GoGameGuru

[Drew]

FWIW their site seems to be back up now.

The site has been back up for awhile now. It's the fact that we're now 3 months removed from the last post, and not seeing much (any?) postings on other sites by the authors, that has gotten people concerned.

[Uberdude]

FWIW their site seems to be back up now.

The site has been back up for awhile now. It's the fact that we're now 3 months removed from the last post, and not seeing much (any?) postings on other sites by the authors, that has gotten people concerned.

When someone posted the pdf of Relentless on reddit David from GoGameGuru made a post about how they were overwhelmed with the customer service, how troublesome customers/email trolls were using up lots of time, apologies for not releasing the pdf earlier but they wanted to put on the finishing touches but gave an early version to placate some troublesome user (probably the reddit posting guy), apologies for not replying to emails about order problems for weeks etc etc, plus some cryptic reply in response to a comment along the lines of 'If you can't do customer service don't sell stuff' with 'your wish will be granted soon enough'.

This makes me fear they got so exasperated with annoying customers/trolls they will close the shop or stop GoGameGuru altogether (maybe after clearing the current backlog of orders). Hence why an update on status would be welcome.

[eyecatcher]

Generally i think this would be quite a loss for the "western" go world. I feel that the website, the reviews... the shop... all together motivated and inspired many newcomers or beginners to continue and to dive deeper in to GO.

-Personally- the only thing i really really would miss is "baduk tv" english

--- and from time to time the news posts.

I hope by a miracle they can somehow make it and restart the business in a profitable way.

[tsuboniwa]

Hence why an update on status would be welcome.

Indeed... Perhaps it may be helpful to add one more recent personal experience data point in the meantime. At the end of August 2016 I ordered the Rosewood Go Bowls with Carved Orchids for a set of glass stones. The bowls were shipped very fast, the next working day. The bowls arrived safely a week or so later after an international travel. Everything was OK, unlike the mixed-up bowls experience mentioned in another thread. I had ordered a few items from GoGameGuru in the past, such as Relentless. Everything OK every time.

[cmhobbs]

Is there any update on this? I've been out of touch for a while and just noticed they haven't had any news for several months now.

cmh

[kayagoban]

Well hopefully he did not decide to fake his own death. Would be said to see a good business die.

Starting a go business is shakier than opening a restaurant. I've seen many come and go, some of them very good, some not so much.

Samarkand
Badukbooks
Hinoki Press (this one actually did change hands because of founder death, which makes me question the taste of the above comment, but I know it's in jest).
(Ishi Press was before my time, I think and I only saw its remains.)
OroMedia
TrumpIgo
Shodan Imports

This is a fact. I never broke even running Shodan Imports. On the bright side, the software work I did on Shodan and Igolocal got me a software job, and now I make good money writing code.

Not sorry that I did it, because it turned out to be an influence move.

[Carcosa]

I just ordered and received the Newbie Go Set from GGG for my cousin's kids.

[Uberdude]

An update: https://gogameguru.com/roots/

[Monkey]

That is really disappointing..

[JoeS1]

I can't believe they are just going to donate $100k in merchandise. That sounds insane. Figured they would at least want to make some of their money back off the remaining stock. So they could try to break even.

[Knotwilg]

That is really disappointing..

To me it's a big relief. I really feared at some point they had fallen out with each other, or worse, someone died.

As it turns out, they took more responsibility and workload than they could handle, which is not uncommon for a start-up company.

There's good news in there: a baby, a real job and a promise to devote more time again later to the go community.

Of course it's a disappointment, but I'd say one in the economy the go community is able to generate. Like so many, we expect a lot to happen for free, and accept no hick-ups when paying even the slightest amount of money.

[Monkey]

I can't believe they are just going to donate $100k in merchandise. That sounds insane. Figured they would at least want to make some of their money back off the remaining stock. So they could try to break even.

Same here. I was actually planning on buying all of the Hinoki press books once I had enough funds saved up to feel comfortable. If they had made the announcement, but at least kept their remaining stock for sale, I would've bought all of those books almost immediately upon the news..

The fact that they donated all of those books also raises questions to me about if they really intend to return.. but I guess we'll see.

