Jeff For Fan Club President!

[theottomanguy]

I think this is USCWANNABE's MySpace page.  I can't seem to tell which one he is in his photos and there's not really much of anything there having to do with the contest at fist glance.

EDIT:  WHOA, big warning:  There's a pretty hardcore Star Wars-themed porn drawing in the second page of his comments (albeit not posted by him).  That can't have gone over well with anyone at LFL or IDG.

[MikeJones]

Several of you guys once agreed that they had the best soup in town.  You used to go there every week.  Now, some folks either broke the rules in the soup store or pissed off the Soup Nazi, and got themselves banned.   Yeah, it sucks cause you're my friends....but darnit, I still want my jambalaya.  

As soon as there's another site that matches the resources of RS, I'll abandon that place and go where my friends all went....but it just hasn't happened, so I just can't join the hater brigade.

Forgive me for being blunt, but it's this  mentality that keeps people like Phillip Wise in business. If nobody bought "jambalaya" from him based on how poorly he treats people, he wouldn't have so much power in the SW collecting hobby.  This stance seems unapologetically selfish, and if you're fine with that, well, great. 

Rather than hang on to something rotten to the core just because it has more "resources" , why not be part of building something better at any of the other fine sites, like here, GH, Yakface, etc.? I don't post in any other forums--I mostly just read through threads at work--but there is such a clear difference between Rebelscum and most of the other collecting sites. This place has heart and soul, and I would proudly point it out to any of my friends as representative of my hobby.

Both at Rebelscum and at the formerly (though not for years) indispensable tF.N, I have watched Philip Wise spread out like a cancer across the hobby. I don't begrudge anybody from making a buck, but being a Grade-A dick is unforgivable. I could never support somebody that lousy, regardless of what they may have that I want.  Whether he had anything to do with "rigging" the FC President thing or not is beside the point--the biggest issue is how he treats people, and the negative impact it has on SW collecting.

[theottomanguy]

...Forgive me for being blunt, but it's this� mentality that keeps people like Phillip Wise in business. If nobody bought "jambalaya" from him based on how poorly he treats people, he wouldn't have so much power in the SW collecting hobby.�...
Rather than hang on to something rotten to the core just because it has more "resources" , why not be part of building something better at any of the other fine sites, like here, GH, Yakface, etc.? ...--but there is such a clear difference between Rebelscum and most of the other collecting sites. ...Both at Rebelscum and at the formerly (though not for years) indispensable tF.N, I have watched Philip Wise spread out like a cancer across the hobby. I don't begrudge anybody from making a buck, but being a Grade-A dick is unforgivable. I could never support somebody that lousy, regardless of what they may have that I want.� Whether he had anything to do with "rigging" the FC President thing or not is beside the point--the biggest issue is how he treats people, and the negative impact it has on SW collecting.

I agree wholeheartedly.  And I think the impact goes way beyond collecting to Star Wars fandom in general.

[CorranHorn]

If nobody bought "jambalaya" from him based on how poorly he treats people, he wouldn't have so much power in the SW collecting hobby. 

I've seen this mentioned several times in this thread and elsewhere so Mike don't take this as a hit on you, it's a hit on anyone who says that. Besides clearly making some coin off of visitors to Rebelscum, what kind of power does Phil have in the hobby?

Can he tell manufacturers what items to make?

Can he force collectors to buy specific items?

Can he force collectors to buy from specific retailers/e-tailers?

Is his site the only site in town, thus giving collectors no choice but to visit RS?

The answer to all of these questions is a resounding No. The closest thing to a Yes would be the first question. He does have contacts at Hasbro and other manufacturers and as such can make suggestions, but in the end the companies will decide what to make. Also there are other sites out there that have contacts at the manufacturers, they likely make the same suggestions but get the same results as Phil - which are probably akin to the results we're all getting from the Q&A.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't like Phil's actions over the last few years and many of you have seen the proof of that (well you know before it was deleted from the RS forums). But a lot of people are saying he has power over the hobby which is a bunch of bull****. What power does he possibly have that can effect your enjoyment of collecting Star Wars toys? When you look at your action figures at night, do you cringe and say that damn Wise how dare he **** with my hobby? No of course not, you grab your figures and start flying them through the air making lightsaber sounds, just like the rest of us. Do you get pissed off at Phil when you see the less than expected quality of the action figure you purchased, of course not you get pissed at Hasbro.

