On the one hand, you could say it's something that was expected months ago and on the other you could say it should have happened months ago, but Sellaband recently made the announcement they are shutting down the forum on their site "soon". Whether this means some time next week, or whether the end of the year is unclear, but either way it seems likely it will happen before 2012.
Whilst some may claim it is no great loss, due to nothing much constructive happening in there for months, the reality remains that a lot of the reason for this is that Sellaband themselves are responsible by not taking part on their own platform, but preferring to spend their time promoting Facebook instead.
They've been holding competitions and polls (amongst other things) over there for months now and therefore directing traffic away from their own website, rather than following the mantra that the more sensible have been trying to instill on people out there. You have no idea how long the popularity of another website is going to last (look what happened with Myspace when Facebook came along), or even whether it will continue to contain features you want, so avoid having to start over from scratch again and realise that all other websites should only be signposts pointing to your own website It's a scary thought that they seem to be trying to encourage the exact opposite.
Scariest of all though is the impression left by the person announcing the closure of the forum. Particularly when you consider what has happened to me over the past couple of weeks.
It started quite simply with Pledge Music following me on Twitter. I hadn't followed them. (I have in fact never even followed Sellaband on Twitter - call it a case of being deliberate to see if/when/what would happen). Whether Pledge picked me out from the description I have there ("searching for new music"), whether they followed me from this blog or whether it was some other way, I have no idea. Whatever the reason, it prompted me to take a look at their Twitter feed.
In many respects it's rather spammy, given the frequency of the "x made a project update" and "y has reached z% of their target" messages, but it does at least suggest there's a lot more happening that the rather limp updating Sellaband have (and indeed had back when the site was a lot more active). I very nearly didn't follow back as a result of the seeming spamfest, but something in the feed caught my eye.
I spotted a conversation which was started by someone mentioning they'd seen a particular artist was fundraising on Pledge and would have supported them if they'd received the previous album (by a different artist) that they had funded on Pledge. Someone from Pledge tweeted back asking what the missing album was and was given the answer along with the fact they'd emailed about it months ago and were told it would be looked into, but nothing had ever happened.
And so time to consider what I found so scary in the Sellaband thread about the forum closure. When confronted with the suggestion that Sellaband should get involved with protecting believers, the question came back "How do you think we can set up a lawsuit against an artist?" along with the suggestion that perhaps believers should check out artists themselves before spending any money.
Eh? Really?? As I've said in the past, people go to a middleman for the trust aspect, otherwise there's no point. To see what has been put in the thread by Sellaband smacks of amateur idiots at best.
Compare by going back to the Pledge user whose last tweet on the subject read
"I'm back on the @PledgeMusic bandwagon after they fixed my Damnwells CD snafu AND tossed in a gift. Excellent!"That tweet in turn brought another problem with a missing CD for someone else out. The speed and manner in which both problems appear to have been addressed once it was clear they had grabbed the attention of someone is noticeable by following the relevant tweets.
The net result of what I've seen recently is that Sellaband have now convinced me they have absolutely no idea what they are doing. As of the forum closure, I'll only be checking in there once in a while to deal with any money. I'd say there's now a 98% chance I won't be spending money there again, so checking the revenue balance will be my only reason to log in unless Sellaband themselves can get my attention in a positive enough way otherwise (and given how infrequently the balance gets updated, my logins will follow suit).
In contrast, Pledge have gained a few points on the trust meter. Whilst I won't be spending money there in the near future, there is now a chance I might consider spending money on an artist I haven't heard of before on their site (despite the fact I don't really like the T&C of their site either for the seeming lack of protection it gives). I'm now officially watching their site more closely than Sellaband as a result of what has happened recently, so we'll see what happens and whether the forum closure does indeed prove to be the final nail in the Sellaband coffin.
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