, the hit in visibility can hurt there bottom line, but in time viewing habits will change, and as gbs and artisan services get more prevalent, having a place of your own will be a positive thing
and once you have people who run large or multiple gbs in there own sections, it frees up the gb section and helps with visibility for the people trying something new or smaller buys
all that being said, for my particular set of circumstances, i currently want to be in the gb section, as we grow, that may need to change in the future, but for the position we are in right now, i feel we have the right set up for us
for gb participants, in time, your viewing habits will change, and being able to quickly locate buys from people you enjoy dealing with will be a good thing
for gb runners
there are good and bad points for everyone as to whats going on, people who run smaller or first time buys, having people running large trusted buys draws traffic to the gb thread and can help you get noticed, however they can also overshadow you, for vendors who run gbs, the loss in viewership right now may suck, but when community members change there habits, i think there will be many positives to not be lumped in with everyone else
ive had no sleep
most likely best to ignore me
holla