probably been covered allready

[pfunk]

Fellas,

Thats awesome. I didnt think Yamato percieved MW as anything but a small American based fan forum.

Big congrats go to Shawn or Graham!!!!

,,,,,,Just a small question though,,,,,,why are they using Megazone 23 and not a Macross item?

[nightmareB4macross]

Fellas,

Thats awesome. I didnt think Yamato percieved MW as anything but a small American based fan forum.

Big congrats go to Shawn or Graham!!!!

,,,,,,Just a small question though,,,,,,why are they using Megazone 23 and not a Macross item?

Just trying to promote better sales, since most of us already know Yamato is synonymous for Macross.

[Dante74]

,,,,,,Just a small question though,,,,,,why are they using Megazone 23 and not a Macross item?

Probably because, legally/officially, they can't sell us anything Macross related.

[Valkyrie addict]

Good job Shawn and Graham!!

does this mean we might get special prices on Yamato products?!?! *tisk* *tisk* ahaha!!

kidding, congratulations on the sponsorship, hope this brings more life!

[TheLoneWolf]

So is Yamato an official MW sponsor now, or is this just some friendly advertising?

[Roy Focker]

If we have paid sponsor now then I want some back pay.

Okay Yamato send me my free valkyries.

[David Hingtgen]

Shawn and Graham are the only ones who knew, no mod was informed AFAIK---we all saw it the same time you guys did. Hurin?

[Apollo Leader]

If Yamato now has an official stake in the site, does that mean any and all posts criticizing Yamato's QC or if anyone mentions Toynami and their Macross/Robotech products results in banning or deletion?

[TheLoneWolf]

Shawn and Graham are the only ones who knew, no mod was informed AFAIK---we all saw it the same time you guys did. Hurin?

If Yamato is sponsoring MW, how does this bode for the 1/48 recasting scene? Would Yamato put the kibosh on the recast 1S heads, TV hands and side-covers, after all I'm sure they'd prefer us to buy the complete toy instead of recasting individual parts.

Also, if Bandai begins producing Macross Frontier toys next year, is Yamato going to try to gently steer the forums towards their own products over Bandai's?

On the other hand, we're now one step closer to a MW exclusive toy! Who am I kidding?

[Mr March]

Very interesting development. I too am quite surprised by the interest. But at the same time, there is a HUGE amount of money flowing out of these forums into Yamato. It has to be the largest english gathering of Yamato MACROSS customers on the english speaking web. Hell, even a non-toy collector like myself has purchased four Valkyries from them and I've plans to get at least two more.

[Hurin]

Shawn and Graham are the only ones who knew, no mod was informed AFAIK---we all saw it the same time you guys did. Hurin?

Well, I wasn't able to handle the banner change since things have been crazy at work and I just became an uncle. But I guess it's okay for me to say that I was aware that something like this was in the works, but I had no direct involvement.

Remember guys, though I'm in the Admin group, I'm not on the same level as Shawn or Graham (site owners). I'm just the click-monkey.

Though, I wouldn't read too much into this. I think this is just a means of offsetting some of the hosting costs for MW. I'm far from an authority on this since I've really only gotten snippets of information while this was being worked out. . . but as far as I know, this is just a banner ad like any other banner ad on any other website. To the best of my knowledge, Yamato won't be "gently steering" anyone or anything any more than Toyota can steer the content of a site where they've placed their banner ad.

[Shawn]

Sorry to have kept everyone in the dark-it was something Graham and I have been informally discussing with them for a quite a while now. (dropping little hints for the last couple years). It was as much a suprise to you as it was to me.

