Saturday 12 March 2016

Thoughts on the change of ownership of TheManaDrain

For those who may not be aware, themanadrain.com is a forum dedicated to the Vintage format. For many years it has been held up as “the” place to discuss Vintage with the worldwide community. It is certainly the largest English speaking Vintage forum. Other forums around the internet do have Vintage sections but they are generally quite small, or at worst, really misinformed about the format. 

I personally started using themanadrain back in 2011, shortly after becoming interested in Vintage. It has been a great place for me personally as I was able to see how other Vintage players, including the adepts such as Menendian or Elias viewed the format, and in many cases exchange ideas with people around the world.

Themanadrain has changed hands a number of times and until most recently it was owned by Starcitygames.com who has used a very “Hands-off” approach to the organisation and running of the site for many years. This has led in part to the deterioration of the forum over the past decade or so. The forum software/interface looks old, the forum itself seems to go through seasons of activity, and many of the old sections are defunct. The mana drain is not as relevant as it once was.

Changes in how people talk to each other online have also affected the old powerhouse. The addition of Facebook, Twitter, Twitch to peoples online communication, has crept in at the edges of themanadrain’s sphere of influence. Facebook especially is littered with thousands of Magic groups, including Vintage focussed ones. All in all, themanadrain was in need of a makeover.

Recently Andy Probasco purchased themanadrain off its previous owners and this is what he had to say about it:

Hey guys, it's Andy Probasco, your friendly neighborhood Brass Man - new owner and operator of www.themanadrain.com. I'm sorry for the delay in putting up this message. There was only expected to be a short downtime, and this message was going to be delayed until a redesign in a few weeks. Some technical problems made that impossible, so I wanted to let everyone know what's going on. 
Vintage was once described to me as "The format where every player in the top 8 gets dinner together afterwards." There are many things I love about vintage but this is the core truth that makes vintage a part of my life. My closest friends are the people I learned the game with, and the people I met while playing.When TheManaDrain.com was founded over a decade ago, there weren't many ways to play "Type 1". There was no Vintage Championship, and if you weren't one of the lucky few players to live near a vintage shop, there was no way to learn about it. The TMD community changed all that, it set a new standard with strategy content and major vintage tournaments like Waterbury and the Bazaar of Moxen. In a few years Wizards of the Coast and StarCityGames picked up that ball and ran with it.Today we have a passionate international community. We just had the largest Vintage championship ever. Players anywhere in the world can play in tournaments every week on Magic Online. There are more Vintage writers, streamers and podcasters than ever before, and the Vintage Super League broadcasts Hall of Fame players battling alongside community pillars.Vintage has never been bigger or better than it is today. But TMD has not caught up. Here's my vision for how we could.

TheManaDrain is the hub of vintage

TMD can't be the only source for Vintage content online - but if you visit TMD every day, you shoudn't miss anything. If there's something going on in Vintage, I want a link to it. If you're producing vintage content, I want to use TMD to direct people to it, whether it's paid or free, even if it's a link to a "competeing" website, because in vintage, the competition should all be willing to grab dinner with each other after the event.

TheManaDrain is the landing page for new players

If you had never played vintage before, and you wanted to learn about it, how would do it? If you google "Vintage Magic the Gathering" today, themanadrain shows up on thethird page, and that result is a year-old thread.The vintage community has been doing a great job getting new players into the format. TMD hasn't been doing as well. If you meet someone who sounds interested in vintage, I want you to be confident that you can give them a link to www.themanadrain.com, and they'll be able to quickly learn the ropes, learn the terminology, and learn what makes the Vintage community so great.This means cultivating a community where new players aren't afraid to ask questions, but it also means designing the site in a way that people can quickly find information that matters to them.

TheManaDrain is the greatest community of magic players in the world

To me, vintage has always been about relationships over cards. Not because "it's only a game." It's been so much bigger to me than a game. Competition is important to me. I love it and I love how it pushes people. But I know that competition with friends is as good at is possibly gets. Some people think that high-level competition and a welcoming community are at odds - but I know nothing could be more complementary.The kind of vintage player I want on TheManaDrain:
  • reaches out to new players, is never hateful or exclusionary
  • has strong opinions about the game, but expresses them in a civil way
  • is happy to post about what they've been playing, but never exaggerates or lies about results
  • is gracious in victory and humble in defeat
  • contributes to the community at large, by running or attending tournaments, writing articles, producing video content
If that's NOT you? I don't want to kick you out - I want to win you over. Try it out, you might be surprised. I'm going to investigate reputation/karma systems to help the community police itself, but it might be a while before we find the right fit. I'm not going post a codified list of bannable offenses. If those values don't resonate with you, don't worry - there are other places to talk about vintage, and you probably wouldn't have liked this site, anyway.

How are we going to get there?

Together, and probably not without making some mistakes. Over the next few weeks we're going to see some changes. If you don't like the direction things are going, tell me. There will be a metadiscussion board for talking about the direction of the site, but if you have concerns in the meantime you can email me at aprobasco@gmail.com, or message me on facebook as tmdBrassMan.I'll update this page with any new information about the site's status.I'm really looking forward to making TheManaDrain the greatest community in magic againThanks, - Andy Probasco

Andy wants themanadrain to be a signpost. A place for players to meet and if they choose, to go elsewhere together. If this becomes a thing, I would love to be one of those who took part in putting it together. He wants to drop some of the elitist attitudes of the past which made posting a very jarring experience for some. This is a direct contrast to the previous format of the site as it was seen as a place for high-level discussion of the format, where you were expected to know the basics before diving in.

This may be a bit of a culture shock to long term members but I hope it does catch on as Vintage is in need of fresh blood, and the world-wide nature of the internet may cause new pockets of Vintage to rise up in a way that it is not possible at the moment.
To point at another site/forum which I think provides a good roadmap for the site is WOTLabs

Wotlabs (about World of Tanks MMORPG), has many features I would love to see at the new manadrain and I think Andy would also. Links to streamers, articles, defined sections including “Purple player interaction centre” which was similar to the old “Ask an Adept”, new player zones, sections for the various “trees” or Archetypes. This open, yet detailed forum (without the elitist attitude of its users) is a forum done well.

One of the big things I wanted to talk about is the place of a forum within the Magic context. Facebook groups etc are a big thing however a forum does hold special significance for many players. A major factor of this significance is the permanency of a forum. Facebook or Twitter posts fade away into darkness where they can only be found with a herculean effort. On a forum, changes in the format and other things like high level discussion stay where they can be found by others for years to come. Old decklists and comments on the minutiae of card choices etc serve as a reminder and a history of the players passion for the format and its community. This is why Themanadrain.com is such an important site and I hope to see it reborn into a new era of prosperity.  

I wish Andy all the best with the ownership of themanadrain.com. I think he has the best interests of the forum at heart and I am sure many, including myself, are more than happy to help him achieve his vision for the site.


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