netty Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 True that. They got news about Uno and Dos first and when they tried to post about it here the topics got deleted because "we" had to wait. So paying 20 dollars every year makes them "bigger" fans than me? LMAO that doesn`t make members "bigger" fans. its just that members pay for exclusives and having news early (which hasn`t happened that often) is part of the deal. I can understand the urge to share news but one of the most often stated comments about exclusives is that they aren`t exclusive for long. and that`s down to members who want to be the first to share the news. we can`t stop people doing that. I like the Idiot Club...I do think they need a new update but I still like it! thanks for that! it is nice to see the occasional comment in support for the IC...for all its problems Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momoluvGD Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 I have a feeling that the IC will get better soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Lights Flash Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 I just don't understand why a band like Green Day would charge $20/year so that people can be part of their official fan club. That just feels wrong in so many ways. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ritz Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 There is a pakistani band I used to follow. They had a big fanbase and used forums to connect with their fans. It was free. Compared to GD they are small time. If they can afford a free forum then why can't GD? Its all commercialisation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuzz Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 Alright Brian, since you asked! Signup / Price $20 a year isn't a lot of money for a service, but the Idiot Club falls short as that service. Most people pay that right now "just in case" something comes out. That means at this point you guys are only reaching the fans who have $20 to throwaway in the off chance they get something. You guys should be doing more and making more of a community, you can do that and make it worth $20. Then you guys will get more members. I think two major changes need to happen to the price: 1) If contests will remain US only (which I understand they may because of legal issues), then international fans should be offered a lower price. It's not really fair to them that they can't participate in these contests (which have so far been a big part of joining) yet pay the same price. 2) Make it optional to receive the yearly product. Some people would rather just spend the $20 for membership and have a choice about whether or not they get the shirt or postcards. Some fans will want it, others won't. Forum Logging in: I understand the technical issues of this, but this needs to be sorted. You shouldn't have to login twice to get to the forum. Also, you should consider showing the most recently posted in topics on the IC homepage, or even better, GD.com. Give people a reason to be there. You guys need to build up the community. Interact, give people a reason to communicate and share and post on the IC forum. The reason GDC is so active is not just because we're free, but because we have a team that constantly works on engaging people, and in the early days, we were a major part of all the conversations. There's no reason the IC couldn't have more conversation with the current amount of users, but I don't feel that IC users are as dedicated to the IC as GDC members are here, which is not a good thing considering they're paying for the privilege. That alone should make people MORE committed to something, but that's not happening. Simplify the forum. I think for the amount of activity you have, you guys have way too many forums, all of which have non-sensical names. They're all Green Day references, but have absolutely nothing to do with whatever the forum is about. Every time I go I have to read the forum description to remember where I'm supposed to go for certain types of threads. Remove some forums, make it more simple to navigate, and as suggested, a redesign should be looked into. Even a simple design update to make the forum more readable. Value I think you guys need to give more value to the Idiot Club. Make it worth the $20 people spend there. I think if we charged $20 a year to access GDC we could have a lot of users because people appreciate what this forum is. They make it their online home, invest time in the community and build friendships. You can't put a price on that, and many people would find that worth the cost alone. However, you guys have a lot to offer, just don't do it consistently. Give value in exclusive interactions, not news. A lot of fans are turned off by the Idiot Club when you guys get news first, and as a result we have to hold posting anything here or on GDA. People post stuff, then we delete it. It's annoying. But I do think that's only fair to the people who pay. They pay to get something extra, and that's the extra, so we have to enforce it. You guys can offer two HUGE things that would make that $20 so worthwhile while not annoying other Green Day fans because they can't see news: (though of course, some fans will always be annoyed): exclusive presales, and Green Day. You guys already do a decent job with presales, with only a couple gripes. During the outdoor tour a couple years ago, a lot of people complained that the presale tickets were lawn seats, or cheap tickets. Idiot Club members should get first shot at floor tickets. These are the fans who most want to be on the floor, very close to Green Day, they should get the best seats possible. Do interviews with Green Day and those who work with them (Chris Dugan, Jason Freese, Bill Schneider, Chris Billheimer, etc.) . It's their fan club, I don't expect them to