Subject:
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Re: Behind the curtains - LEGO Factory AFOL Project Team
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.lego
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Date:
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Fri, 19 Nov 2004 06:26:05 GMT
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In lugnet.lego, Jake McKee wrote:
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In lugnet.lego, Terry Prosper wrote:
-- snip tons of good stuff --
Thanks for the long response. Not much to follow-up on, save this one thing:
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I’m not sure I can explain why you should be happy. I can try to explain
the significance, and hope that makes you happy. I know the color change
has had a deep and harsh effect on you, and that you are upset to this day.
I’m not sure I’ll/we’ll ever be able to do anything to get you saying “I
love and respect the LEGO Company again”. If I’m wrong, please let me know.
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You are wrong. I could and hope I will learn to respect and love the
company again. But for this, I think AFOLs (and i don’t mean me, I’m not as
good as some AFOLs I see here day after day like Jon Palmer or Eric Sophie
to name only two) have to be treated with way more respect. This means
telling us in advance what is coming up if we will be affected by it. It
means promising (and keeping those promises) that color or such significant
issues won’t be changed again without a fair warning so we can stockpile.
It means above all being treated not as a small market, but as a small
partner in the way that we make free publicity for the products. I don’t
know of any other company that can claim they have such a strong
community-based adult fanclub.
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You make very good points. Think what you will about the company, but when
you think of me personally, know this:
I joined the LEGO Company 4 years ago in the early days of LEGO Direct. It’s
been fun, it’s been tough, and it’s been one of the most difficult and
mentally challenging jobs I’ve ever had.
I’ve worked my tail off every day (most weekends included) to carry the word
of the AFOLs to all corners of the company. I spent countless hours, day,
night, weekend trying to come up with ideas to make AFOLs happy. I’ve tried
to place myself in every part of the company to know as much as is possible
about what’s going on.
I’ve not once lied to AFOLs, or exaggerated something I know to be something
else. I’ve had a strong and unbroken philosophy of maintaining an “open and
honest relationship” with the AFOLs and AFOL community.
Are we going to mis-step? Yep. Am I going to be able to catch and react to
absolutely every issue AFOLs might possibly object to? Doubtful. Most days, I
feel like the CIA or FBI... it doesn’t matter if I catch 4 million problems,
it’s that one slipping through that’s all anyone remembers. But hey, that’s
the job. And I love it.
The color change was bad news, and a major mis-step. I’ve apologized, I’ve
mentioned that people inside the company now realize the effect it had and
it’s had a big impact. Like the CIA’s results, however, you won’t see them
unless something goes wrong. And if I’m doing my job right, nothing goes
wrong.
To say that we’ve not made progress is to not fully understand where we were
starting four years ago. I know much of this is hard to see, and I know
you’re seriously uninterested in trusting me, but all I can say is... “trust
me”.
Jake
---
Jake McKee
Community Liaison
LEGO Community Team
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Oh well, I tried. I honestly tried to give it a chance, but seriously, how
could I take this whole thing seriously after a post like this?
I complain about the way The LEGO Company treats us and all you answer back is
that you are working hard, you are entitled to make mistake, you helped make
progress, you, you, you...
Sometimes, I wonder how come a Community Liaison can “forget” to tell us
something as major as the color change in advance and still keep the respect of
most of the community.
And then, someone tries to get simple answers from this Liaison guy and all he
does is talk about how hard he tries, hos great hiw job at LEGO is, even though
it’s tough at times, when people like me are unhappy with the way TLG treats us.
We complain about the fact that probably the biggest and more dramatic change wa
snot told to us before it was to late and we get told that we complain for a
simgle problem that wasn’t solved, although 4 millions other were, as if this
problem was a simple error, a common mistake with little impact.
I tried to give you, Jake, a chance to reddem himself after the color-change
fiasco. I said before I thought you should resign from this job as you totally
failed to warn us before it was to late, to defend us from this major mis-step
as you said yourself. A big part of this community jumped to your defense,
amongst them many influent people in this community. “He’s working hard, it’s
not his fault, he’s on our side, etc”, they said.
Since then, what did we get from the person who, as I understand it, is the LEGO
employee supposed to be the link between this community and TLG? Well, first,
we got a nice comic book about AFOLs. Then, we got a children-orientated
website with a contest supposed to make us feel all good and happy. We get a
list of colors who won’t change unless they change their minds.
I say it’s not enough. Not even close.
Sometimes, trying hard is NOT ENOUGH. Maybe this isn’t the job for you Jake.
Maybe you should step down and let someone more, better qualified to defend us
take the job, instead of occupying it and making comic books and kid websites
while the big guns ignore what we have to say because they fail to get the
message we try to send.
Trust you? You may be honest Jake, that I don’t doubt, but you’re not fit for
the job and I can’t trust you for defending our interests. Not my interests,
mind you, as I don’t consider myself more important than anyone else in this
community, but the interests of ADULT fans of LEGO.
