Is GOM's decision also partly a revenge?

GOM didn't have to close their doors at October 2nd. The amount of money exchanging hands there has more than doubled in the recent month, thus the amount of their profits also has doubled perhaps tripled. Then I ask, why GOM suddenly decided to close with a 5 day notice? They could have waited until LL rolls out exchange system, see how things go, and then make a decision if their business is no longer viable.

They have a lot of supporters so perhaps they could have even still survived, come up with a different business model or collaborate with LLs. However, they chose to close prematurely with a disregard to people who trust them, knowing well this would cause a panic.

So the questions should be asked, was GOM trying to take a revenge? If so or not, doesn't this action further reinforces LLs decision to have their own exchange system? What if LL didn't have an exchange system being prepared and GOM made the same decision because of X,Y,Z reasons? Then what would happen?

They have been very unprofessional, emotional through out and really relied on the capital of people who support them. However, there is one thing forgotten that GOM would not have existed without LLs support and that they are also not a free service. Nearly 10,000 users trusted them with their money and payed for their good service. At the very least they could have made the gesture to remain open and not cause any pain and panic to a lot of people. It seems to me that they are displaying the same unprofessional attitude and disregard for their customers until the last moment.

Maybe they ran out of ideas and just didn't want to compete. Throw in the towel early and howl at the moon.

Question is, now that they're closing the doors -- who's bold enough to pick up the slack?

Maybe they just lost the love of working on the project. Imagine spending years building up a project into something successful only to have the rug pulled out from under you. How long would you continue spending all of your free time running a project like that, when you felt impending doom?

I remember how disapointing it felt to get 4th place in the Game Dev Contest... a project I only worked on for 4 months. Imagine working on a project for years, and then instantly becoming second place.

Well I doubt I'll ever do business with them again.

I doubt you will - they're shutting down.

One thing to note is that you have to file your accounts usually on a yearly basis. It seems the shut-down of GOM ties in rather nicely with their accounting year based on the fact they seem to start up operations in September 2003. I did recall Jamie saying he was doing the company accounts and I wouldn't be surprised if staring at the ledger they decided to pack in the towel because it wasn't viable and they couldn't work out how to compete.

Revenge, maybe. But at the end of the day I think they would have to close down anyway because they didn't feel they compete. And rather then create a long drawn out death of GOM they shut it down.

Would I use them again, well probably. I think whatever new ideas they come up with I would be willing to have a go, whether in this game or the next.

My guess (as you'll already know if you've read some other threads) is that this would be the only way to take any revenge for what's happened. Whether it has any impact or not I don't know, but it's the parting shot of people who are, rightly in my opinion, pissed off.

Does this reinforce LL's decision to have their own exchange? I'm sure they could spin it like that. I know that, for myself, it reinforces my decision not to develop time consuming, large-use systems for the SL community, if LL has the will to pull the rug. I just can't see the point investing the time and effort.

I doubt LL will ever regret what they're doing though, I can't see how they can fail to make some extra cash with their plan. In which case, why not web-based buying or a built-in buying system that challenges, and effectively mugs wholesale, other web-based systems? I fully expect that to arrive. If there's an avenue that's been proved to make money, then LL will forget the "community" and just do it themselves. However there's certain ownership dynamics of one of those current systems that might make LL suddenly much more willing to bend over backwards to do a deal in my opinion.

Hrmmm, revenge.....well, let's see.....

If I were in GOM's shoes and I planned on acting in revenge, I would've closed up shop the moment it was clear LL was going to kill my business. Not point in waiting weeks and die a slow death.

Besides...a far better revenge would've been to immediately suspend all transactions, rather than give anyone even 4 days.

Ohh wait - an even *better* revenge would've been to keep all the lindens$ deposited into the AV and return only the US$ they had. After all the L$ has no intrinsic value, right?

Ooooh better yet - become the 'Robin Hood' of SL, going on a wild spending spree, distributing those millions of L$ to anyone and everyone. Especially since undoing those transactions would create countless hours of work for a Linden to do.

(/Scarcasm=Off)



The point I'm making here is that if one is going to smear GOM with the concept that they did it for revenge, at least take that logic to a reasonable conclusion. GOM has held in here far longer than I expected, and they're giving everyone a chance to get their money back out without taking a loss. I call that pretty darned reasonable. If revenge was on their mind, there's many far more damaging and far easier ways to do it.


- Newfie

Agrees with Moopf. Entirely.

I'm certain "revenge" has very little to do with the closing. But, you know, it is a nice extra.

coco

P.S. And with Newfie. Who uses logic.

Boo Snowcrash! Hiss!

You were taking the role of Lindens apologist last night but I never realized it would evolve into a Karl Rove like attack on the character of GOM. It's a terrible way to obscure the fact that LL put GOM out of business and failed to offer them fair compensation.