So while bemoaning the bull**** that clearly was the Fan Club presidential money drive and his actions involved with it,  don't bitch that Philip Wise is ruining the hobby. The only way he could possibly be doing it is if you think he's doing so and letting it effect your enjoyment of the hobby. And if that's the case, save your sanity and move onto another hobby, one that's less likely to be so seedy like crocheting.

[Jayson]

EDIT:  WHOA, big warning:  There's a pretty hardcore Star Wars-themed porn drawing in the second page of his comments (albeit not posted by him).  That can't have gone over well with anyone at LFL or IDG.

Wow... nothing like a little gang rape Star Wars art, Jesus.

p.s. the artist apparently knows quite a bit about drawing cocks, but doesn't know what Vader's saber looks like. Amatuer. 

[theottomanguy]

... what kind of power does Phil have in the hobby?

I'm not sure it's limited to just the hobby, but the one thing that makes him a pain is that rebelscum is a busy site, with busy forums.  But more annoyingly, he also lourds over tf.n and those forums are tyrranical and disgusting and with their Fanforce baloney, they do have an affect on fandom worldwide.  There was a point there in 2002, when StarWars.com was lending officiality to Fanforce events surrounding the IMAX release of AOTC with a literal seal of approval.  Remember that?  It was right after Paul Ens went over from tf.n to working for the official site.  When discussion is censored, it's bad. Already at tf.n, the months-old, neglected thread about this "election" was mysteriously locked the minute I brought this stuff up there.  No coincidence, to be sure.

So, beyond just collecting, Phil is very bad for Star Wars overall.

[JoshEEE]

Forgive me for being blunt, but it's this  mentality that keeps people like Phillip Wise in business. If nobody bought "jambalaya" from him based on how poorly he treats people, he wouldn't have so much power in the SW collecting hobby.  This stance seems unapologetically selfish, and if you're fine with that, well, great. 

Sounds like a dozen internet petitions I've read over the years.  I suppose if everyone stopped buying gasoline and rode their bikes to work, we wouldn't be paying 3 bucks a gallon.   

The problem is....that's not realistic.  Expecting every member of a huge website to quit simply because the webmaster has been unfair to a handful of members doesn't really wash.   What has he done to me?  I don't have a reason to stop going to Rebelscum, because it's still an incredibly valuable part of my hobby.

And Philip doesn't treat ALL people badly, he just treats the people who repeatedly challenge the rules he sets forth for his site or talk smack about him badly.  Annoying? Sure.  Inhuman?  Hardly.

He's a businessman. So what?  Granted....I'm sure the revenue checks are much smaller, but this site has ads plastered all over the place too.  Am I supposed to believe that JD is somehow more noble because not as many people have discovered it yet?

What's good about JD is the community, but it's still a site with sponsors and ads and moderators and all that good stuff.  It's just smaller.

Rather than hang on to something rotten to the core just because it has more "resources" , why not be part of building something better at any of the other fine sites, like here, GH, Yakface, etc.?

I am a part of all of the other sites. I just don't see how belonging here means I have to hate the other place to fit in. It shouldn't.   I don't think Rebelscum is "rotten to the core".  I think it's actually the reverse, where the core is the best part and it's surrounded by stuff that the experience folks know how to navigate around.

You joined the hater brigade the day you registered over here bub.

I joined JD because several of my favorite folks from days past at RS hang out here.  I didn't join up with the intention of quitting RS (or even bashing it every day). I simply joined with the intention of continuing to socialize with the members I met there who no longer hang out there.

I'd love to hear what those resources are, exactly.

