Author Topic: Fan Club Status?  (Read 12629 times)

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Offline Zydar

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Re: Fan Club Status?
« Reply #35 on: August 06, 2012, 02:16:44 AM »
Prior admin/mod at MP.com

He did more than that. Geez, do you even know who the guy is?  :biggrin:

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Offline DebraKadabra

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Re: Fan Club Status?
« Reply #36 on: August 06, 2012, 02:17:32 AM »
:clap:

Offline Weymolith

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Re: Fan Club Status?
« Reply #37 on: August 06, 2012, 09:55:09 PM »
Prior admin/mod at MP.com

He did more than that. Geez, do you even know who the guy is?  :biggrin:

Nope.

Apparently I need to introduce myself the next time I roll over and push my morning wood into the small of your back. :)
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Offline bosk1

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Re: Fan Club Status?
« Reply #38 on: August 06, 2012, 10:01:47 PM »
From what I've heard, that would be the VERY small of her back.  Just sayin'.  :weymolith:
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Offline DebraKadabra

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Re: Fan Club Status?
« Reply #39 on: August 06, 2012, 11:37:05 PM »
VERY funny, boys... ::) :angry:

Offline RaiseTheKnife

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Re: Fan Club Status?
« Reply #40 on: August 07, 2012, 01:38:14 AM »
Aha, I just caught on here.  I think I saw Debra and Weymolith in the Austin 11 show at Bass Theater, I was in the row behind you.

Offline wasteland

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Re: Fan Club Status?
« Reply #41 on: August 07, 2012, 04:27:08 AM »
Prior admin/mod at MP.com

I totally missed the event/s that caused that "prior". When did he quit?
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Offline TAC

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Re: Fan Club Status?
« Reply #42 on: August 07, 2012, 04:48:27 AM »
From what I've heard, that would be the VERY small of her back.  Just sayin'.  :weymolith:
Or a very small wood! ;D
would have thought the same thing but seeing the OP was TAC i immediately thought Maiden or DT related
Winger Theater Forums........or WTF.  ;D
TAC got a higher score than me in the electronic round? Honestly, can I just drop out now? :lol

Offline DebraKadabra

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Re: Fan Club Status?
« Reply #43 on: August 07, 2012, 11:45:56 AM »
Aha, I just caught on here.  I think I saw Debra and Weymolith in the Austin 11 show at Bass Theater, I was in the row behind you.

That would 'splain it, yeah. :)

Prior admin/mod at MP.com

I totally missed the event/s that caused that "prior". When did he quit?

The original post is the most important.

From what I've heard, that would be the VERY small of her back.  Just sayin'.  :weymolith:
Or a very small wood! ;D

:icy:

Offline bosk1

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Re: Fan Club Status?
« Reply #44 on: August 07, 2012, 12:35:09 PM »
From what I've heard, that would be the VERY small of her back.  Just sayin'.  :weymolith:
Or a very small wood! ;D

That was kinda the point.
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Offline Zydar

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Re: Fan Club Status?
« Reply #45 on: August 07, 2012, 12:37:06 PM »
Zydar is my new hero.  I just laughed so hard I nearly shat.

Offline TAC

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Re: Fan Club Status?
« Reply #46 on: August 07, 2012, 12:44:09 PM »
From what I've heard, that would be the VERY small of her back.  Just sayin'.  :weymolith:
Or a very small wood! ;D

That was kinda the point.

Hey, I'm slow! :facepalm:
would have thought the same thing but seeing the OP was TAC i immediately thought Maiden or DT related
Winger Theater Forums........or WTF.  ;D
TAC got a higher score than me in the electronic round? Honestly, can I just drop out now? :lol

Offline DebraKadabra

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Re: Fan Club Status?
« Reply #47 on: August 07, 2012, 01:23:10 PM »

Offline erasiel

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Re: Fan Club Status?
« Reply #48 on: July 29, 2013, 11:40:57 PM »
DT actually used to have several fan clubs around the world. I think the UK Voices one is the only one remaining, right?

So we've covered the status of all the regional clubs but...whatever happened to the International Fan Club??

That's what needs to be resurrected...I suspect that the band would welcome and support it.


Offline noxon

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Re: Fan Club Status?
« Reply #49 on: July 30, 2013, 04:59:43 AM »
Hello.

