We want to hear from you!

Rad Synner · Nov 6, 2021

Alright so I've taken the time to read and think about some of the things you guys said and I would want to continue the discussion.

Some of you feel like the school has changed and it's true, it has. But one point in particular that stroke me is that some brought up the point that it doesn't feel as free anymore and that you guys cannot joke or talk or whatever. Would you guys be willing to speak up on that more precisely? Is it something that we did that you think was too much? What could be done to make you guys feel more free?

A lot of you seem to feel like things were better before. What exactly do you think has changed in the community or on the site to make you feel this way?

And more so, do you guys have ideas or things that YOU would want to do because the goal of this platform has always been to put the students and the community in the spotlight. So if there's anything you want to do, please speak up, I would love to hear it!

I will admit that the communication hasn't been as good as perhaps it should have so while I cannot speak for the other mods, I want to ask you directly and I am asking you to answer honestly: what can I do to be better?
I have been in this position for 4 months now and my goal still remains: to make this the best place that it can possibly be. And to do that, I believe that a good retrospective on my own leadership must be put in question. Was there something that I did that you didn't like? Maybe I made a mistake and I didn't even realize it. But in order for me to realize it, a good open and honest discussion is required and what I can say is that I am willing to listen to what you guys have to say and put in motion what is necessary for betterment.

Calvin Phillips · Nov 6, 2021

Arsia Rose said:
I think there aren't more guitarists on here because I didn't even know Syn had this school. I'm not really on social media and all I saw were clothing posts and the aotm "let's hang" thing. I thought the let's hang was a link to another discord thing. Like I've said I don't really do social stuff so I didn't follow it.

Yeah essentially I've noticed syn and the management team aiming for the community side with their recruiting. I barely see any guitarist recruiting unless there is a contest which i said earlier usually they come and go after.

Calvin Phillips · Nov 6, 2021

Radu-Cristian Perde said:
Alright so I've taken the time to read and think about some of the things you guys said and I would want to continue the discussion.

Some of you feel like the school has changed and it's true, it has. But one point in particular that stroke me is that some brought up the point that it doesn't feel as free anymore and that you guys cannot joke or talk or whatever. Would you guys be willing to speak up on that more precisely? Is it something that we did that you think was too much? What could be done to make you guys feel more free?

A lot of you seem to feel like things were better before. What exactly do you think has changed in the community or on the site to make you feel this way?

And more so, do you guys have ideas or things that YOU would want to do because the goal of this platform has always been to put the students and the community in the spotlight. So if there's anything you want to do, please speak up, I would love to hear it!

I will admit that the communication hasn't been as good as perhaps it should have so while I cannot speak for the other mods, I want to ask you directly and I am asking you to answer honestly: what can I do to be better?
I have been in this position for 4 months now and my goal still remains: to make this the best place that it can possibly be. And to do that, I believe that a good retrospective on my own leadership must be put in question. Was there something that I did that you didn't like? Maybe I made a mistake and I didn't even realize it. But in order for me to realize it, a good open and honest discussion is required and what I can say is that I am willing to listen to what you guys have to say and put in motion what is necessary for betterment.

Hard to really explain to the people who werent here the differences. I used to be able to post a riff and I'd get a bunch of people messaging and commenting. Pg used to like riffs as he watched them but these days they seem busy which is fine. Not holding that against them.

We used to have active riffs all the time. Now I'm lucky to see 2 to 3 a day.. I've stopped posting riffs because it's obvious people don't see them. Bottom line is unless it's a syn cover the people really dont have much to say. I linked several songs I wrote and barely anyone noticed them. Some liked and absolutely no comments cept for arisia. The activenessnis all on the forums. It's the very reason jak left honestly i believe. I share her frustration.

How to gain the activeness back I don't have any suggestions. Mainly because like I said a contest doesnt really do anything but get outside people a chance at someone the students have worked for. Altho I'll be honest the winners they pick tend to be from the school. Instead of constant photos of merch on the synner page.. maybe start posting clips too? The whole page is literally aimed at the merch and community. Missing a big piece there.

iridecently · Nov 6, 2021

I think it is important to pick a direction: Is this a social hangout type place for anyone interested in the brand, or is this a place to share and learn about guitar and music? Because like people have mentioned, right now communication feels very lifestyle/Synner brand oriented. And also I think people just want to be kept up to date on whats happening in regards to new features and the amp/pedal/whatever else is in the works.