Rebelscum has the traffic.  Everyone goes there.  If I want a question answered, a topic replied to, a classified ad to search....that's generally the place to go.
Yes....it generally means I'm going to deal with some new person I've never talked to, but everyone here was new to me at one time too.  They've usually got the news first (not always, I know), the local folks who I hang around with all call RS their home and every once in awhile, the conversations are still liveliest in Wuher's.

Right before they get deleted. 

For the record, I've TRIED to bring people over here.  I even tried to get the Seattle folks to use the JD "look what I found" section exclusively, because it's secure here.   It fizzled after a week, because we could never convert everyone over.

That's OK though because you can be a member of RS AND JD.  I do it every day.  I think JD is great. I think RS is great.  I never felt the need to choose.

[Rob]

I am a part of all of the other sites. I just don't see how belonging here means I have to hate the other place to fit in. It shouldn't.

People don't hate Rebelscum to fit in here.  They hate it because of the way Phillip speaks to people, the over-moderating, and the abundance of idiocy from certain posters.

If none of those things bother you, then by all means, continue liking Rebelscum.

It doesn't make you less welcome here or anywhere else.

 

I don't think Rebelscum is "rotten to the core".  I think it's actually the reverse, where the core is the best part and it's surrounded by stuff that the experience folks know how to navigate around

The very core of the core is Phillip.  If you're vouching for him, that's your choice - but more and more people every day are going to disagree.

[Chris]

So the resource is traffic. That's an interesting way of looking at things, to say the least.

The comment regarding RS having the news first most of the time is absolutely inaccurate. I implore you to do a study of your own and match them and us, story for story and report on what you've found. I can guarantee it is not what you stated.

Your counterargument regarding our ads is almost laughable too so I won't really go into that since it's pretty simple to figure out that our ads have a completely different objective.

I'm done trying to get you to open your mind, Josh.

[Matt_Fury]

Josh,

You really need to take off the rose-colored glasses.  What rule did I ever break over there in all the time I was a member?  (The answer is none, btw.)  Granted, the only reason I'm "banned" over there is because I wanted all my personal imformation removed from the site, but what really pisses me off and illustrates my frustration with PW and the rest of the staff over at RS is that I made a post when I decided to leave that was mainly a good-bye to the members I talked to over there and the reasons I decided to leave.  It wasn't about the spam e-mail, it was how much the site had changed and how PW treated a lot of good people like crap and the staff was letting the place go to **** (read just about any Mr Kenobi post among many others and you'll see what I'm talking about.

Although my last post was critical of PW and the staff, it was by no means offensive or inaccurate...and I stated that since it wasn't my site, it was better if we just parted ways.  The thread was deleted after about 3 posts because of what I said....and the latest antics of PW and the rest are just more examples. 

He does have an affect on this hobby because he controls two of the most visited sites on the web, albeit, I'd argue Rebelscum would not be nearly as popular if he had never taken the BHC forums.  Now do I think PW just snaps his fingers and the rest of the SW community jumps up....of course not, but he does have his fingers in a lot of pies over there and can easily reach quite a few important ears. 

Philip's very blatantly squeezing RS and TF.s for every penny he can get out of them, and if you don't think he's got plans for exploiting Dustin's "election win", you really need to wake the hell up.

[CorranHorn]

... what kind of power does Phil have in the hobby?

I'm not sure it's limited to just the hobby, but the one thing that makes him a pain is that rebelscum is a busy site, with busy forums.  But more annoyingly, he also lourds over tf.n and those forums are tyrranical and disgusting and with their Fanforce baloney, they do have an affect on fandom worldwide.  There was a point there in 2002, when StarWars.com was lending officiality to Fanforce events surrounding the IMAX release of AOTC with a literal seal of approval.  Remember that?  It was right after Paul Ens went over from tf.n to working for the official site.  When discussion is censored, it's bad. Already at tf.n, the months-old, neglected thread about this "election" was mysteriously locked the minute I brought this stuff up there.  No coincidence, to be sure.

So, beyond just collecting, Phil is very bad for Star Wars overall.

