Small guys getting the shaft at rpgnow

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Things are changing at rpgnow. Some of us would like to tell you about it, but we.ve been told we.re not allowed to.

As a small vendor on rpgnow, I can inform the public that we.re being bullied and harried into not telling everyone about our concerns. People are being kicked off their private boards for voicing their concerns publicly and it seems that the lunatics have taken over the asylum. We are being threatened and made examples of if we don.t follow their ad hoc rules. Ad hoc, that is, because they.re making them up as they go and then punishing respectively.

What seems to really get to these idiots is the fact that people like me are not prepared to stand up and say who we are. I guess they.re not bright enough to realize that is a situation of their own making.

So, what is happening at rpgnow?

rpgnow is splitting its vendor base into two. There are the BIG guys who apparently do 90% of rpgnows business and there are the SMALL guys, who apparently don.t do enough to warrant their position on the main site. The BIG guys have decided enough is enough . they don.t want the products of the SMALL guys clogging up the New Releases page with thumbs of their worthless new products, or having our products appear in the Search function, but instead want it all to themselves, so they can sell more of their own products.

So the SMALL guys are being pushed aside, to a place called the edge. I think this is a rather apt name, considering that is what they are pushing us off. It will be based entirely on vendor ratings, not products. So, one vendor can have a lot of crap products that don.t sell well individually, but sell enough collectively to warrant a position in the new Promised Land, while those with just one healthy product will find themselves teetering on the edge. Of course, this means that you guys (the buyers, who rpgnow seem to have forgotten about in all of this) get to buy more of the BIG guys crap. But don.t worry. it.s okay. How do I know? Because the BIG boys say it is. Their crap is okay. It.s our crap that is the problem.

Apparently, there is going to be a two-tier decision making process, based on sales and product quality. Except, of course, if you.re a BIG guy, then you get to continue selling your crap on the main site. As yet, so we.ve been told, the criteria for neither of these have been set. Except that some publishers have already been invited into the BIG guys site, even if their sales don.t warrant it. So, I wonder, have the criteria been set and we.ve not been told, or is the criteria simply going to be based on the inflated opinion of Gareth-Michael .conflict of interests. Skara, who also happens to be a vendor as well as employee of rpgnow (and who also happens to be one of the BIG guys)? Of course, we all know that Gareth-Michael .more holy than though. Skara wouldn.t dream of being impartial. Despite the fact that he.s made more enemies than Batman and has made it totally clear that he regards us SMALL guys as totally worthless. Of course not.

And what was the reaction of the BIG guys when us SMALL guys suggested that we were being driven out of business? Don.t worry, come to us and we.ll publish your stuff for you. (though not, of course, unless they get a large slice of the LITTLE guy.s very little cake). When it was suggested that the sharks were circling, the BIG guys got quite offended and gave us LITTLE guys a slap, just so they could make themselves feel BIG again.

Now there are a lot of us who can actually understand the need for change and can appreciate that us SMALL guys maybe take up a bigger slot than we merit. But what we don.t get is that we.re being completely shoved aside and ignored, whether our products are any good or not. Nobody has any interest in hearing our opinion . should we even mention that this doesn.t seem fair, we.re given a quick slap and told to shut up, as our opinion is not worth anything. We.re only SMALL guys, remember. Now, we.ve been told we.re not allowed to talk about it outside of their private forum, where, of course, the BIG guys get to tell us how to think (and believe me, the brainwashed now walk the rpgnow earth). Soon, I guess they.ll be kicking us off of rpgnow altogether soon.

So there you go. Just another sorry story where the LITTLE guy gets told what to say and how to act and where the wishes of the customers remain just that. Wishes.
 

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That is really sad, but.... that is still the way modern economics and business works. I do feel for the little guy, but as always, the little guy must do more... create better... be more exciting... etc.

It is no different for the little hamburger shops when McDonald's comes to town. Or the little hardware shop when Lowes or HomeDepot moves in next door.

And no... I am not affiliated with any of the larger companies (or any company for that matter). I am simply an individual who has studied markets and economics, from a variety of different business models. The little guy still has to follow the same laws of economics as the big boys, until he has enough resources to do things the way he wants.
 

Gareth's_Nemesis said:
Things are changing at rpgnow.

Don't let the door hit you on the way out to the Edge!

No, that's not a flame. This is good for small publishers. The only people ruining it are them. The only people making it look like a ghetto are them. The only people who can make a venture specifically designed for their needs fail is them.
 

Isn't this something you need to take up with RPGNow? Talking bad about the company is not going to help out the situation. I'd think it would be better for the little guys to get a second site devoted to them so they don't have to compete so much with the big boys.
 

When you have an important message, make sure you don't make it too difficult to read by using . for ' .
 

eyebeams said:
This is good for small publishers. The only people ruining it are them. The only people making it look like a ghetto are them. The only people who can make a venture specifically designed for their needs fail is them.

This was kind of the same conclusion I came to when reading the post. Can you maybe be a bit more clear on what you think the problem is?
 

The poster is of the opinion that by forcing vendors who are not performing at a certain revenue level to the new site, he is being robbed of potential income. RPGNow has frequently asked that all involved parties please refrain from "going postal" until all of the new details are cemented into place and a formal announcement is being made. Until that time, speculation and rumors will only make things worse.
 

I don't want to sound like a jerk or anything but:

RPGnow = business

small guys= 10% of sales but use up 80% of the websites resources.

Most of the "big guys" publish higher quality stuff than the majority of the small publishers. I'm not saying being a small publisher automatically means your stuff is lower quality than the big guys, there are several good small pubs. There are also a lot of vanity publishers now.

I do think that there should be some sort list of qualifications listed so publishers know why they are not on the main site.

In the end though it is a business and the owner has every right to do business with whoever he wants for whatever reason he wants.
 

Is the problem a type of $/square inch storefrontage issue? Because I really don't think that mentality really translates well to internet sales. I think the poster might be more offended by being told what to do and how to do it--as opposed to the potential benifits being offered by the new format.
 

All right, three problems with this thread.

First of all, it's in the wrong forum, in my opinion. Publishers dealing with the workings of RPGnow really should to me be in the e-publishing forum. If you were a consumer only, I might could see it here, but even then I hate seeing it spread all over the place on ENWorld.

Second, We already have a thread for the publishers to discuss this. It's a short thread and not overcrowded at all, over HERE. Any comments and greivances on this should be better directed there.

Finally, and MOST important, we do not "call out" fellow forum members, and do not level insults at fellow forum members, such as "holier than thou." Please be polite to one another, and give the same courtesy as you expect.

Any problems with this, you may e-mail me. My e-mail's listed in Meta.

Thank you!

Henry Link
Administrator
 

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