The contests create a huge influx of activity, but (and I am sad to say it) I think this is mainly based on the prizes attached. I really liked it when the school had its own instagram account and students' videos got shared on there, because it gave people recognition for their efforts.

I think if we want to create/foster a community then like you said the community has to be put in the spotlight, both on the site itself and on other platforms. This shouldn't be about who bought merch or a dark night guitar, but on making progress, having interesting outlooks on things, having different approaches and sharing those with eachother. That's what I liked about the school when I joined and that's mainly what I am missing right now.

Kat the metalhead · Nov 6, 2021

Im gonna be 100% percent honest, I joined this site in 2019 everything was going well, it was active, I made friends but most those friends I made happened to leave the school cuz no one seemed to want to help out or drama behind the scenes. I feel like I do not fit in here at all! This school was my safe place but now it’s not it’s essentially ruined me and made me do stupid things to impress people.

when I was posting videos a lot I noticed no one would really like or comment but the more well loved members would get flooded with love and support. The school almost has a high school clique vibe to it sadly. I know this can’t be controlled by the amazing staff but I thought I put it out there.

one thing I sadly did to try to get more people to notice me is the bat country solo, I felt like I was going too slow and learned it in a week, more like tried and it flopped so so bad I didn’t even hit one note right and I was annoyed cuz no one was honest or told me how bad it really was! Everyone lied or didnt say anything

I think we have to put it out there that it’s ok to give helpful critism to people cuz it could benefit them so much and if someone happens to get mad it’s not your fault! You were just trying to help. It’s others choices if they want to listen or not

Lasty like lots of people have said the school has been really dead lately! I decided I’d come back and start fresh but it was so dead and it seems like their nothing new or anything to excite or keep the members going. I’m not saying new stuff had to be pumped out constantly there just has to be a way to keep the members going and active

Rad Synner · Nov 6, 2021

iridecently said:
I think it is important to pick a direction: Is this a social hangout type place for anyone interested in the brand, or is this a place to share and learn about guitar and music? Because like people have mentioned, right now communication feels very lifestyle/Synner brand oriented. And also I think people just want to be kept up to date on whats happening in regards to new features and the amp/pedal/whatever else is in the works.

The contests create a huge influx of activity, but (and I am sad to say it) I think this is mainly based on the prizes attached. I really liked it when the school had its own instagram account and students' videos got shared on there, because it gave people recognition for their efforts.

I think if we want to create/foster a community then like you said the community has to be put in the spotlight, both on the site itself and on other platforms. This shouldn't be about who bought merch or a dark night guitar, but on making progress, having interesting outlooks on things, having different approaches and sharing those with eachother. That's what I liked about the school when I joined and that's mainly what I am missing right now.

Thank you so much for your comment, it actually makes a lot of sense and I happen to think that the last part is a great idea and that you make very solid points about who appears on the Synner IG page. I will definitely bring this up to my fellow mods and see what we can do next!

Calvin Phillips said:
Hard to really explain to the people who werent here the differences. I used to be able to post a riff and I'd get a bunch of people messaging and commenting. Pg used to like riffs as he watched them but these days they seem busy which is fine. Not holding that against them.

We used to have active riffs all the time. Now I'm lucky to see 2 to 3 a day.. I've stopped posting riffs because it's obvious people don't see them. Bottom line is unless it's a syn cover the people really dont have much to say. I linked several songs I wrote and barely anyone noticed them. Some liked and absolutely no comments cept for arisia. The activenessnis all on the forums. It's the very reason jak left honestly i believe. I share her frustration.

How to gain the activeness back I don't have any suggestions. Mainly because like I said a contest doesnt really do anything but get outside people a chance at someone the students have worked for. Altho I'll be honest the winners they pick tend to be from the school. Instead of constant photos of merch on the synner page.. maybe start posting clips too? The whole page is literally aimed at the merch and community. Missing a big piece there.

