Critical Club Presents - Organization Thread

I know this idea has already been addressed but I just wanted to chime in:




As Wonderland said, this was never the case. I just want to emphasize that because Wonderland is like the last person to judge any edits or force anyone to do anything.  I don't want anyone to think that anyone in FPCPP basically carted an edit (and handler) over to Wonderland to receive "education" in the salt mines.  A rookie (or vet) would come to Wonderland and ask for help and Wondy (as well as who was in the stream with him) would do it to help.  The edit's advancement in the FPCPP wasn't contingent on this help. The Dojo wasn't like a sponsored part of FPCPP in "breaking" new edits or anything like that. It was a bonus feature that was opt-in only and the feedback wasn't like required to be followed or anything. 

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Anyway, as to this new project. It's pretty surreal (in a good way) seeing the creation of FPCPP 2.0 start around here.  I'm seeing a lot of the same types of discussion, concerns, and motivation.  That's a good thing. 

My RL is swallowing my FP time so it would be a disservice to this project to promise time I can't deliver.

What I'll offer (and request) is my role as a handler of certain edits being booked.

I will also offer my advice.

I love the passion and the initiative but this planning is moving REALLY fast in terms of moving ahead with one plan without enough discussion leading up to it, and in the planning of the first event.  

There's already a month schedule for the first show. If something goes wrong with just one person's involvement in that show, everything will get thrown off and the first show will struggle to meet its first deadline. That is NOT a good thing to occur for the first show.  At the very least, give the first show more time to breathe in regards to production.  (and to catch up with some more discussion in terms of the overall promotional structure).  I'd recommend 6 weeks  to plan for the first show just so people can get used to this new planning format.  If it's done early, great, release it. If it's on time, also great. If it's late, well if it's late for 6 weeks then it will basically be sponsored by Spike! A fed can burn out like THAT *finger snap*  when a first event is over-promised and under-delivered due to potentially unrealistic deadlines not being met. 

There's nothing wrong with "improving as you move along" with the project but I think there is still a lot of tension left over from the past few weeks (and year). And I see some decisions being made quickly that not everyone is necessarily on board with right away. I'm concerned that some potential contributors and even leaders of this project are already feeling alienated from this.  I'm not referring to myself when I say that. I'm just a handler with some edits for this project, not a planned contributor.  I have no goose in this fight. I had my time in the sun as a community e-fedder and all I offer now is some perspective of what I've seen.  And I've seen burn out, of both individual feds and group feds. That burn out often happens when too much is attempted too soon without a little more planning and conversation between the intended members.  I'm concerned that may happen here. I'm already seeing 4-5 members, people with proven records of producing content and working with others, starting to shy away from this.

Let me give some perspective from what I consider to be one of my most regretted mistakes: A few years ago, I had an idea for the FPCPP to save it. The booking committee was basically gone and no shows were being run. We needed the booking committee for shows to run. That was the rule.  So the only thing that made sense to me was disbanding it and transforming the FPCPP into a "wiki/community" approach to shows.  The idea was that anyone could run an FPCPP show as long as they had the permission of the handlers (of the edits they wanted to book). It didn't work.  The FPCPP was not brought back to life. It didn't have a new Renaissance. It pretty much stayed the same and continued dying. Granted, it's still my belief that any attempt to bring FPCPP back to its heyday wasn't going to work.  It had its time and that time passed. 

But I spearheaded the new approach and it didn't work.  Some people still wanted a booking committee.  (Incidentally, the members of the booking committee themselves no longer wanted to do it even before my suggestion that disbanding would be good for the promotion. But another booking committee could have been formed). Some people wanted something else entirely. And while I always said that I wasn't the leader of the FPCPP, I know that my words carried weight.  I made change through persuasion, and this was a quick change that I tried to push through so that people could start making shows again. But I was too quick to try to get people off the old "booking committee" paradigm and move them to my new vision.  The fed was already on its last legs so I can't say I killed it. But by not spending more time listening to people who weren't 100% on board with my new vision for things (one that was not centralized and therefore was not intended to be run by me), I think people who could have contributed ended up losing interest. So the same people I relied upon to be the new lifeblood of the FPCPP weren't sold on the plan AND felt they didn't have enough input in it as they saw it moving quickly in a direction they weren't on board with. So that was it.  A few (good) shows were ran, FPCPP limped to its finish before being rejuvenated by FM.  I still believe my wiki-vision was good, but I don't think I did a great job in selling it or being open enough with it to include other people's ideas and attempts to shape it. 

