M.A.I.L. :: View topic - Announcement that concerns the whole of the maille community

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Well, if you haven't heard before now, one of the 'big three'(TRL, TCB, MAIL), specifically TCB (www.chainmailleboard.com), has been bought out by Wal-Mart. No, I'm not kidding. Yes, THAT Wal-Mart. The change goes into effect Monday AM.

What that means to them: Dubi's out as techie, and he's gone stark raving mad about it, making and carrying out all sorts of threats. Charles doesn't run the show anymore. No spam, no emails getting sold. The board will become an aspect of a sort of 'maille mall', in which members of the board can sell their stuff under the expansive umbrella of Wal-Mart. YES, THAT Wal-Mart, how many times do I have to say it? *chuckle* They will be expanding the gallery and articles capabilities. Lots of members are jumping ship, others are sticking with it to see what happens, very few are keen on it. Charles did sell TCB outright and is keeping all the money. Oh, and the colors are going to be changed to be less headache inducing *chuckle*

What that means to M.A.I.L.: Our sister site is now officially competition. They want to make TCB, and I'm quoting directly from the WM rep at TCB "the best resource on Chain Mail available on the Internet.". That's OUR job, *explitive deleted* WM. Since WM has a reputation for crushing the little guy, we'll probobly be busting our ass to make M.A.I.L. even better than before to avoid that fate. No, WM, nor anybody else, will every be ABLE to buy M.A.I.L., as nobody owns it now, so don't sweat that.

What that means to the maille community: Hold on to your seats, folx, all the rules just changed. If you make a living selling maille, I highly recommend you find a way to co-exist with the new WMTCB, or you'll be crushed. On the other hand, hey, cheap maille!

If you have an account at TCB, I'd recommend reading the thread on the subject. You can't miss it, it's huge. Very entertaining in a 'watching an execution' sort of way.

Comments?
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you have got to be kidding. i presume walmart is like K-mart or target or something like that. that is so sad... why the hell would they be interested in hosting a maille site? *explicit derogatory comment deleted by your friendly admin*

i personally havent had much to do with TCB, but i do go there on the odd occasion to see whats new.

i just sit here and shake my head....
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View user's profile · Ringlet Joined: March 16, 2004 Posts: 12 Submissions: 0

does this mean walmart will try to sell us all cheap rings ? to push out the competition.

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Well that stinks. I don't go there often, but even still, I feel sorry for them. We definitely need to make this place the best possible. If Wal-Mart is going to start selling mail then it's value will go down. Who knows, people who might not care about quality may just switch to buying from WM. That would stink for us as mailers.
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HOLY MOLEY?!?!?!?
I'm guessing that you stay up pretty late Woody 'cos it's 3 of the Aussies to read this first.
I haven't really had anything to do with TCB although, I too have a look every now and then to see what's going on.
I still don't get why the hell a Wal-Mart would want to buy a chainmaille website? Wal-Mart is a department store! Why?
I'm confused...I think i'll go and curl up in the corner and cry Crying (very sad)

.

Siege
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Hot dang it.
Gotta hate when someone posts while you are still posting. Now I can't even remember if Valkor is an Aussie. I'm still confuzzled. Confused

Bah...!!!
Arggg!
Why, Oh Why?

Siege
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John Lennon once sang a song where he imagined a world with no religion at all, and how all the people would be living life in peace, which sounds like a pretty terrific philosophy to follow - but then again, John Lennon also sang a song about how he was an eggman and a walrus goo goo g'joob, so i'm not sure he was always 100 per cent reliable.

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But, uh, huh? I mean, what? Waitaminnit... Wally World in the maille biz?

I find this frightening, to say the least.
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Wha? buh? muh?...... zuh!!

Well, we always knew that chainmaille would one day be brought into mainstream sometime... it's just we never thought that so soon. I hate to say this, but why do people have to be greedy and sell out?

We're going to have to be really dedicated here, luckily, since we are an NPO, they can't really do much to us, luckily. We have to make this the best resource for chainmaille, even more so. My fear aside from selling cheap maille, is that they will be able to get cheaper supplies and be able to sell cheaper supplies. The quality will not be near as good as Jon's, but still.. mass marketed maille/supplies certainly will not be good for the mailleing community....