I see your point dude. And I think that maybe we should find a way to put back more focus on the riff section. I also see your point about the Synner page! As I said to Iris, I will bring up everything you said.

Thank you for your honesty dude! I really appreciate it!

TheRedMageGuitarist · Nov 6, 2021

Wow, some of this escalated really quickly. Mad props to the mods and team leader Rad for keeping it together!

Yes, it's Jak here. I couldn't keep quiet on this when a student reached out to me via text and told me about this forum. I made a new account for this because there's a A LOT I want to say...

First of all, the people who matter most know the EXACT reason why I left the school, and @Calvin Phillips is actually correct for part of it. Secondly, @Radu-Cristian Perde a lot of students tell me how great of a job you're doing as the new leader, and I can tell that's 100000% accurate! It feels good to be able to place this onto someone else as a student and not as a site leader anymore. So I thank you for that. This is a lot to unpack for me here so please bear with me.

Firstly, I want to come back and make my voice heard BECAUSE I care about this site, the students, and my learning ability here. So that's why I'm here. And it's the only reason why I'm here. I miss it here, but so much had changed that I didn't really like the way things were going. I don't even know where to start. But I'll try.

A lot of my friends stopped posting riffs and they essentially left. @Kat the metalhead and @RoaringRowanThunderBender left and even though I still had friends here, it started to get slimmer and slimmer. I also started to see an influx of the same shit over and over again on the riff page. It's like, "Here's the 50th Nightmare cover this week" or these professionally edited videos where clearly the person knows they're good. It's like, I have nothing to say to you except a pat on the back.
Students who really needed help stopped posting. The riff page was where I loved everything. The CORRECT people know I was not on board with the rebranding at all. And as it stands, I believe the rebranding shouldn't have happened until all troops were set in place: the SynTV was up, the app was ready for launch, the A7X lessons from Hector were ready, and the top secret group from owning one of those beautiful guitars was established. None of this has happened. I have been told when I was on the inside the reason for some of the delays and I 100% respect that. But as Alicia and some others so wonderfully promised there will be more transparency going forward as to why.
I was BLESSED with those guitars as gifts, but there was promised a special perk for those purchasing these guitars and we're 3 years in nearly with no sign of what that was or what it is.
But back to the school. It makes me happy to see some students miss the IG page. I hope the dashing Mr. London doesn't mind my saying so but he and I were the ones that operated that. I had so much fun doing that for you guys. But it was pulled for a reasonable reason that I had to respect. But it brings up another point that Iris and Calvin have made and that's the fact that the focus is 99.99% on the clothing and the community and not the guitar side. When the rebranding happened, a huge chunk was taken out of why people signed up. It's a social media site now. And some students have expressed a cliquey vibe here. I personally think the IG chats ruined that. There was some seriously rude shit said about other students in those "off-site" chats, and they allowed some students to get TOO personal and then everyone slowly started to hate each other and they left, or they stopped supporting each other.

I know some of this can't be controlled here, like the IG group chats. And I don't know how to bring the "old school" vibe back. It bothered me to hell that it took years for CJ to get his Rockstar student award badge for the SIX MONTHS of hard ass work he did, but I got wind of a meme contest being dished out a while ago? That was all I cared about when I left. I didn't care about emojis, I didn't care about clothes, I didn't care about anything except I was so sad that a guitar student worked so hard and didn't get that little simple badge I wanted him to have.

This school IS about community. It IS about friendship. It IS 'SYNNER'; bold, abrasive, unapologetic, unique and edgy. But we are more than just clothing. We are a bunch of kids and adults that have shitty lives that find solace in one another's dopey guitar mistakes and horrible jokes. We were that ONCE, and we will ALWAYS be that.
But the guitar side is gone. We haven't had any new lessons but there's new merch. I'll gladly comment on people's videos. I'll gladly offer help if I can. And if I offended anyone I'm sorry. It just had to be said. I didn't support the rebranding on a personal level but I have no choice but to accept it moving forward, and I will.

We just need to figure out how to get both sides to come back together.
Love you all.

