Provide your feedback on the main site (besides the patterns).
#71875
nosferatu wrote:
matspud wrote:
nosferatu wrote:
You've summed I up perfectly Mark. I don't understand why this is becoming an issue at all
Thanks NOS :D

I am getting a bit fed up of people repeatedly questioning/moaning about how site owners run their sites. ITS THEIR SITE THEY CAN RUN IT HOW THEY WANT!!! This applies to Brad, Stoney, Noel, Ryan, Jason Lisa etc etc etc etc etc. They all have their own way and I, for one, like the differences. :D

I enloy the "secretiveness* of the VIP patterns - its a bit of fun :D Its not about feeling superior or richer or any of those other nasty things.

When it comes down to it, when we sign up for ANY of the site, it is made clear to us what the options are. The choice is then ours.
Please please please please please stop bringing the good feeling on the boards down, It has happened on others for various reasons and I hate that it is starting here too. These boards are about having fun and sharing ( and moaning about the lack of anything halloweeny in th UK :lol: :lol: :lol: ).

Guess I am in for an ear bashing now :(
Now you've summed it up perfectly as well Matspud.

It's all about fun and enjoying our hobby. It's not our site, sure we can comment on it but we are not shareholders. we have no stake. We havent spent a decade building up the site but the forum allows us to exchange ideas, show off our carves and talk with like minded people around the world. I've always found it to be encouraging, informative and it has genuinely sparked my own creativity. Year on year, the forum has shown how superbly people carve, display and photograph their carves.

As forum users, we have a collective responsibility to maintain this positivity. This topic is now on its second thread and its my last comment on it. I refuse to become embroiled in something that is effectively a non issue.
I'm in total agreement with you . Now lets all have some pumpkin ale and forget the whole thing. It's good to have discussions though.

P.S. I also just wanted to have a qoute within a qoute within a quote. :lol:
#71891
I look at the Monster Harvest as another way for me to support the site. It's like a grab bag.....sometimes it's full of stuff you love and sometimes, not so much. But it's a secret surprise and that's the way surprises work, no? Either way I appreciate all the work that Ryan puts into the site and the patterns so the extra $10 is worth it to me.
#71893
monstermash wrote:
nosferatu wrote:
matspud wrote:

Thanks NOS :D

I am getting a bit fed up of people repeatedly questioning/moaning about how site owners run their sites. ITS THEIR SITE THEY CAN RUN IT HOW THEY WANT!!! This applies to Brad, Stoney, Noel, Ryan, Jason Lisa etc etc etc etc etc. They all have their own way and I, for one, like the differences. :D

I enloy the "secretiveness* of the VIP patterns - its a bit of fun :D Its not about feeling superior or richer or any of those other nasty things.

When it comes down to it, when we sign up for ANY of the site, it is made clear to us what the options are. The choice is then ours.
Please please please please please stop bringing the good feeling on the boards down, It has happened on others for various reasons and I hate that it is starting here too. These boards are about having fun and sharing ( and moaning about the lack of anything halloweeny in th UK :lol: :lol: :lol: ).

Guess I am in for an ear bashing now :(
Now you've summed it up perfectly as well Matspud.

It's all about fun and enjoying our hobby. It's not our site, sure we can comment on it but we are not shareholders. we have no stake. We havent spent a decade building up the site but the forum allows us to exchange ideas, show off our carves and talk with like minded people around the world. I've always found it to be encouraging, informative and it has genuinely sparked my own creativity. Year on year, the forum has shown how superbly people carve, display and photograph their carves.

As forum users, we have a collective responsibility to maintain this positivity. This topic is now on its second thread and its my last comment on it. I refuse to become embroiled in something that is effectively a non issue.
I'm in total agreement with you . Now lets all have some pumpkin ale and forget the whole thing. It's good to have discussions though.

This isn't a discussion. This is the cheerleader squad, sitting around, congratulating each other, for agreeing with one another. A discussion requires divergent ideas, until all scenarios have been accounted for, and a reasonable conclusion is reached.

Ryan is a one man show. And I'll be his biggest supporter, because I get the amount of work that goes into this. But this is also the inherent problem with everything from websites to presidential campaigns. Heck, this is George Lucas' biggest problem - there are only "yes" men. Everybody likes to surround themselves with people that agree with them - it's fun to be right. And what did that get us? A crumbling economy, people who are afraid to show half of their carves, and Jar Jar Binks. There's nobody to say "y'know boss, maybe we should consider this approach, instead".

It would be nice if the counter-argument to every suggestion wasn't "No, this is what Ryan said and he donates to charities".

But if you people really, truly cared about this website, as much as you claim you do, you wouldn't be so against standing up and offering ideas, that might lead to even further improvement. Again, Ryan is one person - he has no idea what people are thinking, unless they say something. As far he knows, he believes everyone thinks like he does, because the ZP Varsity Cheer squad, agrees with everything he says.

