The Where Are They Now, prelude to a 12oz Reunion Thread

[misteraven]

Since this is somewhat of a reunion thread, can I ask what happened to the forum? I joined in 2008, met some cool cats off here, last visited maybe 2012 or 2013. Tried logging in last year sometime and was able to get into my account but I didn't have permission to post? Gave up, tried again another time, same thing. Then, I couldn't log in at all. I see now after looking around that this was apparently a larger issue, I'm gonna email to try and get my account back. Anyways, viewed as a guest to see what was going on, and forum was dead as hell. Thought that maybe it was because I was a guest, but now that I re-registered, I see that it wasn't. Where did everyone go? This place was poppin for the longest.

 

Super long story, but I'll try my best to pass along the Cliff Notes version...

 

As 12oz started coming into its own 2003ish, we started getting offers from companies. Since the cost of running this site (just in software and services) was about equal to a hefty rent payment and the complexity was quickly outpacing my ability to keep up, we had to figure out some sort of business plan. Meanwhile we had brands like Nike sending free product and looking for ways to work together. Eventually, we got caught up with them and the more we did, the more offers we got. Meanwhile 12oz was growing quick and requiring exponentially more resources and attention. I wound up looping in a few people I thought could help, mostly on the tech side, but also with content. Because I was busy trying to service our clients now that we'd evolved into an agency, I took my eye off the brand side and website. During that time, I got burned repeatedly... Website was moved to a more robust (and expensive) server setup that was never configured properly and after spending a small fortune (over six figures) to build a bridge between the forum and rest of site, instead I got left with a broken authentication system and unstable user session. After a while those issues only compounded and required more and more time, energy and especially money to fix. While that's happening, the agency is growing steady and also taking larger investment and more attention to manage. Ultimately, something had to give and by the time I realized just how fucked up 12oz had become, I didn't even know where to begin fixing it since by this point I'd had left it in the hands of other people for years.

 

Ultimately, I take responsibility. I should have stayed more involved, but hope you guys can understand that since 12oz never produced enough revenue to even cover its own bills and the agency took over and actually provided a respectable living (not to mention a near endless stream of all the hardest to get sneakers and gear), how it became increasingly difficult to qualify the time and energy. In my mind I thought just continuing to keep paying the server and software bills and being able to load a page was better than pulling the plug, which almost happened many times... Just couldn't bring myself to do it.

 

Fairly recently, I reached a point where I sort of woke up to the fact that it's been a great opportunity consulting for brands and working on some of the coolest projects out there, that it had come at the expense of my own brand. so about a year and a half ago I decided to plan / prepare for a transition back. Took a few false starts to fully dial in my strategy and approach and then essentially rebuild the website from scratch. Preserve what data I could and essentially create a new foundation to build 12ozProphet from. I'm at the tail end of that now. I'm not going to bullshit anyone and say I'm suddenly able to focus on this full time, but I am serious about it and have been making a lot of sacrifices, as well as investments to build this back up.

 

Considering how big the scene is (really all related scenes as well) and just the dismal state of what I see being put out there, I figured there's an opportunity. Since I also have a clear vision for 12oz, which hasn't been the case for almost 10 years, that it was time to get to it. So here we are... At the beginning of a new chapter in the 12ozProphet story.

[Hua Guofang]

Hi, I forgot I even had this username. The weird things is that my avatar is actually from when Walid Jumblat was my username. If I could be fucked I'd change my name to The Real Hillary Clinton instead. But I can't.

 

Been here in one username or another since 2007, not and OG but here none the less.

 

Hi.

[Hua Guofang]

Super long story, but I'll try my best to pass along the Cliff Notes version...

 

My concern with that would be that Forums seem to have peaked and social media platforms have moved on. Sure, there were tech issues that pushed a lot of folk away but some people have moved on from the graff and dance faze of their life, some have moved on to evolved modes of coms and sharing, etc. Is just having a forum again the key to bringing folks back or was the 12OZ (and forums in general) hey day a once only thing?

