Forum Closure
Shane Staley | Jul 25, 2010 | Comments 15
While Horror Mall has seen a 20% increase in sales this year compared to the previous year, it seems that forum usage and contributions have decreased in that time, which tells me ultimately this isn’t what our growing customer base really wants or needs.
Forums across the internet, especially in this genre, have all seemed to really go south in the past few years. I contribute this decline to the forum being an outdated tool of communication.
As a business, we are much better using our blogs and twitter to communicate with our customers.
With that being said, the forums will be taken down on or around August 1st.
The core public communication network of Horror Mall and its shops is our dedicated blog system which can be found at: http://horrorgy.com. There you can get the latest news, view articles and excerpts and comment on any post we have there. In places, the comments are threaded like a message board for those of you who prefer the message board format.
As always, are dedicated support ticket system is located at http://www.horror-mall.com/help/. This is for support communication purposes and each shop has its own department along with a tech support, auction and billing (for all shops) department where customers can easily get their questions answered and issues dealt with in a timely manner.
I’d like to thank everyone on the forums for their past participation. A special thanks goes out to Scotty who has moderated them since their inception.
Please bookmark and watch our blog system regularly as we’ll be doing some very exciting things in the near future that will involve direct interaction with our customers and the horror community.
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About the Author: Shane Staley is the founder and owner of Horror Mall. He operates the Delirium Books and Darkside Digital shops. He has just launched a brand new publishing company through Horror Mall called ALTAR 13.
I feel this is a regrettable decision. I’ve relied on the forum and its posters for insight into what’s available and whether or not I want to purchase it. Whether you are actively posting or not, it is a resource for potential customers. Hope you don’t end up chopping off the hand that feeds you.
I respect your opinion, but you haven’t realized yet that the blog is the most important resource to find out what’s going on here as well as customer reviews in the mall. And if you want to connect with others, then there is Facebook, LibraryThing, Twitter and other valuable resources.
I don’t like it either, but I have no argument against it. The forums at the mall are pretty dead, there are only only a bunch of regulars who post and that’s about it.
I’m with Bill. What I’ve read in the forums has significantly affected what I’ve bought from Horror Mall, and I expect that my purchases will probably drop by about 90 percent in the next year because of their closing.
Sorry to see the forums go, but I guess it had run it’s course.
Thanks to Shane for letting me be part of the HM Forums and it’s previous incarnations going back to the Delirium board.
It’s a shame. The back-and-forth discussions were always interesting and informative. I spent a lot of $$$ there on recommendations from others I trusted. I will follow these blogs but most likely will end up purchasing a a larger percentage of my books from the individual publishers now as well as HM; my way of supporting the genre…so long, forums…
The thing is you ARE buying direct from the publishers when you buy through Horror Mall. Bad Moon Books, Bloodletting Books, Delirium Books, Thunderstorm Books are sell direct through Horror Mall. They do NOT pay standard bookseller’s rates for selling here; only normal transaction / merchant fees plus a small commission towards server costs, marketing and upgrades. Really Horror Mall exists as a service to these publishers who get a webmaster, billing agent, marketing and so much more for far less than selling outside at a booksellers discount.
Is it August already!
Some of my book buying from the mall actually came from what others posted in the forums so i do feel that part of my buying is lost now. I always thought you were supposed to try and grow and keep business?
Premature eradication, I guess. August has arrived.
And you are exactly right. Like I’ve posted in this very column, sales are up 20% this year. The forums are not Horror Mall. Horror Mall is here and at http://www.horror-mall.com.
We’ve always given the best service and support for our customers and the publishers who sell direct here are doing an amazing job. And our customer base is over 6,000 active. A little more than 300 have even registered for our forums, much less post.
Now you know the math.
Yes i know math, its spelling me no good at.
I was stating a fact about my buying habits not across the board but im just a little nickel and dime guy so my opinion dont matter.
Aaaah. THE HORROR!!!!!
((({{{[[[O]]]}}})))
Stare into the void. When it smiles you know you have fallen.
Sorry Shane. I will still be a dedicated book buyer to the mall. If you guys look the way you can search and buy books is the same as before.
I met a lot of great people at the haunt and at the HM forum. Thanks for enabling me to do that Shane. I’m sore about the closing but if not for your efforts I would have missed out on some good friends. One thing about being a trailblazer is you usually end up with spider webs on your face. Not comfortable, but unavoidable.
Thanks Bill! I don’t mind taking heat. I’ve grown quite fond of it over the years. All that matters to me at the end of the day is that I’m running an honest, successful business. This is as much for my customers as it is me, as the people who truly enjoy this place want it to thrive and last. And those complaining about the loss of a forum, obviously don’t see the bigger picture and I don’t expect them to. It’s not their jobs to see it.