Many of his actions in the past couple of years have surely shown that he's been bad for the hobby and the community. But I still don't see how he or his power are ruining either, that is unless you let him effect your enjoyment of the hobby and community. That's the point I was trying to get across - it's one thing to bitch and complain about the bull**** he's been a part of, but to let it adversely effect your enjoyment and involvement in the hobby and community which most definitely transcends Rebelscum and TheForce.Net is just as bad.

[JediMAC]

A big point here is that as Star Wars fans and collectors, most/all of us want to have a Fan Club President who is a fan him/herself, who is someone we can look up to, who's a person who wants to be friends with and get to know many other Star Wars fans out there, a person who's fair and willing to speak up for us and listen to our ideas, someone you can approach and chat with at a convention or just say "Hi", someone who doesn't have an "agenda", someone who represents the entire community, and most of all, someone who's worthy and deserving of the position, even if it's just (supposedly) an honorary title for the most part.

Outside of the first point listed above, Dustin is none of those things, and neither is his "master" Phillip.  Why in the hell would anyone want a Fan Club President who from the get-go will automatically want to exclude anyone and everyone who may participate at another website, or some other entity who they'd take "competitive issue" with?  I wouldn't be surprised if when Dustin gets in there, he searches the Hyperspace subscription database, and starts cancelling all the subscriptions for anyone who's a member at JD, GH, SSG, Yak, etc.  Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if they wanted to expel any members who may also be fans of other movie or Sci-Fi franchises, like Star Trek, LOTR, Battlestar Galactica, Pirates, etc.  These two guys are exactly that kind of petty.  That's not the type of Fan Club President we want to have - someone who immediately hates half the Star Wars community because they don't belong to Rebelscum...  That's total bull****.

As for Phillip not having any power in the hobby, I find that absolutely laughable.  When we say "hobby", we're not just talking about going to the store and buying a figure, and then enjoying it when we get home.  We're talking about the much larger picture, including conventions and events, magazines, licensees, and generally "knowing" all the very top people in the Star Wars world.  Sure, Phillip may not have had anything to do with me finally getting a Hem Dazon figure, but he certainly has his fingers in a whole lot of Star Wars pies all over the place.  Do you think that some of the more Star Wars specific licensees like Gentle Giant, Master Replicas, Sideshow, Code 3, etc. don't pay him much mind, when he's their number one advertiser, revenue generator, and news reporter?  Do you honestly think that some of the polls that RS runs on it's main page don't carry any weight in the decisions these licensees make?  Please.  That's totally obtuse to suggest such a thing.

Something seemed to have gone down shortly after the unofficial final election results were posted, when all the main honchos over at RS suddenly went completely tight lipped and immediately stopped their griping and conspiracy theories, and inexplicably changed their tunes to a rather confident "it's not technically over yet".  They pulled a complete 180 in the course of about an hour or two, and I'm pretty sure there was some kind or reason for that, and that they were already heavily involved in discussions with the Fan Club about the results.  Who knows, there's a slight chance that there's a legitimate reason USC got disqualified, but I'd think that if that was the case, IDG wouldn't be so completely stupid and ignorant not to address it with all the fans who "voted".  Their silence suggests maybe their reasoning for DQ'ing USC might not be too popular, or legit, if announced to the Star Wars community.

But again, Dustin and anyone else involved with RS/TFn/Official Pix shouldn't have even been allowed to be in the running in the first place, according to the rules.  That'd probably even apply to Jeff here as well, now that I thik about it.  But that's just the bottom line, and it's irrefutable.  Hell, even Phillip Wise himself admitted that detail, which is probably a big reason he subsequently deleted that thread (aside from the fact that a large part of his community was tearing he and Dustin to shreds).

Here's a portion of the contest's rules:

"Employees of Sponsor and Lucasfilm Ltd., their affiliates, subsidiaries, distributors, retailers, and anyone involved with the design, production, execution, or distribution of Sponsor’s or Lucasfilm Ltd.’s products or related promotional materials and their immediate family members (parent, child, sibling, and spouse of each) are not eligible to participate in the Promotion."