All I've tried to do, is offer suggestions that benefit everyone. Every single member, Ryan, his charities, you name it. This isn't about me, this is about us, as a website, as a group of people with a similar interest. Unfortunately, the ZP squad cheer seems to be "Status quo, is the way to go!". And I know I'm not the only person that feels this way, because I have never been the one to start the topic thread.

As a paying member of this forum, I'd love to see it flourish and become bigger and better than it already is. To become the premier website in this niche. But in order to do that, it needs to breathe, to evolve, to grow, to mature. Not be held down by people who are afraid of different ideas than what was originally set forth. It worked for the U.S. Constitution, I'm pretty sure it can work for a website :lol:

There is no need to be at odds, brothers and sister of the pumpkin, for we are of the same vine.

-Fred
#71894
Hottie McNaughty wrote:I look at the Monster Harvest as another way for me to support the site. It's like a grab bag.....sometimes it's full of stuff you love and sometimes, not so much. But it's a secret surprise and that's the way surprises work, no? Either way I appreciate all the work that Ryan puts into the site and the patterns so the extra $10 is worth it to me.

I'm with you on that one.
#71906
Gigatron, I'll actually disagree with one thing you said; I personally don't want this forum to become bigger and grow immensely. With tons of growth always come the inevitable growing pains and personality conflicts. One of the things that I like about this forum is the smallish and intimate nature of it. Frankly I don't miss the whining about why things can't be done the way everyone (else) wants. Maybe I'm selfish but that's how I feel.

I think it's always good to ask questions and get feedback but sadly not everyone can be made happy. It's the way of the world.
#71907
Gigatron, There is nothing wrong with having an opinion or making suggestions but for someone who is supposedly supportive of ZP and the forum you seem to have a poor opinion and snide attitude towards your fellow minions.

Firstly we were congratulating each other, basking in the glory of VIP ownership whilst diving into our piles of money like Scrooge Mc Duck. Now we are a bunch of fawning yes men and cheerleaders.

Obviously, you are entitled to your opinion and suggestions. However it seems to irk you when we don't actually agree with your proposal. Maybe that's because we are actually entitled to our opinion too.
User avatar
By Dadja
#71913
What is all this commotion? I leave you people alone for a few weeks and all hell breaks loose?!? :)

Just a little thing to add on the pile. The VIP-section has always been the extension of the main gallery, meaning it contains both extra patterns of new releases or some niche patterns for a small group of followers.

That being said, how we feel about all of this, here on the forum, doens't really matter. Admittedly, we are a bit of a ZP-fan club, so I get when a new member sees a bunch of 'worshipping posts', and disagrees. Hey, go ahead. But the point is, though Ryan fulfills request here, the main drive for the site is seeing what people download. Ryan knows which patterns get printed most, he knows the searches people do on this site. I'm pretty sure that if tomorrow he finds out that today a bunch of people came here looking for a certain Korean rapper pattern, he'd try to make one (god help us all), and he wouldn't put it in the VIP section. We can blow as much smoke up Ryan's ass as we want, it's the statistics that tell the truth.
And judging by the past 11 years I've been hanging around here, I'm thinking he's made some pretty good decisions. Not all good, I've always been honest with my opinions about that. But seriously, if this website wasn't making him any money, it would be a nice hobby, but not his full-time job.
#71916
nosferatu wrote: Firstly we were congratulating each other, basking in the glory of VIP ownership whilst diving into our piles of money like Scrooge Mc Duck. Now we are a bunch of fawning yes men and cheerleaders.

Can I borrow some $100 bills to polish my huge piles of gold coins???
#71922
Gigatron wrote:This isn't a discussion. This is the cheerleader squad, sitting around, congratulating each other, for agreeing with one another. A discussion requires divergent ideas, until all scenarios have been accounted for, and a reasonable conclusion is reached.
In my opinion, you seem to be making just as less of a discussion of this as everyone else you have been accusing has. With your so-called opinions, you are turning it more in the direction of a confrontation/argument. A discussion is usually done without accusation and snide comments.

I would like to point out that you do not have to have a ton of money or anything to be an MH member. I'm a part-time college student working full-time to pay bills and things of that sort. Yet I find the money every year for the past 2 years to be an MH member because I enjoy knowing that part of my contribution is going to a charity. I don't do it for the patterns. I fell that is just a way of Ryan saying thank you for helping him support a charity. I feel that the fact that part of your money is going to a good cause should be the incentive to pay extra, not the patterns themselves.

