DTF Official Status?

[LTE777]

As a newer member on the forums, i was wondering had DTF ever tried to pursue become the official Dreamtheater forums or gain blessing or sanction from the band to that effect?

Would be cool to hear if this has been tried before and have this site as a link from the main DT.net website.

I know the band has had problems with forums in the past and official forum shut downs etc.

[robwebster]

Don't think so. We're basically the bastard son of DT.net, so I doubt they'd take us back. We're dead to Itchy. Besides which, I think it's possibly a good thing that we're not official - grants us a little more freedom and objectivity.

That said, though, this board's significantly more pleasant than DT.net ever was when I was there. Ironically, not long after we were demoted for troublemaking, said troublemakers decided to split and create their own new board, effectively amputating the problem at its root, and leaving a respectable, sensible DT community in its wake.^* We certainly reflect better on the band than we ever have done, so I don't think it'd be a mistake to reinstate us, but we're happy as we are, to be honest.



*I'm simplifying here, of course. What they actually did was more akin to a hostile takeover, but it's a long story - this is effectively the same community with the unruly types evacuated.

[LTE777]

Would be cool to elaborate on the said long story....for the newbs?

But good point, the freedom we enjoy to look at things constructively is probably a blessing.





Edit: Thanks Rob, found a bit of info in the FAQ section to compliment your post below!

[robwebster]

I don't remember the details all that clearly, as I wasn't particularly active over that period (although I do recall it happening), but it basically went something like this...

1. Dreamtheater.net is closed by Itchy and Mike Portnoy due to bad behaviour.
2. Dreamtheaterforums.com is hastily resurrected in its place, and more or less everyone transfers to it.
3. Webmaster of dreamtheaterforums.com decides he doesn't actually like Dream Theater all that much, so he takes it upon himself to close the board and reopen it as a general music discussion board with very loose rules and a totally different mission statement, to the chagrine of many and the delight of many others.
4. Bosk1 opens dreamtheaterforums.org as a spiritual sequel to dreamtheaterforums.com. The remaining DT fans jump ship to it, the people who went "off" DT stayed at the new board.

So we're a spiritual sequel to a spiritual sequel.

[hefdaddy42]

I don't think we are headed toward any kind of "official" capacity again.  At least, not to my knowledge.

On the other hand, the band member who was most publicly part of us losing that capacity at DT.net was MP, who is now no longer with the band.  So, who knows?

But no Itchy, forget that.  Dealbreaker.

[MajorMatt]

That said, though, this board's significantly more pleasant than DT.net ever was when I was there.

I have to agree, that's probably why I didn't spend too much time over at DT.net, the JP Forum was my main haunt.

On the topic of becoming an official board, I don't think it would be a bad thing if the offer ever came about. On the other hand, as we are not official I think we have a sort of (for want of a better word) 'underground' community. Not being featured on DT.net means that we are only found by a select number of people. If we were featured on DT.net then I think we would see significantly for riff raff.

[ariich]

I don't remember the details all that clearly, as I wasn't particularly active over that period (although I do recall it happening), but it basically went something like this...

1. Dreamtheater.net is closed by Itchy and Mike Portnoy due to bad behaviour.
2. Dreamtheaterforums.com is hastily resurrected in its place, and more or less everyone transfers to it.
3. Webmaster of dreamtheaterforums.com decides he doesn't actually like Dream Theater all that much, so he takes it upon himself to close the board and reopen it as a general music discussion board with very loose rules and a totally different mission statement, to the chagrine of many and the delight of many others.
4. Bosk1 opens dreamtheaterforums.org as a spiritual sequel to dreamtheaterforums.com. The remaining DT fans jump ship to it, the people who went "off" DT stayed at the new board.

So we're a spiritual sequel to a spiritual sequel.

Sort of that, although it wasn't a split of DT fans coming here and non fans staying at 5/8. There was a bit of that, but the bigger basis for the split was what people wanted in terms of rules and how they are enforced.

