View Camera Magazine Experiences?

[IanG]

I gave up with the Online version of VC just over a year ago. It was actualy very good but the level of service with regards to how it's Online version is run was just too frustrating, I had to write requesting a new Password every month.

In fairness Andrea Miles who seems to run most of it single-handed is great, very efficient and helpful, always polite and cheerful. I found that every time I sent her a nice email request she sorted out the problem immediately.

The honest truth to why I no longer subscribe is when my last year ended I had no renewal notification and it was a few months before I realised.

Ian

[EOTS]

Hi Ian,

I used the PDF download button built into the issue viewing interface.
That way I can read the 2010,2011 issues offline and no longer depend on the passwords ...
But I understand that if you're subscribing to the current year and new issues appear, that could be tedious

But from a quick glance into the PDFs the level of photography seems quite good,
and I notice there's an emphasis on black & white.
Which is not my own emphasis, I'm a bit of a color guy, but also interesting.
I bought some 4x5 TMax100 & XTOL a few months ago, perhaps I'll be inspired to try some B&W stuff after reading ;-)

Best regards,
Martin

[BrianShaw]

Finally, I politely asked you to "please consider the absurdity of your advice." There was nothing rude about writing that. Your approach to coddling this particular business is, unfortunately, typical of many who post here. I consider taking that path to be absurd.

Please consider that calling someone else's experience "absurd" is indeed rude. Saying "please" and then using an offensive term is passive-aggressive.

I think you are ignorant. By that I mean that you are naive (in the politest sense of the word) because I'm not "coddling this particular business". If you were not ignorant you would know that quite some time ago I tired of years of their screw-ups, 'attitude' and despite having one or two good experiences I stopped subscribing. Furthermore, in an effort to bite off my nose to spite my face I even stopped buying it at the newstands. It is just too much effort to find. So what am I coddling?

Please pardon me, Martin, from cluttering up your fine thread.

p.s. Can we now resume being friends, Sal? Please?

[Sal Santamaura]

Please consider that calling someone else's experience "absurd" is indeed rude. Saying "please" and then using an offensive term is passive-aggressive...

Brian, please re-read my first post, which has not been edited. I didn't call your experience absurd. I never used the word "experience." I didn't say you were absurd. I asked you to consider that your advice was absurd, given the particular business being discussed. There was nothing ad hominem or rude about what I wrote.

I think you are ignorant. By that I mean that you are naive (in the politest sense of the word) because I'm not "coddling this particular business"...

There is nothing polite about referring to me or any other member as ignorant, no matter how you try to soften the term. Just as I made no attack on you as a person, I think it's reasonable to expect you will refrain from making personal attacks on me. Advising a customer to take expensive, compensatory actions to overcome a business' shortcomings is indeed coddling.

...quite some time ago I...stopped subscribing. Furthermore...I even stopped buying it at the newstands...So what am I coddling?...

I have every issue of View Camera magazine from the first until I stopped subscribing several years ago for many of the same reasons you enumerate. I also dislike the content changes that were occurring and no longer found receiving it a positive experience. My saying that is not "nice." My initial post was referring to me being negative about the publication, not anything you wrote. Please re-read it.

Please see just above for an explanation of what your advice means in terms of coddling (not what "you" are coddling).

...Can we now resume being friends, Sal? Please?

Brian, the view from here is that I posted in an attempt to provide Martin my best possible advice for his situation and you attacked me personally for doing so rather than addressing the topic. Should you re-read this thread and grasp that, there's no reason we can't continue to have many more useful, civil exchanges as occurred in the past. I look forward to it.

[Merg Ross]

But from a quick glance into the PDFs the level of photography seems quite good,
and I notice there's an emphasis on black & white.
Which is not my own emphasis, I'm a bit of a color guy, but also interesting.
I bought some 4x5 TMax100 & XTOL a few months ago, perhaps I'll be inspired to try some B&W stuff after reading ;-)

Best regards,
Martin

Martin, I believe that you will be rewarded with some fine large format photography and related subjects. Some issues, as one might expect, are better than others. Over the twenty-five years that I have been a subscriber, the experience has been good. Do not believe all of the negative comments attendant to this forum. The more recent monograph issues have been excellent. You will find an emphasis on black and white, however color is often featured.

[goamules]

The web is full of cases of very poor customer service from the "one man show" running this magazine. I'm one victim, an author who wrote an article that was published, but then I never got paid. Though I had a contract, most of the people with experience with the magazine said I was a fool to expect to receive anything, and they were correct. The modus Operandi is ignore any invoice attempts, even by registered mail. I gave up after dozens of attempts for 6 months.

Complaints about anything on forums usually become contentious. People on both sides of the argument weigh in as either apologists for the issue at hand, or advocating too strong a response against. So I seldom make comments, but in this one case I have to.

[BrianShaw]

Sal, let's not make this thread about us anymore than has been done already. Let us be happy for the OP that his issue has been resolved - interestingly by a phone call rather than email or indignant expectations that the right thing should have been done by the subject business.

[Sal Santamaura]

...his issue has been resolved - interestingly by a phone call rather than email or indignant expectations that the right thing should have been done by the subject business.

I'd speculate that the root cause of his issue being resolved was this thread, particularly Eric's contacting the unresponsive business, which made it aware of negative publicity it was receiving. Nothing like bad PR to motivate "doing the right thing."

[BrianShaw]

Could be so. I'm sure that there are other theories too. Doesn't matter really, does it?

[Sal Santamaura]

...by a phone call rather than email or indignant expectations...

...this thread...which made it aware of negative publicity it was receiving...

Could be so. I'm sure that there are other theories too. Doesn't matter really, does it?

Apparently what caused the business to respond does matter or you wouldn't have brought it up in post #17.