post on the forums and interact everywhere, I totally understand how they could be turned off by that stuff and don't blame them at all. But that doesn't mean they couldn't start doing video Q&A's again, every few months or whatever. Give fans a chance to ask a question, give other fans who pay the chance to see the video. That's something that can be exclusive. Ideally, that's something that would be exclusive for a month, then post the video on YouTube or GD.com. Not only will that give other Green Day fans a closer relationship with Green Day, but it encourages them to join the idiot club to participate the next time around. Everyone wins! Short summary: Make it worth $20 by giving better exclusives that isn't news, make it easier to use, build up the community. Or, hire me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sanity Loan Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 that doesn`t make members "bigger" fans. its just that members pay for exclusives and having news early (which hasn`t happened that often) is part of the deal. I can understand the urge to share news but one of the most often stated comments about exclusives is that they aren`t exclusive for long. and that`s down to members who want to be the first to share the news. we can`t stop people doing that. Thank you for saying this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweet Armataged Chump Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 Or, hire me. That works Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momoluvGD Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 Dear Green Day, I am pretty good at designs and could redo your fan website. If you want me to help keep things updated I will do that too. Love, Momo and almost all Green Day fans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pieterv Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 Everyone and their mom is "pretty good with design" and "can make a website", it's probably also the reason it's so bad right now (from what I've heard, not a member)… managers hiring random people that claim to be designers and developers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momoluvGD Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 Everyone and their mom is "pretty good with design" and "can make a website", it's probably also the reason it's so bad right now (from what I've heard, not a member)… managers hiring random people that claim to be designers and developers. Could be.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trina Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 I've been a member for a few years. I've won access to a soundcheck and early entry for shows and that was really really fantastic considering some acts today charge hundreds for this and others don't do anything like this. I haven't used the forum in ages and have never used it much. I like my two IC tops but tbh would have preferred not to pay the extra 10 bucks for these postcards I still haven't received. I don't really use/enjoy anything else from the club/site. I find it somewhat unprofessional and majorly lacking in enthusiasm. It needs a major revamp. A whole new feel and a boost because honestly the biggest turn off is how dead and half-assed it seems. Some suggestions: ~Hire someone great to do the site design. Have everything be consistent and cool. No glitches and sweet baby jesus, change the font!! ~Sort out all tech issues - the logging in/out problems, etc. ~Have the option for manual renewal. A lot of Green Day's fans are young and don't have a credit card. it's not really right for it to renew automatically when they might have borrowed someone's card. Maybe make an option for people to pay with paypal or something too? ~Definitely let people have the option to not get the t-shirt/postcards whatever. ~Maybe get more "gifts" or whatever...Doesn't have to be fancy, could be stickers, posters, pictures, newletters, whatever. Don't make it cost an extra 10 bucks though!! ~More competitions, especially worldwide. Actually, if it's an international fanclub there should ONLY be international competitions since everyone's paying the same. Even if it means less comps for a while till things are sorted out, I think it's only fair. Otherwise lower the price for intl. fans. ~Try to see if the shipping charges can be lowered at all? 10 dollars extra for intl. members for some postcards seems like a lot! Maybe lower the membership price itself? ~Make sure everyone gets their (forced) gifts in a timely manner!! ~Consistently post up-to-date well written news. Not just random copy and paste articles. Perhaps get some members to be in charge of that? More exclusive news would be cool too. Doesn't even have to be big stuff, just little updates. ~Sort out the photo and video galleries. They really need to be expanded. Maybe fans could help with that too, idk. ~Have a section for fan art, covers, pics with band members, pics of collections and GD inspired rooms, etc and maybe editorials about GD. ~Expand on the site content; maybe get a good bio of GD on there, audio, lyrics, tabs, articles, idk? Keep everything updated, otherwise just don't have it. ~More benefits...maybe a discount on merch, soundboard recordings of shows, idk! ~Better run presales that are always for the best seats. ~Make it easier for people to contact the IC people for help/queries, etc...I've seen a lot of people wait a good while for a response. ~Not sure if this is possible but if the site could automatically resize to fit people's screens correctly, for example I normally use a laptop with quite a small screen and the pages are all stretched out on it. ~It would be nice if there was more stuff such as interviews, messages, videos from/of Green Day and the crew, etc. I understand that maybe it's difficult to have Green Day do these things but I'm sure some of their