In light of recent events, can we have an audit of the official marketing team?

[Lain]

All we need to know is what Brian and his team have been working on if anything.  We need to hear of what content has been created.  Obviously they have been developing things waiting for the 1.0 release and people from the community need to be shown this.

We don't need multiple people having access to their email and skype logs and other things.  We just need to see the work they have done in preparation.

We're not trying to uncover a crime.

This elaborate audit thing will just get us away from what is a quite simple situation.  Brian should be able to show all the work he has done in preperation.  If he can't, then remove his bonus program because it is obvious our donations are not going towards what was anticipated when people donated.  Then we re-appropriate the yet to be transferred donations to something that shows far more potential effectiveness and value.

从我的 iPad 发送，使用 Tapatalk

[hpenvy]

What does 'in light of recent events' mean?  Did something actually happen or does this just refer to people bitching about the BP and the official marketing effort?

It's people bitching... people who are way too in love with their investments and most likely betting more than they can afford to lose.  An old trading rule is never fall in love, it clouds your judgement.  This is very common though in almost every asset class.

Any complaints I've made I've backed up with a crap load of work on how I thought it should be done.  For some, you might be right. My complaints were about transparency and actual measurements.  I wish Brian the best in his future endeavors and equally excited about the momentum that's starting to form around Nullstreet initiatives.

[Ander]

It's people bitching... people who are way too in love with their investments and most likely betting more than they can afford to lose.  An old trading rule is never fall in love, it clouds your judgement.  This is very common though in almost every asset class.

Yes, this is very true.  It definitely lower the ability to profitably trade BTS, when you love it.


On the other hand, pretty much the only way to hold through the kinds of rises that sometimes happen in crypto, such as the 100x rises in bitcoin's past, are if you love it.  Otherwise you would trade yourself out of the position after its up several hundred percent, and then the pullback never comes.


Maybe we will miss smaller gains, and then win very big eventually when BTS succeeds.    Or maybe we will go down with the ship. 

[lil_jay890]

What does 'in light of recent events' mean?  Did something actually happen or does this just refer to people bitching about the BP and the official marketing effort?

It's people bitching... people who are way too in love with their investments and most likely betting more than they can afford to lose.  An old trading rule is never fall in love, it clouds your judgement.  This is very common though in almost every asset class.

[islandking]

This would be the perfect time to attempt to bring Andreas onto the Bitshares team by offering him a purposeful delegate position.


Sent from the tiny wrinkles in my brain via mind bullets!

Yes I agree someone should reach out to Andreas.

Andreas?

Andreas Antonopoulos

[santaclause102]

This would be the perfect time to attempt to bring Andreas onto the Bitshares team by offering him a purposeful delegate position.


Sent from the tiny wrinkles in my brain via mind bullets!

Yes I agree someone should reach out to Andreas.

Andreas?

[islandking]

This would be the perfect time to attempt to bring Andreas onto the Bitshares team by offering him a purposeful delegate position.


Sent from the tiny wrinkles in my brain via mind bullets!

Yes I agree someone should reach out to Andreas.

[sschechter]

What does 'in light of recent events' mean?  Did something actually happen or does this just refer to people bitching about the BP and the official marketing effort?

[hpenvy]

I think the root of this problem is Brian's failure to engage the community on the same level as other core BTS team members, rather than a need to know what he has or has not done with funds.

Most of the BTS dev team has a high level of engagement with the community.

The community expects transparency, and so it should, however marketing is one area where it is not necessarily in the best interests of the shareholders to be transparent.

Even Methodx took his marketing efforts to an invite-only forum... and his presence in the open forum has since diminished considerably.

Brian could do a better job of posting updates and being more active in the community.

That said, I think a forensic audit *after* Brian's marketing strategy goes live is a great idea and would certainly help with deciding who gets a marketing delegate position going forward...

I feel one of the major differences is Nullstreet provides weekly newsletters. We know it's essential the community knows the progress that's being made so they can offer feedback on the direction and critique the methods.   I will still argue that business development needs to be kept quiet to protect the conversations between potential clients, marketing should be open. Nullstreet might be invite only, but there's 109 of us over there with 20-30 online at any given time.

[oldman]

I think the root of this problem is Brian's failure to engage the community on the same level as other core BTS team members, rather than a need to know what he has or has not done with funds.

Most of the BTS dev team has a high level of engagement with the community.