 

I hope I'm wrong but I'm skeptical that this can again be what it was. I mod on other forums that had a huge amount of trading, big road trips by users to meets where there would be hundreds of us and all other manner of shit because the combining factor and topic of the forum involved IRL activity/sport. That sport is bigger now than it ever was but the forums has dropped from 9 million to 1 million clicks and hardly pays for itself anymore.

 

We never had tech issues or any apocalyptic moment, people just moved on and the younger generation went to FB and other online platforms because that was what they were more familiar with (and also because older forum heads sometimes act with a sense of entitlement and want to throw their e-weight around, which never helps). Things just changed and it's because of this that I'm sadly skeptical that you will achieve what you're looking for here.

 

Again, I sincerely hope I'm wrong. I still paint and really loved this site possibly more for brickslayers and paperchase than CH0 - and I fucking hate instagram because the pics are only a fraction of my fucking screensize. So I genuinely hope I'm wrong, time will tell, I guess.

[slowDown]

The thing that I really enjoy or enjoyed most about this forum was the sense of community. you didn't have to "follow" people or friend them to hear what they had to say. I think social media took away the vibe that we were generally all gravitating to in the first place, that being a place to come where we all had a common ground, which in this case was graffiti. Nowadays all you have to do is like, or friend one person and you get a ton of recommendations of what some algorithm thinks you might like. 12oz always seemed, and hopefully will continue to be, a destination for people of like mindedness.

[Dose-ink]

I used to love this site, my first time back in a while and I'm surprised I still know my password. always enjoyed the ch0 threads and how close knit it felt.regardless of age gender or where in the world people are. Gonna try to keep up with it.

[allfreetime]

Ch0 was great for lols. Real content was in NYC thread.

[misteraven]

My concern with that would be that Forums seem to have peaked and social media platforms have moved on. Sure, there were tech issues that pushed a lot of folk away but some people have moved on from the graff and dance faze of their life, some have moved on to evolved modes of coms and sharing, etc. Is just having a forum again the key to bringing folks back or was the 12OZ (and forums in general) hey day a once only thing?

 

I hope I'm wrong but I'm skeptical that this can again be what it was. I mod on other forums that had a huge amount of trading, big road trips by users to meets where there would be hundreds of us and all other manner of shit because the combining factor and topic of the forum involved IRL activity/sport. That sport is bigger now than it ever was but the forums has dropped from 9 million to 1 million clicks and hardly pays for itself anymore.

 

We never had tech issues or any apocalyptic moment, people just moved on and the younger generation went to FB and other online platforms because that was what they were more familiar with (and also because older forum heads sometimes act with a sense of entitlement and want to throw their e-weight around, which never helps). Things just changed and it's because of this that I'm sadly skeptical that you will achieve what you're looking for here.

 

Again, I sincerely hope I'm wrong. I still paint and really loved this site possibly more for brickslayers and paperchase than CH0 - and I fucking hate instagram because the pics are only a fraction of my fucking screensize. So I genuinely hope I'm wrong, time will tell, I guess.

 

You have no idea the endless debates we've had on our side about exactly what you're saying. There's two responses I have for this...

 

The official 12ozProphet response is it is what it is. The real plan is to get back to doing our own thing, primarily focusing on projects you can hold, see or wear in the real world. The site is just our online presence, which I intend to be a more pure reflection of who we are, what we do and what we're about. Basically a place holder, about and portfolio of our work and efforts. We're keeping the forum, but dropping the blogs and news to keep the focus tighter.

 

My personal opinion is that social media has come full circle. It'll continue to evolve and is really great for streams of bite sized content, but we all know it largely sucks for conversation and isn't much better for looking at flix. Likewise, it'll never have the authenticity of a dedicated community. I see it akin to Conde Naste doing a graffiti magazine... It'll be huge, professional and glossy, but can't imagine it having the authenticity, access or soul of one of our magazines. I'm also seeing a backlash from communities that are too broad and too diverse, managed by people that don't get the culture of niche communities like ours. I think social has matured and is no longer a novelty and I'm picking up on undertones of people looking for more directional content and better methods to hold conversation and communicate in general. Social is being optimized for mobile, which by default makes it an abbreviated experience. I think there's still plenty of people that want to really have conversations with like minded people in a community that is somewhat insulated. I think there will be opportunities for forums to flourish, so long as those developing them remain aware of their strengths AND weaknesses and continue developing tools and experiences you don't really get from social rather than look to compete or replace social.

