As some of you may know my collection was featured on another website www.collectica.com . Today I received an email from who I think is either the owner of the website or one ofthe indivduals who manage the website. Either way Samuel Dixon, the person who contacted me has sent me an email making several suggestions which I deem are very important in spreading the word of TCL.org. I need to know the imput from everyone on this matter. Basically I need some suggestions as to what points I should bring up when I do contact him again. Anyways here’s the email I recieved. Everyones input is of the upmost importance and suggestions on topics I should discuss with him. I am planning on contacting him once I gather as much input as possible. I find it of the upmost importance that another website wnats to work together.Here’s the email:
Hey, Im checking out your site and I love it. Over the past year ive been working on a site called Collectica where collectors can show off their collectibles and buy/sell/trade. Would you be interested in working together? You could tell your members to post their collections on our site and unite more closely on your forums.
Get back to me - my number is 516-983-1856 and im available 24/7, in the meantime check out the site at www.collectica.com
I don’t know much about this guy and his site, and don’t quite understand how he anticipates a collaboration to work. This would be my main question. See what his vision is, what he would expect from us etc.. Find out as much information as possible and we can then see if it something our site will benafit from.
Obviously with the majority of our traffic being toy related, this may be a good move. But as I say, get all the facts and we can make a decision as a team.
That sounds fair and I guess the only way I could find out is to contact him. This will be a team decision but truthfully whatever the outcome it may be I dont think there would be anything negative coming out of it. I personally am up to helping other sites and collaborating with them, it helps spread the word and ultimately it may lead to more traffic coming to us. More thoughts are welcomed, I am thinking of having perhaps a chat session with him so that I am able to copy it for everyone to view and express their thoughts. I do know that it is a fairly new website and i find that what they have to offer will greatly benefit collectors.
Yeh that sounds cool Manny. A chat session will help you establish what kind of guy he is, and will allow you to bounce questions off each other. Just get all the info and inform him that you will discuss it with us before proceeding. That way you are not commiting to anything. What does everyone else think?
I think Kyle summed it up nicely. I actually had that email in my inbox for awhile, I just kept forgetting to forward it to MannyR (seems everyone keeps thinking I’m mannyscollectibles ;)). But to just reiterate what Kyle said, get an understanding what exactly he’d like to collaborate on and we could probably go from there.
I think Kyle has nailed it… best to get this guy to come forward with the ideas and proposals. Speaking as a cynic, looking at his site I can’t imagine how we would benefit that much from any sort of partnership beyond maybe exchanging links.
Also wanted to make a point about process…
Given that this is loosely a toy website? I think it’s up to the managers of the section to evaluate the proposal and see if they think its in the best interests of their section. Then to talk to MannyF as overall site leader to decide if he’s willing to give up space on the front page (if that is asked for) or to allow an “official” partnership.
While Manny may want to gauge the rest of the team’s thoughts, especially if there is overlap with the other areas of the site, the final decision I think rests on Manny to declare “official” partnerships with TCL.org.
This is what I thought we’d kind of agreed to in our chat.
Cool, I will attempt to doa chat with him instead of phone because that way things could be forgotten from the conversation and its best to have things in writing IMO. In any case I will keep you guys updated on this which will probably be in the next few hours. He does mention to unite more closely on our forums so that is a definite plus in my book. Anyways Ill be posting soon on this
I agree with what others have said, I think you need to have some details about what’s being suggested here before anyone can make a concrete comment - like Neil says, his comments are a bit vague. But, although obviously not my decision, as a TCL team member I’d be interested to hear what his proposals are!
