Is FF going under?

I was recently hyping FF (as I am prone to do) and had two seperate instances of people saying they are not interested in investing in buying FF because they heard it may be going out of business soon.
So i am wondering where they may have got that idea.
Even if they are not, its not a good thing that there is a question like this hanging over them...it could really kill sales.

Rawn

Quote
Rawn (RawArt) wrote: FF because they heard it may be going out of business soon.

Well, that's definitely not the case. I'm also wondering where they got that idea.

I am glad its not the case(I didnt really think it was, cuz I m sure we would have known something from hanging out here so much LOL).....neither of them knew where they heard that rumour from (and I did press them LOL)....but somehow there does seem to be a rumour out there.
I was shocked to hear it, so I assured them that as far as I know FF is going strong and growing.
It was just weird when it came from two totally seperate sources.

All i could think is that people are maybe taking all that EULA talk going on here as a sign that things are up in the air and not solid.....but thats just a guess *shrug*

Rawn

BTW, nice thread title -- love it

yup, thanks for that, vlad. i know exactly where the rumor is coming from. it's coming from the forums here. there have been several threads that hinted at it. i tried to squelch it myself, but i just dont have the hard facts, so at best all i could do was provide circumstantial evidence.

i would reiterate, however, that getting the new eula done is pretty much the top priority right now. rumors abound in the absence of hard data.

I really doubt that FF will go outta business soon. This unfinished EULA stuff on the other hand irritates even me On the other hand, I recognize that getting it sorted out is ... complicated

I doubt that a little controversy over EULA could take a company out of business, especially not one with a product this slick. Actually, sometimes a small amount of controversy is not half bad for advertizing.
And come people like to make mountains out of molehills. Even if it's a noisy molehill.

Quote
Vladimir Golovin wrote: BTW, nice thread title -- love it

For a second there I was tempted to start a twin thread called "Is FF sinking in?"...

Quote
Conniekat8 wrote: doubt that a little controversy over EULA could take a company out of business, especially not one with a product this slick.

Exactly my impression. 'Slick' doesn't even begin to describe it...

Now for serious stuff I hate to say it --and it shows since is the first Ive said it to any one but the huge extent of offers and other stuff kind of struck me as a bit desperate like maybe sales might be suffering

the recent decline in submissions and new talent has worried me as well

the lack of a huge advertising campaign never worried me. FF is good enough that a word of mouth campaign is really about all it needs. graphic artists are always hungry for the latest and greatest and FF certainly fills that requirement

About decline in filter submissions... perhaps some of it has to do with EULA thing, but I think more of it has to do with people realizing more and more that except for really talented few, it's not that easy to get HU points for a free copy. That marketing strategy probably worked a lot better when there were fewer filters overall.
In recent months there haven't been that many top filters de-throning tops of the charts. I'm not one of those peope that will ever have a thought that 'the top has been reached, there's no more cool filters to be made'

I know in my personal case I was evaluating 'time spent trying to get good really fast and neglecting other things' vs. 300 bucks (or little less). I'm not an extraordinary talent, like Dilla or Constantine and few others, but with little work it wouldn't be impossible for me to get a few HU's. However, I couldn't justify the time.

If I were on the inside (working at FF) I'd be brainstorming for some other incentive for people to attract talent to submit quality filters. (in addition to EULA adjustment).

I've read commentary from other people that, paraphrasing: "most people whom are winning HU's are beta testers and people whom had more exposure to FF" - which I took with a grain of salt... But, there's always a little bit of truth in rumors. No I'm not believing for a minute that there's some sort of a rig, or behind the scenes conspiracy to limit people or prevent them from earning HU's. What would concern me that there is a segment of potential filter makers that end up feeling VERY discouraged. I'd wanna know how big that market segment is, and whether it would be worth while having other incentives to change the attitude and draw them in.

I dunno, maybe monthly filter contests... maybe on a specific theme with various prizes.

If I submitted a filter before EULA change because I wanted to share with other 'enthusiasts', and it was exploited commercially, I'd be ticked off. If I won a little prize for having a filter of the month... or one of the top 10 filters of the month... I may even decide to put some work into the filters and submit them in spite of current EULA.

Anyway, blah blah....

Yes, I hear ya!

Also, I think that additional small prizes ($25, $50 or $100) per month and sufficient amount of ego stroking just may work on a few more people (even without EULA changes).

Giving away small prizes is really an inexpensive way of marketing. By making things revolve monthly, and only new submissions be elegible for that month's prizes (or some similar term) you create a monthly influx. By giving them themes and challenges, you entice even more people into participating (those which may be in a creative blank to come up with a theme of their own).

I'm sure there's a finesse and legalities that need to be worked out to make something like that happen.. I'm sure FF has staff to do that.

Quote
Conniekat8 wrote: decline in filter submissions [...] has to do with people realizing more and more that [...] it's not that easy to get HU points for a free copy.

Quote
From the FF frontpage: 3. Contributors get Filter Forge for free. You submit filters, they get popular with the users, we send you a free copy of Filter Forge. Sounds simple but don't expect a giveaway, you will have to earn it.

They had been warned!

Quote
Conniekat8 wrote: drug testing etc etc...

----Well, come on now, for any jawb that doesn't even pay double min wage, the drug testing is just to keep ye olde L&I insurance rates down. Fascism via responsibility laundering if you will. Kinda like how my state was one of the first to make car insurance mandantory (legally = required, otherwise $800 ticket), and not coincindentally, we also have a law that hospitals cannot refuse treatment 'based on ability to pay'. Anytime there's a *safety* put in place, you can bet it's gonna cost ya one way or another ha-ha.

jffe