 

Just my two cents.

[theprotester]

Funny you mention the full circle back to forums. I'll be watching this one with great interest.

 

http://drivetribe.com/driven#talents

[Ski Mask]

Well, at least we can take credit for giving the twitterverse Mero. I still remember his thread on channel zero (pre-twitter) trying to figure out how he could monetize being a funny ass dude on the internet and do that for a living.

[CALIgula]

^i think mero needs to come back to 12oz and post in this thread.

[earmuffs]

Mr. Yuck

Cherry luv

455

Intangible fame

 

Rip Krie

[Overtime]

I think 12oz was amazing, met a lot of cool folks through it. There were/are certain things that I loved about 12oz that are completely gone now, and will forever be gone, specifically graffiti related.

 

back when 12oz was the place to be, i would look in the metal heads daily and would see new threads all the time. It was great, too, because if you got called out for shit, there was nothing you could do. Back when posting your own graffiti online was a cardinal sin, stamp lickers. Now, it seems like graffiti is more about posting the whole action from getting in the car to painting to getting home, everything is about how many followers you have. I have thousands of trains rollin around out there, i never post them.

 

Now, if someone calls you out on IG for some bogus shit, you just delete it and block them, there is no accountability for things. Yeah, it did ruin some shit on 12oz, and that sucked, but at the same time, it seemed like a good checks and balances. If some new jack toy started a thread about his sick backyard plywood murals, you couldnt avoid it, and he/she got called out, he/she fell off or got better. Not now though.

 

I completely disagree about how good NYC was, i dont, nor have I ever cared about NYC except for the metro, and even that after you start seeing the world, there are better systems out there. I never had an inclination to buy a graffiti book from 12oz simply because they were so nyc centric. That might just be me, though.

 

Migrating to Ch. 0 was huge, seeing people in there daily, it being a community of people, we werent exactly welcoming people with open arms, but we grew constantly and had a great atmosphere. I do hope that in some regard it comes back.

 

I hate benching because I hate 90% of the sprays in the world, but I'm trying to get out and bench more so I can start a thread in Metal Heads, I feel like that is the key to 12oz's revival, good quality threads that keep drawing people back over and over. We will see.

 

Wonk Saggin

[Tesseract]

bump!

 

ps, just saw my original join date may 13 2001...time flies gents

[CALIgula]

bump!

ps, just saw my original join date may 13 2001...time flies gents

 

Opa!

Still in Greece?

[Dirty_habiT]

Wow Tesseract is here. I remember him sharing some good music with me a long time ago.

 

Hey dude!

[Tesseract]

Good to see you people!

Still here

[PolackFromPripyat]

Super long story, but I'll try my best to pass along the Cliff Notes version...

 

As 12oz started coming into its own 2003ish, we started getting offers from companies. Since the cost of running this site (just in software and services) was about equal to a hefty rent payment and the complexity was quickly outpacing my ability to keep up, we had to figure out some sort of business plan. Meanwhile we had brands like Nike sending free product and looking for ways to work together. Eventually, we got caught up with them and the more we did, the more offers we got. Meanwhile 12oz was growing quick and requiring exponentially more resources and attention. I wound up looping in a few people I thought could help, mostly on the tech side, but also with content. Because I was busy trying to service our clients now that we'd evolved into an agency, I took my eye off the brand side and website. During that time, I got burned repeatedly... Website was moved to a more robust (and expensive) server setup that was never configured properly and after spending a small fortune (over six figures) to build a bridge between the forum and rest of site, instead I got left with a broken authentication system and unstable user session. After a while those issues only compounded and required more and more time, energy and especially money to fix. While that's happening, the agency is growing steady and also taking larger investment and more attention to manage. Ultimately, something had to give and by the time I realized just how fucked up 12oz had become, I didn't even know where to begin fixing it since by this point I'd had left it in the hands of other people for years.

