Morphmarket changes/updates

[banereptiles]

I have been lurking on this post trying to figure out what I wanted to say. First I am like @nswilkerson1 i don’t do social media at all! (Except this community.) So I too was shocked at the abrupt change of the free membership, especially since it was recently upped to $750! Then changed all of a sudden to only 1 active listing and $500. Of course I understand MM needs the memberships and wants to encourage those to keep the site preforming good, and of course it is a business! My personal experience with @eaglereptiles and staff has been always been great! I am just a small hobbiest as well and I recently had to switch jobs with a big pay cut and could no longer do the basic plan or even pay for my own personal website(for the time being, I will be back) and @eaglereptiles reached out to me personally and was very understanding and just a real decent human being about it.
I think what probably happened is the company is growing fast, and excitedly started changing things quickly and totally missed with not informing us on this platform, MM!
As @eaglereptiles already owned up to and took the “blame” for the whole company:

@eaglereptiles

We dropped the ball on this, but we as a new, much larger, team are still learning… but News posts will resume from here on.

I think there will be more changes to come, one truly great one that already happened and will surely help the MM community is adding @ballornothing to the staff! So I think everyone should cut MM some slack for the time being and let’s wait and see where this marketplace and community goes in the near future. I am remaining hopeful we will not be disappointed.
Finally I agree with you @armiyana most of my sales have been wholesaling and Craigslist/private parties as well, BUT my best and biggest sales where on the MM basic plan, probably because we can get what these awesome animals are worth on here! Also customers are less worried about scams since we are vetted and on a legit platform. So if you are able to, I recommend that you should take up the $20 off offer and give it a try for one year, I really enjoyed all the features and everything the basic plan has to offer! Also we small hobbiests like myself and @nswilkerson1 and any other crazy, mistrusting, dinosaurs may have to start with the social media stuff, I know I can’t stand the thought! Seems like that is a opportunity we may need to start to include, unfortunately. Maybe @randall_turner_jr could give us some advice! From a business standpoint the more places we showcase our animals, the more potential buyers. Not saying for sure I can do that, but it’s a idea…

[armiyana]

I will trust the free month of membership offer when it’s posted as a news update…on this site. Like I did with CLTCH through an email sent in advance, not facebook.
I don’t know Darien from jack squat. He made one forum post and disappeared. I don’t deal with Dubias.com. Why should I respond to his facebook post? How many people would he actually venmo $ to would use it on the site even?

Most of my annoyance over this is just I expect something that wants to be the industry standard to act professionally. If I wanted less I would move to reptify lol.

[nswilkerson1]

@banereptiles

My personal experience with @eaglereptiles and staff has been always been great!

I couldn’t agree more. The staff here have always been amazing, @eaglereptiles especially.

@banereptiles

As @eaglereptiles already owned up to and took the “blame” for the whole company:

Also happy to see this, just as a way of admitting that hey, things didn’t go as planned or as usual, we’ll work on that. I’m forever grateful for how this team handles themselves when it comes to fixing things.

@banereptiles

Also we small hobbiests like myself and @nswilkerson1 and any other crazy, mistrusting, dinosaurs may have to start with the social media stuff, I know I can’t stand the thought!

I’m only 27, and I have a facebook, I just don’t have the app anymore nor do I have the desire to get on there, there is way too much toxicity out there on social media and my lifes been 100x better the last almost 2 years I’ve been off of there. Thats my biggest reason for avoiding it.

I think the one big point i was trying to make, and it looks like it was received and understood, is that I just want to be able to find out info about changes, on the site itself. I’d prefer to be able to see a news post, or a weekly/monthly blog post would be something interesting as well. saying okay, here’s the changes last month, next month we’re looking to do “xxxxx”. Just something to keep everyone in the loop.

I understand @drollinger has a large following on facebook/Insta, and I get trying to get involvement there. I’m guessing that with all the new comments on the giveaway post that some people got directed here from there, and for that I’m greatful, truly. But at the end of the day, as @armiyana was getting at, this is a direct branch of the Morphmarket site. I think here or morphmarket should be the 1st place changes are documented, and then throw a link in an insta post, copy/paste with another link on FB, but be all inclusive. That was what I’m truly trying to get at.

I love this place, The team is awesome, the community is awesome. Like i said, the membership doesn’t impact me as much, as I’m currently a basic member and will be for a while, it was just the way that the change was done that threw me off.

