Fan Club - to be or not to be

[mdread666]

As Clive says - let's see who really reads these forums. Let's face it if there are only a handful of fans willing to read and contribute to a free forum, how many would actually pay money?

If you look at the forum activity, out of  the 545 registered members, only 60 have posted 40+ posts.

There are a staggering  192 members who have NEVER posted. OK some of them may lurk and read posts, but that's a huge number.

An additional 198 have posted 5 times or less.

HALF of ALL posts on the site are contributed by SEVEN people, yes only SEVEN.

Out if the 23585 total posts, 20,000 were contributed by only 45 people.

From this there is almost no way there will be 100 individual replies to this thread in support of a paid for fan club

Sad, very sad. What will it take to get fans off their rears and do something positive for the bands they will so quickly complain about were they to disappear?

But how many of those post were directly related to Arena ?

Personally I don't choose to join in a thread about the Afterlife, Yay, or the price of fish (OK I made the last one up  ) I log on to the Shattered Room to find out things that are happening in the world of Arena and I suspect that the 192 who have never posted and the 198 who have only posted 5 times or less do the same. Sadly I think some of the blame lies at the feet of Arena - sorry Clive 

When this forum took over from the official Cage fan club, apart from trying to reach a wider audience it was supposed to be to allow a closer connection with the band and find out things direct from them and a lot sooner than waiting a couple of months for the latest mag to drop through the letter box. Sadly (as I mention in my post under the thread Twilight of the Bands) I don't think this has happen.

An example would be that Keyboardistmatt posted a new topic in Talk To The Band on 21st June asking how the new album is coming along as it has been a long time and as yet there has been no reply from the band. Also the last Verglas newsletter was sent out nearly a year ago now (28th September - also last news update on web site) and what do we know about how the album has been coming along in that time - erm, not a lot !! As I had mentioned before, now that it's been left to just Clive to contribute to this forum and he has a lot on with many fingers in many different pies he obviously has more important things to worry about than updating us by way of this site. Hopefully if we can get a new fan club up and running and  it's the responsibility of others to do it (Marcel, Erik and guys ??) then the flow of information should return at least to the level it was before the Cage ceased, which is what I certainly want. If that were the case then I would certainly like to think that many of the lurkers out there would join, although that remains to be seen !!

So lurkers - can we have your thoughts please !! If a new fan club is to get of the ground we need you !

[Stuart]

But how many of those post were directly related to Arena ?

A great point, and the scary truth is over 18000 posts are in the non-arena areas, so only around 5500 max are Arena related, less than 25%.

So 'Now listening to', 'My Current Mood' and the 'Price of Fish' are 3 times as interesting to the forum members than Arena 

[jeffMc]

Hey,

I am always willing to donate money to good causes. Arena's music makes my day, worth the price of admission.

JeffMc

[Nicky007]

Stuart and Mdread666, for all of us, Arena is the main reason we're here, in any case considering all those who've posted. Apart from Arena, we have very different interests.

The setup of the Room, I guess mainly devised by the Captain, invites to discussions about a lot of stuff beyond Arena, and I personally have benefitted in the following ways, just to name a few, apart from Arena-related matters:

- I've been informed about many other great groups, which I've tested on i.a. MySpace, occasionally leading to a valuable purchase
- I've been involved in very interesting discussions within i.a. culture, history, politics and metaphysics
- I've found some "friends" (it's this "sort of" thingy) with whom I share a love of great music, religious involvement, outrageous humor, and many other things.

I post on subjects that interest me, and avoid (i.e. just read) the others. That works well with me and many other roomies.

I'd also like to use this occasion to thank Cap for having "built" a great ship, and skippering it well, which has given me many hours of enjoyment and edification, and I think I'm speaking for many other roomies here too.

Nicky.

[wagner]

Heres a question. And I would be interested to see plenty of answers (I'm kind of wondering how many people really look in on this forum, despite the theoretical figure at the top). Is there a place any more for a real Fan Club... a solid, non-virtual. You know...quarterly mags, special offers, free CDs...whatever.
Would enough people join?
Would they be prepared to pay the fees?
What can make this something that can't simply 'downloaded' by some 'freedom for the people' moron?
What could we do to make it different?

Or should we just let sleeping dogs lie?

We may have a new album next year... I was just wondering...

Just to show how the piratebay site deal with band like us on their site... and that it's just one of them...here some example of correspondence... It's not just with us it's with big names as well Microsoft, etc...I didn't know but what you create is yours and you have the right to do what you want with it... not other, no?




Hi,

I would think that you would have to not release anything to the public
at all in order to not let people spread the work if they like it. A bit
more boring alternative would be to make crap that nobody cares about.