Gabby Heafy · Nov 6, 2021

Arsia Rose said:
I think there aren't more guitarists on here because I didn't even know Syn had this school. I'm not really on social media and all I saw were clothing posts and the aotm "let's hang" thing. I thought the let's hang was a link to another discord thing. Like I've said I don't really do social stuff so I didn't follow it.

Let's keep in mind that this school is also a social network and it is virtual, Syn has posted on his personal Instagram many times, about the aotm, about contests, even when Radu gave the music production class it has also been posted. As you can see the school has changed a lot, it is not only focused on students playing and learning guitar and for many it is difficult to adapt to the changes. That also made many guitarists not to participate.

TheRedMageGuitarist · Nov 6, 2021

@Radu-Cristian Perde I forgot to kind of address the original reason for your post. You are great. The mods are great. And it's not like the school isn't functional. There's not some sort of wall that's preventing people from posting or having a great time. It's not up to Syn to market or push this site constantly. He built this site with the aspect of community as the main topic. So well, the only ones that can encourage that and grow that is well, the community. That's us. That's not Syn. That's not the mods. That's' not Audentio.
If shit sucked for a while let's make it better. Let's let bygones be bygones and get it back. There's nothing I feel I need to add to make it better for me. There are some things I wish that could happen but it's not about my wants, it's about the benefit for the greater community. So I just wanted to add there's nothing I feel that TRULY needs to change that's preventing me from using or loving this site.

Together we can #MakeSGSGreatAgain. And together we can #BuildBackBetter

sorry I've been watching the news too much

Filip Tomiša · Nov 6, 2021

"The site is a bit dead" also might have to with filters not saving prefrences. Idk if anyone else has this issue but every single time I go on the forum I have go to "Order by: Last Post Date". No matter how many times I save it, it never saves.

I like to see the most recent posts and I can assume that other people do as well but when they go to the forum and don't see the most recent posts that might keep them away from engaging cause they don't want to mess around with the filters.

RoaringRowanThunderBender · Nov 6, 2021

I have sent my response to Radu outside of here, but I was interested in seeing what all everyone else thought as well as soon as I saw the email. I’m a little relieved to know that a lot of you thought similarly as I do and had.

Ed Seith · Nov 6, 2021

Filip Tomiša said:
"The site is a bit dead" also might have to with filters not saving prefrences. Idk if anyone else has this issue but every single time I go on the forum I have go to "Order by: Last Post Date". No matter how many times I save it, it never saves.

I like to see the most recent posts and I can assume that other people do as well but when they go to the forum and don't see the most recent posts that might keep them away from engaging cause they don't want to mess around with the filters.

This is the first I've heard of this, Filip. Please PM me with details. Add screenshots of anything relevant. We're meeting with Audentio this week and can bring it up, along with a small handful of other bugs we've noticed or been made aware of.

Gabby Heafy · Nov 6, 2021

TheRedMageGuitarist said:
Wow, some of this escalated really quickly. Mad props to the mods and team leader Rad for keeping it together!

Yes, it's Jak here. I couldn't keep quiet on this when a student reached out to me via text and told me about this forum. I made a new account for this because there's a A LOT I want to say...

First of all, the people who matter most know the EXACT reason why I left the school, and @Calvin Phillips is actually correct for part of it. Secondly, @Radu-Cristian Perde a lot of students tell me how great of a job you're doing as the new leader, and I can tell that's 100000% accurate! It feels good to be able to place this onto someone else as a student and not as a site leader anymore. So I thank you for that. This is a lot to unpack for me here so please bear with me.

Firstly, I want to come back and make my voice heard BECAUSE I care about this site, the students, and my learning ability here. So that's why I'm here. And it's the only reason why I'm here. I miss it here, but so much had changed that I didn't really like the way things were going. I don't even know where to start. But I'll try.

