The 55 Best Marvel Comics of the 1980s

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• It's been 24 hours and I'm still disturbed by what I experienced yesterday.

  I have commented on podcasts here, on the CBH webpages where the podcasts are posted, and it is free (monetarily) to do so, many times. There was significant history for that. Many people including myself had been posting as such for some time, tracing back to the original My Marvelous Year journey, before there even was a podcast or a Slack. A month or so ago, in a podcast, Zack mentioned that he had observed that there had been thoughtful comments on the webpages (I thought probably my comments among them) and he appealed to the authors of those comments to consider joining the Slack (behind a paywall). I actually thought he may have been addressing me specifically.

  I really wanted to be a part of the Slack. It took weeks to convince myself that I could justify the hit on my disposable income under the circumstances of the covid economy. But I convinced myself that it would be worth it through what I expected would be a difficult winter.

  If you do a google search on the following terms: Creative Cooperative Collaboration meeting guidelines, you will find page after page of articles and web pages, with a consistent message regarding creative productive workspaces fully conducive to the free and open exchange of ideas.

  They suggest that meetings and exchanges where idea sharing is valued should exhibit the following characteristics:

  - All ideas are welcome and needed (corollary: don't shoot down ideas right away)
  - Listening with an open mind
  - Debbie Downer and Mr. No aren’t invited. NO has no place at the table
  - Respect everyone's participation and their thoughts

  These are not my principles, they are not even new principles.

  The way Zack sold the Slack on podcasts, I think it was reasonable that I should have expected this level of cooperation and respect for my ideas within the Slack community.

  So imagine my shock when there I was, finally in the Slack, (figuratively) with a smile on my face, presenting my shiny new first idea for discussion, and within about 90 seconds, Zack popped into the channel and proceeded to (figuratively) puke all over it, before it had even had a chance to take a breath. Zack had displayed none of the principles conducive to valued idea sharing prior to immediately shooting down my idea.

  Then, I guess, seeing that the Slack owner and lead influencer signaled that it was OK to puke on someone's idea publicly like that, a number of other Slack participants proceeded to puke on my idea too. Soon after my idea was a (figurative) bloody and battered puke-covered mess on the floor of the Slack. Like I said above, I even signaled that I was feeling unwelcome with the reception of my idea, and Zack said that was my problem, (figuratively) giving a kick to my idea gasping on the floor. I appealed to Zack multiple times for help, but I guess he thought it was not his problem.

  It was pretty humiliating, and I can't get it off of my mind. It seemed Zack had personally invited me to come to join the friendly confines of the Slack and then violated what I had perhaps incorrectly assumed would be a respectful reception.

  So if you're thinking of joining the Slack, you may not have the same experience as I, but you are forewarned about Zack.

  • While I regret you had a negative experience with the MMY Slack, you have been reimbursed and I don't believe much else can be done. I have seen years of evidence that Zack is a skilled, thoughtful, and compassionate moderator, dedicated to fostering a wonderful comics community that would not otherwise exist (in his off hours no less). In two+ years and 100s of members, I can count the number of banned members on a single hand.

    I do not wish to argue with you about any of this, and will not be replying again. I sincerely hope you can find what you're looking for elsewhere.

    • Hi Dave - I had a mentor some years ago who gave me some valuable advice. He said that by all means mistakes with customers should be avoided in all circumstances. However, it is a fact of human nature that mistakes occur. Of course customers know this, they have made mistakes before too, and have had to deal with the consequences. The opportunity presented when there is a mistake that effects a customer is to recover their loyalty. Customers will notice and respond to a sincere and determined effort to recover their trust and loyalty. Oftentimes the relationship may actually become stronger in the wake of a mistake that could have ended the relationship, as long as the response was at least appropriate for the harm done by the error.
      In this situation, I agree, there's not much that could be offered to recover my loyalty. But how difficult would it be for Zack to apologize? We all learn to do it at a young age, and although apologizing is more difficult than just treating all people with respect in the first place, it shouldn't be a real obstacle, should it? I have noted in your response that "regret" does not carry the same meaning as "sorry." You have my email address, would it kill Zack to take a few minutes to apologize?
      I suppose failing that in a few days I will relocate this review to iTunes where it will be more visible and lasting.
      Something for you to consider: if there have been hundreds of Slack members and a handful of them banned, that sounds like a failure rate of approximately 1%, which for a business is quite high. If 1% of luggage were lost, or 1% of passengers didn't reach their destinations, that would be disastrous for the airline industry. Respect and responsiveness are pretty easy, seems like it's reasonable to expect better than that.