mannyscollectibles] Hey hows it going [SamuelDixon] pretty good [SamuelDixon] glad to hear from you! haha [mannyscollectibles] I browsed through collectica and I am very impressed [mannyscollectibles] me too [SamuelDixon] thank you, we are trying to make it the best community possible [mannyscollectibles] excellent website for collectors to keep track of their collections and at the same time display them [mannyscollectibles] the only one on the web i know of [mannyscollectibles] How long has it been online [SamuelDixon] yeah, we are all serious collectors and got tired of using subpar things [SamuelDixon] we want to work with you and tcl because you guys are passionate about collecting and the culture behind it [mannyscollectibles] There is definitely a resurgence in the cartoon, we would like to work alongside other websites as well to promote collecting as well as our enjoyment of the cartoon. [mannyscollectibles] I would welcome any ideas you would have in mind to collaborate together [SamuelDixon] there are really 4 ways we can help directly [SamuelDixon] we can help offset some of the server costs [mannyscollectibles] how could that be done, we would also want to be able to help you guys out as well by perhaps advertising on our forum, links on our community section [SamuelDixon] we can also help fund tcl, with an affiliate program - we are going to launch auctions in march with some large collecting partners in every type, beyond the platform we are giving back a % of every user the partner directs; we can track this through linkthroughs and give you an internal system that screens users, so you can get a regular check from us for every active user for the years they use the site [SamuelDixon] the links would be great, and we would love to pay tcl for the links through that type of affiliate referal system i just mentioned [SamuelDixon] and we can do a lot of things like make you the official thunder cats collecting group on our site, and give your members a place to securely trade and show off their collectibles and cartoon sets
[mannyscollectibles] I think that thse ideas are fantastic and it would help collectors out immensely, it would bring traffic to collectica as well as TCL [SamuelDixon] yeah that sounds great, we can get started on the group and overall presence of tcl on collectica tonight [SamuelDixon] when are you free? ill send you some banners and links to put up, and best bet would be to send your members an email about signing up on collectica [SamuelDixon] and we can include the referall link etc [mannyscollectibles] Its very humbling to tell you the truth. I would give my stamp of approval, however TCL is ran by 8 members so I even though could make the decision because it would be beneficial to both of us I will let my team members know. Curious, do you chat on Skype usually or what type of messenger [mannyscollectibles] How about we set up a formal chat [mannyscollectibles] with the TCL team members [SamuelDixon] yeah that would be great, I usually use aim, but i can get skype, i think it would be good if you also meet some members of my team too [mannyscollectibles] Well you know what I will get together with the other team members tonight and will try to gather as many of them as I can (we are all in different time zones) and we could do the chat here in this chat room [mannyscollectibles] perhaps at a set time, maybe this weekend or before if possible
[SamuelDixon] yeah, send me an email or give me a call telling me what time you are free [mannyscollectibles] I wish I could give you a definite answer but being a team I cannot make a decision without letting them know. Im sure they would like to be part of this. It may be possible this weekend and I will be defnitely giving you a call so we can discuss further and so that we may meet some of your team members as well [SamuelDixon] ok thats great, i look forward to it
[mannyscollectibles] You bet Im looking forward to it as well, I think that collectica has definitely done something great for the collecting community [SamuelDixon] thank you! its been a long process [SamuelDixon] ok great! i cant wait to here from you and meet your team [SamuelDixon] ill talk to you later, what is your skype number? [mannyscollectibles] Thank You very much as well, looking forward to meeting your team members as well. Talk to you soon. Im under mannyscollectibles or if not under that name then Emmanuel Rodriguez
I dont think he brought more to the table simply becasue it is kind of tough to make decisions when there is a team involved, although it seems like he has been approved to commiting to whatever it is what basically stopped the chat further was the fact that it would be more benefical if the rest of the team is there. Im a complete dummy when it comes to dealing with things like he stated above but it all sounds good in paper. He may and I think he will bring more things to benefit both of the websites once we set up a formal meeting with him. Even though this may seemed rushed but I would like to have a definite answer to give him as far as a formal meeting. Im thinking that maybe sometime this weekend would be good. It is imperative that we set a meeting with him and his team so that we may reach to whats best for both sites.
Could I get everyones availability for this weekend so that I may contact Samuel about setting up a formal meeting in our chat room? I would say anytime Saturday or Sunday. Im very flexible so it would basically depend on whats best for everyone else
sunday is out for me as the bears in the superbowl and that is where all of my attention will be.
