Hello!
As the subject indicates I am a common poster on UC (UnitedCardists). I've been posting there for a loooong time- back when it was uc.net! I've know about this site I think as long as it's existed- maybe someone can help me with my memory. If it serves me correctly, I think this is what happened:
Back in the days of uc.net there was a member there by the name of Alex. He was very outspoken and although he never bothered me I think he rubbed some people the wrong way including the old moderator Mike F. aka bmpokerworld (long since disappeared). I'm not quite sure if he was banned or just left but that's irrelevant. I heard he started or took over this site (then, The Discourse). A few years back, this site merged with 52+, got a rename and the rest is history!
Anyway I've been checking out this site more and more and thought I should post more here, even though I'm still getting used to the purple hehe
About me:
My name is Paul and I live in greater Boston, MA. I've been collecting cards since about 2006-07. My first deck was a red-pip Bicycle Black Tiger and now I have well over 800, mostly modern. Pictures of most of my collection are posted on UC but I will work to post them here over the next couple of weeks.
Alex Yusupov, creator of the Vortex deck under the alias Alexander Isaacs in the early days of deck projects on Kickstarter, founded this forum as "aethercards.com" to support his deck and his card company, Aether Cards. Part of what rubbed people the wrong way was the persistent rumors (perhaps true, I can't say with any authority) that he failed to deliver to a number of his backers. Alex's take was that there was a particular backer in Eastern Europe he shipped to at great expense - the shipment bounced back to him due to a bad address, then the backer contacted him, gave him an alternate address in the US and expected Alex to reship at his expense, to which Alex was flabbergasted that this guy was having the decks shipped to Eastern Europe in the first place. He said he'd reship if the backer paid the extra cost, the backer balked and started complaining on the forums, then others jumped on the bandwagon who'd never even backed for the deck, hence his reputation getting trashed. But bear in mind, as I said, this was Alex's take on the story - the truth of it is anyone's guess, really.
The whole mess kind of sucked the joy out of card collecting for him to some degree - toward the end, he barely posted here and handed over admin duties to me, as I was very active and already went from modding one board to modding two boards to omni-mod. I'd become friends with Kevin Reylek, at that time working for the Blue Crown, and tried arranging a sale of the board to Blue Crown but it fell through - the money was OK, but Alex felt the forum would become some big commercial mess and didn't want that. About a year-plus later, I was friends with Lee Asher and Tom Dawson of 52 Plus Joker, having met them on a trip to Toronto, and Tom asked my opinion about the club's mission statement, which included an increased/improved online presence and getting more of the members using their rather-moribund forum. I mentioned how the forum was once for sale and asked if they were interested - clearly, they were! I made introductions between them and Alex, they hammered out a deal and Tom Dawson bought the forum.
It's in Tom's name, but as the 52+J President, his intent was to have the club use it, and in short order it became the club's official forum, replacing their old one on their own website. It's been an overall success for the club, as it has drawn more interest in the club and raised membership at a faster pace than it was previously. The club's also moved more and more into "new deck territory," thanks to the new members sharing their love of modern custom decks with the existing membership, which until not long ago was mostly dedicated only to vintage and antique decks. It's been more than just a one-way street, too - the younger, newer members into custom decks have grown an appreciation for vintage and antique decks as well, so there's been a nice "cross-pollination" going on. The initiative's only accelerated with the addition of a second club magazine, CARD CULTURE, which recently released its 15th monthly issue.
All in all, it's a good time to be a deck collector. And as for the one-time rivalry over the two message forums, Mike Ratledge, presently owner-admin of UC, has been a member of 52+J longer than he was UC's owner. We now peacefully co-exist, having dropped the childish animosity of the past, and I welcome members of UC with open arms, encouraging them to participate in both forums to their hearts' content. So welcome aboard, Paul - I'm glad to have you here! If you're ever in the NYC area, give me a shout and perhaps I can buy you a drink!
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