A lot of my friends stopped posting riffs and they essentially left. @Kat the metalhead and @RoaringRowanThunderBender left and even though I still had friends here, it started to get slimmer and slimmer. I also started to see an influx of the same shit over and over again on the riff page. It's like, "Here's the 50th Nightmare cover this week" or these professionally edited videos where clearly the person knows they're good. It's like, I have nothing to say to you except a pat on the back.
Students who really needed help stopped posting. The riff page was where I loved everything. The CORRECT people know I was not on board with the rebranding at all. And as it stands, I believe the rebranding shouldn't have happened until all troops were set in place: the SynTV was up, the app was ready for launch, the A7X lessons from Hector were ready, and the top secret group from owning one of those beautiful guitars was established. None of this has happened. I have been told when I was on the inside the reason for some of the delays and I 100% respect that. But as Alicia and some others so wonderfully promised there will be more transparency going forward as to why.
I was BLESSED with those guitars as gifts, but there was promised a special perk for those purchasing these guitars and we're 3 years in nearly with no sign of what that was or what it is.
But back to the school. It makes me happy to see some students miss the IG page. I hope the dashing Mr. London doesn't mind my saying so but he and I were the ones that operated that. I had so much fun doing that for you guys. But it was pulled for a reasonable reason that I had to respect. But it brings up another point that Iris and Calvin have made and that's the fact that the focus is 99.99% on the clothing and the community and not the guitar side. When the rebranding happened, a huge chunk was taken out of why people signed up. It's a social media site now. And some students have expressed a cliquey vibe here. I personally think the IG chats ruined that. There was some seriously rude shit said about other students in those "off-site" chats, and they allowed some students to get TOO personal and then everyone slowly started to hate each other and they left, or they stopped supporting each other.

I know some of this can't be controlled here, like the IG group chats. And I don't know how to bring the "old school" vibe back. It bothered me to hell that it took years for CJ to get his Rockstar student award badge for the SIX MONTHS of hard ass work he did, but I got wind of a meme contest being dished out a while ago? That was all I cared about when I left. I didn't care about emojis, I didn't care about clothes, I didn't care about anything except I was so sad that a guitar student worked so hard and didn't get that little simple badge I wanted him to have.

This school IS about community. It IS about friendship. It IS 'SYNNER'; bold, abrasive, unapologetic, unique and edgy. But we are more than just clothing. We are a bunch of kids and adults that have shitty lives that find solace in one another's dopey guitar mistakes and horrible jokes. We were that ONCE, and we will ALWAYS be that.
But the guitar side is gone. We haven't had any new lessons but there's new merch. I'll gladly comment on people's videos. I'll gladly offer help if I can. And if I offended anyone I'm sorry. It just had to be said. I didn't support the rebranding on a personal level but I have no choice but to accept it moving forward, and I will.

We just need to figure out how to get both sides to come back together.
Love you all.

I support your thoughts and words!! I'm so glad to have you back here!

TheRedMageGuitarist · Nov 6, 2021

Gabby Heafy said:
I support your thoughts and words!! I'm so glad to have you back here!

Thanks Gabby!! I'm just thankful this was brought up and I could voice my concerns. Good to see you!

Kat the metalhead · Nov 6, 2021

TheRedMageGuitarist said:
Wow, some of this escalated really quickly. Mad props to the mods and team leader Rad for keeping it together!

Yes, it's Jak here. I couldn't keep quiet on this when a student reached out to me via text and told me about this forum. I made a new account for this because there's a A LOT I want to say...

First of all, the people who matter most know the EXACT reason why I left the school, and @Calvin Phillips is actually correct for part of it. Secondly, @Radu-Cristian Perde a lot of students tell me how great of a job you're doing as the new leader, and I can tell that's 100000% accurate! It feels good to be able to place this onto someone else as a student and not as a site leader anymore. So I thank you for that. This is a lot to unpack for me here so please bear with me.

Firstly, I want to come back and make my voice heard BECAUSE I care about this site, the students, and my learning ability here. So that's why I'm here. And it's the only reason why I'm here. I miss it here, but so much had changed that I didn't really like the way things were going. I don't even know where to start. But I'll try.