It is a trial run (probably just to shut us up) for a couple months, just as we did with our first sponsored banner run about two years ago for the Hikaru toy (not so successful from our end-we saw absolutely nothing from it). You won't see anything Macross related in that upper right corner, as there are unresolved licensing issues that will be with us for the rest of our fandom, but that's life, get used to it, we all have. LOL

The banner is unobtrusive, not flashing in your face, and is for the Proto-Garland (one of my personal favorite designs). What more could I ask for

I really hope it develops into something tangible after the trial (solely tentative on any traffic it may generate), as it would be great to finally get some of my server costs offset, but that would be the extent of it. Fansites are fansites-all manufacturers take their licks about the merchandise they make, so nothing would change for anyone here. Having any sort of elevated status would not be fair. I'd just like to thank them for finally giving us a trial shot. Go Megazone! Click click!

Shawn

[Dante74]

The banner does its job just fine. Every time I see it, I'm glad I pre-ordered that beauty.

[TheLoneWolf]

So basically you get paid a very small amount every time someone clicks on the link, right? Well I've just done so, hopefully enough people will too in order to make it worth your while

I take it they log each click per IP address so that a single person can't send tons of cash your way?

[Shawn]

Well not sure with just a click-that was sort of a joke.

I imagine they are going to monitor traffic from us to them and see where you end up or something.

Those details not quite worked out-and suspect it would be more of a monthly or onetime thing I'm sure.

[Sdf-1]

Who cares I'll click it anyway!

[Mowe]

Ummm....I thought a band wagon of Yamato polices has already been monitoring the site for some time now....

I actually like the banner, it makes checking Yamato's update much easier. Let's start clicking.

If Yamato now has an official stake in the site, does that mean any and all posts criticizing Yamato's QC or if anyone mentions Toynami and their Macross/Robotech products results in banning or deletion?

[kensei]

If Yamato now has an official stake in the site, does that mean any and all posts criticizing Yamato's QC or if anyone mentions Toynami and their Macross/Robotech products results in banning or deletion?

Toynami products are so pathetic that Yamato has no worries at all.

[pfunk]

well, congrats and hopefuly someday they will be able to advertise macross related items,,,,,,,,,,since this is macross world.

[JuanJovv]

I just click jajaja

[Oihan]

Just tossing out an idea here.... I dunno how much you pay to keep this forum up and running, Shawn, Graham, but maybe you guys could add a donation feature to the site to help with the costs? (Unless there already is one and I've been too blind to see it....) MW is my homepage...and it's probably the only site I visit regularly, I wouldn't mind donating some cash to help keep it all going!

Edited November 19, 2007 by Oihan

[miriya]

Just tossing out an idea here.... I dunno how much you pay to keep this forum up and running, Shawn, Graham, but maybe you guys could add a donation feature to the site to help with the costs? (Unless there already is one and I've been too blind to see it....) MW is my homepage...and it's probably the only site I visit regularly, I wouldn't mind donating some cash to help keep it all going!

That is a great idea! I am sure many of us would make donations. Even a little bit here and there. Then whatever money is left over you can use for lobbying yamato to make the VF-4!!! Or I suppose give to a charitable cause or hire web and graphic designers to create mind blowing content or even simple things like interactive flash galleries for the customs pages and so forth.

Edited November 19, 2007 by miriya

[Hurin]

IMHO, donations ruin many online communities.

Soon, people want a "return" on their money. . . VIP areas. . . or special consideration when they are moderated.

It's only a matter of time before someone says: "Hey! I donated $25 a couple months ago! I should be able to post about Rainbow Brite if I want!"

How do you ban somebody who just donated $100? Or how about just $10?

These are questions I think we'd just as soon not have to ever address.

But all that's just my opinion. Not MW policy.

[miriya]

good points.

[EXO]

It's only a matter of time before someone says: "Hey! I donated $25 a couple months ago! I should be able to post about Rainbow Brite if I want!"

I shouldn't have to pay to post about rainbow brite... I should be able to based on its coolness factor alone!

now give me back my moneh!!!

[nightmareB4macross]

IMHO, donations ruin many online communities.

Soon, people want a "return" on their money. . . VIP areas. . . or special consideration when they are moderated.

It's only a matter of time before someone says: "Hey! I donated $25 a couple months ago! I should be able to post about Rainbow Brite if I want!"

