OK, bear with me while I war-game this a little. I was as annoyed as anyone to see Fanlib repeatedly dodging every offer of dialogue that's been presented, but the more I think about it, I don't see a win scenario for them coming out of engaging us in the way we'd like. They clearly didn't see this wank explosion coming - either they didn't have a clue all these discerning, independent, cantankerous, non-target-market adult women were out here or they believed us to be irrelevant to their plans for world domination. But now a general clamor has arisen, and although several remarkably articulate and cogent voices have risen above it - Telesilla's and Stewardess's chief among them - from Fanlib's perspective what standing do they have? Do they speak for the fandom at large? Fanlib wants to resolve the issues and make the wank go away and calm down their financial backers and get on with business. But so far, when they do answer a question, everything they say just gets dissected and deconstructed and turned around and shot right back at them - or used for wank fodder. They have to be seriously wondering, if they agree to engage Telesilla or someone else, if this will put her issues to bed as far as the fandom at large is concerned, or whether another spokesperson (or Telesilla again) will step up in a few days with the same or a whole 'nother laundry list of issues? And when will it end? They're businessmen - they're looking for a contract to sign with someone stipulating that if they agree to certain terms the crazy women will stop bugging them. And that isn't going to happen, because as previously noted, we're the fandom and we never agree on anything - except for just this once we've managed to agree that we all loathe Fanlib. That said, it's correct that we'd never agree on how to resolve the multitude of disparate issues we all have with them. And Fanlib knows that. Not seeing an end-game here, they see nothing but frustration and wasted resources coming out of direct dialogue.
And I think they're right. It's a losing proposition to engage us any further, because from most posts I've read (and my own personal opinion), it's clear there is nothing they can do to make us happy except self-destruct and swirl down the nearest sewer. They've made too many non-recoverable errors. Does anyone really believe that if they engage us the way we keep asking them to, and make some more little tweaks to their TOS, we'll smile and jump on board, or at least go happily about our business? Hell, no. We're like a dog with a bone. It's a feeding frenzy. Wanking about Fanlib is entertainment. We collectively detest everything about them, from their whiny loser CEO to their alleged LJ spokesperson who doesn't even know how to do HTML italics to their slimy business plan to their headache-inspiring webpage design to their clear contempt for us as a market. And they just keep making it worse. With every marketing plan someone uncovers or every e-mail someone painstakingly deconstructs, they're moving further and further into irredeemable territory in the collective mind of the fandom. They're pretty dumb but they're not blind. They can see this is a losing proposition, and as someone pointed out in another thread, we aren't the market they were looking for anyway. They made a few feeble attempts at appeasement, but by now they're already figuring out how to work around us. They see engaging us further as an exercise in futility. They'll back out of this blind alley as quick as they can and go find some 14-year-old boys who like shiny stuff.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2007-05-27 02:48 pm (UTC)And I think they're right. It's a losing proposition to engage us any further, because from most posts I've read (and my own personal opinion), it's clear there is nothing they can do to make us happy except self-destruct and swirl down the nearest sewer. They've made too many non-recoverable errors. Does anyone really believe that if they engage us the way we keep asking them to, and make some more little tweaks to their TOS, we'll smile and jump on board, or at least go happily about our business? Hell, no. We're like a dog with a bone. It's a feeding frenzy. Wanking about Fanlib is entertainment. We collectively detest everything about them, from their whiny loser CEO to their alleged LJ spokesperson who doesn't even know how to do HTML italics to their slimy business plan to their headache-inspiring webpage design to their clear contempt for us as a market. And they just keep making it worse. With every marketing plan someone uncovers or every e-mail someone painstakingly deconstructs, they're moving further and further into irredeemable territory in the collective mind of the fandom. They're pretty dumb but they're not blind. They can see this is a losing proposition, and as someone pointed out in another thread, we aren't the market they were looking for anyway. They made a few feeble attempts at appeasement, but by now they're already figuring out how to work around us. They see engaging us further as an exercise in futility. They'll back out of this blind alley as quick as they can and go find some 14-year-old boys who like shiny stuff.