You pride yourself of such small progress made in all those years, yet so much
more could have been done. Sure, you’re friendly and people like that, me too,
you’re a good person from the little I can say, that’s probably why so many
AFOLs will defend you, but being nice just doesn’t cut it. Nothing personnal,
although judging by you precedent post, you will probably think I hate you,
yourself and you. I just think a real AFOL would be better suited for the job.
(And before anyone asks, no, I don’t propose “I” would be a good choice.)
Terry
A simple AFOL like many others
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Message has 17 Replies:
 | | Re: Behind the curtains - LEGO Factory AFOL Project Team
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| (...) Terry, until you said that, I was saying to myself "Well he's entitled to his opinion". But to say Jake is not a real AFOL is laughable. Just search through his Lugnet messages - you'll find many posted before he even joined LEGO, on so many (...) (20 years ago, 19-Nov-04, to lugnet.lego, FTX)
| | | Re: Behind the curtains - LEGO Factory AFOL Project Team
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| (...) snip (...) I know that you don't want to hear that it wasn't Jake's fault... but that wasn't Jake's fault. He was just as blindsided by the color change as the rest of us, and so were most of TLC's employees. Some of them still don't know (...) (20 years ago, 19-Nov-04, to lugnet.lego, FTX)
| | | Re: Behind the curtains - LEGO Factory AFOL Project Team
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| I very rarely post to these threads as they are not directly building related, but.... Not really going to spend time refuting Terry's opinion. It's is own and despite whether I agree or disagree with it, I doubt we'll change either other's take by (...) (20 years ago, 19-Nov-04, to lugnet.lego, FTX)
| | | Re: Behind the curtains - LEGO Factory AFOL Project Team
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| (...) Wow what a load! It hurt my head trying to figure out what you typed Terry. I had to read it twice to figure it out, once to get past the poor grammar and spelling, then again to try and put together what you were actually saying...after all (...) (20 years ago, 19-Nov-04, to lugnet.lego, FTX)
| | | Re: Behind the curtains - LEGO Factory AFOL Project Team
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| In lugnet.lego, Terry Prosper wrote: <snip> (...) Terry doesn't speak for me. After reading the newsgroups here at LUGNET, and attending BF, as well as checking out other websites/venues regarding our chosen hobby, and partaking in many discussions (...) (20 years ago, 19-Nov-04, to lugnet.lego, FTX)
| | | Re: Behind the curtains - LEGO Factory AFOL Project Team
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| In lugnet.lego, Terry Prosper wrote: I just think a real AFOL would be better suited (...) If you had ever met Jake you wouldn't be saying this. The way you've been acting, I'm starting to think the "A" in your AFOL means something other than (...) (20 years ago, 19-Nov-04, to lugnet.lego, FTX)
| | | Re: Behind the curtains - LEGO Factory AFOL Project Team
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| (...) It really seems like that's your issue with Jake. Just the fact that he didn't warn the community about the color change. Was there anything else? Now, I don't know what happened at the time. Looks like Jake made his first post on the issue on (...) (20 years ago, 19-Nov-04, to lugnet.lego)
| | | Re: Behind the curtains - LEGO Factory AFOL Project Team
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| (...) When LEGO Factory was announced I can't say how excited I was - I saw it as such a breath of fresh air. Creativity. Design by design. Community building.. Then this post comes to remind me of the Dark Side of AFOL-dom. Some of youse guys is (...) (20 years ago, 19-Nov-04, to lugnet.lego, FTX)
| | | Re: Behind the curtains - LEGO Factory AFOL Project Team
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| At the risk of adding absolutly nothing constructive or positive to this "discussion", I feel the need to say my piece. Shortly after I became a member of Lugnet, I jumped into a discussion between Lugnet and a Lego employee. I have no idea who it (...) (20 years ago, 20-Nov-04, to lugnet.lego, FTX)
| | | Re: Behind the curtains - LEGO Factory AFOL Project Team
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| (...) <SNIPPAGE of the most outrageous thing I've ever read on LUGNET> How to react to your post? On one hand, I feel flushed with anger towards your imbecility, but on the other, I laugh at your comical puerility. On the other hand, I marvel at (...) (20 years ago, 20-Nov-04, to lugnet.lego, FTX)
| | | Ten cheers for Jake
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| To Terry A simple ASSHOLE like many others. I'll dare say it. Like many others have done here (without the actual word) I myself is not to happy about the colorchange but this is a company thing AND not related to Jake. But an attack like this is (...) (20 years ago, 20-Nov-04, to lugnet.lego, FTX)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Behind the curtains - LEGO Factory AFOL Project Team
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| In lugnet.lego, Terry Prosper wrote: -- snip tons of good stuff -- Thanks for the long response. Not much to follow-up on, save this one thing: (...) You make very good points. Think what you will about the company, but when you think of me (...) (20 years ago, 18-Nov-04, to lugnet.lego, FTX)
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