Maybe it is just me but I am kind of skeptical about this whole thing esp, with him and there site helping pay dues. I honestly havent been that impressed with there site, and since it is about collecting anything at all I dont really see how it will benefit us as a site when there in actuallity are not that many Thundercats collectors out there (alot of starters, but not die hard at least I dont think so) I mean look at our collection area out of all the members we have we only have 8 or so collections uploaded. I would be very cautious about this whole thing, it just seems a little fishy.
Over the weekend, there’s a fair chance I could be able to do Saturday, anytime from about 8:00pm UK time - Sunday, there’s an outside chance but I am out on Sunday evening and would not be available before 11:30pm UK time at the absolute earliest.
However, I would say that, whilst I’d definitely be happy to be involved, this isn’t really a topic that I can contribute a lot to, as the Toys Section isn’t my area - I know very little about the Collectica site, and am still finding it hard to understand what it is that the guy from Collectica is proposing. As a knee-jerk reaction I find myself sharing Matt’s concerns - if this was just a case of sticking a Collectica link on the front page of our site in exchange for a prominant link on their’s then I wouldn’t worry, but with the increased level of complexity - meh, I’m a bit unsure…
However, I trust you guys to make the right decision, and will happily provide input to the best of my understanding if needed!
Can I just ask why you’d want the whole team involved? Didn’t we agree that each section manager would make their own decisions, and for site level partnerships or decisions, or the use of the main page would be a final decision left to MannyF?
This is not a section level decision Mark so I thought I would get everyone involved, however if you cant make it for whatever reason it may be then I understand as this is kind of like a last minute thing. Just because it is a collectibles website doesnt mean their proposal is strictly geared towards the toys section, he’s talking about funding TCL
Pulling the whole team into a meeting goes against what we agreed at the meeting. I don’t think it makes sense to pull 7-8 people into a chat just to hear a proposal from a site that is looking for traffic from us. This starts as a toy discussion because you’re talking about having people display their collections of their toys on his site.
I think you and Neil are entirely capable of gathering the facts and the proposals from this guy and presenting it to Manny who can find out more if he wants, gather other thoughts from the team at large and make a decision in the site’s best interests.
Let’s be consistent with what was agreed, because there was good reasoning that went into how we decided to organize ourselves. We’re going to get a lot of proposals like these from various sites, and I don’t think we can afford to get the whole team into a chat everytime someone approaches us.
[SIZE=2]Yes it is toys/collectibles related however their proposal is not. All i was doing was extending an invitation to evryone so they could bring their input if need be, we ARE a team and so I thought this was the way to go. If you dont feel like your presence there is needed then that is ok and cool with me. I will at the very least need Neil and Manny there…in future instances then I know were you strongly stand on issues like this.
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Can I chip in and say that, whilst I think it’s correct that whoever is in charge of a specific section should be the one to make a final decision on anything pertaining to that section (superceded only by the site leader, i.e., MannyF), I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a section manager wanting to involve others in their decision-making process - because, that’s a choice that they, as manager of their section, are making!
So, MannyC, I definitely think that the final decision for this should be between yourself, Neil, and MannyF, but I’m cool with being involved and providing the limited input that I’m able to contribute if you want!
His ideas are intriguing and I would be open to discuss it in more in detail. Since Neil was kind enough to set aside his drinking night last Saturday, I’ll be willing to do a meeting with Mr. Dixon on Sunday even if it’s Super Bowl Sunday. We gotta be fair. Just let me know the time and I’ll be there. I also would like to say that what the proposal is goes beyond the front page so I think if anyone else wants to join in and input their thoughts, feel free to do so. It’s not required, but I think it’d be nice to hear others feelings on the issue.
We gotta be fair. Just let me know the time and I’ll be there. I also would like to say that what the proposal is goes beyond the front page so I think if anyone else wants to join in and input their thoughts, feel free to do so. It’s not required, but I think it’d be nice to hear others feelings on the issue.