Currently, there's very few actual fan clubs that do anything active. There are remnants of the old fanclubs still alive (Voices website, Your Majesty website, Italian Dreamers website etc etc) with their own activity, but most never do anything anymore. The DTIFC (which really was more a moniker for the collaboration between the different fanclub with Theater of Dreams being the International (english language) variant) had it's last collaboration in 2006 with the Romavarium DVD. Here's the thing though - in 2004, when the last fanclub CD was made, Mike Portnoy basically told us that he would not provide us with any new material. We managed to convince him to do the DVD project, which resulted in "A Walk Beside the Band" and "Romavarium" (both were recorded on the same tour, with parts of the rome setlist ending up on "A Walk Beside The Band", and much of the remaining show on "Romavarium").

We (DTNorway) try to do stuff, but we've started to focus on doing things in the same timespan that DT follows nowadays - we usually release a fanzine every two year, around the time they visit norway. We also have tried to keep up with some free gifts (mainly calendars), but the fact of the matter is simple: The DT machine is a bit too predictable these days, and the band is simply not rock'n roll enough for us to gather material enough to keep a print fanzine with a higher regularity than that. If we try to do a fanzine when DT is on vacation, there's nothing to write about. If we try to do a fanzine when they're in studio, there's nothing to write about. So basically, some time after the album is out and preferably during the tour, there's enough information out there to warrant a proper fanzine. Fanzines are also outdated even before they get released... Internet is too fast, and what we've been providing is not that interesting anymore. And the thing is, we've not been very good at trying to evolve.

DTNorway has tried to keep something up online. Mainly, we've focused on podcasts, but they also suffer the same fate as that of the fanzines - in break periods there simply isn't enough to talk about, and none of the current (or even past members) really want to do a podcast if they don't have anything to promote. When DT visits norway, we have a preshow gathering at the venue, with surprises (in 2009 Jordan came up and visited us at the preshow party, and then we had a meet and greet for 20 of our members selected at random with the full band, in 2011 20 members got to see the soundcheck and say hello to the band and get a picture on stage with the band0.)

There's also, as Setlist Scotty said, the problem of us having lives. We've always done this out of pocket. The money the members pay us goes to cover our costs, but it's not always sufficient, and we do take risks (minor ones at that, because it's never more than we can manage should things not work out). We do this on our spare time, and what we do with the fanclubs is so far removed from what we -really- do in our careers (I mean, I've made many fanzines, but I've never worked as a typesetter ever - I'm a programmer by trade). And when we started the club, we were fairly young (i was 22 when I joined the DTNorway crew, and that was 12 years ago). We have kids to entertain, bills to pay, all that stuff. That's the main factor to why we now are much slower on the turnaround than we used to be.

All that being said - I have thought about the lack of a proper fanclub for a long time, and I do have outlines to a plan that could work. Problem is, it requires people with a certain dedication and willingness to work hard for nothing. If there's to be an International Fan Club again, I think it must be something along the lines of the following:
-Online Community, multilingual (news, forum, social networks)
-Regional "chapters" that can take responsibility for arranging events before/after DT shows, for instance
-Information site (discography, tourography, wiki, faq, etc)
-Member package for paying members (exclusive merch)
-Podcast/video channels
-Yearly gift (special fanzine, calendar etc)

The "problem" with trying to do all of that is that some of already exists, in different shapes and forms. The biggest problem with a fanclub right now is that it -must- be a community for it to survive and grow. You don't get members anymore if there's not a community part to it (look at metclub, a lot of the reason why people join the metclub is because of the community aspect to it). And pretty much any of us that has been working with DT for quite a long time already is not reliable to keep the fire going - the biggest problem with the existing fanclubs dying out was not the lack of access to the band or material, it was not the lack of members - it was that the people running the fanclubs not having the time, and there were noone there to pick up after them! I mean, I know that once me and John stop doing stuff for DTNorway, that means DTNorway is dead.

Some of those problems are solvable though. One thing might be to actually use the existing resources to build the fanclub from (DTF could be the seed of a fan club for instance), and using people with experience from running fanclubs already is very wise - but introduce enough new blood, and preferably a steady stream of new blood to keep things rolling should people get tired of it.

If people are interested in trying to do something more - please feel free to contact me.

Offline nobloodyname

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Re: Fan Club Status?
« Reply #50 on: July 30, 2013, 05:55:12 AM »
Voices is pretty much dead these days and has been for a number of years. It's a shame, because at its height it was a wonderful community.

