Pledge My Grievance to This Message Board

Oh, and to try and keep in the spirit of positive solutions...

How about making the board open again. It won't hurt the club. But if there is a need to gain additional 10 club members, why doesn't 10 Club do some things to make it more enticing without screwing people in the process? For instance, how about a checkbox on the website or something we can check when sending in our applications to the 10 Club to let us choose whether or not we want vinyls or cds from the fan club? Vinyls from the fan club are an interesting idea, but in the end they are a poor choice for the majority of people who might otherwise be interested in the singles.

How about 10 Club do whatever it would take to actually be prompt in the delivery of the single instead of having it be a running joke this many years into the process?

How about making a 10 Club only board in addition to a "Message Pit" in a way similar to Metallica's site or something where there is actually unique content presented there (like contact from the band members or something). I think the guys may actually be attentive to such a request if it were presented to them and it would be a real reason to choose an exclusive message board over a standard one.

Hopefully that helps in some manner to be proactive rather than just a bitch-fest.

azwyldcats wrote:

Get over yourself crybaby.

Yes, it's a terrible thing to try and stick up for people like myself who are avid fans and want to be a part of the Pearl Jam fan community on their primary board. I, and people like me, would be much better off if we just sat silently in a corner.

I'm disappointed that more people don't want to point out that this is a pretty crappy policy that has been recently implemented and that it is being detrimental to many people in the fanbase. And... it's an easy thing to fix were there the will to do so. This isn't asking for a miracle, it's asking for a return to a good thing that was previously implemented.

As for the posts about Pearl Jam shifting toward digital models perhaps resembling Radiohead, there's some sense in that line of thinking. However, I don't think locking down the primary fanclub message board to paying members is at all a necessary step to achieve a Radiohead-esqe model.

BostonJammer wrote:

Unless your girlfriend is 4 feet tall standing on a chair isn't cool. How tall is your girlfriend when she stands on a chair? I don't want to seem like a jerk, but if standing on a chair makes your girlfriend 6ft 2 think about the person standing behind her...

BostonJammer, trust me when I say that I'm a VERY polite and considerate person and I wouldn't do anything to infringe on others at a concert. My girlfriend is short and I'm not lying when I say that she literally did not get to see any of the entire concert except for the couple of moments she was able to stand on the chair. There were not video screens or any other option to view the band. It was the equivalent to buying tickets behind a wall for her and that was the "bonus" we got from being paying fan club members along with a vinyl christmas gift we have never once played. Did she enjoy the concert even though she couldn't see and is she still a fan? Yes. But is this because or despite the 10 Club? It's despite. Now that she can't even post on the message board without buying a second 10 Club account or logging in and posting as me, is she a fan of Pearl Jam because of 10 Club or despite it? It's despite it... see how there is a legitimate grievance to be had?

Other people in this thread have said things like I lost all credibility when I griped about the fan club single. I'm not just griping about the fan club single. I dealt with that just fine in the past. My grievance is now this...

Ten Club = inferior seating to Ticketmaster for us
Ten Club = useless vinyl album for me to collect some dust with or try to sell (which is something I just don't do)
Ten Club = an inferior source of information about the band, I always get my info from better locations like Billboard or this message board in the past

I did not receive any benefit from being a paying fan club member in the past. I'm not crying about it, I'm simply stating the fact and presenting the rational argument for why I stopped subscribing to the fan club in the first place. If it works out for other people, that's great and I'm happy for them. But standing back objectively and looking at what 10 Club has done for me, it simply has never been a worthwhile investment. Then to top it off, they then take away my and many other diehard fans ability to participate on the band's primary forum. I see a forum with way less people on it now and tons of "guests" who can't post. Why shouldn't I try to be a voice for the now voiceless and why shouldn't I try to speak up for a course of action that I believe strengthens people's interest and dedication to this band instead of works to cut at an already dwindling fanbase? I feel like I'm doing my part as a proactive fan of the band by speaking up instead of going off silently into the night.

Is that really all stuff I should just accept and keep paying money for?

Kat and 10 Club may have decided that this is just the way it is going to be, but I and many others were not able to post in those discussions that may have happened here. I also feel like the only way to put pressure on the 10 Club or whoever made the decision to lock this place up is to voice opposition to the policy. That's just the way things work both on message boards and reality.