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Re: CCG's March Edition: Camp Gossip
The Watchdog was responsible for marketing and "selling" the CRRC2, and if sales of it were not what they hoped, that's the fault of the marketing department. To blame what is essentially "the public" for failing to buy a product quickly enough is, as I view it, attempting to cut off one's own nose to spite one's own face--in short, it makes no sense.
On this forum Mr. Barry even accused the Columbia Rifles as a group of failing to "support" the CRRC2, which of course is total hogwash. The group and its members were responsible for buying something over 50 copies of the book out of 500 printed, and individual CR members acting on their own probably did at least as much to get the word out about the book as the Watchdog did.
The basic fact is that the Dog and Bill Christen fronted a lot of money to print 500 copies of the book and sales were slower than initially expected, although the book did finally sell its full 500 copies. Thus, it comes down to money: someone fronted it (and for that the CR certainly thanks the Watchdog) and then took a long time to recoup their investment. In business sometimes when sales are slow the business increases its advertising to increase its sales. In the case of the Dog, however, they appear to have resorted to blame games and invective to make themselves feel better about slower-than-expected sales. In doing this, they have taken on the AC Forum as a whole and the Columbia Rifles as a group. I have attempted to look at this over the months from various viewpoints in an effort to understand the behavior of the Dog, and I confess that I have been unable to reconcile their actions with how a reasonable businessperson would probably have handled the same situation.
Like more issues than most reenactors probably realize, this one mostly boils down to finances: the Dog got very into the publishing of the book financially, and was unhappy about it. To piss off the audience for the sale of the book as well as most or all of its writers as a result of that frustration is not what I'd call logical.
Some of the Dog's behavior over the past couple years can, I think rightfully be called erratic. Most of us involved in the CRRC2 don't really understand it, and I suspect that it may be correct to say that most of the folks woh regularly post on this forum still do not understand the Dog's decision to marry itself with Lakeway Publishing and their level of professionalism and ethics. Now the Dog has violated a basic tennant of privacy by electing to make public a communication between two people that was obviously intended ot be private, and without the permission of Mr. Groves.
I don't undestand the Dog's behavior even though I believe I understand their motives. As stated earlier, I believe that the best practice is to avoid contact with the folks who currently run the Dog, or else you may well find yourself subject to an unexpected Dog-bite.
The Watchdog was responsible for marketing and "selling" the CRRC2, and if sales of it were not what they hoped, that's the fault of the marketing department. To blame what is essentially "the public" for failing to buy a product quickly enough is, as I view it, attempting to cut off one's own nose to spite one's own face--in short, it makes no sense.
On this forum Mr. Barry even accused the Columbia Rifles as a group of failing to "support" the CRRC2, which of course is total hogwash. The group and its members were responsible for buying something over 50 copies of the book out of 500 printed, and individual CR members acting on their own probably did at least as much to get the word out about the book as the Watchdog did.
The basic fact is that the Dog and Bill Christen fronted a lot of money to print 500 copies of the book and sales were slower than initially expected, although the book did finally sell its full 500 copies. Thus, it comes down to money: someone fronted it (and for that the CR certainly thanks the Watchdog) and then took a long time to recoup their investment. In business sometimes when sales are slow the business increases its advertising to increase its sales. In the case of the Dog, however, they appear to have resorted to blame games and invective to make themselves feel better about slower-than-expected sales. In doing this, they have taken on the AC Forum as a whole and the Columbia Rifles as a group. I have attempted to look at this over the months from various viewpoints in an effort to understand the behavior of the Dog, and I confess that I have been unable to reconcile their actions with how a reasonable businessperson would probably have handled the same situation.
Like more issues than most reenactors probably realize, this one mostly boils down to finances: the Dog got very into the publishing of the book financially, and was unhappy about it. To piss off the audience for the sale of the book as well as most or all of its writers as a result of that frustration is not what I'd call logical.
Some of the Dog's behavior over the past couple years can, I think rightfully be called erratic. Most of us involved in the CRRC2 don't really understand it, and I suspect that it may be correct to say that most of the folks woh regularly post on this forum still do not understand the Dog's decision to marry itself with Lakeway Publishing and their level of professionalism and ethics. Now the Dog has violated a basic tennant of privacy by electing to make public a communication between two people that was obviously intended ot be private, and without the permission of Mr. Groves.
I don't undestand the Dog's behavior even though I believe I understand their motives. As stated earlier, I believe that the best practice is to avoid contact with the folks who currently run the Dog, or else you may well find yourself subject to an unexpected Dog-bite.
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