How do you ban somebody who just donated $100? Or how about just $10?

These are questions I think we'd just as soon not have to ever address.

But all that's just my opinion. Not MW policy.

Why not just make sure they adhere to the rules of the forums, just as everyone else does. If they (donater) decides they are now all and mighty after forking a few bucks then refer them to the amended rules (place new amendent about donations). If the person is still having issues, ban them, and leave it at that.

After all, it's a donation and not a subscription to "RANT AND B!TCH WEEKLY."

Just my two cents...no wait, my $25.00 I donated at MW06.

Edited November 21, 2007 by nightmareB4macross

[azrael]

Why not just make sure they adhere to the rules of the forums, just as everyone else does. If they (donater) decides they are now all and mighty after forking a few bucks then refer them to the amended rules (place new amendent about donations). If the person is still having issues, ban them, and leave it at that.

Then we'll come to the issue of "I want my money back".

[miriya]

Come on. If someone donates to any organization do they ever have a right to ask for thier money back. Lets say I donated some money to Greenpeace but then they do some political move that I do not agree with, first of all I am not going to even consider asking for it back, but secondly if I did they would be like, "no way! It was a donation, you cant get it back! We already spent it!" I do not think there is any legal grounds to demand a donation back in any situation.

Anyway, if you do not want our money that is fine with me. It will go to Yamato who is paying you, right?

[TheLoneWolf]

Why not just make sure they adhere to the rules of the forums, just as everyone else does. If they (donater) decides they are now all and mighty after forking a few bucks then refer them to the amended rules (place new amendent about donations). If the person is still having issues, ban them, and leave it at that.

That won't work either. Let's say I donate a good chunk of change to MW, then a few weeks later I post an informative thread that gets stickied, you know some catty member is going to start accusing the mods of playing favorites by sticking my thread. Or, if I get a custom member title (however derogatory as it may be), some little girl is going to say the mods are playing favorites just because I donated. Sometimes I think we're too immature to handle donations

[miriya]

Perhaps what we should do is that every time we buy a yamato product, email yamato and tell them what we bought and that we are from Macross World Forums.

[TheLoneWolf]

Perhaps what we should do is that every time we buy a yamato product, email yamato and tell them what we bought and that we are from Macross World Forums.

That's actually a pretty good idea. Taking it a step further, Yamato should included a postage-paid feedback card in English with every Macross toy they sell, that way US customers can tell Yamato how they heard about their products. All they would need to do is setup a PO Box somewhere in the US.

[Valkyrie addict]

if donations were to be maid, it would be nice to have some sort of contest where the winners wins a Yamato Valk bought from what was leftover from the donations

[Hurin]

if donations were to be maid, it would be nice to have some sort of contest where the winners wins a Yamato Valk bought from what was leftover from the donations

And yet another sticky situation. . .

It's only a matter of time before people demand "tracking" of how much has been donated. . . how the money has been spent. . . etc.

Hey! Let's buy a valkryie for someone with the excess! Is there excess? Hey why not two!?! Can't we afford two? Why not? Where has the money gone?

The next time there's a technical problem the questions will be: "We donated a lot of money, why can't we afford better service!?!"

Plus there are tax considerations.

As well as the aforementioned issues with members feeling entitled to certain things. . .

Quite frankly, right now, Shawn & Graham don't owe anything to anybody. They probably want to keep it that way. That accepting donations might not technically or legally change that situation isn't really the point. The point is that it almost certainly will alter how some folks behave (rightly or wrongly), and will lead to complications.

If they ever want donations, I'm sure Shawn and/or Graham will let everyone know. But I wouldn't hold my breath.

[Valkyrie addict]

oh well then, like the old saying goes...if it ain't broken, don't fix it, hehhee

[Mr March]

I'd only accept donations for my website as long as there wasn't a forum. Or at least if there was a huge bureaucracy between me and the people donating so I didn't have to hear about the complaints Plus there is the not so small problem of copyright and having money exchanging hands over a copyright not owned.