And yeah, I can't really see us becoming official again, and I don't think we really need to. We've established ourselves as the main DT discussion site on the internet, members of the band are aware of us and check the site occasionally, and others close to them (like Rich Wilson and more recently Peter Wildoer) have signed up and posted. So I think we do pretty well for ourselves without official status.

[robwebster]

Absolutely.

Although, to play devil's advocate, I can't help but think that 4,004 is quite a low member count, given that DT's facebook page has a staggering 2,000,000 fans, so from that perspective it might be nice to be a little more public. But it's not something we need at all. I've never thought "this place needs more members."

[DreamerTV]

As an italian fan with no more real basis (italiandreamers.net closed a couple years ago) i really enjoyed reading and sometimes posting here, mainly because i felt that we talk here as normal people, not as a "wannabe sixth DT member" community... The only thing i've always suggested is to talk with the others communities, as it used to happen years ago... I told it to Bosk, and he liked the idea, but then i've started having some problems at home and i had to focus only on those things... But, i still think it's something we should do, sooner or later. 

[millahh]

members of the band are aware of us and check the site occasionally, and others close to them (like Rich Wilson and more recently Peter Wildoer) have signed up and posted.

Don't forget David Prater!

[jsem]

Absolutely.

Although, to play devil's advocate, I can't help but think that 4,004 is quite a low member count, given that DT's facebook page has a staggering 2,000,000 fans, so from that perspective it might be nice to be a little more public. But it's not something we need at all. I've never thought "this place needs more members."

Me neither, it's quite nice the way it is. I mean, I found this place because I wanted a place where I could discuss DT/and other music with other fans... and I found this place. It's perfectly balanced (not every1 is a total fanboy, we have general music discussions too etc etc - this forum is brilliant in many ways).

[El Barto]

On the topic of becoming an official board, I don't think it would be a bad thing if the offer ever came about. On the other hand, as we are not official I think we have a sort of (for want of a better word) 'underground' community. Not being featured on DT.net means that we are only found by a select number of people. If we were featured on DT.net then I think we would see significantly for riff raff.

When I was looking for a new source of DT related discourse, I googled "Dream Theater Forum" and this was the first hit.  It's pretty easy to come by to anybody looking for such a thing.  Personally, I like that it tends to only attract people who are actually looking for it.  4k members isn't a whole lot, but 400k nimrods signing up just because it's linked on the DT page doesn't sound all that pleasant to me. 

[Nick]

As I've said in the past I don't think that having official status would be a bad thing but I see no reason to push into it. This community exists BECAUSE of Dream Theater, plain and simple. We are the tried and true that remained from two Dream Theater Forum executions picking up new members all the while. Even without the official title we have kept things respectful towards the band and I think we promote Dream Theater very effectively.

As long as the band didn't try to install a new overlord to run the place (such as Itchy) I'd love to see it become official. Who knows what perks we might pick up at this point. We know the entire band is trying to interact more with the fans and the forum might even see the announcement of some lesser things that don't get huge press releases and such. And of course new members are always welcomed. Sure, influx of new people can be a headache, but one I'd be happy to deal with if it means seeing the forum expand and thrive.

[rumborak]

I think the current configuration is the most beneficial to both sides. We aren't straight-jacketed into DT&Management whims, and they don't have to worry about us not "representing" the band properly (which actually was the term they used when they shut down dt.net)

rumborak

[carl320]

members of the band are aware of us and check the site occasionally, and others close to them (like Rich Wilson and more recently Peter Wildoer) have signed up and posted.

Don't forget David Prater!

And Charlie Dominici 

[LieLowTheWantedMan]

members of the band are aware of us and check the site occasionally, and others close to them (like Rich Wilson and more recently Peter Wildoer) have signed up and posted.

Don't forget David Prater!

Really? Prater? I wanna see.

[millahh]

https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=207.0

The guy claiming to have been there as some sort of engineer's assistant.

[DarkLord_Lalinc]

I recall the whole Dominici thing being quite funny 

[SystematicThought]

https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=207.0

The guy claiming to have been there as some sort of engineer's assistant.

