FanPost

An open letter to VOX media / VEB editors:




An open letter to VOX media / VEB editors:

As a long time lurker and infrequent poster, I am a very dedicated member of VEB. In the past few weeks the community of this website has seen a drastic shakeup in the way it has been run for many years. You have produced two new writers, one of which has done a very nice job of transitioning and communicating and a "manager" that has posted 6 comments and two posts, but have largely failed to produce any sort of action plan or template to how this community will be run in the future. Without any official word, speculation has run wild and a large group of people are displeased. This is my attempt to quell rumors and maybe calm some nerves about the future of VEB. This is not an attempt to flame you, your website or any members. I honestly would like to give you and your leadership an opportunity to comment on the state of affairs.

The first question I raise is what is your vision of the future of VEB? Being an enterprise, you should be familiar with something similar to a 1 year, 5 year and 10 year plan. Since this is a blog, can we just hear a 1 month, 6 month and a 1 year plan for the future of the blog?

To help with this some thoughts on the subject: Joe has done a nice job in attempting to structure the stories at the request of the members but a fear remains that this will be a short fix. What is the goal of number of writers and how many stories will be produced a day? What kind of content will be produced? What is the purpose of VEB in the eyes of VOX media( clicks? Money? A community to learn and talk about baseball and specifically the cardinals?)

The second question that I see raised is why was this handled so terribly? Admitting it is half the battle. Wouldn't it be better to try and keep a community that has the ear of some influential journalists in the STL area that turn people to your site? How about national journalists that send national clicks to your site? Is the master plan bigger than those clicks? Are some clicks better than others? I don't understand clicks but I would want to keep my all stars who have a following and the influence of other full time national journalists.

My third question is what are your goals of growing your following in the community ( both online and in life, like in the city of STL) One thing that VEB is extremely proud of is our dedication to each other and the larger STL community. Some people get frustrated at the off topic comments but there is no other place on the Internet I have ever seen where you could ask a completely random question and get very qualified answers. This cardinals community consists of everyone from musicians, doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs, mathematicians, and many more that I can't name at this time and we all come together to form the most messed up family you could imagine and succeed in helping each other out.

Not only this, we succeed in helping greater STL. At the annual cards care fundraiser, VEB has been the top fundraising team for the past two years running. This recognition comes with on field introductions and publicity. Again, not a a knock, but isn't that a good thing for your company?

I'm not a writer nor do I claim to be one so please excuse my rambling on this post. In reality all we want are answers. I would like Mike to say something. I would like Justin to say something. I would like answers from my free to me web blog. I realize I'm not untitled but the least I can do is ask instead of just being mad about it.

Guys this is your chance to break the silence.... Or ban me. I would just like some sort of response.

~Notdrinkingthekuhlademan