 

Ultimately, I take responsibility. I should have stayed more involved, but hope you guys can understand that since 12oz never produced enough revenue to even cover its own bills and the agency took over and actually provided a respectable living (not to mention a near endless stream of all the hardest to get sneakers and gear), how it became increasingly difficult to qualify the time and energy. In my mind I thought just continuing to keep paying the server and software bills and being able to load a page was better than pulling the plug, which almost happened many times... Just couldn't bring myself to do it.

 

Fairly recently, I reached a point where I sort of woke up to the fact that it's been a great opportunity consulting for brands and working on some of the coolest projects out there, that it had come at the expense of my own brand. so about a year and a half ago I decided to plan / prepare for a transition back. Took a few false starts to fully dial in my strategy and approach and then essentially rebuild the website from scratch. Preserve what data I could and essentially create a new foundation to build 12ozProphet from. I'm at the tail end of that now. I'm not going to bullshit anyone and say I'm suddenly able to focus on this full time, but I am serious about it and have been making a lot of sacrifices, as well as investments to build this back up.

 

Considering how big the scene is (really all related scenes as well) and just the dismal state of what I see being put out there, I figured there's an opportunity. Since I also have a clear vision for 12oz, which hasn't been the case for almost 10 years, that it was time to get to it. So here we are... At the beginning of a new chapter in the 12ozProphet story.

 

That's a hell of a lot more explanation than I was expecting! Definitely clears things up though, so thanks. It'll be fun to see what happens down the road as things progress for sure. Props for keeping it going.

[Deine Mudder]

this

[!@#$%]

Good to see you people!

Still here

 

holy shit.

welcome

[Overtime]

Good to see you people!

Still here

Seriously, holy shit. I was wondering what happened to you.

[breakfast menu]

raven i do content strategy things IRL, if i can provide anything holler @ me

[misteraven]

Been talking to Tesseract a bunch on IG, as well as a few other OG members. Hopefully we'll see some of them migrate back here.

 

Just a heads up that the new forum seems to be just about complete. I still have one technical issue regarding mobile usage I'd like to try and correct, but mostly, I just need to wrap up a couple details and the content for the new website so we can launch it. Though it isn't a ton of work, maybe a week or two tops, I'm in the middle of moving out of state so shit is a bit hectic personally and that's impacting my ability to focus and knock out the rest of what needs to be done (not to mention posting on here). Anyhow, just wanted to pass along that update to you guys.

[misteraven]

raven i do content strategy things IRL, if i can provide anything holler @ me

 

Feel free to send me a DM and I'll shoot you my email if that easier. Taking a much different approach to content with the new website, but always interested in exploring ideas and happy to have some help.

[Dirty_habiT]

Misteraven if you can say.... where are you moving?

[misteraven]

Misteraven if you can say.... where are you moving?

 

No huge secret, anyone following my personal IG (@allenbenedikt) can probably guess...

 

Was in NYC for 15 years, just spent 1 year in LA and now settling in NW Montana though I expect to be on the road a week a month hitting other cities.

 

Anyone else on here happen to be up that way?

[Fist 666]

Colorado. I know one oontzer in ID, but won't blow up spots here.

[!@#$%]

oh mang i LOVED montana for the brief time i visited

what a beautiful place. the american west is so gorgeous.

good luck and bon voyage

[misteraven]

Thanks!

 

Anyone in that area or road trip distance from it, shoot me a DM if you aren't comfortable posting publicly. Likewise, I go to Wyoming (Jackson Hole area) often enough to probably catch up there as well.

[earmuffs]

No huge secret, anyone following my personal IG (@allenbenedikt) can probably guess...

 

Was in NYC for 15 years, just spent 1 year in LA and now settling in NW Montana though I expect to be on the road a week a month hitting other cities.

 

Anyone else on here happen to be up that way?

Spent a lot of time in that area. Libby and Kalispell. Bonners ferry and sandpoint

[Brink]

No huge secret, anyone following my personal IG (@allenbenedikt) can probably guess...

 

Was in NYC for 15 years, just spent 1 year in LA and now settling in NW Montana though I expect to be on the road a week a month hitting other cities.

 

Anyone else on here happen to be up that way?

unrelated but I love your dog