The community expects transparency, and so it should, however marketing is one area where it is not necessarily in the best interests of the shareholders to be transparent.

Even Methodx took his marketing efforts to an invite-only forum... and his presence in the open forum has since diminished considerably.

Brian could do a better job of posting updates and being more active in the community.

That said, I think a forensic audit *after* Brian's marketing strategy goes live is a great idea and would certainly help with deciding who gets a marketing delegate position going forward...

[pendragon3]

What's done is done. We should not cause more distractions by insisting that official marketing divulge any strategic plans that may already be in motion, lest we lose a competitive advantage. Fortunately, the most recent incentives for Bp's team were contingent in nature, so no deliverable means little additional cost. There may have been an opportunity cost, but again that's in the past, and insisting on an audit or disclosure of the past will not help recover that sunk cost. Keep in mind that some of the work that Bp was doing might involve discussions with on ramp/off ramp partners and might not be things they can talk about for now. Transparency is important, but demanding transparency about the past is not productive at this stage.

Besides, it sounds as if Adam is already reaching out to those doing community marketing. And who knows--the past official marketing efforts may yet deliver something.

Better to focus on other, more productive endeavors, like getting us to Client 1.0 and building awareness of BTS among the BTC and altcoin communities.

[JWF]

Wasn't he paid with community funds? Namely AGS?

No.  He was paid with donated funds.

A better question for us all to be asking is how Brian Page's weight compares to that of a duck.

Quoting myself from another thread:

...

Also, everyone please bear in mind that agreements already made with Brian Page are effectively a sunk cost.  Complaining about them will not make them go away, and destructive criticism can only reduce the return on that cost, if it has any impact at all. The only logical response in my opinion is to give him the benefit of the doubt and support him with constructive criticism, advice, and at least any assistance that does not hinder other efforts.  I honestly believe that Brian wants to help make BitShares more successful, but even if you believe he doesn't, attacks against him accomplish nothing.

LOL!
"A WITCH! A WITCH!"
"Good! And what do we do with a witch?"
"BURN EM!!"
(Classic Python)

[Gentso1]

Ok first of all this is not a community issue nor some great crime. 

This is my issue because I was the one who hired them. 

There will be no audit or committee.  It is my job to make the best of the situation.

How can you not consider this a community issue, everyone here stands to gain or lose right alongside with you? 


This isn't your cross to bare.  You can't be atlas and just hold the weight of Bitshares on your shoulders or it will only lead to more problems.

Please at least consider letting a member from nullstreet (many their have proven themselves) lesion between the current marketing and the community effort. Nullstreet is all ready providing weekly

updates. It isn't a audit its a assessment of where the official arm is and tieing it into what the community is doing their to be more productive as a whole. 

 

[Chuckone]

Some business investment and decisions are good, others are bad. Every entrepreneur at some point has to live with a couple of bad decisions. What deal has been struck between BM and the marketing team can't just be voided, as there was probably nothing related to "if you do not deliver, than this will happen". What has been done is done, and the millions of BTS and the 100k$+ in salary paid can't be "unspent".

As some have said, let them to their job, as they don't get paid a salary by I3 anymore and they have all the incentives in the world to deliver. If they get the market cap equal to Bitcoin market cap they'll all be millionaires. If they don't, then they will lose a hell of an opportunity, as all they have to do is market an awesome product.

I understand Brian to stay away from the forum right now, as he's going to get rocks thrown at him the minute he comes here. He may not have struck any public deals, but he has made business contacts, and I wouldn't be suprised he was involved in getting the deals with some of the on/off-ramps we heard about, but that are still being set-up.

His mistake has been the lack of communication with the community and also the lack of small accomplishments that get the community reassured. What could be done though, for a start, would be for him to come over on this forum with his team and start interacting and stop being so secretive.

I don't give a damn about his deal with BM as it is what it is, but I sure want to know what is current plan is, and what are the next steps (except waiting for the 1.0 version). And knowing that, it wouldn't hurt if he got in touch with the community marketing team to work with them in order to have a better coordination between the different marketing teams. All those things would help a lot IMO, and people might stop asking for his head on a spike.

And he needs to manage his PR badly, like right now.

[bitcoinba]

Ok first of all this is not a community issue nor some great crime. 

This is my issue because I was the one who hired them. 

There will be no audit or committee.  It is my job to make the best of the situation.

It really depends on your perspective.

Please be careful, and objective.