• This site is great. Dave runs the site and he is extremely knowledgeable and has clearly put an extraordinary amount of effort into developing this site and it is a valuable resource for folks interested in comics. Thank you Dave. Dave deserves all levels of patronage so that he can continue to do what he does. If, however, you are thinking of becoming a patron at the "X-Men" level, and anticipate participating in the Slack feature, then consider my experience.

  I pledged to My Marvelous Year as an "X-Men" level of patron about a week ago, with the anticipation of participating in the Slack discussions. Zack, who appears with Dave in the My Marvelous Year podcast, and whom I heard is the creator, organizer and "owner" of the Slack, greeted me and granted me access to the Slack discussion channels. I discovered there a diverse and welcoming group of folks and initiated a couple conversations just to get to know folks a little better. In the meanwhile, I was listening to My Marvelous Year, and on two different podcasts I heard parts of the discussions that inspired an idea. I even went to the effort to take that idea, attempt to apply it in a way to demonstrate the idea, and I presented it to the group.

  I didn't know what to expect exactly, but something like: "I'm not sure if I agree with what you're doing here, can you explain what this is, and what you might propose to do with it?" would have been a fair response. But that's not what happened. Zack, the creator, organizer, and "owner" of the Slack, wasted no time with a response to the effect of "This looks like x. I already know x doesn't work." A half dozen or more of the Slack community also expressed their skepticism, which is fine, they're paying patrons like me. But that's not Zack's status, is it? After I tried to defend my idea from darts coming in from 5 or 6 different directions, I expressed that I was feeling unwelcome with having expressed my idea there. You might think that this new member, expressing that I was uncomfortable with my treatment, that Zack, representing My Marvelous Year, as "owner" of the Slack, comfortable as he was with his relationships with other Slack participants going back weeks, months and perhaps even years and who should be aware of his influence on the group, at that point (having already failed to greet my idea initially with an open mind) would step back, have some empathy for my position, want to support the free flow of ideas, and respond to the situation to try to lend me even just a little support. That's not what happened. Instead, Zack insisted that I was the problem. Multiple times I appealed for support. "Zack, what would it take for you to consider my idea as a possibility?" I asked. Nothing, was the response from Zack. I have no idea why the intransigence from Zack.

  Again, I am not suggesting to visitors to this site to avoid patronizing My Marvelous Year. I am providing feedback to potential patrons reflecting my experience. I unsubscribed as a patron in response to this incident. Full disclosure, My Marvelous Year refunded my $5. But the harm goes beyond that. I wish to express publicly my message to Zack:

  1) Zack, I heard you on more than one podcast sell the Slack as a feature that would appeal to folks who want to discuss comics and express their ideas freely and openly. Today you did not live up to that promise. A skilled facilitator knows how to be inclusive with discussion participants. What you did today was the exact opposite of competent facilitation.

  2) Zack, occasionally you will encounter folks who are smarter than you. I'm not saying I'm smarter than you, I'm just saying, with certainty, that you will encounter people smarter than you. Those situations are opportunities for you. What you demonstrated today suggests that you will not learn from those opportunities.

  I know my idea has value. How can I be certain? I have implemented just such an idea successively in another industry that posed no fewer obstacles to effective operation in a generally "subjective" or "creative" arena than exists in comics. Wouldn't Dave like to know about that? Who loses out on that?