Who wants to get their own video made?

[qzar9999]

Originally Posted by Animas

"but don't try to tell others what they should or shouldn't do, and don't use your personal bias to try to sabotage this project."

Do you see the hypocrisy contained in a single statement?

Rachael, I don't agree with every point of your post. I can't envision a more effective means of providing a counter-point of information and personal experience than at the source, and the habits of internet users aren't to go look far for contradictory information -- what's in front of them is all they want to work with, especially in an area of impulse buys. It's unfortunate that qzar's feelings are going to get hurt, which is an unfortunate side effect of investing yourself personally in a venture and not treating it as a business, but I'm thinking about the feelings of other people who might invest money and experience buyer's remorse. I'm the consumer advocate, though I could be more professional myself with how I go about it.

If someone still chooses to invest, at least they are better informed of potential risks. I can't prioritize both his business and his potential consumers if my opinion is that it is a bad idea to give money to him. I've made a number of poor, blind investments myself out of enthusiasm, both financially and emotionally. The internet's all marketing. People are all marketing. We have negative reviews for this reason -- handled properly, it isn't an insult directed at the creator, but a warning about the work to inform others about a bad purchasing experience / potentially unsafe action.

Qzar, I also do not agree. I understand why you'd post the way you did, but such hostility! You've drawn your own assumptions about what certain things mean, and to prove otherwise, I had to change-up accounts.

What you see as commands, I saw as putting options for a better use of their money. "Please do not give any money. Direct it elsewhere if you want to have something created with a good degree of quality." Was this the statement you took issue with and blew up over? Who commands with 'please'?

Bottom line: you're arguing for investment, I'm arguing against it. Buyer beware. We can argue semantics and how we're both writing until we're blue in the face, but the internet doesn't work the same way as the real world. There's so much room for misinterpretation and reactionism.

In the interest of, as Rachel said, "not being a dickwad," I'll keep this reply completely courteous and professional; I just want to clarify a couple of things.

"Hypocrisy"? Really? You've always struck me as a pretty clever guy and I think you know exactly what I meant by that sentence, but I'll admit I could have phrased it better--so I will. "You have neither the right, nor the authority, to tell other people what they should or shouldn't do with their money; they're adults and should be allowed to exercise their own judgment without you saying 'Don't do it! You'll regret it!' Furthermore, I would very much appreciate if you could keep your personal bias to yourself, rather than use it to undermine what I'm trying to do. You invested money with Dave and weren't happy with the results. I invested a similar amount and have been satisfied with the outcome. Your experience is no more or less valid than mine and serves as no better of an indicator what will or won't happen this time around." It was just shorter to say it the other way.

This is not about me "getting my feelings hurt." This is about me wanting to try to improve what both Dave and I are producing, and you coming in here to damage our project with what happened between you and him years ago. If the roles were reversed, I expect you'd be angry with me for doing the exact same thing.

I'd also like to once again point out that this isn't so much an investment as it is commissioning clips. It's more of a service being offered. If you think it's a bad idea to give Dave money, then don't give Dave money--but let others decide for themselves, won't you? There's a difference between saying "It went badly for me" and saying "Please do not support this." Other people have seen the clips we're producing, and if they want to commission a clip from us it's not really any of your business.

Where was I hostile, other than pointing out the low post count and asking what "Animas" had ever done for the community? You've created content before--you know as well as I do that there are plenty of people who won't lift a finger to do anything themselves but have no problem tearing down others' efforts. If someone whom I'd never heard of and who had never written anything went into my Wolf Lake thread and said "Your story sucks!" I wouldn't be nearly as upset as if someone like ZZZ, merrittstone, or pseudoclever did it. If you felt this issue was important enough to speak out about, you should've done it as LK in the first place. It's the difference between Barack Obama stating something vs. some looney that Fox News is interviewing.

I didn't say you "commanded" anyone to do anything. You're right, "Please" isn't technically a command. I could point out that "Please keep off the grass," "Please don't feed the animals," "No smoking, please," etc. etc. aren't really "commands" but there's the implication of one...but you said you didn't want to argue semantics, so. Anyway the point isn't whether you "commanded," it's that you're actively trying to dissuade people from investing. You didn't just present other options, you specifically said "Please do not support this." That was an awful thing to do and it goes far beyond simply saying "You could also spend money on this other thing!" Clearly I'm not the only one who read it as such--see Rachel's post, for instance.

Originally Posted by darththeo

just to make sure the video we pay for we get right for 100

You pay $100, we'll make your video and give you a free copy, then it goes up for sale in our store. Simple.

Originally Posted by queenofprussia2006

I'd suggest a rworking of the prospectus

$2 - 3k for the fancy new bells and whistles

$ 2 -$ 3k to option non-fetish scripts/storyboards ( in case the fetish market crashes and burns )

$ 2- 3k to hire a contract writer to add that extra zip to the submitted fanboi dregs

etc till the whole $15,000 is balanced out with a proper
business plan

I appreciate the advice, I'll see if we can post a proper breakdown of the expenses. I don't think we'll need a writer, though--that's one of the reasons I'm here. ^_^ (And I'm so humble, too...)