~Ulrika~

Yeah I thought about this as well. I'd suspect that they've given the grace in order to allow the community to finish the transactions they have with them, whilst ensuring that they leave a void before LL's transaction system is in place. Personally I'd of pulled the plug earlier and quicker, but maybe I'm just bitter and twisted like that

Actually thinking that they did it (at least partly) for revenge and supporting GOM aren't mutually exclusive. I'm in that camp

Just depends on how you think, I guess.

If LL somehow screwed me over, or admitted that they planned to, I don't think I'd stick around to milk every last L$ from it either. Once you've lost faith in something and it's no longer enjoyable, it's time to move on.

Nope you wrong.

I've done business with Jamie/Ricky and they're not about fucking people over.

I think revenge is a petty concept -- and if that is the case with GOM's decision, then I feel no sympathy what-so-ever.

Businesses compete, and if someone does something better than you or closes you out of a market you were in previously -- you don't whine and try to screw them. That's just bad form.

If GOM were a truly strong company to begin with anyway, they just would've found another way to compete. Instead of blame they could've derived a strategy to increase their value to their customers over and above what LL is planning to offer.

This sort of thing happens in RL business all the time. If everyone just gave up and blamed eachother, we might not have nearly as many interesting and exciting companies and innovations emerging that we have today.

Moved to the Land and Economy Forum.

This quote by Ricky is very telling. Interpret it as you wish.

And this post isn't unprofessional and emotional? At best it is a cheap shot.

One common thread I am getting from all these messages is that many of the wealthy busines types seem think that GOM should have ignored sound business decision making and just continued to bleed money for the sake of the community.



LMFAO!!!!! Yes, more cheap shot material but, "pain and panic?" If ANYONE is panicing right now it is their own fault. This train wreck started what, over a month ago? Part of running a business, even in a virtual world, includes contingency planning. Given the events of the past few months it should have been obvious to nearly everyone that this day would come. It has and while it does bring up a whole new series of questions and concerns, should not elicit panic from anyone.

As for 'disregard for their customers,' -- I give them major props for allowing people to trade for four more days. They could have easily told us trading was closed and just give us 30 days to transfer money. Considering they are a commodity market this is a major plus on the customer service/concern side.

My theory is that all those piles of cash were getting to be a fire hazard, so they have to close down as quickly as possible. It will take years to spend all that loot!

Buster

You know in their GOM forums they stated that they had to buy back thousands of $L that leaked out of the system recently. The GOM forums states something about problems in the XML-RPC communication, and them having to go through transactions one by one by hand to check for errors. I can see how that huge amount of work with possible money loss combined would make someone want to close shop and close shop fast.

For those saying they could of gone bankrupt, I'm not sure if that would of helped them. They can't just leave people high and dry, because we know exactly who they are, where they are, and how to sue them if they don't pay up. I'm also not sure how the laws work in Canada, but I believe when you go bankrupt you have to split what you do have among all the people owed money. If they did go bankrupt, it would not be a complete loss to everyone, since the money they have to split with those they owe is the same as the money people have paid them.

You know what, I don't have to be professional or unemotional, I don't own a business with nearly 10,000 customers, I don't have the responsibility of thousands of dollars of transactions, I don't hold 10s of thousands of dollars of other peoples money in my account that others trust me for.

And no, four days was not enough. They should have kept it open. When you start a business like this you also accept the responsibility it comes with, whether you like it or not. When people say "ohh yeah they could have shut it down completely and take your money" sure they could have also got a gun and robbed a banked. That is the sort of rhetoric that is real cheap shots back at people who trusted GOM. Whether or not they are bitter to LL is a separate issue then they are responsibility to customers.

Are you being paid by LL to defame GOM or is this something you're doing on your own? If you're paid, how much, and if this is on your own, why?

~Ulrika~

Im sorry but do you live in the real word? I dont mean that in a bad way but gom is a real life listed corporation on d&b, as with any rl company they could just suspend trading and declare bankrupcy, many companies do it everyday and yes companies with thousands of customers and millions worth of their assets, which all get frozen.

The fact its being left to close gracefully, just goes to show you they want to let people get their money out, finish off trades, and then close the thing they started.

I think they figured going out all at once before LL was ready would result in heavy trading and a health profit margin.

This is probably a better thread for a recent post of mine...

If this was not done for revenge, and they are truely
great guys who want to help out the community, then
shouldn't they be more open to someone taking over
the GOM site/service?

It's obvious we ALL want to see it continue.

I'm sure several people would be willing to work
as a team to keep things rolling on GOM, and help
fix any problems.

If this WAS a revenge tactic, then they would want
to make sure GOM dies for good.. putting LL in a
bad (and urgent?) position... while, at the same
time not doing anything illegal, like taking off with
people's money, etc.

Personally I think the GOM guys are indeed good guys,
but this question keeps nagging me. Maybe one
of them can speak toward this "take over" solution?

Gabrielle