Where do we go from here?

[Ganoncrotch]

ioi said:
I always like an analogy.

You've owned a corner shop for the last 15 years. It used to do really well but with the advent of Amazon etc it is down a lot from its peak 10 years ago. You've had to move with the times and set up some online stores as well but your little shop still has a soft spot in your heart. You have a really good manager who runs it and a strong local community who shop there - it still makes enough profit to justify keeping it open but not really enough to spend a ton of money on a refurb which it desperately needs.

An old friend contacts you who helped you set up the shop to begin with, he is passionate about it and wants to help to build it back up again. He kindly offers to come in and do some work as a favour because he doesn't want to see the shop get left behind and customers go elsewhere and knows how strong the community is. He starts work refurbishing the shop but at every step of the way people complain because the shop is closed for a couple of hours, some of the products aren't available whilst cabinets are being replaced and some things have changed because it makes more sense overall and improves another aspect of the shop. Most people are polite and understanding but some are rude and obnoxious, huff and puff, and moan to the friend because something that is important to them has changed or been temporarily removed. The friend eventually has enough and leaves halfway through.

How do you feel now as the shop owner?

I'll pop over here instead of having you torn between two threads, but out of interest, would you ever consider setting up or letting the staff here do something like a gofundme or something similar to see if it was possible to raise a lump sum to just pay for that refurb all in one go? Given that we know there is a lot of different area's of the site which need looking at individually would it be an idea to just more directly see what could be raised from the forum users towards doing that work?

I'm not suggesting for a moment that the funds are not there to do the job, I'm just saying would you consider in your analogy directly letting the fate of the shop in the customers hands in a big sale event (help... this analogy is falling apart) but I mean if there was an amount quoted for a complete overhaul, would you imagine that figure outside the realms of something which could be raised here internally?

I know the VGC supporter feature does exist right now but that doesn't have a end goal in sight of it, I think users look at it more of a guilt free method of ad block than what comes out of it.

Just a thought.

 

edit - You could effectively get a feel for what such an event might raise here by doing a poll on the forums with different donation amounts in the poll just to see what users would potentially be wiling to put down to Make VG great again (I'm quoting Trump....)