Savvy has been axed!

[PierceVoice]

Wow. I have never participated with V123, nor the forums... and this kind of stuff just about wraps up any idea that I ever would. There's no better way to turn vocally artful people off than forcing their mouths shut... no?

[Colin Campbell]

Originally Posted by DBHavens

Is the bridge beyond repair then?

Well, I still have a SaVoa link on my 123 page.

The single bigest accomplishment SaVoa could have obtained was a filtered search at 123 for SaVoa members. It doesn't seem likely at all that that will happen now. I have appealed to Alex but I doubt it will have any effect.

I am seriously considering quitting SaVoa. Ed's remarks did not represent the membership well.

[Claired]

Well spoken Diane.
I owe one of my best clients to v123 too. I remember a very happy time with them pre-smartcast. And then I discovered Savvy and met so many amazing people there and I will always be grateful for that.
I'm not upset at Ed, I emailed Alex to ask him to reconsider; it is a time of grief for a lot of us and emotions are running high. I know it is silly because no one actually died, but it is the end of something that meant a lot to us. It is great to see people here though, as someone said, only the venue changed, but the people are still here!

[Diane Havens]

That is so NOT like Ed -- I'm sure his remarks were misconstrued.

[Jacob Ekstroem]

Colin,

I have a feeling you just said what most of us SaVoa-members are thinking right now.

Ed's comment was too emotional, too hasty, probably not endorsed by the Board of Directors and definitely not very professional. I DO respect Ed, but that one was not what we needed upon all this.

As a SaVoa member, I admit I myself probably haven't been very professional or Savvy either... but I had hoped that any statement from the official side of SaVoa had been a little more well considered.

But don't quit yet, ok? So you may not be able to take advantage of your SaVoa status on V123... but I personally feel it's worth much more than just that!

[SeptemberDay]

As far as Ed's comments goes, I think he said the right thing the wrong way. SaVoa was made to directly help talents, not seekers. V123 has said openly that they are focusing more on seekers because they believe that is what will drive their business, i.e. if no one is posting jobs, then how will we get auditions? Having the Savvy forums where we could all vent but get no answers just fueled the fire. With the direct responses from Alex and the team right now, I've learned more in the past 2 days than I ever did before. I think having SaVoa and V123 work together would be in everyone's best interest. It's two companies focusing on two sides of the same coin and it would benefit both them and us.

..also, yesterday was trying for everyone involved and I'm sure emotions were running high all around.

[Jodi Krangle]

You're probably right, Colin. But the knee-jerk reaction from V123 was inappropriate also. Both organizations are trying to do good things for voice talent. It would stand to reason that they'd want to talk and iron out their differences. From what I can see, that's not happening here. And to be fair to Ed, from what I've seen on V123, they *don't* take criticism very well. At all.

[JoeActor]

Ok, not to be dim... but I'm not clear on what "Ed's Comments" were - link please?

[Colin Campbell]

Here ya' go...

The VO-BB :: View topic - The end of savvy?

[Dave DeAndrea]

September wrote:

Having the Savvy forums where we could all vent but get no answers just fueled the fire.

I'll have to agree with you there, Em. Although there is A LOT that I'll miss from Savvy and it was the place where I've made so many wonderful and talented friends... it was too easy (for me) to get sucked into the temptation to complain about things... which really did no good.

I don't know at which level the V123 team will be able maintain this high level of attention to the new forum... I'm sure it's very time consuming. Everything that's being shared there is information that I believe was available to anyone who wanted to ask them via live chat or other customer service venues... so I don't know that "killing" Savvy was really necessary, but I can't say that I wouldn't have done the same thing if the forum branch of my service became mostly devoted to tearing me down.

Could it have been done differently? Yep. But... well, there it is. I'll remember the best parts of the Savvy experience (the people) and let the rest go.

As far as the new forum, at this point I'll try to put into practice whatever useful and understandable bits of info I can find there and try to get the most out of my current subscription while I can. Don't know if I'll post too much... it really feels like you have to be VERY "diplomatic" there at this point... but maybe I need to learn how to be a little more diplomatic.

I will say that it's nice to have a forum like this where I don't have to walk on eggshells...