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Subject: 
Re: Behind the curtains - LEGO Factory AFOL Project Team
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.lego
Date: 
Fri, 19 Nov 2004 17:19:32 GMT
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Hi Jake: In the past you’ve been commendably willing to address my concerns directly, despite the particular role that I fill here on LUGNET. I can’t really address any of Terry’s comments, but I wanted to offer a few points that I think might clarify some of his positions that others may or may not share.

   You make very good points. Think what you will about the company, but when you think of me personally, know this:

Unfortunately, in this forum there is no Jake Personally; there is only Jake Officially. What Terry or anyone else thinks about you in this forum is, by the very definition of your role, what they think about the company. And to be honest, I’m a little surprised to hear a Liaison of the company seeking to protect his personal image while encouraging dissenters to “think what (they) will about the company.” That seems like a strange “official” view to espouse.

   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.

My goodness! Allusions to the CIA, with its current party-line purges, might not be the diplomatic magic bullet you’re looking for in this context! 8^)

More seriously, I don’t think anyone expects TLG to anticipate every possible AFOL objection, and certainly no one’s asking you to do so. But some issues obviously have a greater impact upon the AFOL community, and these are the issues that one hopes would be addressed more openly and productively. If the problem is whether or not two red 1x1 bricks will be in the same polybag inside a set, I don’t think anyone really cares if that one “slip(s) through.” But if the issue that slips through is that decades’ worth of investment in gray bricks is suddenly rendered obsolete, then sure, people are going to remember. I think you risk cheapening your position when you apply this sort of implicit all-issues-are-equal-and-we-fix-most-of-them argument. As an AFOL yourself, you can surely assess which are the likely “big” issues and which are not; it’s better to let a small issue slide, rather than a big one.

   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.

With respect, your penitence is admirable but doesn’t really count for much if the underlying problem isn’t fixed. And realistically, it’s not for you to apologize, except officially and on behalf of the company; you didn’t make the color change decision, and presumably you didn’t make the call to withhold the info from the AFOL community. Instead, your public apology simply makes you a sacrificial lamb without offering anything further of merit. Your apology can only really be appreciated for its own worth; at the end of the day, TLG’s message is still “the colors are changed, so deal with it.”

   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”.

I think that just about everyone here will agree that progress has been made, but if you require AFOLs to trust you and be patient, then it’s not unreasonable for AFOLs to ask you to be understanding of the particular nature of their impatience.

Dave!

Anyway, the LEGO factory is a cool idea.



Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Behind the curtains - LEGO Factory AFOL Project Team
 
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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