"Friday's Sad News from The Editor" Topic

Well, what a down note. What's to be done? Patreon?

ICYMI:

Sad Weekend

It is the long Memorial Day weekend in the U.S.A., with Monday being a holiday, and many people taking Friday off as well to enjoy four days of relaxation.

Sadly, the end of May also means saying goodbye to our four staff editors – Gwen, Dianna, Ellah and Katie. It is a shame to lay-off anyone during a pandemic, but TMP's financial situation gave us no other choice.

Editor Ellah has already worked her last day. The others – Personal logo Editor Gwen The Editor of TMP, Personal logo Editor Dianna The Editor of TMP and Personal logo Editor Katie The Editor of TMP – will work through Monday (it is not a holiday in the Philippines), but we wanted to make the announcement today knowing that many of you may not be visiting TMP on Monday.

Gwen and Dianna have worked here since 2014. Katie has worked for me off and on for the same time period, but was only at TMP since last year. They have not just been employees – they have been friends, and I will miss them.

Best Wishes!

Sad to hear this. Wonder what's causing the downturn for TMP?

Sad news. Wishing them all luck and speedy employment elsewhere.

Too bad … Best of luck in the job market …

Wishing them well.

Obviously none of you have ever been accosted by Gwen or Dianna and "dog housed" by them for some imaginary infraction.

This is terrible news.

Folk working in the wargaming business losing their jobs always saddens me as there is so little money in it anyway.

Might they come back if the situation improves Bill?

TMP is the best "all encompassing" web forum in my opinion.

martin

Sad news indeed, Covid indeed has much to answer for!

My best wishes to them all.

Bad news
My best wishes to them, too.
Hope them to be back at TMP at the soonest, if possible.

Obviously none of you have ever been accosted by Gwen or Dianna and "dog housed" by them for some imaginary infraction.

I assume you're joking? Dianna doesn't work on the forum, and Gwen's PMs or emails usually end with 'Have a nice day!'.

Might they come back if the situation improves Bill?

If things improve, I would look into offering some of them at least part-time work, but not sure if they can survive on that.

Covid indeed has much to answer for!

When I mentioned the pandemic, I simply meant it was a tough time for people to lose their jobs, particularly in the Philippines which is still under lockdown and vaccines are not widely available.

Post from troll removed.

Take care and best of luck – Thanks for your contributions

Truly unfortunate that it came to this. Wishing them all the best for the future.

Yes, best wishes and thank you to all at TMP.

I extended my membership by a year. Not much but I hope it helps a little.

Good luck and I hope that you all find a good job soon.

Blimey.

I thought all the talk about TMP hitting "financial challenges" was just an excuse to hit back at a few unfriendly to TMP commercial set-ups.

I can moan with the best of them, but I value TMP. It is no bastion of democracy, but it has some marvelous contributors and it provides a unique service. I do mean unique for the range of topics covered and the ease of access.

I will certainly extend my membership (along with my West Ham season ticket, despite living 250 miles away)

OK, how will the TMP forum now be different after these departures? Will we see any change on line or does the Editor just work even harder?

I thought all the talk about TMP hitting "financial challenges" was just an excuse to hit back at a few unfriendly to TMP commercial set-ups.

You were wrong, and we never did.

OK, how will the TMP forum now be different after these departures? Will we see any change on line or does the Editor just work even harder?

Well, one person working instead of five, so less of everything.

Been helped a few times by the editors, only can wish them luck.

I just ponied up after a hiatus. Hate to see TMP in shoal waters.

I feel so bad about this. Such a bad gift on my birth month. My birthday was last 24th of this month, and this is the saddest birthday in my life. I really need my job. Covid has affected us. It's hard to find a job, and here in Mindanao there is much discrimination . I really need to support myself.

I am supporting many family members. I am feeding my brother's children (he died 3 years ago) and support their schooling. My brother-in-law also died in 2018 and I am supporting his kids in school too.

I am hoping that more advertisers and members will support TMP. I don't know how to survive this time. My mom is old and she cannot help me any more.

Sorry to hear the sad news. Hope the business improves as we come out of the pandemic.

I don't know what will happen to me now, I'm alone, I don't have family, it's really hard to get a job here because of pandemic. I'm so down, sad and depressed.

I've been part of TMP for just a few months, but I've enjoyed working here. There are a lot of nice people. Even though my job is mostly to answer questions, I was happy that I was able to help some of the people here.