// Peter

Nathalie lebreux wrote:
> Hi mate!
> What a stupid answer!  This is our music, if you don't have it removed
> soon, we will go to our copyright legal department and we will take it
> further... If peoples love Arena so much they should support them to
> keep them alive and pay for the right to have the music... I don't know
> what you do for living but would you do it for free? It's the same for
> the music...
>
> Nathalie Pointer
> Verglas Music


before we go to far here, i would suggest you go read our previous legal
threats and read up on who we are and what we do.
http://thepiratebay.org/legal
http://thepiratebay.org/about

It's not up to you to decide anymore how people share their music and
creativity. And note, i wouldn't think it's YOUR music, i would suggest
it's MUSIC and music should be enjoyed by everybody. I know you probably
don't understand the new world, but face it - it's reality. people share
stuff, always have, always will do. We don't even do anything illegal so
we will keep the legal .torrent-files on our website until our
harddrives break. And we backups for the new harddrives we will get when
that happens anyhow.

I develop web sites for a living. And they are all free for the users to
use. And I would do it for free since I love it.
And you know what? It's still possible to make money on stuff that's free.

// Peter

[Nicky007]

I'm sorry, Wagner and Smegal, but even with the greatest effort, I usually don't understand your posts, and unless my intelligence is way below that of other roomies, I expect that this is a general problem.

If you would like us to benefit from your posts, then please be clearer 

Nicky.

[Crownie]

Clive, You can count me in for Fan Club membership.  This would be an ideal way of getting news first!  More input from band members would be great 'cos there isn't a lot of that on the forum (not nearly enough).  And obviously, from your point of view, it has to be cost effective so I'm willing to pay a subscription.  And why not?  I already pay a subscription to the CRS.

Hilary

[ironcow2103]

Well, hopefully if the 'mag' is done properly and includes all members' side projects then it should cover quite a slice of the prog world  

A good idea - the reason I suggested a broader approach was:

i) Clive's post about Pallas and the gradual death of Neo-Prog. I didn't respond to it but it did occur to me that many fans are very particular to specific bands and not genres thesedays (in the old days I recall you pretty much liked everything from Maiden to Marillion and Metallica to boot - just look at the old Donnington and Reading line ups). I think fans need to develop wider appreciation and as Clive says support these bands (trust you are all coming to see the Twelfth Night reunion!)
ii) The fact that we don't all go out and buy stuff from all Neo-Prog bands and maybe a shared approach might get Arena fans supporting other bands like Pallas, Pallas fans supporting Arena, IQ ans supporting Arena etc. (...and maybe old Marillion fans could find life after Clutching At Straws)
iii) Clive is doing it with Neo as a band (not sure the song choices on Broadcast were the most commercially sound but I did enjoy it) so why not a Neo FC for the genre?

Steve

[maddox]

Seven truly posters and a bunch of others aren't a reason why you/we/whoever shouldn't start a fan club. Maybe the shattered room is the official Arena-forum but the members on this forum aren't the only one who buy Arena's CD's. That's got nothing to do with how much someone post on this forum.

Idea: How about starting the fanclub and while doing that re-issue some albums, for instance the first three, with a bonus disk, doesn't have to be that fancy but interesting enough for old and new fans/listeners and while doing that put a subscription card for the Fan club in the CD case?

Just an idea on top of all the other ideas. 

[wagner]

I'm sorry, Wagner and Smegal, but even with the greatest effort, I usually don't understand your posts, and unless my intelligence is way below that of other roomies, I expect that this is a general problem.

If you would like us to benefit from your posts, then please be clearer 

Nicky.

Hi Nicky007!

m sorry, m trying to use the best of my English for you to understand... What I want to say is that We have a lot of Arena songs and Albums being downloaded illegally and my point was to show all how this peeps deal with bands. That just one of the site I found. We are not the only one I know! but If all the musicians, record label etc... put their heads together m sure we can stop all that... I always paid for my music why not the new generation do the same??? I understand the this is how young people get there music now but is it not us who need to educate them on that?

[Nicky007]

I am always willing to donate money to good causes. Arena's music makes my day, worth the price of admission.

Nicely put, Jeff. I can subscribe to that too. And having been around on the net, I'm convinced that there are thousands of music lovers for whom "Arena's music makes their day". And isn't that better than having millions of people who can't distinguish between the one or other ham?

I want the Arena guys to realise that now while they're brainstorming for the album and when they go into the studio, all of us true fans are there with them 

Nicky.

[Nicky007]

m sorry, m trying to use the best of my English for you to understand...

Thanks, Wagner. This time I did understand your post, and it pleased me to see that you had an important point to make.

Just a slight correction: I couldn't quite get what your "peeps" were, but they seem to be "creeps"   

Nicky.

[HelenDo]

I totally agree with mdread66. I stopped visiting this forum & posting for quite a while until very recently because there wasn't any news from the band. I often just come on here as a guest, because I don't expect to post anything.

If this forum is to be the buzzing place it was when Pepper's Ghost was released & during the associated tour, we need something new to discuss about Arena!