That is really disappointing..

Of course it's a disappointment, but I'd say one in the economy the go community is able to generate. Like so many, we expect a lot to happen for free, and accept no hick-ups when paying even the slightest amount of money.

I don't agree that it's a disappointment in the go community. I get what GGG is saying about go not being profitable enough for them to hire enough people to help, but the fact was that they received too many orders for them to keep up with the demand. That is a problem that many companies wish they had. I wish they had pursued other options like raising the price of books a little in order to afford to hire the help they needed. I for one would not mind paying slightly more if it meant keeping GGG afloat.

[tchan001]

I was actually planning on buying all of the Hinoki press books once I had enough funds saved up to feel comfortable. If they had made the announcement, but at least kept their remaining stock for sale, I would've bought all of those books almost immediately upon the news..

The fact that they donated all of those books also raises questions to me about if they really intend to return.. but I guess we'll see.

Quoting the GoGameGuru announcement

What will keep going?
We intend to keep doing the following things:
Posting articles and videos about Go on this website (though perhaps the mix will change, and after a break)
Writing Go books
Publishing Go books (including bringing Hinoki books back into print and working on new books when I have time).

[Monkey]

I was actually planning on buying all of the Hinoki press books once I had enough funds saved up to feel comfortable. If they had made the announcement, but at least kept their remaining stock for sale, I would've bought all of those books almost immediately upon the news..

The fact that they donated all of those books also raises questions to me about if they really intend to return.. but I guess we'll see.

Quoting the GoGameGuru announcement

What will keep going?
We intend to keep doing the following things:
Posting articles and videos about Go on this website (though perhaps the mix will change, and after a break)
Writing Go books
Publishing Go books (including bringing Hinoki books back into print and working on new books when I have time).

I read that as well, but it's no guarantee that they will actually return to writing/publishing books. I really hope they do, but they may realize in their time off that they don't want to go back to publishing after all. It definitely would be easier to jump back into publishing when they are ready if they had kept their $100,000 worth of books.

[John Fairbairn]

I can't believe they are just going to donate $100k in merchandise. That sounds insane. Figured they would at least want to make some of their money back off the remaining stock. So they could try to break even.

It's very sane. Stock has to be kept in a warehouse and there are delivery systems associated with that. Both things cost money, especially given the glacial speed at which go stock disappears off the shelves. All go publishing ventures have found warehousing a huge millstone round the neck.

There simply isn’t enough time in the day to respond to all the emails, comments and other social media messages from the Go community. {gogameguru]

This may be the most disappointing part of the affair - the lack of understanding from the go community. Even from the early days of Ishi Press, a rather large number of people who buy a $5 book seem to think they have the right to enter into a long correspondence with the publisher. A fair proportion of them think they have the right to tell the publisher what he's doing wrong (it's always wrong never right). Another proportion just love to whinge. Surprisingly many seem to think they have the right to ask for favours, such as making a proxy trip from Tokyo to Osaka. I have heard the horror stories from Richard Bozulich, John Power, Bill Cobb, Sid Yuan, Chuck Robbins and others. And of course I can add my own. Only a fortnight ago a prominent member of this forum thought he had the right to ask me for free advice about Japanese art. In the past I have been pestered countless times to provide free help with school projects, translations, contacts, references - even requests to look at holiday snaps. T Mark shielded me from much of this with GoGoD. Now I just totally ignore e-mails and block PMs here (though several admins have abused their position to override this).

My experience is based largely on pre-internet times when communication meant writing a letter and buying a stamp and waiting. Even then it was a horror story. With email and social media I can hardly begin to imagine how awful it must have been for David Ormerod. Mind you, he gave GoGoD (and others) a bit of that treatment himself, haranguing us all for not joining the 21st century with him and gearing up our modest operations. He wouldn't listen to our experience. But I have no Schadenfreude. My first reaction was to show a little bit of support by buying a hardback copy of Relentless even though it's unlikely I will ever read it. I hope he will continue in some way that lets him enjoy go again. Since there is no way Joe Public will change his behaviour, I say again that he has to learn to live in a bit of an ivory tower.