collaborators, team, crew, support bands, etc wouldn't mind. ~The forum needs a complete restart tbh. Maybe get some more mods who like Andres said will engage with people and change up the forum, get rid of some sections, change the titles to something more clear, etc and simplify it in general. I do understand though that it's kind of up to us to start using it though. Maybe if each time there is a news post on the IC, straight away a forum thread is created too, asking for people's opinions? ~Keep up the soundcheck and early entry comps, etc. I think they're great. I suppose there could be some meet and greet ones too if Green Day were up for that. Hmm, so that was all badly written but really what I'm looking for is more and better (especially original) content and benefits, consistency in the rules, charges, design and content and a boost of enthusiasm! To people who dislike there being a charge, I totally feel you and used to (and still to some extent) be quite uneasy with it but now I see it as something maybe essential? Of course it could be a little cheaper and they definitely could deliver more but if you think about it, if it were free absolutely anyone could join for whatever reason. This could include fair weather, middle of the road fans, haters, spammers, etc. When there's competitions, any random douche could win. If someone is willing to pay 20-30 bucks a year for this, at least at soundchecks or for early entry it's probably all pretty die-hard fans. However, if it was free maybe it would be people who wouldn't appreciate it/value it/enjoy it as much. I don't know...It's kind of like putting a deposit on something to show you value it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isabel Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 I cancelled my subscription in March for the first time in 6 years....I really didn't have €30 at the time of renewal and I figured I'd just sign up again when I did get the money. But I still haven't....I probably will when the album comes out though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
farley drexel hatcher Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 I've never been on the IC as a member, but personally I believe it's an outdated idea. When the IC came about there was no Twitter or Facebook or Tumblr; news could only spread through messageboards and forums, and usually it took longer because it didn't make the social network rounds first. But today, it's impossible to keep anything on there as an exclusive. There are more platforms for people to spread news faster than there used to be. I know they can't help this, but still. $20 is a lot of money for what is on offer in my opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whatsername Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 With Pleasure! The Idiot Club should definitely be cheaper for members outside of US. It is unfair to not have the opportunity to participate in most contests, giveways etc. It is also misleading for fans who are joining because in the list of what "IC offers" on the home-page there is no mention that contests are only open to US citizens. Either offer what ive stated to all fans or have a lower fee for all other countries. However, i do not think $20 is worth it for anyone. Back when the IC first started was the only time it was satisfactory to me. With the video Q/A and what-not. It also was generally a more professional site. Ive had problems waiting over 6 months for a t-shirt that came with the membership and sending off many emails to contact the IC and got no help. I should not have to go through a mod weeks later to get that kind of help. Alot of changes need to be made because the last few years it is like you are trying to keep fans away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kellista Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 Since there isn't much on IC except for pre-sales, I signed up so I could get the shirt when I renew. Now I can't even get that. I really recommend you go back to the shirts. Honestly who has any use for postcards with the guys on them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trina Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 Oh, not to go off topic here but is it only the postcards that are being sent out? I thought the cassette t-shirt was going to be sent out too. Was that not said at some point or am I wrong? My renewal was at the end of may.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spark in the night Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 Can someone take a screenshot? I want to see this design Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clockwise Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 The only reason I renewed my subscription is PRESALES. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sara_gd Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 Keep the early entry up! That's my two cents Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreenDayisAmazing Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 I like posting on here better then IC. I've only posted there about 30 times or less in the last 2 years. I need to renew my membership, but I don't have the money to right now. Last year when I renewed I didn't get my shirt for atleast 6 months. The presales and contests are the reason I have IC. Well, I think it's hilarious that they changed the Green Day logo on the news page to match the new album font, but they didn't change the link graphics. So there are bits of the old logo in the link graphics. I agree with Ingrid. It needs a design update. They have been doing better with activity lately. For a while the whole thing was so terrible, I never went there. That being said, I do wish we'd get more exclusives. Everything seems to get posted on GD.com a couple hours after it's posted