I’m definitely not trying to attack anyone here or throw shade at any part of the team. I know we’re encouraged to give feedback/input because that’s the only way that we can make the community the best that it can be. So hopefully my points were taken as intended, and not seen as overly aggressive or charged.

[ballornothing]

Taking my staff hat off for this, this is my personal take.

As someone who owns several businesses and just last year negotiated the sale and transition of one of them, I would guess that Darian more than has his hands full right now. I would cut him a little slack and give him some time to smooth out the wrinkles that come with things like this.

I can’t imagine that his intention was to ghost everyone after his introduction, but when you’re extremely busy it can very difficult to be as communicative as everyone would like. I frequently find myself having to assign an order of importance to the calls, texts, and emails I have to respond to with my businesses. It’s simply not possible for one person to promptly and effectively to reply to every communication that is generated in the course of business, and that is magnified when you have more than one business to run. While all that’s going on, the business is still full swing; employees, customers, accountants, and more all need your time for the business to stay functional. The business must remain profitable for everyone to retain their jobs and for the platform to remain accessible to all. When you carry it all on your shoulders that can be a heavy burden. The only reason I’m available on here throughout the day is because the forum is my way of taking little breaks to clear my mind throughout the day, so I can remain as productive as my life demands me to be.

As far as the account changes go, I haven’t had time to pay much attention to what’s going on. From a purely business standpoint, everything has to pencil out. No one on this earth is going to run a private company as a break even/losing proposition when it requires the amount of work to maintain that a platform like this does. If it doesn’t make money, what motivation is there to deal with the amount of stress that comes with a business. Without knowing the details, there is also no way to know where the business was at profitability wise, and it’s entirely possible that the changes were necessary to maintain the business.

Cash flow, taxes, staffing, payroll, inventory, financial forecasting, legal liability, and a thousand other things are weighing on a business owner’s time and stress level on a daily basis. It’s not something you can really wrap your mind around until you’re responsible for a business that represents your own AND other people’s livelihoods, but it’s a lot for a human being to process. I would suggest giving him a little time before passing judgement too harshly, he is just a human, and we are only capable of doing so much.

[nswilkerson1]

@ballornothing

As far as the account changes go, I haven’t had time to pay much attention to what’s going on. From a purely business standpoint, everything has to pencil out. No one on this earth is going to run a private company as a break even/losing proposition when it requires the amount of work to maintain that a platform like this does. If it doesn’t make money, what motivation is there to deal with the amount of stress that comes with a business. Without knowing the details, there is also no way to know where the business was at profitability wise, and it’s entirely possible that the changes were necessary to maintain the business.

My point wasn’t that the changes aren’t fair, just communicate them. They directly affected the ToS, and even something like an automated email to all account holders or a quick post saying hey, we changed this, just letting you all know. Thanks!

And I’m not even specifically referring to Darien, I get it that he has a million and a half things going on. I’m not faulting him for that. It’s just when changes go unaddressed and have to be asked about that it just worries me a little, was all.

I mainly made the post in case I missed it, hoping someone could point me towards the answer. But as @eaglereptiles said, they’ll be improving that moving forward and that’s all that really matters to me. I trust the process, just gotta sit back and let it work

[armiyana]

My main issue on the ghosting everyone here is how biologicalcanvas said Darien was so much more active and responsive on Social media and then the followup with Darien posting about the $$ offer on his private facebook.
Two different mods specifically pinged him about questions the forum had and nothing happened.
The only real update we got recently was the giveaway, which is to drum up interest on the socials…The new events added and “The Way forward”.
How is it that the social media team is getting information and posting about site updates BEFORE forum staff or sellers? This seems like a giant kink in the chain of command.

[ballornothing]

I can understand the frustration. I’m the source of it in my world often enough

As Thomas mentioned, there are a lot of things that the new staff has to learn about existing processes, and I’m sure it wasn’t an intentional oversight. Also to be fair, as much as we all love this community, the vast majority of MorphMarket ’s revenue is generated by people who do not use this forum at all. I would go so far as to assume that posting on IG and Facebook is a more effective way to reach that customer base than posting here on the forum. If the business practices aren’t second nature, I could understand them thinking that was the normal order of things. I’m sure they’ll learn from their mistake here. No one is perfect all the time. No team is infallible. Mistakes will happen, I just wrote a check today for a new gas nozzle that my most experienced insulation installer forgot was still in his truck when drove off

[armiyana]

@ballornothing

MorphMarket ’s revenue is generated by people who do not use this forum at all. I would go so far as to assume that posting on IG and Facebook is a more effective way to reach that customer base than posting here on the forum.