Blast ye wal mart. My thine ankles be swarmed with hundreds of ravenous spaniels..
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personally i see no problem with MAIL going out. because we're not a store or anything, we are the official fan club of mail basically, we have everything that they dont, maybe we should copyrite everything on this site (including articles and weaves) so that if wal-mart tries to steal them, we can sue. (and with wal-mart, we can sue big and get the money!)

thats the only problem i have. wal mart may try to take what is ours and put it down as theirs, leaving us pennyless
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O_o

Wow.

Um, yeah, so (sorry, just waking up here)... like... this means we're all gonna be getting our butts in gear I guess. Ok, well, I can do that, well, I'll do that more in aprox 2 weeks when our dsl finally (after well over a year without) gets connected. I feel kinda like I'm in stasis or something, waiting to get my broadband back, knowing it's so soon.

View user's profile · Last edited by 14thWarrior on Fri Mar 26, 2004 3:42 pm; edited 1 time in total

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actually...while it does suck, i dont think wal-mart will have that much of a time with it. can you imagine wally world paying big bucks to people like us to make maille for them? or machines...how many machines can make persian, jap, anything beyond 4-1 euro, or the local weaves "discovered" around here? they will only be able to make basic shtuffkies, which will enlighten some people, look it up, and guess what...we'll have things wal mart never even dreamed of making, and they'll want to buy it (other people)...and to keep it like this, we could vow not to sell to wal-mart...this could help some people who make money selling maille...reverse psychology almost (in a twisted sense)...and no, this isnt just looking on the bright side...i hardly ever do that...sucks though, this takeover...really does...

latas

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Incidentally, posting my two rings on the matter...

I think this is certainly strange news. The ramifications to professional maillers (those who sell maille wares) could be significant if WM does indeed elect to get maille products 'mass produced'. You (I'm nowhere near the level of having saleable goods yet) could be competing with a flood of low quality product, and trying to convince untrained consumers why they should pay double or more for their high quality hand crafted maille product will be a challenge at best.

On the other hand, WM could instead open up their distribution network to the many maillers out there to sell their own product. If so, one can only hope that they institute a quality control program. This would encourage high quality maille production, and in turn promote the art. (I'm thinking this scenario is wishful dreaming).

Another potential scenario I can see, is WM marketing maille kits in their craft departments; encourageing every Tom, Dick, and Mary to pick up a pair of pliers and start making their own shoddy product. This could be a double edged sword; it could introduce talented and patient people to the hobby and legitimately grow the art, but more likely, it could harm the art by flooding the market with shoddy product, or causing skewed peceptions of the art.

It's still too early to tell what will happen though, I think.
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It makes absolutely no sense...my head is spinning...

Well, the more I think of it...this is like the maille equivalent of those Starving Artist sales where they sell paintings really cheap; they're hand-painted, sure, and someone had to have at least a smidgen of talent to paint it, but anybody who looks at them can tell they're utter crap. The same pictures in a wide variety of colors to go with any decor...c'mon. Maille is the same way. If Wal-Mart really does want to mass-market maille, as unconceivable as that is, it's still not going to be art. Same way with cars... a Detroit car factory doesn't churn out art, but a guy who designs and builds his own cars, or all the people who make their cars showpieces...that's art. It has to be special, and unique...and the person making it has to care about it. Wal-Mart can't replicate that in a million years.
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Wal-Mart is acquiring many online forums as part of a new venture. They've been acquiring prosperous online message boards of various interests. I haven't read anywhere that Wal-Mart will actually start selling mailleing materials. Certainly, they would never be able to get them sold in rural Wal-Mart stores like mine. I've also never heard anything that will allow us to sell our goods through Wal-Mart.

My only guess is that their main push here would be to hook these forums into their website. If you see the Wal-Mart logo plastered on your favorite forum with every page load, you're going to be more likely to go into Wal-Mart and buy their products. I think that's Wal-Mart's big idea here -- to get us to think they're more friendly, so when we're not mailleing (haha!) we go into Wal-Mart and splurge on goods.

They have a nasty tendancy to kill the little guy. Their newest venture, an online music store, has already undercut iTunes and Napster on prices. I'm sure you can guess where this is going...

I, for one, am largely against TCB's new ownership. Their members aren't protected like ours are -- once you submit to a gallery, they own your pictures. I'm sure that Wal-Mart found MAIL and decided that it would be just too hard to acquire. Remember, it's all about the all-mighty dollar with these guys.

My advice to anybody here -- make absolutely sure that when selling your goods, you harp on the fact that it is HAND-MADE in (YOUR COUNTRY HERE)... that each piece is UNIQUE... that no two are alike... and that maille is an ART!

Otherwise, the machines will take over...

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