When Bill informed me earlier this month about the lay-offs, it made me so sad, and to be honest I really wanted to cry. I am taking care of my grandparents (specifically my 79-year-old grandmother) and my little sister (special needs child). My TMP job helped me a lot, so that I could provide something for my family. And now that I'm losing my job, I dont know what to do and where to start since the pandemic situation here in Samar is not good yet.

I will always wish for the best for the TMP community. Take care, everyone!

The above does put our own grumbles into proportion.

There will always be those who expect things to be free and are shocked when those things disappear.

martin

Martin – well said.

Sad news, indeed.

Rick

I would be cautious about publishing "" on-line. Wisely that kind of thing is usually bleeped out.

But my very best wishes to you.

So what went wrong? Surely Covid hasn't affected your subscription base that much?

I would be cautious about publishing "" on-line. Wisely that kind of thing is usually bleeped out.

Considering that her life has just been threatened (again) if she doesn't leave town, I think she's justified.

Surely Covid hasn't affected your subscription base that much?

Never said Covid had anything to do with it.

I wish them all well.

I can well understand the "snip" comment as being completely justified in her environment.

Most of us have prejudices against some aspects of a race, a religion or gender orientation etc. We cannot help it and most such bias actually has some justification, if only applied to an extreme minority.

What we must not do is express this on line, if applied to all adherents of a particular faith for example. From an Editor especially that is unacceptable and a similar remark would get those of us who are less privileged Dawghoused. In the UK it could actually lead to a prosecution (seriously)

I hope TMP thrives and I will do my bit with my annual subscription and postings. Best wishes to all

What we must not do is express this on line, if applied to all adherents of a particular faith for example.

I think you're being overly sensitive. It may well be that a particular faith's precepts lead them to be judgmental. It is is a common complaint that members of some faiths are too judgmental – maybe it's a universal complaint against all faiths – just Google "Catholics judgmental" or "Mormons judgmental."

Being judgmental is a flaw that anyone can stumble into.

Hi, everyone!

I'd like to say thank you for letting me be part of TMP for almost seven years now. I will miss TMP because I've liked this job. Working as an editor from home is different from other jobs I've known, and this is the best job I've had in my life.

Thank you!

Bill,
What can we do to save these people's jobs? How many new supporting members would it take? A lot of us probably wish that we'd have known about this in advance so that more could have been done to avoid it. I didn't realize that things were so bad.

To restore these jobs, we need more support from our members, more support from our advertisers.

I'm conflicted, I tell you honestly.
It appears to be the classic "throw the baby out with the bath water" scenario once again. Or, not to be unkind to the ladies, you've let the animals out of the zoo but expect the ratepayers to fund it anyway…

I've explained privately early on to you why I couldn't support TMP very much. Chucked out the corporate window in 2014 and with part time jobs only for 3 odd years, the last Jan 2018, thats 3 years without work offers, I'm on welfare and living week to week while trying to keep sanity by re-suming hobby interests by submersing myself in detailing and research (both here and far…).

A broken fridge, a broken car (head gasket) that is just driveable, zero extra income (no not even sneaky cash jobs get offered) isn't where I expected to end up.

I feel sorry for the ladies- we've many Phillipino migrants in NZ- I've crossed paths with many in hospital care, rest homes etc, and a few in my little time in migrant and refugee support (unpaid). They are hard working people and welcome to the community; always the same story- sending money 'back home' to family.

We save as much as we can and get our special treats now and again- or like last year I made my first and only donation to GiveALittle for a Medford OR. companys families affected by the wildfires (hobby linked)- they got only 30k when the obscene amounts of money funnelled to corrupt politicians was in the billions. Makes me sick!

I wish the ladies well (I have no 'faith' to fall back on) and will contribute when I can, assuming I'm not dobbed in by a local nazi who'd rather criticise but never offer a job,
regards ~dw

Thanks for your support and good wishes.

I am wondering how many advertisers jumped ship for this to have happened and where those advertising dollars went. I wonder if they could be won back.
Ad sales are very important. I think trying to get supporting members is an exercise in futility as people who gain nothing from supporting a site will not pay to do so. By that I mean if I do not pay my membership is not different from the person who pays.
Personally I have decided to put m y money where my mouth is. I think you need to work on rehabbing the image of TMP to win back advertisers. Talk to those who have left and see what they would need to return. Perhaps you need an ad sales person. Maybe a volunteer.