I may be wrong on this but I assume…
A vast majority of the revenue is from sellers paying to use the site who should be aware of TOS updates before they are implemented so they can prepare accordingly.

The sellers however do get a very nice boost in sales from that which is why they like to give you the money to post here. If they don’t adhere to sudden new implementations they’re not aware of, what happens then? I’m assuming strikes against the accounts.

[armiyana]

I’m sorry if I’m coming off as a pest or anything…
It’s just very frustrating to get future TOS changes from everywhere in my email box or as a large popup to a new page to sign and such…except MorphMarket , which I have to apparently now have facebook for or log onto the store page to get a button to click without any further detail.

Although now that I’m looking at the actual Rules and TOS, it seems like none of this really matters anyway. I guess I was just hoping for more transparency to updates instead of having to keep on my toes and constantly check publishing dates every couple of weeks.

[akmorphs]

Here’s my personal opinion on the change of MorphMarket - I hate it.

Back in January when you mentioned MorphMarket you mentioned it with pride. It was a place you could be proud of. It was professional. It reminded me a lot of like a very modern, sleek, clean sterilized place to go and be professional (like the Kinova facility on steroids and as a website). Like this was the place to be. I was SUPER excited about becoming a seller. Having my own store. Like I was PROUD proud. John did a fantastic job at building up what MorphMarket was, and I liked the professionalism that came with it. Everything seemed clean cut, black and white - you knew what to expect.

If I had known that John would be selling MorphMarket I would have instantly jumped at it, and the funny part is - I would have had the financial backing of investors to do so because of my job. So, when I heard that MorphMarket had been purchased (on FB before MM even released a statement) I felt blindsided. I understand John had to handle personal matters, and that’s fine. I just wish he would have stated that he had interest in selling MorphMarket and let others known.

Didn’t know who Darien was at all. Didn’t know about Dubia.com because that’s not something I need for ball pythons. However, the night that John made his post saying that he sold MM, I went on FB and added Darien since he was the new CEO/Owner. I was a little skeptical because the dude’s profile picture was a cockroach, but after being told that’s because of Dubia.com I kinda shrugged it off. I was told by multiple people that Dubia.com was an excellent website, very professional, very clean, etc. So it gave me hope that much of that professional sense would still apply to MorphMarket . Well, I was wrong.

To sum of my feelings over the last couple of weeks - Darien is a troll. Rarely funny, but other times it just seems like he enjoys stirring the pot. Stirring the pot is essentially what always gets the most interactions/comments/views which in turn helps produce results for reaching new customers/clients etc. He says one thing, does the opposite. He’s playing devils advocate, and then when something gets taken too seriously he whips out “it’s a joke” or “you guys really can’t take a joke” and then trolls those people with multiple posts or memes within hours of each other.

I can literally picture him in my head, sitting on a fence, and just going back and forth over the different groups and poking them to get them riled up. He’ll post stats about the increase in traffic overall for ADs from January until now since he’s taken over, but won’t answer the questions about how much $ is he putting towards ADs now vs John. Cool, you hit over 1 million page reach on Facebook but what’s been the difference in revenue generated from that, or again, what was the previous budget to now?

I can understand coming in to a new company, and wanting to change a few things. Tweak a few things that really need to be tweaked, but this is overkill. The professionalism that MM once had is dead to me. I can’t take anything seriously anymore, until the new CEO decides to take things seriously. The amount of nut riding this guy gets from people is ridiculous. People have also called him out on previous posts/comments and whatnot and they’ve been removed from his page of the group he created. I think more people would speak out or say something, but won’t because they don’t want to be retaliated against. I don’t want to be removed from the seller group, I don’t want my store to be removed because I didn’t agree with the CEO, etc etc. It all just seems childish.

Oh, and the people saying that we’ve had more people sign up on the forums recently - that’s not because of Darien. I have never once seem him mention the MM forums; publicly or privately. I have though, and I’ve linked them numerous times, and have had numerous people come over and sign up with the link I provided.

