Voice123 - will you renew your Premium Subscription?

[Jacob Ekstroem]

As I suspect a lot of old Savvy-members will head elsewhere upon the closing of VoiceOverSavvy, and hoping that at least some of them will turn up here, I thought it would be interesting to do this poll:

[Thom]

I'm here Jacob..... Yea TOTAL surprise,-- and not at the same time.... SAVVY did become a bit of a snipe-o-rama - why would a business continue to host a site that trashes them.... ? I guess I am surprised that they didn't take this step a year ago, Still I will miss the VO community nature of the interaction - and I am sure some great talents and friends (such as yourself) that I have interacted with there will be here...

Thom

[JoeActor]

Jacob - I hope you don't mind, but I renamed the thread to be a bit more civil.
I can definitely understand why folks are angry (Believe Me!)

I marked "not renewing", but then I wasn't going to anyway.
From my perspective, this is just another in the long line of Big Brother, strong-arm moves to convince the world that all is well with V123 and the service it provides.

Even the "new" rating system is a joke. They've just given new "P.C." names to the same old 1 thru 5 stars... sad really.

BTW, I also moved this to the "Reviews" area so that others can find it more easily.

Glad to have you all here -wish it was under better circumstances,
Joe J Thomas
www.JoeActor.com

[Diane Havens]

Well, Thom, maybe the question should be why was there so much discontent?

Lack of respectful customer service, not giving information AHEAD of changes but instead doing damage control afterwards, which fueled speculation after speculation, blaming the victims, etc. caused much of the trouble.

I think they have made a sound business decision now, which, I agree, they probably should have made a long time ago. The constant criticism should have been a wake up call heeded much sooner -- but it seemed they kept hitting the snooze button.

[Colin Campbell]

Just wanted everyone to know that I didn't know ANYTHING about this until I went to log in to Savvy this morning. I had so much invested in that place you can imagine my discontent. I can't really answer the poll since I don't currently pay for the service. It saddens me greatly that Savvy is gone.

[Diane Havens]

Yes, Colin -- the loss of the family we were there is the most disturbing part. Like any family, we had our rough patches, but there was a care and concern for each other that went beyond our "professional purpose" for being there.

You and Erik were always there for us. Thank you so much.

But I'm grateful to have this place -- so many good, supportive people.

See you more often here, I hope!

[Colin Campbell]

I won't have much of a choice. They are censoring so much on their new forum, it's ridiculous. I made one post and said. "Like breathing, you only miss it when it's gone. What happened to Leads and Reads" and they edited out the first sentence. Also a guy sent me a message that in that same thread he said... "I'd just like a lead" and they deleted that. Seems a tad touchy.

[JoeActor]

Hey, hey, people... lighten up!

It's just a venue.

What made it special was the people, not the site.

Since I'm the analogy king, here's one for you:

You're invited to a party by a guy... Let's call him "Smart Alecks". After berating the guests and abandoning the party, he makes you run everything. The house itself is in bad shape. After a while, Mr. Alecks forces everyone to leave, and condemns the property. He does however open up a brand new shiny house, with notices posted on the door that let you know how you will be censored, and may be force to leave without you coat.

Fortunately, there's another party just down the street. All you gotta do is walk in.

Welcome - the party continues here...,
Joe J Thomas
www.JoeActor.com

[John Bigl]

tisk tisk, Jacob .. you posted an un-civil sounding topic? as RoboCop would say, "bad language makes for bad feelings" ..
no daimkakors for you...


i can understand the V's Savvy change from a very strict biz management POV to maintain an image.. i prefer a more democratic co-operative atmosphere w/out being managed by a boss or owner w/ manipulative language and threats of being canceled if you get mouthy.

but, as Joe once pointed out , the V talent are product, the seekers are the clients, if the clients aren't pleased and served well there won't be many paying gigs for the talents... thus the clients are served while the talent is managed.

have to agree Diane, the V never gave anyone a heads up before changes et al were made and that was responsible for the ensuing chaos which was met by V management fawning persecution from people they accused of hating them.

i'll follow along the new Savvy topics created by management and their zampolit as the talents are kept neatly in line by management.. not that i mind being focused on developing and improving my craft and its business but, i'm not a voice "resource" confined to a booth like a coin-op arcade machine. i like to interact as a person too.. that interaction can be robust and spontaneous , and can't be demanded upon to keep to a pre-edited/approved script..

Be Well

[alexrain]

You can't get me near 123 without a gun to my head... I just don't trust them people with my money or my odds. I'll stick with the other big services and maybe venture into VOplanet or VoiceHunter when I can afford it... in the meantime.. I'm going to try to market the old fashioned way... I love the peeps on this board too much to go anywhere else.
Alex