IM DOA

[kellbells]

Bitch rant. Warned.

It's only 30 bucks but the content quality at the IM is negligible. The band is touring but can't be arsed to provide even lip service to the "exclusives" advertised.

Guess they ran out audio/video for the rockin' hits from Lewisburg PA April 2011. There must be another version of Slide youtube hasn't captured in ad infinitum.

Shut it down.

[nmf]

That's hardly a bitch rant! Let me add to it for you!

(Full disclosure: I am an IM member and will probably continue to be one but I usually let my membership lapse for a while. I may or may not have also been known to *share* an account...)

-The way Q&As have stopped is absolutely not okay. They are pretty much the ONLY thing the IM has guaranteed to be a regular thing (monthly) and they are not following through on their end. I know excuses are made (they're busy in the studio, they're busy touring, they're taking much deserved breaks) but those things never seemed to be an issue until this year. And if they can't fulfill their obligations to Q&As, they shouldn't be charging for it.

-Exclusives - These were pretty awesome when they were recording and sometimes they surprise me by adding something interesting, but I don't need recording of half of a song live. Like you said, Youtube does a fine job of that. I don't mind the idea of slowly collecting soundboard bootlegs but it feels more like a 'Oh shit, it's Friday again! We have nothing planned, let's just give them a couple more songs from this show we have as an emergency backup!'

-Blogs - We've gotten three in the last year. It's not a special perk to have access to the archive if there is nothing IN the archive.

-Moblog - We get more pictures on Twitter than we get on the IM so it's not special.

-News - If the IM bothers with news at all, it's usually the last place to report anything.

-All of the band members have Twitter accounts and seem to prefer to use them to share with fans - even if the blog format of the official site may be a better and safer format for SOME band members.

-The iPhone/iPad/iPod app is probably the thing that pisses me off the most. It's $1 one time for anyone who has the correct $300+ gadget and the band apparently shows up to chat every now and then - while ignoring the IM site that members have paid $30 a year for.

The 'good'
-Presales - They can be hit or miss. I've been very lucky with mine so I can't actually complain but not all shows have very good tickets available. And if you're in Europe, pre-sales mean nothing.
-M&Gs - For people who find these very valuable, it's the cheapest and easiest way to meet the band. But I can see these going away or being changed to something you buy. They're already headed that way with Platinum packages offering M&Gs and NYE having M&Gs offered in packages on TM.


I believed this when the IM was first created and I believe it now - the IM actually pushes fans away. The majority of fans, from the 'serious' to the casual, will not buy an IM membership. By charging money to access things like new song clips in the studio or bits of news in the Q&As, they've cut off most of their fandom from being allowed to be interested in them or talking about them. And if people can't be entertained with new song clips or behind the scenes of a video shoot or watching John wash his hair in a sink with handsoap for free, they will go find another band that will entertain them for free.

[HereIsGone]

Yeah. I got peeved at the new app for iPhone. Like WTF? The uStreams worked just fine and now you're abandoning them for people who pay for that crap (especially when it's apparently hard to read because of the text flying by so fast)? Fuck off.

Like others have said, there is no point in bothering unless if you have presales. I literally went by 2 months without a problem not having the account active and if I hadn't had shows to go to, I wouldn't be missing out on much. The most useful time for the membership barring presales was when they were recording the album -- the previews were damn well worth it then. I literally roll my eyes from the Lewisburg show now. Transparent lazy attempt is transparent. Like, really? I have my own plethora of my own footage I could look at if I wanted to. At least it'd mean something because I was at those fucking shows.

Definitely not renewing unless if there's the 'pre-album era' kind of updates again.

Q&As are even difficult to be fun as most of the people sending in questions are as dumb as planks and I'm pretty sure a lot of cherry picking is involved to avoid interesting (but still respectful) questions. Like seriously, if I hear another 'book recommendation' question, I'm gonna shiv someone.

[magnetronnie]

Nmf I couldn't agree more with you.

Of course the band is to blame because this is their responsibly in the end, but I wonder who else is to blame here.. I mean, the band can manage every single bit of their carreer, so they have or should have people for that. I'm a semi-professional web designer myself and I know what it's like to run big sites.. it takes a lot of time and a lot of money, but most importantly.. it takes some skills. You just need someone who actually knows what he's doing. Not just the technical stuff, but also the person that updates the website a few times a week.. who writes the news articles.. updates the social media.. etc. Even for a band as the Goo Goo Dolls this is probably a full time job and I have the feeling this is done by a bunch of people when they have some spare time. Wendy a bit, Robby a bit, some other people maybe, Slender Fungus the forum and technical website stuff.

Oh and if they're reading here.. consider this an open application for the job!

[HereIsGone]

Nov 6, 2011 16:47:44 GMT -5 magnetronnie said:

Nmf I couldn't agree more with you.

