Freedom Cardboard Announces New Management Team

Hey everyone. Pleased to make the announcement below. Tim (phillyfan0417), Ken (moxacaine) and I are thrilled at this opportunity and hope that we can have a positive impact on the future of the site. We've got plenty of ideas for the days, weeks, months and years to come, and look forward to bringing them to fruition. This community is a great one and fostering it is of the utmost importance to us. We welcome any and all feedback regarding the site and ways to improve your experience here. This thread is a great place to discuss improvements and ideas but you're also welcome to PM any of us.

Freedom Cardboard is pleased to announce that Wes Yee, Tim Elrashedy and Ken Ross will be heading up management of the site, effective immediately.

“FCB is a remarkable community,” said Yee, who will act as the site’s Managing Director. “We’re excited to have the opportunity to build on the foundation that Chris Gilmore and others have established over the last six years. It’s our job to maintain FCB as a trusted place for collectors of all ages and backgrounds to engage in conversation, get the latest hobby news and safely buy, sell and trade.”

Joining Yee on the management team are Tim Elrashedy as Head of Business Development and Ken Ross as Head of Operations.

“I’ve worked with Wes, Tim and Ken for years as moderators on the site,” said Gilmore. “The timing is right for me to take a step back and I’m excited to see where they’re able to take the community.”

“The plan is for all three of us to work closely on adding more and more value to the site,” said Yee. “Tim will lead the way when it comes to partnerships and other business development functions and Ken will head up day to day management of the site.”

WTF?

It isn't April 1st.

jeff_bichel said:

WTF?

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they're running FCB like a business now!

When is the IPO?

I sure would like to hear some examples of "adding value to the site". Those are scary words and are also the words you
hear just before things start to spin down the drain. Don't really want to sound like a doomsayer, but I spend an embarrassingly
inordinate amount of time here, and just cannot stomach a lot of new changes just for the sake of change.
I personally would like to hear specific strategies for attracting new users and then keeping them for a long term.
How will you address the amount of downtime?
In the past, having high speed connections was a waste of money given the relatively slow speed of the site. so addressing that
issue is of major importance to me.
Easily half of the posts are flaming the OP or some other poster in the thread, and that is just for Jerry Springer fans
The innane posts about "what is your fav pizza" or such, just clog the system. I'm here for the hobby!

This can only be good, as the site was sinking faster than fastball. Who owns thy site now? The reason I ask is, if it is still Gilmo will you guys really be able to change anything?

jeff_bichel said:

I sure would like to hear some examples of "adding value to the site". Those are scary words and are also the words you
hear just before things start to spin down the drain. Don't really want to sound like a doomsayer, but I spend an embarrassingly
inordinate amount of time here, and just cannot stomach a lot of new changes just for the sake of change.
I personally would like to hear specific strategies for attracting new users and then keeping them for a long term.
How will you address the amount of downtime?
In the past, having high speed connections was a waste of money given the relatively slow speed of the site. so addressing that
issue is of major importance to me.
Easily half of the posts are flaming the OP or some other poster in the thread, and that is just for Jerry Springer fans
The innane posts about "what is your fav pizza" or such, just clog the system. I'm here for the hobby!

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I'm not sure specifically what your concerns are with the adding value aspect but trust me there is nothing to be concerned about. For the most part things will be staying the same. The added value is going to be more along the lines of added content such as blog posts and possibly bringing back a weekly hot list and running more contests and giveaways, and to provide more value and oppurtunities to the FCB Bucks program. There are a lot of things we are discussing daily and working on however, we dont want to put everything out there because we most likely wont be able to deliver on everything and dont want people being disappointed that we were not able to follow through on something.

The OT threads get moved to the general forum where they belong. As far as the flaming of the OP posts, unfortunately all forums have these members that feel they need to create conflict and for the most part we all know who these few members are and expect them to do what they do. But if they get out of hand they will be dealt with. My suggestion is dont acknowledge their posts. They are looking for attention and if you dont give it to them they will eventually move on. We are Freedom Cardboard because unlike the other forums we allow for people to speak their minds.

Please understand we know people hate change and the there are no layout changes coming or anything significant like that.

Those of you that know Wes, Tim, or myself know how much we care for this community and know that we would not do anything to jeopardize it.

I apologize for the quick reply but im at work and have to do change over and will be heading home shortly and going to bed. I am sure Wes and Tim will be on a little later addressing any questions you all may have.


Ken

Congrats to Tim, Wes, and Ken for your efforts. I think this team has great possibilities. Looking forward to being more active in the future, I hope I can add to the discussion here once again.

Where does Gilmo fit in with this new business plan, since no one's asked? Is he "retiring" from this site?

hoopster3977 said:

Congrats to Tim, Wes, and Ken for your efforts. I think this team has great possibilities. Looking forward to being more active in the future, I hope I can add to the discussion here once again.

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Thank you Ralph! It will be great to have you back here and talking sports and cardboard. i'm not sure how it happened but i'm fairly certain i'm hoarding more cubs than phillies!

I can't wait to get back to Mesa next March. The Cubs are finally looking to have a solid future with all the talent that is being brought up to the big club. Hopefully no injuries to derail the progress of these kids.

So are Free Taco Tuesday and Free Bagel Friday still a thing? Or will they cost FCB bucks now?

What I don't think most Members realize is how much time Chris was spending between his FT job, minding his store and the day-to-day running of this Site.

I work WAAAAAYYY too much, but nothing compared to that schedule.

And it'll be great if [MENTION=1957]Wes[/MENTION] does the podcasts again and somebody can revive the "Hot List"...

Jaypers said:

Where does Gilmo fit in with this new business plan, since no one's asked? Is he "retiring" from this site?

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Chris is still part of the ownership team for FCB. With having a 40+ hour job, a brick and mortar shop and the site...plus being married, we decided to get involved in the site in a more substantial way and giving him time to focus on the other facets of his life.

This can only be good. You'll effectively have 3 people doing what 1 man with 2 jobs already was doing. Where's the bad in that?

hive17 said:

This can only be good. You'll effectively have 3 people doing what 1 man with 2 jobs already was doing. Where's the bad in that?

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We hope so! I'm hoping we can get some of the people who left to come back and really this site is its members. Without you all, its just a web address...

[MENTION=1720]cgilmo[/MENTION] should have given the forum back to that Penguins guy he stole it from in the first place.

Love the press release.

hive17 said:

This can only be good. You'll effectively have 3 people doing what 1 man with 2 jobs already was doing. Where's the bad in that?

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A HUGE +1 here

Anyone that sees this as a bad thing was going down with the sinking FCB ship.
Chris is a good guy, but had waaaaaaaay too much on his plate to keep this place afloat.
Philly is top notch, Mox is top notch, Wes is top notch.
You all should be ecstatic these three are putting it all on the line to keep this place going.

Three cheers!!!