I half expect to see a meme get thrown in here calling me an emotional ball python breeder who can’t handle change - because that’s exactly what you’d see on Facebook if I made this post and that’s gross.

[eaglereptiles]

This topic has been temporarily closed for discussion. Please bear with me.

[eaglereptiles]

I guess I can boil this down into a few points.

Lack of communication of changes -

Usually we would have created a News post on the site and on the forum here.
These have continued since Dariens takeover, and this case here is not a Darien issue… this was a team communication issue. WE messed up but I promise this will return to our usual standard, and hopefully better. We will also improve the design and usefulness of the on-site notifications.

Membership Limits -

I understand everyone’s frustration, but please understand that the change in the free plan is to ensure the sustainability of the platform and to provide a better experience for all of our users.

The free plan is designed for users who want to test the platform or sell a pet, that was always its intention. Hobbyists, breeders, and businesses require more advanced features… which cost to build and maintain, and then form a support channel for questions and issues. MorphMarket is expensive to run, now with even more employees and only growing.

Dariens lack of response to intro post -

Dude is hellllla bogged down right now. Not only MM is expanding, but Dubia also… a lot! He knows how Facebook works without needing to read an instruction booklet… like it can feel like over here on the forum. The free time he does get to respond to posts he wants to make count, and FB is unfortunately a massive audience to miss out on… Plus some of the questions raised need full hour long thoughts and responses.

But we will get him fluent in MRC and I am sure we will see him more.

Lack of professionalism –

I like the memes Maybe your just being an emotional ball python breeder

But really, this has been noted and will be passed on. There is not really much I can add here, especially as I avoid Facebook and don’t see it. But I promise it has been noted.

[akmorphs]

@eaglereptiles

I understand everyone’s frustration, but please understand that the change in the free plan is to ensure the sustainability of the platform and to provide a better experience for all of our users.

The free plan is designed for users who want to test the platform or sell a pet, that was always its intention.

When the owner, himself, trolls those who can’t afford $132 for an annual membership up front and then says people who can’t afford that shouldn’t own/breed reptiles - that’s the wrong message all together. He said the free membership was to stop scammers/bad posters. He says one thing, and then bashes his customer base for those who couldn’t afford the cheapest annual membership up front. “It’s not about the cost, but the animals” and then pulls that ■■■■.

T O X I C

Comments directly related to the quote above that Darien said himself.

My personal favorite:

and because of such heat from his decision yesterday for the free accounts this is him today:

He “supports” but he’ll talk smack about you so

[nswilkerson1]

Without social media, I’ve not seen any of this… thanks for sharing Anna.

[armiyana]

This is disgusting behavior from a company owner.

Now I’m even more frustrated over the social media shenanigans. MorphMarket has it’s own Elon now.

[drollinger]

Hey everyone! Sorry I haven’t been on here, I’m going to take the time to read through all of this and respond to each person individually. It was never my intention to upset anyone or alienate people. I’m just trying to make MorphMarket the best platform it can be, do what’s best for the animals, and reach as many new people as possible to help everyone be more successful with their hobbies and businesses.

[drollinger]

@akmorphs

He’ll post stats about the increase in traffic overall for ADs from January until now since he’s taken over, but won’t answer the questions about how much $ is he putting towards ADs now vs John. Cool, you hit over 1 million page reach on Facebook but what’s been the difference in revenue generated from that, or again, what was the previous budget to now?

We are currently putting in around $1500 per day or $45,000 per month into advertising. Previously there was around $100 per day or $3,000 per month into advertising. A lot of advertising will have an effect over time, but since I took over inquiries and sales are up at least 20-30% across the site. This will continue to increase.

@akmorphs

People have also called him out on previous posts/comments and whatnot and they’ve been removed from his page of the group he created. I think more people would speak out or say something, but won’t because they don’t want to be retaliated against. I don’t want to be removed from the seller group, I don’t want my store to be removed because I didn’t agree with the CEO, etc etc. It all just seems childish.

I don’t get easily offended or upset over what people say, and I welcome all criticism. I would never remove or retaliate against a seller for disagreeing with me or calling me out. I’m very transparent and honest in what I do, and I will always do what’s best for the animals and sellers on MorphMarket who are putting the animals first.