[David]

The thread has reminded me of the website Mick Fleetwood operated many years ago. Anyone remember it? There was a forum, as I recall, run by a guy whom webbies took to calling "Toad." Was his name Jonathan Something-That-Rhymes-With-Toad? Or Todd? He seemed hellbent on convincing everyone how sweet and ethical a guy Mick was.

We were all really excited at first and jammed the place with chatter. But something started smelling after about a month or two—the admin began acting like a dick, appointing a small group of sycophants as his police cadre, who of course proceeded to ban strong-minded individuals right and left (because what else does a fan forum do but ban fans who don't fit the mold?). Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely should be the motto of every failed Fleetwood Mac web forum. Anyway, this place died out after about a year. There was even a meet and greet with Mick — exorbitantly priced and pushed on fans relentlessly. Forum goers finally got the idea that maybe the caring and sharing and chitchat weren't really the purpose of this site after all; maybe they were being used as customers bordering on bunco victims. Many forum users complained about the cost or the chintziness of the product . . . BAM they were out. Other fans defended them . . . BAM they were out. The more timid fans admitted that, yes, Mick could be a greedy bastard sometimes . . . BAM they were out too.

The site was insufferably puritanical and self-righteous, a lot like the Nicks Fix under John Kinney (who once kick-banned me out of a chat for discussing great James Bond villainesses—I mentioned Pussy Galore).