Weekly Community Update for April 4th, 2025

Hello and welcome to the first week of Alex’s lazy river of meandering thoughts. Hop on and let’s go for a ride. 

If you’re coming here from the email this will be a bit of a rehash with some extra meat, but I want to give some context to anyone landing here from the great unknown. The whole point of this post is to give some insight and explain our plans for the emails, the site, and kind-of-sort-of the company as a whole. I don’t think there’s anything terribly dramatic in terms of changes being made right now, but I like being transparent and am always interested to see what other people think. Since I’m new, I wanted to take this opportunity to fulfill my role as the annoying new guy with big ideas to see if we can “fix” a few things around here. Cause if it ain’t broke, then you should mess with it and figure out why not. 

I have in the past had some less-than-glowing reviews from managers about my communication style, and maybe they’re right, but I’d like to believe people on the whole would prefer a somewhat unpolished, sometimes awkward person on the other side of the monitor in lieu of a sterilized machine spitting out empty rehearsed sympathies and concern. The imperfection is what makes us human and I’d rather it be clear that we’re all humans on this side who just want to make cool things and have fun with people who also like cool things.

So, how about them changes?  

We want emails to be something people actually enjoy reading sometimes, even if it’s just a little. What are some of the issues with emails these days? The number of emails I get is too damn high. A website asks for my email and suddenly I’m getting 5 emails a day reminding me their international waffle day sale is happening and I can save 25 cents on my next purchase of $1500 or more. I could unsubscribe, but the FOMO is too strong. What if there’s a secret email subscribers only 98% off sale and I miss it? I hate that I know what lever is being pulled and I’m still beholden to it like some rat in a lab. 

So first, flat out fewer emails. Second, focus more on community interests and less on ads. Third, have fun. 

Our plan is to keep emails down to 2 or 3 a week and make sure every email has purpose or value. Even if the purpose is no purpose at all. Which will often be the case on Friday. Monday emails will still be Tom because he’s a chatty Cathy who likes new toys and often gets to play with everything before they go on the site. Maybe he has a giveaway or just saw something neat while walking his dog. Fridays, you’re stuck with me, but things will surely not be this long or, you know, all this. Usually. I’ll also share any things that may pop up either internally or out yonder that seem interesting. Some Tuesdays or Wednesdays, a special promo email if there’s something super cool going on with the site like the Gremlin. And because we do on occasion also have to still be a business, the intention is to join the fracas for the big yearly sales events dealios. 

Site-side, we’ve made changes to give it a more coherent feel, which is an ongoing project. In addition we would love to focus more on community building. We have shoot-for-the-moon kind of dreams on that front, but are still working on how exactly to do it all. We’re all products of an earlier internet when discussion boards were the place to be and we miss when there were real connections being made online. You can share more than ever before and yet somehow things have never been more disconnected. We want to try and put some good energy back onto the internet. Even if we’re just throwing pebbles at the ocean to stop the tides. 

Of course we want to bat 1000 and get everything right the first time, but even 350 will get you in the hall of fame. I expect we’ll have some hits and we’ll have some misses, but we’ll always try to be better. As my 4 year old likes to say, “mistakes are how we learn” and I do my best to smile and say “yup” as we sweep the memories of my favorite mug into the trash. Rest in pieces Optimus Prime.  

Alright, I think that’s enough for this week. It’s a bit of a mess and probably not very professional, but hopefully everyone will help me prove my old managers wrong. 

Or email me at alex@apos.audio to tell me I’m still wrong and what could be better. 

Cheers everyone.