I understand Stoney's question about them. Maybe showing them off would make more people interested, but it might also cause some of the people who are currently MH members to not join that year. There would end up being less funds for a well-deserving charity. This is Ryan's website and he will run it as he sees fit. I'm not opposing Stoney in any way. It's pure curiosity on his part. But I feel as though Gigatron is steering it in a totally different direction.
User avatar
By Raven
#71932
What the heck is going on this year? I've seen more confrontation in the forum this year than I can remember in past years. So, I'm going to contribute. :)

I've always wanted to be a cheerleader. O.K., that's a lie. I never wanted to be one, but I guess I will be one now. If I ran this site, I would go crazy, wait, scratch that, I meant to say this is how I would do things. I would release all the patterns for the year at once. More than once I've had just one pumpkin left and held out because Ryan might release the one pattern I just can't live without carving right away, although there may be another pattern I want to carve. Or, as has happened to me, I don't have any more 'kins and a pattern comes out I can't live without carving right away, although it appears I did live through it..somehow. Of course, the VIP patterns would also be shown. However, this is not my site. I don't run it, I don't pay for hosting it although I'm sure part of the money I do pay goes towards that, I don't take care of any problems that arise, I don't answer e-mails regarding the site, the list goes on. This site is Ryan's and his to do with as he wishes. If he decided to release all patterns on the day of Halloween, it would be his decision. If I didn't like that, well, there are other sites to go to.

I think everyone agrees with all that, I just wanted to say it anyway. I'm waiting for my nails to dry and needed to type a lot. I'm impatient. I'm going to do a ZP! nail theme that will BLOW YOU ALL AWAY! Since I've already messed it up 3 times you'll have to wait awhile for me to get it right..I digress.

If this makes me a cheerleader or part of the We Love Ryan squad, so be it. I really don't think people are running around trying simply to please Ryan and become his favorite Minion. (That's me anyway, right?) Sure, we love everything he does for us and I'm sure at one point in time everyone wanted something different. Just look at the pattern request section, everyone is hoping he makes the pattern they want and are probably slightly disappointed when it's not made. Do the VIP patterns always interest me? No, of course not. But I choose to give that extra money, as a thank you, as a contribution for charity, and to satisfy my own curiosity about the patterns and hope that I will find one I can't live without. It's a gamble, and if it's one you are not willing to take, don't upgrade. It's like going to a movie, if you don't like it do you insist on getting your money back? Probably not. You took a chance on seeing a movie, it just turns out you didn't like it. No one forced you to shell out that money on something you may or may not like. I certainly have had it happen, but I've never called out those who loved the movie and referred to them as a cheering squad for the director.
#71940
Apprently, mine is a quixotic endeavor. From this year forward, I'll stick with regular membership, as I have been far more impressed with the regularly released patterns, than the VIP.

Since the only answer I seem to get to any suggestion is "But Ryan gives the extra money to charity", you can be pleased with yourselves, that the charity will be recieving $10 less. And I'm sure the rest of the squad will agree with you, wholeheartedly :lol: :lol: :lol:

-Fred
#71945
Gigatron wrote:Apprently, mine is a quixotic endeavor. From this year forward, I'll stick with regular membership, as I have been far more impressed with the regularly released patterns, than the VIP.

Since the only answer I seem to get to any suggestion is "But Ryan gives the extra money to charity", you can be pleased with yourselves, that the charity will be recieving $10 less. And I'm sure the rest of the squad will agree with you, wholeheartedly :lol: :lol: :lol:

-Fred
Do you hate this forum? Hate us? Terribly? (just jabbing at you there, not serious) But in all seriousness, I gave you a reason as to why I like the VIP's to be secret (I'm selfish and don't want to be a member of a HUGE and drama filled forum) but I guess you would rather just ignore some answers and be unhappy with the rest?

The tricky part with questions is sometimes you don't receive the answer you like. It's life, it happens. I find it's best just to deal with it rather than answer condescendingly and and threaten to take money away from charity and then laugh at your own cleverness. Conflict is inevitable but it's how to deal with it that's a true judge of character.

I wish happy carving to everyone this year. :)
#71961
Gigatron wrote:Apprently, mine is a quixotic endeavor. From this year forward, I'll stick with regular membership, as I have been far more impressed with the regularly released patterns, than the VIP.

Since the only answer I seem to get to any suggestion is "But Ryan gives the extra money to charity", you can be pleased with yourselves, that the charity will be recieving $10 less. And I'm sure the rest of the squad will agree with you, wholeheartedly :lol: :lol: :lol:

-Fred
As you have opted for regular membership next year the charity was always going to receive ten dollars less. To imply that we should be pleased with ourselves would suggest that you were doing so out of spite. Go Gigatron!

What I don't understand is that on other parts of the forum you have made some excellent, intelligent suggestions regarding lighting and pattern transfer. I even bought a pin wheel the other day to try that suggestion out. Here though because we aren't necessarily agreeing with you, your tone has changed and it would appear that you are taking it personally. It's just a difference of opinion. Your replies however seem intent on goading a response.