Thanks to Travis's quick thinking, here's Phillip's comments on their affiliation:



Heck, I'd have no problem at all seeing the whole thing go to the third place guy from DC, Mark or Mike, was it?

[JoshEEE]

So the resource is traffic. That's an interesting way of looking at things, to say the least.

In a community like ours, yes...I think the place with the most people is going to be the one with the most benefits.

The comment regarding RS having the news first most of the time is absolutely inaccurate. I implore you to do a study of your own and match them and us, story for story and report on what you've found. I can guarantee it is not what you stated.

I know they collect it from many different sources, but I usually see it there first.  Yes, I'm sure JD often gets it 25 minutes sooner, but in the end, it doesn't matter to me as long as you both have the story.  There really are no "exclusives" in this community, because everyone cross-posts.  Unless of course you want to count exclusive interviews and stuff....but I really didn't feel like talking about their whole Rancho Obi-Wan, Gentle Giant or Sideshow things they've done as positives.  My point is not to belittle JD or give you 10 reasons why they're better.  I'm just sticking up for RS a little, because it's not such a horrible place. I know some of you guys hate it...and I respect your reasons why.  I even agree with some of them.  But I don't hate them along with you.  I apologize, but I don't feel like that's a character flaw on my part.

Your counterargument regarding our ads is almost laughable too so I won't really go into that since it's pretty simple to figure out that our ads have a completely different objective.

Your front page has several sponsors. Their front page has some too. Probably more. Philip says his pay the bandwidth bills.  I'm sure he makes some nice gravy on top of that.  If you have a different objective with the revenue from yours, great.  Either way, as the end user.....it's the same deal to me:  I see ads on the front page when I stop by.

You guys DO have more contests though, and I think that's sweet, even though I've never won. 

I'm done trying to get you to open your mind, Josh.

How do you want me to open it? RS works for me.  JD is a great place too, for different reasons. Neither one sucks in my eyes.   Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one with my eyes open in that regard.

What is it that I am not realizing?

What rule did I ever break over there in all the time I was a member?

I have absolutely no idea. I don't know why half of you guys are banned.  The few that I do remember being banned went down in flames, and what a way to go.

A big point here is that as Star Wars fans and collectors, most/all of us want to have a Fan Club President who is a fan him/herself, who is someone we can look up to, who's a person who wants to be friends with and get to know many other Star Wars fans out there, a person who's fair and willing to speak up for us and listen to our ideas, someone you can approach and chat with at a convention or just say "Hi", someone who doesn't have an "agenda", someone who represents the entire community, and most of all, someone who's worthy and deserving of the position, even if it's just (supposedly) an honorary title for the most part.

I would agree with you if Dustin had actually just become the "fan club president".  He didn't.  He received an honorary title as a prize for selling magazines.   This was never an election, it was simply a sales drive.  We weren't voting for the best candidate. People were trying to sell subscriptions to hyperspace to win a trip to a comic book convention.  Dustin has no more power today than he did a week ago, he just gets a free trip to Comic Con. This whole thing was a joke 3 months ago and it's still a joke today.




Now.....if they ever have a REAL election, where votes are earned and not paid for, and Philip wins......debate the merits of THAT.   But when it's a sales drive and the biggest Star Wars collecting site out there comes in  2nd (or even 1st by DQ), I don't see how that should shock anyone.  They've got the most resources to throw "votes" at something like this. They used em.  Big shocker.

Will the fan club change? 
Will ANYTHING change?
I doubt it.

[Qui-Gon Jim]

Just so I understand this, RS gets the news first becasue that is where your read it first?  That math doesn't exactly compute.  If JD (or any other site) uncovers news first, even by 25 minutes, that makes them first.

[Famine]

I know they collect it from many different sources, but I usually see it there first.  Yes, I'm sure JD often gets it 25 minutes sooner, but in the end, it doesn't matter to me as long as you both have the story.

Kevin