From Ahnuld: to be addressed by Mason later. (feel free to comment)
 

Hey Mat,

One way I think it would be easier to moderate and for the mods to work together would be if the admins let us in a bit on the corporate vision of 2+2. It seems pretty silly that we always argue (completely in the dark) about what actions serve the interests of 2+2 best when we dont have any insight into 2+2 corp. strategy and mission. Mods do the best they can and they are for the most part smart guys. But most of the disagreement comes because people have different ideas of what you guys want from 2+2. So if it was made clearer from up top it would be easier to mod and lead to more consensus among mods.

Re: From Ahnuld: to be addressed by Mason later. (feel free to comment
 

Interesting, although admittedly my #1 goal as a mod is to selfishly make the forums a better place for me to read and post. When that's my focus, doing the things I do around here doesn't feel like a chore. It's just what I want to do. If I was to start getting channeled into serving some sort of corporate vision, I'd probably start losing interest in moderating (possibly the site in general) unless I was getting paid.

Re: From Ahnuld: to be addressed by Mason later. (feel free to comment
 

that's exactly how i think you should feel.

That seves our corporate vision, imo. I think Mason agrees. We'll find out soon.

Re: From Ahnuld: to be addressed by Mason later. (feel free to comment
 

[ QUOTE ]
t seems pretty silly that we always argue (completely in the dark) about what actions serve the interests of 2+2 best when we dont have any insight into 2+2 corp. strategy and mission. Mods do the best they can and they are for the most part smart guys. But most of the disagreement comes because people have different ideas of what you guys want from 2+2.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think this is a good post by ahnuld. I would revise that last sentence slightly. I would say most disagreements arise because mods have different ideas about what THEY want from 2p2, and they project their own feelings onto the site's business model as a whole (probably in part because they lack specific info about it).

Re: From Ahnuld: to be addressed by Mason later. (feel free to comment
 

I think this is a good idea, but in talking the Mason and Mat this summer, I think what they want us to do is to adhere to the company goal of providing the finest discussion of whatever the topic of the forum may be.

Re: From Ahnuld: to be addressed by Mason later. (feel free to comment)
 

[ QUOTE ]
One way I think it would be easier to moderate and for the mods to work together would be if the admins let us in a bit on the corporate vision of 2+2

[/ QUOTE ]

We're a publishing company, and we built ourselves into success by only being willing to do top quality stuff. That extended into this website and the forums. The idea was to have vigorous debate without insults, and to also have a little fun.

It's a very simple mission that works quite well. Another way of putting it is that we believe in "steak, not sizzle." This allows us to state our opinions and beliefs in a straight forward manner, and it also allows us to never compromise our integrity.

[ QUOTE ]
It seems pretty silly that we always argue (completely in the dark) about what actions serve the interests of 2+2 best when we dont have any insight into 2+2 corp. strategy and mission.

[/ QUOTE ]

Again, we don't have a corporate strategy in the sense that other publishers and Internet sites in our field might. We just try to produce a top quality product and have never cared much about the profits. Yet this strategy seems to have produced a lot of profits and has made us very successful in what we have undertaken.

If any of you have more specific questions I'll try to answer them here.

Best wishes,
Mason

Re: From Ahnuld: to be addressed by Mason later. (feel free to comment
 

Steak without sizzle is impoverished fare. Only a little sizzle is good, mind.

Re: From Ahnuld: to be addressed by Mason later. (feel free to comment
 

[ QUOTE ]
The idea was to have vigorous debate without insults, and to also have a little fun.

[/ QUOTE ]Hi Mason - I likes it!

May I quote you when I feel your statement might give direction to a wayward poster in one of the strategy forums I moderate?

Buzz

Re: From Ahnuld: to be addressed by Mason later. (feel free to comment
 

Hi Buzz:

[ QUOTE ]
May I quote you when I feel your statement might give direction to a wayward poster in one of the strategy forums I moderate?


[/ QUOTE ]

Yes.

Best wishes,
Mason

Re: From Ahnuld: to be addressed by Mason later. (feel free to comment
 

Alright im going to expand a bit or what I wrote.

I think Mason is right in what the goal and vision of the publishing company is. But 2+2 as a website seems to have grown way beyond that. Im not sure what the revenues from each are, and it doesnt even matter. We (mods) don't have to care about book sales, unless that is the point of this site, to drive 2+2 book sales. To me it seems the site has taken on a life of its own though and for that it must have its own direction and focus.

I feel problems arise because most decisions are made on an ad hoc basis. Should I ban this poster? Should this thread be removed. We mods often judge by our gut feelings of right and wrong, which from what mason wrote above, is all they expect from us. That is, keep the site clean from garbage and ensure high quality discussions.

However it would be even easier imo if we had an idea of what you want the site to be. Were do you see the website in 20 years? What are some of the things that make 2+2 website so good that you would never compromise, even if it hurt profits (for example top quality advice seems to be one of those things that 2+2 would produce whether it was the most profitable thing to do or not.

I hope someone with more business experience than me chimes in here.

Re: From Ahnuld: to be addressed by Mason later. (feel free to comment
 

Mr Wookie,

Im sure you are not alone in that regard, but do yuo see how that creates confusion? Each forum is very different and while there is no need for uniformity across the board it can be confusing to posters at times and creates havoc when regs of one forum start posting in another. Im not trying to say that we need to start acting as corporate drones. We should all have the flexibility to do what we want. But if we knew the long term goals we can each do what we think is best to achieve those goals and watch the results, keeping the mod actions that seemed to work towards that far off goal and discarding those that dont.

Re: From Ahnuld: to be addressed by Mason later. (feel free to comment
 

[ QUOTE ]
However it would be even easier imo if we had an idea of what you want the site to be. Were do you see the website in 20 years? What are some of the things that make 2+2 website so good that you would never compromise, even if it hurt profits (for example top quality advice seems to be one of those things that 2+2 would produce whether it was the most profitable thing to do or not.


[/ QUOTE ]

I agree with ahnuld, and El D had a few fantastic ideas to modernize the website a while back (that I believe nobody took very seriously).

There is no reason we can't keep the integrity in Mason's vision while expanding the scope of the website. Stuff like

-poker blogs by our best posters (currently, they are on other sites like cardrunners and stoxpoker) would greatly enhance both the poker content AND ad revenue.
-putting money into a top-notch 1st class hand converter for all major sites, calling it the 2p2 converter. This would increase the poker traffic on our site and ad revenue as well.
-reinvesting those profits into marketing like google adwords

We have successful entrepreneurs, businessman, economists, and people at the peak of the poker industry volunteering as mods. I'm surprised we haven't had a group brainstorm session on how to improve 2p2 with Mason or brought key industry successes like El Diablo into the business planning, or that we haven't implemented some ideas that seem like no-brainers and seem basic to implement.

There are plenty of great ideas that we could use to modernize this website and bring it up to date with the competition without compromising Mason's vision. And there is the potential to make a LOT of money out of it in the process.

Re: From Ahnuld: to be addressed by Mason later. (feel free to comment
 

we are working towards some things. i know we move slowly. and the ideas have not been ignored.


vbulletin will make things easier to implement

Re: From Ahnuld: to be addressed by Mason later. (feel free to comment
 

[ QUOTE ]
we are working towards some things.

[/ QUOTE ]

SWONGS?

Re: From Ahnuld: to be addressed by Mason later. (feel free to comment
 

2+2 hand converter.