Some of us still log into the forum to chew the cud every now and then and many of us have VUK to thank for some lovely friendships which I've no doubt will last forever.
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Offline MoraWintersoul

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Re: Fan Club Status?
« Reply #51 on: July 30, 2013, 06:26:42 AM »
For what it's worth, it would be cool if there was one place on the internet with all the wiki's, info's, inties, links to cool youtube channels, Tumblrs, subreddits, fanpages. We could expand band member bios and the official wiki's (what rob is trying to do with dtondt wikia and what I've still haven't started helping him on goddamit), use the DTF extended discography page/that Octavarium analysis site/DTFAQ, make a huge picture gallery, link to everything of interest, including past member sites - the bootleg people could expand MP's tourography/cyberdrummer's current DT tour chronicles with info's on whether there are recordings of the night available and where they can be found. There could be fogey stories of how they remember past ages of DT (that's my fave stuff to read here honestly), community interviews with the band members, people who speak other languages could translate all the content/news to their language (like The Shaman's Blog) etc.

DTF is a pretty good substitute for that, but I imagine it's hard to navigate DTF + all the other sites, official and unofficial, when you don't spend as much time on the internet as some of us do. And it's pretty hard to find it. Hell, I didn't register for three years because I wasn't "a forum person" - it never occurred to me that this was more than just a forum.

But just imagine how much work it takes to do all that internet stuff (organizing a community and an info site), and then consider moving it in the flesh-and-blood world, with arranging printing of fanzines and merch and maybe even bootlegs - yeah, fanclubs are definitely crazy amount of work. Even for us young single folk who have no babies and bills to take care of, real life can really get in the way - writing for group blogs and now for a webzine that oversaw a lot of personnel changes in just two years, I definitely know what I'm talking about. But if there's enough people that would like to see this happen, I guess it would be worth it asking people who already run their own DT fan blogs/wiki's/everything else and who are active in other communities would they be interested in something like that. I would.

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Offline Full Speed

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Re: Fan Club Status?
« Reply #52 on: July 30, 2013, 06:35:49 AM »
Even if we do get some kind of NA fan club rolling, without DT/RR funding, I just see it drying up too quickly to be worth the trouble.

Now if someone does start something I'd be more than happy to donate or help out, but I can't see it lasting long term.

Offline noxon

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Re: Fan Club Status?
« Reply #53 on: July 30, 2013, 06:43:37 AM »
Just for reference: at the peak of dtifc, all fanclubs had a combined membership of about 9000. I'm not sure that's an economical incentive enough to fund any "employees".


Offline TheGreatPretender

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Re: Fan Club Status?
« Reply #54 on: July 30, 2013, 07:13:46 AM »
I would be happy to be involved with running a North American fan club.

Agreed. Sign me up as well.

Me too. I can be the Canadian representative.  :tup
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Offline Shadow2222

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Re: Fan Club Status?
« Reply #55 on: July 30, 2013, 08:18:10 AM »
Just for reference: at the peak of dtifc, all fanclubs had a combined membership of about 9000. I'm not sure that's an economical incentive enough to fund any "employees".

That is quite a valid point, and not much of an incentive to begin one in 2013.
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Offline jonnybaxy

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Re: Fan Club Status?
« Reply #56 on: July 30, 2013, 08:29:38 AM »
I'd LOVE to see this happen, but with all info available at the click of a mouse and youtube makes it impossible to have fanclub exclusive material.

But if anything happens I'd be there!

Offline Big Hath

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Re: Fan Club Status?
« Reply #57 on: July 30, 2013, 10:22:58 AM »
For what it's worth, it would be cool if there was one place on the internet with all the wiki's, info's, inties, links to cool youtube channels, Tumblrs, subreddits, fanpages. We could expand band member bios and the official wiki's (what rob is trying to do with dtondt wikia and what I've still haven't started helping him on goddamit), use the DTF extended discography page/that Octavarium analysis site/DTFAQ, make a huge picture gallery, link to everything of interest, including past member sites - the bootleg people could expand MP's tourography/cyberdrummer's current DT tour chronicles with info's on whether there are recordings of the night available and where they can be found. There could be fogey stories of how they remember past ages of DT (that's my fave stuff to read here honestly), community interviews with the band members, people who speak other languages could translate all the content/news to their language (like The Shaman's Blog) etc.