Helen xx

[wagner]

Thanks, Wagner. This time I did understand your post, and it pleased me to see that you had an important point to make.

Just a slight correction: I couldn't quite get what your "peeps" were, but they seem to be "creeps"   

Nicky.

yeh! m using peeps but can't use the other name but personally I think the same... hihi!

[JJ II]

we need something new to discuss about Arena

Indeed. Clive, your working on some great work, please tell us about it. John is recording for It Bites, which is interesting to write about, Rob does have some interesting news of another nature, I beleive. And Mick and Ian, what are they doing at the moment.

I'd even love to know more about Jowitt and Wrightson and their new Blind Ego thing. Fish's weblogs are quite interesting and even the small news-snippets of a mr. Nick Davis (producer for Genesis), who is keeping the fans up to date about the mixing of the live-DVD and the live album, are very interesting.

So please.... give us some news.

[wagner]

Indeed. Clive, your working on some great work, please tell us about it. John is recording for It Bites, which is interesting to write about, Rob does have some interesting news of another nature, I beleive. And Mick and Ian, what are they doing at the moment.

I'd even love to know more about Jowitt and Wrightson and their new Blind Ego thing. Fish's weblog's are quite interesting and even the small news-snippets of a mr. Nick Davis (producer for Genesis), how is keeping the fans up to date about the mixing of the live-DVD and the live album are very interesting.

So please.... give us some news.

I have a little news... Mr Pointer and Mr Mitchell got together this week to write the next album.... hihi!

[Peter]

I have a little news... Mr Pointer and Mr Mitchell got together this week to write the next album.... hihi!

Wow, now THAT'S great news indeed!

1) I'm totally member of the fanclub-to-be(-again). And my wife, too, if just for the fee
I like things to be old-fashioned, sometimes. I don't like downloading individual songs from a label site, I like to buy a CD with inlay and everything. And I'd like to be a paying member of a fan club, that issues special stuff from time to time, and might still earn some revenue for the band.

2) I believe we're discussing several things in this thread, and the pirate stuff should definitely go in the Twilight of the bands thread or even a new one.

3)
a) The problem we're running into is: fans might be interested in (almost) everything that goes on in band members' lives, but band members might not be so interested to share that stuff. That's a discrepancy that has to be bridged, may it be by a statement that it is either so or not so. Like that everybody would become aware of the attitudes.
b) As it turns out, by running this forum for a certain while now, Arena isn't the center of the band members' lives, but just one aspect. Still, this would be enough to create content for mags/blogs etc. to put in funny images or videos from tours, recording sessions, birthday parties, whatever. And: Yes, it would be additional work, making choices of material, putting it together, write something about that again, etc.

Might it be an idea to have a sort of Verglas-family-fanclub? More possible input is the keynote here...

[Highfire]

I have NO DOUBT.

I'd join since the first day, so my vote goes for the YEEEES PLEEEAAASE!!!

[Pascalj]

In the past i was a Cage's member, i join the new fan-club as soon as it start 

[PH]

So that's about 10 lurkers/non-active forummembers to add to the usual hard core roomies.

That's already quite some subscribers!
And if there would be more advertising then I'm sure even more will think this is a good idea!
Be sure to have this in the progressive rock magazines (like iO Pages, or maybe some other fanclub magazines from other (related) bands) or maybe put it on the website and try to get it on the official websites of Marillion, Pendragon and other (related) bands.

Also Progwereld, DPRP, ProgArchives should get to know this.


-Paco

[mdread666]

That's already quite some subscribers!

And if there would be more advertising then I'm sure even more will think this is a good idea!

Perhaps even a just quick update on the main Arena web site about a possible fan club with a direct link to this thread would generate a few more responses - currently we are only advertising to this forum !

[PH]

Perhaps even a just quick update on the main Arena web site about a possible fan club with a direct link to this thread would generate a few more responses - currently we are only advertising to this forum !

Yes, we need to step out and reach as many people as possible.
On websites such as progarchives.com, perhaps insideout.de, or what to think of DPRP and Progwereld.


Oh wait, I said that before...


-Paco


EDIT: or progressive rock internet radio programmes!

[Stuart]

Someone must have an email list of folks who previously joined The Cage. Why not email that list and ask who is interested in a new fan club and ask for feedback on what they would like to see.

Anyone know how many cage members there ever were? I only found out about it and joined after it became free.

[mdread666]

Well my old fan club membership number was 894 so there were considerably more members of the Cage than there are registered on this forum (even if the numbering started at 100 !)

[mdread666]

I have now joined and posted a new thread on the Pendragon forum so hopefully we'll get a few making the short journey over to here.

I will make the suggestion again here now that I think a quick update on the main Arena web site about the possibility of a fan club should be made - give us a fair crack at getting enough people interested to make it worth Clive's while. (if people don't know about it they can't say whether or not they'd be intereted !!)