That is still confusing to me. Is it actually Prater? I swear Bosk said it was

[millahh]

https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=207.0

The guy claiming to have been there as some sort of engineer's assistant.

That is still confusing to me. Is it actually Prater? I swear Bosk said it was

Yes.

[jsem]

https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=207.0

The guy claiming to have been there as some sort of engineer's assistant.

That is still confusing to me. Is it actually Prater? I swear Bosk said it was

Yes.

0.0

I read that entire thread now... that was just.. 

[hefdaddy42]

Yes, it was Prater.

[rumborak]

Yeah, that thread was funny. Even though, the Charlie Domi ... errr .. Mr. Picasso incident was even more hilarious I thought. Maybe because I was directly involved in it.

rumborak

[JasonScandopolous]

Yeah, that thread was funny. Even though, the Charlie Domi ... errr .. Mr. Picasso incident was even more hilarious I thought. Maybe because I was directly involved in it.

rumborak

Well, to keep going on this tangent (notable DTF forum incidents), can you explain this one?

P.S.  Never disrespect egypt.  Ever. 

[robwebster]

Yarse, this is brand new to me.

I know Dominici posted here, but I'm pretty sure it was actual Dominici?

[rumborak]

Well, to keep going on this tangent (notable DTF forum incidents), can you explain this one?

Well, there used to be a member called "MrPicasso", and he was heavily pimping the first O3 album by Charlie, to an extent that just wasn't reasonable unless you were Charlie yourself. So, the theory kinda was floating around between a few DTF members, there was a bit of PM'ing going on about it.
Well, O1 wasn't really received that well, mostly because it was all acoustic and not particularly prog.
Then, when O2 came out, MrPicasso put it up even a further notch in terms of pimping, and he got more and more careless about keeping cover, to the point it was implicitly assumed it was Charlie. And at some point he admitted to it finally.
Well, soon enough Charlie launched his own website and was trying to lure people from here to sign up and post on his forum. Apparently Charlie had gotten the impression that I was a key member on DTF, so he was specifically wooing me to sign up on dominici.com, probably in the hope that others would follow suit. I did, but about a month later I posted in a DTF thread about his albums that I thought several tracks on them were cheap DT knock-offs (and I still think they are), and then Charlie threw a hissy fit, publicly decrying me on his forum and stuff (I think the thread was even called "RUMBORAK!!" or something ). Either way, it seems Charlie has a very short fuse (he got into hefty arguments with other posters too) and couldn't hold it back online, and so he ended up burning quite a few bridges in the fan base that mattered most.

rumborak

[SystematicThought]

Damn, Prater really can't let go

[hefdaddy42]

Well, to keep going on this tangent (notable DTF forum incidents), can you explain this one?

Well, there used to be a member called "MrPicasso", and he was heavily pimping the first O3 album by Charlie, to an extent that just wasn't reasonable unless you were Charlie yourself. So, the theory kinda was floating around between a few DTF members, there was a bit of PM'ing going on about it.
Well, O1 wasn't really received that well, mostly because it was all acoustic and not particularly prog.
Then, when O2 came out, MrPicasso put it up even a further notch in terms of pimping, and he got more and more careless about keeping cover, to the point it was implicitly assumed it was Charlie. And at some point he admitted to it finally.
Well, soon enough Charlie launched his own website and was trying to lure people from here to sign up and post on his forum. Apparently Charlie had gotten the impression that I was a key member on DTF, so he was specifically wooing me to sign up on dominici.com, probably in the hope that others would follow suit. I did, but about a month later I posted in a DTF thread about his albums that I thought several tracks on them were cheap DT knock-offs (and I still think they are), and then Charlie threw a hissy fit, publicly decrying me on his forum and stuff (I think the thread was even called "RUMBORAK!!" or something ). Either way, it seems Charlie has a very short fuse (he got into hefty arguments with other posters too) and couldn't hold it back online, and so he ended up burning quite a few bridges in the fan base that mattered most.

rumborak

I remember all of that.

lol

[glaurung]

Did he have the account under his name and post as MrPicasso too or was the CD account made after MrPicasso?