I think it would be awesome to gather all the cool DT related stuff floating around the net in one location.
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Offline Madman Shepherd

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Re: Fan Club Status?
« Reply #58 on: July 30, 2013, 12:22:07 PM »
Here's the thing though - in 2004, when the last fanclub CD was made, Mike Portnoy basically told us that he would not provide us with any new material. We managed to convince him to do the DVD project, which resulted in "A Walk Beside the Band" and "Romavarium" (both were recorded on the same tour, with parts of the rome setlist ending up on "A Walk Beside The Band", and much of the remaining show on "Romavarium").



Why did he say that?  Did it have anything to do with the Ytsejam releases?

Offline Setlist Scotty

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Re: Fan Club Status?
« Reply #59 on: July 30, 2013, 01:07:42 PM »
Here's the thing though - in 2004, when the last fanclub CD was made, Mike Portnoy basically told us that he would not provide us with any new material. We managed to convince him to do the DVD project, which resulted in "A Walk Beside the Band" and "Romavarium" (both were recorded on the same tour, with parts of the rome setlist ending up on "A Walk Beside The Band", and much of the remaining show on "Romavarium").

Why did he say that?  Did it have anything to do with the Ytsejam releases?
I'm not sure why he said it, but he did. And I doubt it had anything to do with Ytsejam releases, considering the number of shows he had to pick from that he could have given to the fan clubs. I think he just got tired of people expecting it, instead of it being a gift, as the CDs (and later, DVDs) were originally intended to be.

And for the record, there actually were two more fan club CDs that were released - in 2007, it was the 15th anniversary of Images and Words CD, and in 2008, highlights from PN08.
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Offline philmcson

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Re: Fan Club Status?
« Reply #60 on: July 30, 2013, 01:44:54 PM »
I'd love this, and if anyone's serious about it I'd help with it here and there, however I could.

Honestly, I'd be totally up for it, but I haven't the slightest clue of how to actually start a fanclub. I mean, website aside, what would we need? I don't even know where to begin.

T-shirts.

Offline noxon

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Re: Fan Club Status?
« Reply #61 on: July 30, 2013, 02:19:48 PM »
Oh yeah, i forgot about the pn08 and images and words 15th cds.


I don't think, at this point, that yet another regional fan club is the way to go. Believe it or not, there have been several north american attempts over the years, all of which have dwindled down and died.

I think, at this time, the only way to successfully recreate a fanclub is make a fully international one, with a proper plan and a staff that's willing to work for free and expect nothing more than fame and glory in the community :P
« Last Edit: July 30, 2013, 02:26:54 PM by noxon »

Offline TheGreatPretender

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Re: Fan Club Status?
« Reply #62 on: July 30, 2013, 03:41:02 PM »
I think, at this time, the only way to successfully recreate a fanclub is make a fully international one, with a proper plan and a staff that's willing to work for free and expect nothing more than fame and glory in the community :P

I'd be down for fame and glory. I'd be like, "I'm the representative of the international Dream Theater fan club, bitch."
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Offline erasiel

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Re: Fan Club Status?
« Reply #63 on: August 01, 2013, 12:24:55 AM »
DT Norway seems to keep on trucking as well...even putting out a product of sorts. They have a podcast going, and have included a number of band interviews including JP this past April and MM in May.

https://www.dtnorway.com/tag/podcast/

10 episodes total, of which I haven't listened to any yet, but at least the interviews seem to have been conducted in English.

Near as I can tell, this is the only fanclub actually doing anything tangible. Maybe this is a good model for any sort of rebooted International Fan Club - doing everything digitally rather than attempting to do print magazines and fan CDs seems like the clear path.

Having an official "global" Dream Theater podcast would be a really cool thing....the possibilities would be endless. Just saying....

Offline TheGreatPretender

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Re: Fan Club Status?
« Reply #64 on: August 01, 2013, 12:43:08 AM »
Near as I can tell, this is the only fanclub actually doing anything tangible. Maybe this is a good model for any sort of rebooted International Fan Club - doing everything digitally rather than attempting to do print magazines and fan CDs seems like the clear path.

Well, that's pretty much what I was thinking. Which was why I thought it'd be a good idea to revive the DT fanclub, or make a new, international one. Because it's so much easier to do now that the internet has become a household thing. I think it'd pretty much be like running the forum, but maybe get a little more involved in different communities around the world, still allowing for some distinction, but unified at the same time.
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Offline noxon

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Re: Fan Club Status?
« Reply #65 on: August 01, 2013, 03:10:38 AM »
DT Norway seems to keep on trucking as well...even putting out a product of sorts. They have a podcast going, and have included a number of band interviews including JP this past April and MM in May.

Yep, we do. And that's what I wrote up in my recommendation above ;)