on IC. And it would be nice if the IC presales were ACTUALLY presales. I'm referring to AI tickets. The 'presales' went up sometimes MONTHS after the tickets actually went on sale. I have to agree with you on the AI Musical presales. I bought my tickets the first day they went on presale and they never even asked me if I wanted to do the upgrade thing with the poster and stuff. =(When ever I find out any Green Day news it's either on here or FB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JellyTime Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 With Pleasure! The Idiot Club should definitely be cheaper for members outside of US. It is unfair to not have the opportunity to participate in most contests, giveways etc. It is also misleading for fans who are joining because in the list of what "IC offers" on the home-page there is no mention that contests are only open to US citizens. Either offer what ive stated to all fans or have a lower fee for all other countries. However, i do not think $20 is worth it for anyone. This! I wanted to be a member, but when I heard about these contests only for US members, I changed my mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fiercecircus Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 Guys, here's my beef with Idiot club (besides the fact that the web design sucks, more on that later.): BACK IN THE DAY (yes, grandma is going to tell you kids a story...) I wrote to Green Day at the address given in the dookie liner notes. Because we had no internet back then. I wrote them a goofy fan mail letter, and in return, i got an envelope back with a flyer in it. The flyer was for THE ORIGINAL IDIOT CLUB. You had three options: a cheap membership (which gave you membership and that's it), a mid-range membership (which got you some stickers or something) and an EXPENSIVE membership that got you membership, the stickers and crap the midrange people got AND a shirt. It was $45. I got stickers, the shirt (ugly but still a shirt), three postcards (with the b/w pics of them as children) and a Guitar Pick. And maybe some other stuff, i have to dig thru my boxes of crap. Now, back then $45 was probably a lot of money but- YOU GOT SHIT. and MEMBERSHIP WAS FOR LIFE. This was in 1995. I continued to get mailings, stickers, christmas cards, updates, etc from them until about 2000. I got updates about Insomniac. I got a different Xmas card every year. I GOT A WHOLE SHEET OF DIFFERENT SIZED NIMROD STICKERS. I got a postcard that told me when Jakob was born. And they had a store where you could order other shirts and stuff (i got several.) Then it stopped. Then this new idiot club came out circa American Idiot and it was whatever dollars for NOTHING except presales and a crappy website- which at the time was REALLY SUPER CRAPPY. It was totally not even useful at all and whoever coded it did a shitty job because the thing would never load and always crash. It was the ultimate piece of shit. AND YOU HAD TO RENEW EVERY YEAR. So i had to pay even more for even less? I mean, all the videos get posted to youtube after a few days anyways. And honestly, i've gotten fine tickets without presales. And there are other presales besides the IC presales. I know i got presale tix for the american idiot tour, i forget thru who but i did. But either way, i have gotten floor tix every time with no problem since 1995 (except for when my BF bought them in 2010, because he sucks. Never let someone else buy your tickets.) Just buy when they go on sale and you'll be fine. I even got first row to the times talks in 2005 with no extra effort on my part. SO- i have decided that unless IC starts either being cheaper or STARTS BEING TOTALLY FUCKING MINDBLOWING AMAZING i'm never going to join. Call me old and jaded, but it was way better in the old days. I paid for my lifetime membership, y'know? I thought that meant until i was dead, and i'm not dead yet! Also, i have this beef with paying to be a fan. If they scaled it like they used to, i'd be down with that. OR IF THEY OFFERED SOMETHING AMAZING. As a comparison, my mom is in the Keith Urban fanclub (guh, midlife crisis), and she gets a TON OF SHIT. Presales, meet and greets, shirts, calenders, etc. They have a scrapbook for members to buy, a table at every show for people to get their "passports" stamped. Etc... it goes the extra mile for the people that have paid the extra dime. It's pretty fucking cool and i'm kind of sad we don't have something that awesome. I tend to think of GDA/GDC as the official "fan" sites just because we have way more community and the people that run it here give more of a shit about it (like Andres said, we DO stuff.) ************ My last beef- for a band with the spread and stature of Green Day, and the money they must bring into their company... THEY HAVE THE SHITTIEST FUCKING FANCLUB AND WEBSITES EVER. Gah. The GreenDay.com has gotten better (at least it functions) but it still looks like a wordpress page I could make (for reference- www.fiercecircus.com. My media page kind of sucks and i'm ashamed of that.) I mean really? Comparatively? EVERY band out there (and every business out there) has better more professional looking pages than this. I know Green Day doesn't NEED an amazing website to gain fans or anything, and as far as i know they personally don't give a shit about the internet... but they fucking deserve better. They should fucking fire their web company, and hire Andres and the GDA team to do their official work. We usually have quicker updates and more exclusive news than they do anyways! RANT OFF. If i think of it and i can find it, i should photograph all of my old IC stuff. There's not a lot of that stuff on GDA and it's a trip down memory lane. