The "Official" Message Board...

[PintOGuinness]

Is starting to drive me insane...   :evil:  I remember when I dropped in, most of the posts were from a relatively small few of truly die-hard Vanessa fans.. most noticably Let, Mike, Joe Wonkies, Nikkee, Tricia, Kas, Rich... I was a new person, I would have never presumed to jump in on EVERY SINGLE thread and post... and I woudl have never presumed as a newbie to post 50 individual topics each asking a retarded question...  Maybe it's just me but if I'm new somewhere I tend to learn how things work rather than make a specticle of myself...

Slowly some new folks like me came along and we got Andrew, Pete, Holly, Sierra, Zena, The Sass & Talia, David Hart, Colin...  folks that knew how to join a community and become part of it...

But just in the last few days.. I have been so annoyed with all these goofy folks who drop in and literally "take over..."  We're having to endure Political attacks, Lifestyle Attacks, playing "20 freaking retarded questions", someone even had the audacity to send a racial slur to Shayshen after sheeing that she wasn't white in the pics she posted...

I know some of you may be saying, whatever man, you're a newbie yourself.. we were here months before oyu showed up... who are YOU to say these things...  and you're right... But I'll tell you who I am:
I'm a guy that came to a place where I found people I liked a lot.. I built strong solid friendships and had some really great conversations.. and now I see some of those folks drifting away...  and the little "home" where i met them crumbling... and honstly it makes me sad...  

I guess it could have been expected... with Vanessas success comes the growth of her fanbase... I just didn't expect it so soon.

Well... I just want to let you "die-hards" know that I love ya... and I hope to see ya more often... I'm looking so forward to the Atlanta get together... and if ya ever need me I'll be here...

[MBMBrocks!]

yah... sure, right.

[Wonkies]

I agree with you Jason.  It's not the same as it was when it felt like we were a "family"  We actually had couple of threads about it on the board today.  And of course a lot of the "old timers" feel exactly the way you do.  We just don't seem to be as tight as we used to.  I guess it's just because there are so many people now.  We did have a new "Hey Yo!" thread going with many of the oldies in it.  It almost felt like the old days.

Hello, MBMBRocks.  I'm glad you could join us here on our little board.  Although it seems that you're just here to ridicule, you're welcome anyway.  I hope you have fun here and see that were are many loving Vanessa Carlton fans that just want to support one of our favorite artists.

Joe

[superscientific]

I agree too and I feel bad also at the same time
I love vanessa and Our Official board has gone into a deep change...
I am "one" of the people who have chatted their butts off and I feel bad.
I am a hardcore VC fan and I cannot wait for the ATL show either....
See you there Jason.....
we will do our best to "take it back to the old school" on the official board
thanks for once again dropping wisdom Jason lol

-Danny

[kaysha]

Heyyy,

i like the smiley face drinkin in your sig Jason

and i agree about the forums... i can't even keep up there are so many posts/day.  it seems like it's more used as a chat program instead of a forum.  perhaps there should be something setup similar to the vc aim chats where people can talk instead of using the forums?

-katia

[Trolan]

Why do I think I know where this is leading...

/me hides.

[nicole]

ehh there is nothing that can be done...

[Wonkies]

One big thing I notice is that if you talk about how peaceful the Official board used to be, people jump down your throat for just mentioning it, which just proves the whole point.  It's just nuts.  I guess there are just too many people there now.  Nikkee, I remember you telling me that the No Doubt board got that way and that all of the original "die-hard" members moved to a different board.  I wonder if that will happen here?  

[DioPolytropos]

folks, believe me.  the vc board is in no way unique in what's happening to it.  I've said repeatedly since I joined there in may that all band message boards follow the same life cycle.  every single change that has occured there was easily predictable, including the formation of this board, and the subsequent complaining about the old board (don't get me wrong, it's always a warranted complaint).  So just take this advice from me:

• get over it, and make this place as good as you can, cause the old board will never be the way it was
• forget the family nonsense.  every time that happens, it just makes the disappointement worse because of the connotations that "family" carries.  in reality, everyone here are friends and that's it.
• hope that this board remains a hide-out from the majority of the fans.  I would even suggest making the board private.  At the board where I had 9000 posts, which I mention occasionaly, the same cycle happened, and one my friends made a private, invitational message board so he could have greater control over the atmosphere.  it slows down a lot, but at least everyone there knows we're all friends, and we're all very comfortable talking as such.

[Wonkies]

Of course we're not a "family," Dio.  That's why I've always tried to put that term in quotes whenever I've used it, but we were a tight little group once.  I see your point though.  As I stated above, nikkee told me that the same thing happened at the No Doubt board.  I've never belonged to a message board before this and it's just a bummer that it "has" to be that way.  But as the artist's popularity grows, the more and more people join and the more diverse the opinions become.  I guess I can move on.  I'll have fun here in the mean time and as much fun there as I can.

-Joe

[superscientific]

True Joe we can have as much fun here!
These are where the real fans will come to be
thanks for pushing this place Joe....
I try to get people to come here too...
You guys are very much appreciated


-Danny

[PintOGuinness]

is completely right...  I was in the same situation... a samll group slintered off and created our own smaller private group...  it was actually quite wonderful...

Unfortunately, it has kinda gone down hill after a few years too...  but it did bring back that closeness that some of us really enjoyed...

As you guys can see.. I certainly never took off and I most likely never will... but i can't always guarantee I'm going to be nice, kind, friendly Jason either

[KULPDOGG]

:? our message boards have gone through very unique changes...well i think if we just ignore the bad people and just be ourselves we'd be a lot better off

[Wagella]

I am not in the Oldie catagory, I just go to have fun. I have never been serious, always sarcastic. I never meant to offend anyone. I hope I am not one of the annoying ones.

[snapple936]

i've been on the official board since late january, and i've seen it's transformation.  once a place of excitement, the board now offers very little love and hoards of new people. i would never say that having a lot of newbies is a bad thing, because i, for one, love having new people to talk to and i too was a newbie at one point, however it gets difficult when daily there are the same questions, the same topics, the same comments... then if they are ignored, the newbies feel like people are not interested in talking to them, and sometimes spam the board with threads containing the classic line, "why doesn't anyone like me?" :-)
i miss some of the older board members (anyone heard from kas lately, by the way?) and the way it was.  however, that doesn't mean i'm not looking forward to visiting it daily to talk to the friends that i have made while there.
by the way jason, i miss seeing you at the board! your wisdom and presence is truly missed.

anyway, there's my two cents. i love you guys.