A good vision for an e-fed that isn't attracting people and isn't open enough to discussion to get people involved in its direction will never lead to a good, functioning e-fed. I learned that the hard way.  To this day I ask myself if the FPCPP would have come back to life with an entirely new booking team or a new model beyond what my vision was. Personally, I don't think so. But I do regret how I rushed people to get on board with my vision and moved ahead without those who could have been interested but were put off by the direction we went in.  


Initiative is an excellent thing. Without it, nothing exists. But part of the initiative of a collaborative e-fed project built to stand the test of time is making sure that the infrastructure is attracting people rather than pushing them away.  I think too much has been set in stone early with this.  Among other debates, I think there's still a debate as to whether this project is meant to produce "mix tape" compilation shows or a cohesive show with continuity.  And I'm not sure that some of these debates will be resolved just by having everyone with a voice join the booking committee. I think specific events may be shaped by those views, but the entire project may end up having a bit of confusion when one month features a "mix tape" and the next month has a show with the same ring with cohesion between the story of the matches. 



Also, I don't know how official this is meant to be. Is it THE new C!C official promotion? Will it be the only project in the "CRITICAL~!Alliance' sub-forum? The leading one? It's unclear to me how all-encompassing this is meant to be. Will all threads in this sub-forum now be governed by this new organization? I hope not. I hope people can still just put together a collaborative project that isn't specifically an e-fed but can be posted here. I'm guessing that is still the case.

These are all thoughts I've had over the past few days of reading this thread without being able to comment at length until now. These are all thoughts from someone once known as "the e-fed pimp" because of how much I love the FP e-fed community and how much I've personally benefited from it.  This project has promise but I think it's moving too fast and shedding support as a result of that.  Slow down a little.  Get some more ideas and let the discussion have some time to breathe. We have an overload of entertainment right now in this community.  More planning for the first show is a good thing, especially when the vision for the promotion isn't really set yet. 

Measure twice, cut once, enjoy forever for a few years before FPX (FP + PWX) comes out.

Thank you. I genuinely am happy to hear that 😊

I saw the potential for people like you, specifically you, to make their own shows due to the fact you had already been doing them but they were "unofficial" until they got the support of the booking team. With the booking team basically gone anyway, it no longer made any sense (and arguably never fully did) that you had to wait for support from a central authority when all you really needed was the support of the handlers to book their edits.

YOU were really helped under the new plan. And FPCPP was helped by having you create shows.  Of course, you agreed with the plan to begin with so I never alienated you by going too fast since you liked it anyway.   

But there were others that were not quite on board and I think the discussion about the plan needed to last longer to hear them out and try to adapt their ideas before the plan went forward.  Cause many of them no longer felt like they had a say in a plan they didn't support and so they didn't do what they could have done if they were listened to more and allowed to have more input and therefore investment in the idea. And the irony is that I needed the support of other community members to make my idea actually happen (since I needed them to create shows on their own initiative) but I think I alienated them a little by pushing my idea so quickly without there being more discussion about how to shape it to everyone's tastes. 

I think my idea was ultimately good (and the resulting shows were proof of that) but I just didn't have good presentation, discussion, and implementation of it.   I enjoyed the resulting shows though for as long as they lasted. And I do think my idea eventually allowed FM to easily take the reins of the project and go in his direction over the past two years. A direction which has not gotten the praise that it deserves.  The same goes for your shows too. You were doing excellent independent FPCPP themed shows for years and wasn't getting enough credit for the high quality and strong ability to work with others.

Added JJB to the list.

Thread back up, as the first show is over and done with.

In 16 hours I will roll for the next three committee members, live on stream. Lanky, Twist, and Kaotic will not be included in this roll, as they've had a go. Everyone else will have a chance to get in.

If you're keen on hopping onto the committee pool, you've got 16 hours to put your name up on here.

konbanwa sign me up

Bit of a delay for the wheel deliberation folks, goin through some stuff, will likely just throw a video up when able.

And Mordecai, you're already in the pool!