General Chat #6

Originally posted by Ale91:[..]

Bye Katie
I'm off too! Bye

Originally posted by AAV711:"An Internet For You, Too!"

From those occasionally checking their email to those grown men scouring the far corners of the blogosphere from the Lay-Z-Boy in their parents’ basement, the internet is perhaps now the most important component of mobile privatization. And now that groceries can be ordered online, one’s state of total recluse is more within reach than ever. The internet is a supplier of necessities and commodities alike—even, say, one’s favorite Irish rock quartet. U2 capitalized on the internet boom in the mid-90s by installing a webcam in the studio for the recording of what would become their 1997 effort Pop; since then, their official website has grown considerably, and fans the globe over have taken matters into their own hands with fansites sprouting up like so many wildflowers. Today, U2.com goes head-to-head with U2start.com for the title of official nexus of all things U2.

U2.com, owned and operated by the corporation U2 Limited (which in turn is owned by the four band members and their manager), beckons visitors to enter with a massive graphic of their newly-remastered 1983 live EP Under A Blood Red Sky. Upon entry, a banner of the last album cover adorns the top of the page, with the band looking down over their digital pilgrims. There’s also—but wait!—a bright yellow notice on the side screams
Subscribe! Sign up as a paid subscriber to U2.Com and get closer to U2 and their music than ever. Don't take our word for it. Take a free tour of our Subscription Site. Each subscription comes with ‘U2 Go Home: Live From Slane Castle' a double CD live set from the 2001 Elevation Tour. And you also get to choose a limited edition U2 T-Shirt.
Such incentive “to get closer to U2 and their music than ever” surely drives a true U2 fan to whip out their credit card for the $45 annual charge. And what will they have to show for it? Well aside from the aforementioned limited edition CD and t-shirt, and their very own email address “@U2.com,”
access to the site [that has] got just about everything you need. The deeper you dig, the more you find, the harder to leave! Exclusive stories and band interviews, streaming music, great competitions, full length video from every chapter in U2’s story and Zootopia, our 24/7 online community.
The appeal here is to those with whom U2’s music has struck a chord emotionally as the backdrop to a time of deep psychological revelation, enjoyment, turmoil or other intense affair. The offers on this website—the ones aforementioned, as well as more clickables on the home page reading “watch the videos, listen to the tracks, read the reviews. Everything you need to know on our new microsite” and “’2009 to be our year:’ Bono calls in to tell us what's happening with the new record”—offer further development towards the goal of completely immersing oneself in U2, thereby reaching a very personal and spiritual state of enlightenment.

U2start, on the other hand, entices to “share your passion:” “welcome to the home of U2 fans.” Originally created so fans could download from the band’s vast stores of bootleg recordings from once centralized accessible location, the site has since expanded to include discussion forums, video and photo databases and data on every song supplied by fans—notable performances and statistics on where a tune ranks among fans (be it an outright favorite, a live favorite, most requested or a lyrical favorite).
Welcome to U2start.com, the ultimate website for any U2 fan. We have thousands of members worldwide who gather here to take advantage of the massive amount of U2 content available here. We also boast one of the most active U2 forums on the internet so please feel free to drop in and voice your opinions on all things U2.
This experience is much more fan-driven: rather than be subject to whatever the more-corporate-than-you-would-believe mavens behind the official site, U2start members actively set the agenda—in fact, I’ve just announced this paper over the forums, and that I will put it up for my fellow U2ers to view upon completion. Statistically, U2start seems to be much more popular than the official site.
There are currently 4,558 topics started on the forums with over 187,179 messages. More than 12,429 fans are a member of U2start. The average age of the U2start users is 28.
U2Start’s strength lies in membership gratis and free license: the only rule, aside from respect for one’s fellow fans, is an uncompromising ban on the posting for download of “official” material.

It is important to make the distinction between official and unofficial: official is anything that the band has endorsed, anything that can be purchased at a retailer for money. Unofficial might even be of higher quality than an official release, but no money will change hands: the band has no stake in it, aside from their reputation. In 2001, Bono even made the point of endorsing U2 bootlegs: “We invite people to bootleg our shows. We invite people to make copies, we've no problems with that, but if some guy is gonna make money off the back of this, we're gonna find out where he parks his car.” The non-profit website is given merit but may not ultimately provide as effective a product as the official channel.

Moreover, the fansite has the added benefit of being a third-party. Fans often bring up subjects that would probably raise the ire of the staff at the official website. This week’s polling question asked “Do you think Bono’s appearances in various political events have affected the release of the [currently progressing] album?” There have been many other questions regarding fans’ thoughts on if the band were past their prime, if Bono’s new haircut was satisfactory, if their shows had too much of a political bend, among many other things. Fans are also encouraged to name and discuss their favorite band member (by popular consensus, guitarist The Edge). One of the most popular forum topics is the General Politics Discussion, which has shown some of the most dedicated U2 fans to be highly critical of Bono’s humanitarian efforts. The official site is far less accommodating—not that they discourage discourse, but there is simply no appropriate place for it in the narrow spectrum of their website. U2.com is a highly preferred and dominant zone—one that has the benefit of a library of high-quality material but at a price, both fiscal and expressive. While U2Start.com has a much bigger library though with material usually not quite of the highest caliber, it offers much more for the curious fan with time to spare.

Both websites offer a unique experience for the fan: as a member of one and not the other, I am biased in my recommendation. The unofficial site boasts far more content (though only a sliver of it may be worthy) and freedom to operate than the official site, though the U2.com has the quickest access to official statements and releases by the band. The ultimate difference is that U2.com, the official site, always sounds as if it is trying to make a point, to sell itself. U2Start.com, unofficial site, might make less of an attempt to lure a visitor in, but knows that a fan’s passion is what drove them to the site in the first place, and that they do not need to convince their worth to a potential user; rather, the user is free here to make what they will of the site’s vast resources, to maximize their U2 listening experience according to their terms.


....Someone tell me if this could be better posted elsewhere.

Originally posted by thefly07:[..]

is this from somewhere?

Originally posted by yuri31:anyone?

Originally posted by markp91:[..]


How are you? Done anything nice today?