[hefdaddy42]

Did he have the account under his name and post as MrPicasso too or was the CD account made after MrPicasso?

After, if memory serves.

[rumborak]

Well, to keep going on this tangent (notable DTF forum incidents), can you explain this one?

Well, there used to be a member called "MrPicasso", and he was heavily pimping the first O3 album by Charlie, to an extent that just wasn't reasonable unless you were Charlie yourself. So, the theory kinda was floating around between a few DTF members, there was a bit of PM'ing going on about it.
Well, O1 wasn't really received that well, mostly because it was all acoustic and not particularly prog.
Then, when O2 came out, MrPicasso put it up even a further notch in terms of pimping, and he got more and more careless about keeping cover, to the point it was implicitly assumed it was Charlie. And at some point he admitted to it finally.
Well, soon enough Charlie launched his own website and was trying to lure people from here to sign up and post on his forum. Apparently Charlie had gotten the impression that I was a key member on DTF, so he was specifically wooing me to sign up on dominici.com, probably in the hope that others would follow suit. I did, but about a month later I posted in a DTF thread about his albums that I thought several tracks on them were cheap DT knock-offs (and I still think they are), and then Charlie threw a hissy fit, publicly decrying me on his forum and stuff (I think the thread was even called "RUMBORAK!!" or something ). Either way, it seems Charlie has a very short fuse (he got into hefty arguments with other posters too) and couldn't hold it back online, and so he ended up burning quite a few bridges in the fan base that mattered most.

rumborak

I remember all of that.

lol

Speaking of which, I looked at his page the other day, it seems he stopped posting too.

rumborak

[Perpetual Change]

Well, to keep going on this tangent (notable DTF forum incidents), can you explain this one?

Well, there used to be a member called "MrPicasso", and he was heavily pimping the first O3 album by Charlie, to an extent that just wasn't reasonable unless you were Charlie yourself. So, the theory kinda was floating around between a few DTF members, there was a bit of PM'ing going on about it.
Well, O1 wasn't really received that well, mostly because it was all acoustic and not particularly prog.
Then, when O2 came out, MrPicasso put it up even a further notch in terms of pimping, and he got more and more careless about keeping cover, to the point it was implicitly assumed it was Charlie. And at some point he admitted to it finally.
Well, soon enough Charlie launched his own website and was trying to lure people from here to sign up and post on his forum. Apparently Charlie had gotten the impression that I was a key member on DTF, so he was specifically wooing me to sign up on dominici.com, probably in the hope that others would follow suit. I did, but about a month later I posted in a DTF thread about his albums that I thought several tracks on them were cheap DT knock-offs (and I still think they are), and then Charlie threw a hissy fit, publicly decrying me on his forum and stuff (I think the thread was even called "RUMBORAK!!" or something ). Either way, it seems Charlie has a very short fuse (he got into hefty arguments with other posters too) and couldn't hold it back online, and so he ended up burning quite a few bridges in the fan base that mattered most.

rumborak

Haha, I remember that too. I wasn't here for it, but the cool thing about the internet is you can check people's posting history. Those long debates Charlie would get into were hilarious.

[Jamesman42]

My and Charlie Dominici are best friends and have never had an online war.

Seriously, he wanted to Skype with me because we were at it.

[LTE777]

Hahaha, see this is the type of history i think newbs arent aware of that would be interesting to see....

If no one else does, at the end of each year im going to start a DTF Year in Review forum where everyone can post major events or funny stories over the year/prior years ie DP, CD 'incidents etc' relating to DT.  Please let me know if someone already does this...

Back on topic, we shoudl start an initiative to ramp up the numbers a bit but it does seem like there would be issues if we were the official forum or had too many members.

Maybe it would be good to become the #1 Unofficial Official forum in the hope the DT guys feed us exclusive info etc...!

[DarkLord_Lalinc]

My and Charlie Dominici are best friends and have never had an online war.

Seriously, he wanted to Skype with me because we were at it.

You should have put your dick in the camera and ask him something like "do you like what you're seeing or are you scared?"