My Bitch Fest about another fan site

[PenguinHead]

For many years, The Ledge was the only fan site I was ever a member of. When I "discovered' another band that I fell in love with (The Scissor Sisters), I joined their unofficial fan site -- sort of the equivilant to this site.

Keep in mind, the Scissor Sisters are an American band ( a blip in the states, but huge in the UK/Europe). Now this is a salty band that represents freedom, liberation...sort of an anything goes kind of mentality. But the complex website some fans established is Nazi-like in its rules and regulations. The rules and regulations are many -- so many that it is mind boggling. The site was obviously designed by super geeks who feel that more is more, and user-friendliness and simplicty be damned! It's so confusing I have a hard time figuring out how to respond to a post.

Also, there is an established f*cking class system! Many downloads are available and shared...but you can't just join up and enjoy them. Each member on the board gets a rating system in the form of five stars next to your name. You have to post about 200 time before your first star turns yellow. But that doesn't give you access to the downloads until all of your stars are yellow!

The mindset there (most of the members are outside the US, mostly Europe and UK) is that even though you may be a fan, that doesn't give you the privelege to download. You must contribute in a vast quantity of posts (earn your yellow stars!!) to do that. And if you don't maintain a certain level of frequency, you will lose your status to download!

The problem I have with this is that most of the downloads are public domain...such like all the stuff we share here freely and willingly with fans old and new to this site. Yet, on the SS site, they feel you have to earn the right -- and they hold their stuff, such as radio shows, bootleg concerts etc...captive, as if they own it!!!!

It just makes me so appreciative of The Ledge, which is such a breath of fresh air in comparison! A simple and easy site to converse and share with like-minded fans, with relatively basic rules of civility and fairness. The freedom and fluidity here is as palatable as are the constrictions and rigid controls that exist there.