A lot of my friends stopped posting riffs and they essentially left. @Kat the metalhead and @RoaringRowanThunderBender left and even though I still had friends here, it started to get slimmer and slimmer. I also started to see an influx of the same shit over and over again on the riff page. It's like, "Here's the 50th Nightmare cover this week" or these professionally edited videos where clearly the person knows they're good. It's like, I have nothing to say to you except a pat on the back.
Students who really needed help stopped posting. The riff page was where I loved everything. The CORRECT people know I was not on board with the rebranding at all. And as it stands, I believe the rebranding shouldn't have happened until all troops were set in place: the SynTV was up, the app was ready for launch, the A7X lessons from Hector were ready, and the top secret group from owning one of those beautiful guitars was established. None of this has happened. I have been told when I was on the inside the reason for some of the delays and I 100% respect that. But as Alicia and some others so wonderfully promised there will be more transparency going forward as to why.
I was BLESSED with those guitars as gifts, but there was promised a special perk for those purchasing these guitars and we're 3 years in nearly with no sign of what that was or what it is.
But back to the school. It makes me happy to see some students miss the IG page. I hope the dashing Mr. London doesn't mind my saying so but he and I were the ones that operated that. I had so much fun doing that for you guys. But it was pulled for a reasonable reason that I had to respect. But it brings up another point that Iris and Calvin have made and that's the fact that the focus is 99.99% on the clothing and the community and not the guitar side. When the rebranding happened, a huge chunk was taken out of why people signed up. It's a social media site now. And some students have expressed a cliquey vibe here. I personally think the IG chats ruined that. There was some seriously rude shit said about other students in those "off-site" chats, and they allowed some students to get TOO personal and then everyone slowly started to hate each other and they left, or they stopped supporting each other.

I know some of this can't be controlled here, like the IG group chats. And I don't know how to bring the "old school" vibe back. It bothered me to hell that it took years for CJ to get his Rockstar student award badge for the SIX MONTHS of hard ass work he did, but I got wind of a meme contest being dished out a while ago? That was all I cared about when I left. I didn't care about emojis, I didn't care about clothes, I didn't care about anything except I was so sad that a guitar student worked so hard and didn't get that little simple badge I wanted him to have.

This school IS about community. It IS about friendship. It IS 'SYNNER'; bold, abrasive, unapologetic, unique and edgy. But we are more than just clothing. We are a bunch of kids and adults that have shitty lives that find solace in one another's dopey guitar mistakes and horrible jokes. We were that ONCE, and we will ALWAYS be that.
But the guitar side is gone. We haven't had any new lessons but there's new merch. I'll gladly comment on people's videos. I'll gladly offer help if I can. And if I offended anyone I'm sorry. It just had to be said. I didn't support the rebranding on a personal level but I have no choice but to accept it moving forward, and I will.

We just need to figure out how to get both sides to come back together.
Love you all.

Wow very well said! You got out all that I couldn’t put into words haha I really miss the guitar side cuz personally I’m not a big fan of social media, I just use it to keep up with friends/acquaintances, celebs, art inspiration or memes. I hate the whole idea of likes and cliques and all that crap.

TheRedMageGuitarist · Nov 6, 2021

@Radu-Cristian Perde could you please find a way to make the student spotlight more of a thing? Like, make it a fancy announcement at the top? Literally NO ONE knew this if it wasn't for @William B. paying attention and congratulating Lindsey. Then like me and 2 or 3 other students saw MY post from seeing HIS post and then chimed in. It took me forever to see where it was announced because it gets buried in the same similar text on here.

William B. · Nov 6, 2021

I didn't mean to

Rad Synner · Nov 6, 2021

TheRedMageGuitarist said:
@Radu-Cristian Perde could you please find a way to make the student spotlight more of a thing? Like, make it a fancy announcement at the top? Literally NO ONE knew this if it wasn't for @William B. paying attention and congratulating Lindsey. Then like me and 2 or 3 other students saw MY post from seeing HIS post and then chimed in. It took me forever to see where it was announced because it gets buried in the same similar text on here.

Yessss i'll bring it up to the tech team and see what can be done to make it so that the announcements be more flamboyant! @Lindsey has been doing a killer job in the past couple weeks and so I totally want her to get more recognition!

TheRedMageGuitarist · Nov 6, 2021

William B. said:
I didn't mean to

Well it's a good thing you did!

William B. · Nov 6, 2021

TheRedMageGuitarist said:
Well it's a good thing you did!

I remembered when I got it, it was cool

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