"unacceptable behavior"
"unacceptable behavior"
aront no what to say
The way they build guitars, no. But the way we talk about and buy guitars, yes.
Back in the forum heyday I was buying multiple ESPs a year. This was mostly due to the fact that others were too, and we were all posting hot photos on this forum. It was contagious, and amplified by the fact that the mod was very cool and we largely took care of forum problems on our own.
Contrast that with last year, when I bought my first ESP in 3 years. It took much longer than usual to set it up properly (because their QC has gone the way of this forum), and when I made a thread asking about a case to fit it no one ever responded because this place is a ghost town.
And now someone thinks it's a good idea to weed out even more members who still bother to contribute to the culture that was once ESP.
I do think it's interesting that a forum for a guitar company that focuses on metal bands is so suddenly concerned with rules and censorship. That's more or less the antithesis of the genre this company purports to serve. Of course, it's their forum and they can do what they want, but now it's my right to buy guitars from another company. I've bought six ESP and/or LTD guitars over the last ten years, only one of them purchased used. I can guarantee that with the tone ESP has chosen to take with its most fervent members, I will never buy a seventh.
I think ESP needs to take a long, hard look in the mirror and decide if they really think that pure, unadulterated Metallica fanboyism is really going to sustain their business no matter how much they dilute the brand nor how questionably they treat their fan base.