Of course the band is to blame because this is their responsibly in the end, but I wonder who else is to blame here.. I mean, the band can manage every single bit of their carreer, so they have or should have people for that. I'm a semi-professional web designer myself and I know what it's like to run big sites.. it takes a lot of time and a lot of money, but most importantly.. it takes some skills. You just need someone who actually knows what he's doing. Not just the technical stuff, but also the person that updates the website a few times a week.. who writes the news articles.. updates the social media.. etc. Even for a band as the Goo Goo Dolls this is probably a full time job and I have the feeling this is done by a bunch of people when they have some spare time. Wendy a bit, Robby a bit, some other people maybe, Slender Fungus the forum and technical website stuff.

Oh and if they're reading here.. consider this an open application for the job!

Ok, this is just creepy. Just as you said that AG had an internship spot open up.

[roxy]

I agree with all this, too. I know the guys are busy and wrapping up the tour they probably don't have that much to promote right now. But they are paying for the site. They and the members, are getting little in return. I would think that some of the web people would be able to post content at a better rate, fly to where the band is to record stuff, etc. Even do the Q&A's in text form if they have to. People loved that video they posted out of schedule with all the clips of the band acting silly. Yet they never did that again, or any of the bts stuff you'd expect. When it first started it was novel to see videos, or bts pics, but now with youtube and the band having there own twitters and facebook, it's really kinda silly to have so few, if any, multimedia content. It worked when they were recording and posted little snippets of the album as they went. But to keep posting live videos, and not even well shot or the entire song, is just weird to me. If they were multi-camera that would be cool.

And I hate the iphone thing. I don't have one, and even if I did I get no reception in my location. UStream was so much better because no one was excluded. Is the iphone video, audio, or just a chat?

[stoptheworld]

I was pissed that without my knowledge, IM automatically renewed my membership when it expired in April of this year primarily because I was not planning on renewing. For a fan in Asia, getting an M&G within the next year is not even a remote possibility so the Q&As and little exclusives are really all that's left to look forward to (not really a fan of the message boards there, either). And now they're gone. Like everyone else has said, you can get the same content (or even better ones) from just a little sleuthing around on the internet. Trust me, I've enjoyed being on the IM back during the pre-SFTROU era, with all the previews and clips but now it's just a plain case of not getting your money's worth.

[magnetronnie]

Nov 6, 2011 17:20:37 GMT -5 HereIsGone said:

Nov 6, 2011 16:47:44 GMT -5 magnetronnie said:

Nmf I couldn't agree more with you.

Of course the band is to blame because this is their responsibly in the end, but I wonder who else is to blame here.. I mean, the band can manage every single bit of their carreer, so they have or should have people for that. I'm a semi-professional web designer myself and I know what it's like to run big sites.. it takes a lot of time and a lot of money, but most importantly.. it takes some skills. You just need someone who actually knows what he's doing. Not just the technical stuff, but also the person that updates the website a few times a week.. who writes the news articles.. updates the social media.. etc. Even for a band as the Goo Goo Dolls this is probably a full time job and I have the feeling this is done by a bunch of people when they have some spare time. Wendy a bit, Robby a bit, some other people maybe, Slender Fungus the forum and technical website stuff.

Oh and if they're reading here.. consider this an open application for the job!

Ok, this is just creepy. Just as you said that AG had an internship spot open up.

Haha I noticed that too, but didn't link it to my post here. ;D

My own site already takes up way too much time and since AG is unpaid I'm not doing that, because that means I'll have to say no to paid projects in the future.

[HereIsGone]

^^
Smart man.

[kellbells]

Ronnie would kick ass running the IM.

I exchanged a couple of PMs with moderator3 who said the only thing in absentia was the Q&As but the band was touring non stop and "hopefully we will be able to sit them down to do more soon." I pressed the point that they were taking cash and delivering very little of what they advertised. Response:

"I will pass this on to the person who is in charge of the content. My job is to moderate the message boards. That is all I can do for you at this point. Have a good day."

[magnetronnie]

Nice one
People have been banned for less than this, if you believe some stories.

[nmf]

Nov 14, 2011 17:00:59 GMT -5 magnetronnie said:

Nice one
People have been banned for less than this, if you believe some stories.

Ooh. Tell me more.

[magnetronnie]

Nov 14, 2011 21:27:07 GMT -5 nmf said:

Nov 14, 2011 17:00:59 GMT -5 magnetronnie said:

Nice one
People have been banned for less than this, if you believe some stories.

Ooh. Tell me more.

I don't remember the details.. someone was complaining about something and got banned from the forum.

I don't think it was "Voldemort".

[lauren3540]

IM has it's issues but I plan to keep my membership. I like the Q&A and the presale.