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mies Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 Alright Brian, since you asked! Signup / Price $20 a year isn't a lot of money for a service, but the Idiot Club falls short as that service. Most people pay that right now "just in case" something comes out. That means at this point you guys are only reaching the fans who have $20 to throwaway in the off chance they get something. You guys should be doing more and making more of a community, you can do that and make it worth $20. Then you guys will get more members. I think two major changes need to happen to the price: 1) If contests will remain US only (which I understand they may because of legal issues), then international fans should be offered a lower price. It's not really fair to them that they can't participate in these contests (which have so far been a big part of joining) yet pay the same price. 2) Make it optional to receive the yearly product. Some people would rather just spend the $20 for membership and have a choice about whether or not they get the shirt or postcards. Some fans will want it, others won't. Forum Logging in: I understand the technical issues of this, but this needs to be sorted. You shouldn't have to login twice to get to the forum. Also, you should consider showing the most recently posted in topics on the IC homepage, or even better, GD.com. Give people a reason to be there. You guys need to build up the community. Interact, give people a reason to communicate and share and post on the IC forum. The reason GDC is so active is not just because we're free, but because we have a team that constantly works on engaging people, and in the early days, we were a major part of all the conversations. There's no reason the IC couldn't have more conversation with the current amount of users, but I don't feel that IC users are as dedicated to the IC as GDC members are here, which is not a good thing considering they're paying for the privilege. That alone should make people MORE committed to something, but that's not happening. Simplify the forum. I think for the amount of activity you have, you guys have way too many forums, all of which have non-sensical names. They're all Green Day references, but have absolutely nothing to do with whatever the forum is about. Every time I go I have to read the forum description to remember where I'm supposed to go for certain types of threads. Remove some forums, make it more simple to navigate, and as suggested, a redesign should be looked into. Even a simple design update to make the forum more readable. Value I think you guys need to give more value to the Idiot Club. Make it worth the $20 people spend there. I think if we charged $20 a year to access GDC we could have a lot of users because people appreciate what this forum is. They make it their online home, invest time in the community and build friendships. You can't put a price on that, and many people would find that worth the cost alone. However, you guys have a lot to offer, just don't do it consistently. Give value in exclusive interactions, not news. A lot of fans are turned off by the Idiot Club when you guys get news first, and as a result we have to hold posting anything here or on GDA. People post stuff, then we delete it. It's annoying. But I do think that's only fair to the people who pay. They pay to get something extra, and that's the extra, so we have to enforce it. You guys can offer two HUGE things that would make that $20 so worthwhile while not annoying other Green Day fans because they can't see news: (though of course, some fans will always be annoyed): exclusive presales, and Green Day. You guys already do a decent job with presales, with only a couple gripes. During the outdoor tour a couple years ago, a lot of people complained that the presale tickets were lawn seats, or cheap tickets. Idiot Club members should get first shot at floor tickets. These are the fans who most want to be on the floor, very close to Green Day, they should get the best seats possible. Do interviews with Green Day and those who work with them (Chris Dugan, Jason Freese, Bill Schneider, Chris Billheimer, etc.) . It's their fan club, I don't expect them to post on the forums and interact everywhere, I totally understand how they could be turned off by that stuff and don't blame them at all. But that doesn't mean they couldn't start doing video Q&A's again, every few months or whatever. Give fans a chance to ask a question, give other fans who pay the chance to see the video. That's something that can be exclusive. Ideally, that's something that would be exclusive for a month, then post the video on YouTube or GD.com. Not only will that give other Green Day fans a closer relationship with Green Day, but it encourages them to join the idiot club to participate the next time around. Everyone wins! Short summary: Make it worth $20 by giving better exclusives that isn't news, make it easier to use, build up the community. Or, hire me. totally agree Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
netty Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 I`ve started a new thread on the IC forums in the site section where members can make their suggestions. I`ve briefly summarized most of the things from this thread and from what I can remember from previous discussions. hopefully something positive will come out of these discussions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harinezumi Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 I like the idea of two or three different kinds of memberships. Pearl Jam fan club has two: digital and analog. Digital costs less and you get access to members-only things, but nothing in the mail. Analog costs twice as much, but you get a single and a "membership item" etc. in the mail each year. You can take a look at it here: http://pearljam.com/subscriptions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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