Originally posted by ResidentLilly
Luke I am curious...what are your reservations?
I've nothing against you personally - i think your a great guy, more than dedicated to the line, and listening to and keeping the fans happy. I don't think anyone would doubt you've done a superb job and should be very proud - we all are !
My reservations are more about any company being here, and also having such a close relationship with the fans :-
On the one hand it's a good thing because you can tap into the fans for advice and opinions which can only make the product better. You can also listen to new ideas and sometimes things may come out of that. As well as that we've gained you and other Palisades employee's on the forum, and on a personal level you are all great, friendly and honest people.
On the flipside - people don't seem to have grasped the idea this is 'Muppet Central' and not the 'Palisades Forum' - we get 101 new threads about packages or money orders being recieved where this should be an email type thing. People sometimes start a new thread because it worries them it might not get enough attention in 'Ask Ken' so the whole place gets overloaded with action figure stuff - i know all this is not your fault, but it must be very overwhelming for people who don't have an interest in the action figures, and what they may have come here for before (news chat, trivia games, general collectables) seems to be very overshadowed. It's one of the most important years for the Muppets - 25th anniversary, company sale, upcoming Muppetfest, new shows on the horizon - but they aren't getting enough attention. If you look at Toughpigs (where the more maturer fans hang out), i think the mixture of action figure chat and other stuff is perfect, and you participate there which is cool !
The hysteria can be kinda annoying too. People are not used to having a product developer here so they get a bit overwhelmed by it all. There are people who are so obsessed with the figures or Palisades actually being at the forum that they give people with different views a pretty hard time. As i said, i know there are people who love, but do have opinions on the figures (maybe stuff like Dr Teeth could have been thinner and stuff like that) turning up at Toughpigs chat but when we say they should go and post to Ken at MC with their opinions, they say they don't want to bother because they'd just get flamed by the others. I guess as people have come to know you as a friend they also want to protect you, which is cool, but they kinda have to realise you are doing a job too and have come here for a reason, hence all the people apologising for 'nitpicking' before.
So they are my thoughts on the subject although i want to point out that i really like you posting here and wouldn't have it any other way, just i can see also ways where this action figure boom hasn't been entirely good for the forum as a whole. I guess my reservations are more geared to the people, we have a lot of younger fans here and also now the influx of people who are more into action figure collecting than the Muppets so they are very excited by it all and quite rightly so, but it's EXACTLY the same as when Bill Baretta and Jerry Nelson came here - they posted a few times, the fans got over-excited and obsessively overwhelmed by it all and it all got a bit too much and the people never came back. I guess this is also the reason why people from Mattel don't post on He-Man forums or Hasbro on Transformers ones - sometimes the fans just get too carried away. I like the idea that the action figures are discussed, any figure news is reported, and opinions and ideas are sought but still retaining a cool and balanced atmosphere that we don't seem to be able to get here because it's become known as the action figure hangout where 'Ask Ken' is this daily phenomena - i guess it must seem a bit daunting to even you sometimes.
I guess i'll probably be accused of whining by someone now but you did ask !