Discord - The Backup Community?

[Fall]

Hello Lillytown People!

Do you or anyone you know use Discord?

AAm was recently brought down for several days due to possibly corrupted data, a bug of some kind, or an attack. I don't know for sure what it was. In the Mod Forum, Ben the site owner, had previously suggested Discord (https://discord.com/) as a potential alternative or backup community to AAm should it ever go down permanently.

I'd like to make it clear that I am not advocating an abandoning of this site. I don't think an Alizée Discord server could really replace AAm. It's a different animal altogether, apples and oranges. CC mentioned in the chatbox that there are many years (since 2006) of history and information on AAm. That's fourteen years of posts and discussion that remains incredibly valuable to the fan community, even when taking into account all the dead links and blank pages. Should an Alizée Discord server exist fourteen years from now, you would have to scroll for many hours to find discussions you can find with a few clicks on AAm. So once again, we're talking about a different thing altogether.

Personally, I have never used Discord. However, I've seen it used many many times by other people, and many YouTubers, Twitch Streamers, and fan communities of all kinds use it regularly to discuss different topics. Like AAm, you can post upload pictures, link to videos, but you can also use voice and video chat. 10 years ago (!) for the tenth anniversary of Moi Lolita, many AAm members gathered on Ventrilo to celebrate. We used it on another occasion for the live updates on the UEDS polaroid shoot around the same time. Using it for the first time was clunky and awkward, but imagine if we could have features like that built in? A clever, interactive, and modern platform where you can also send PMs, use emoji, create custom stickers, and more.

I recently made a Discord account to follow a YouTube community I already followed elsewhere. I had the idea of creating a Discord server for Alizée fans around the world to congregate. As CC also mentioned, this is probably the last Alizée forum left standing. But what that says to me is that there are hundreds if not thousands of Alizée fans out there who have lost their "Alizée home." Sure, you can follow her and fan accounts on Facebook, Twitter, IG, and more, but there is no one place for all to come together and discuss news and music, etc. There used to be many fan sites for people all over the world. Mexico had several forums, a few India forums, there was even a Lillytown USA for a time. Alizée Forum had several subforums for different language users. For whatever reason, some of these folks never found their way to AAm. But they are still out there.

I wonder if we could find a few that use Discord to bring some of them together.

https://discord.com/

For those who don't know what it is, Discord is a platform for online communities.

In their own words:

https://i.imgur.com/eMfpdty.png

https://i.imgur.com/E5oJJjK.png

https://i.imgur.com/TcgXXNE.png

https://i.imgur.com/lqvg4Tw.png

https://i.imgur.com/RY6Gx1x.png

https://i.imgur.com/bkPnsU5.png

[Kajue]

Yes yes yes! I wanted to bring this up one of these days. A discord would be a fantastic idea!

[Ben.Daly]

Looks like a good idea to get going. I've been thinking of getting active of Discord for a while now but never made the plunge, this would be a good place to start.

[CleverCowboy]

Some of us older members had discussed the future of AAm in the past, and we know that it falls into the hands of younger fans. We have a few threads that we started on updating our site and the features that members would like to see, and the younger members mentioned all the modern features seen on different social media platforms.

But here is the (potential) problem. Most, if not all, of those younger members from those threads are no longer involved on the forum. Maybe they are still Alizee fans and just follow her on IG and FB, maybe they just moved on altogether. So if AAm moves to another platform such as Discord, ownership and/or administration should be given to multiple members, if possible.

That being said, I have never used or seen Discord, but I will check it out. For those that have used it, is there a way to control membership to a community? Can a community be moderated and memberships revoked?

If you go back to the early years of this forum and read some of the threads, there are threads that got hostile at times and the conversation went off in some unpleasant directions. There is enough unpleasantness in the world already and I would not like our community to go down that route.

Now I will ask the question, why would we want to move to Discord besides that AAm crashed for a few days?

Will it attract more new members, and how?

[Kajue]

Some of us older members had discussed the future of AAm in the past, and we know that it falls into the hands of younger fans. We have a few threads that we started on updating our site and the features that members would like to see, and the younger members mentioned all the modern features seen on different social media platforms.

But here is the (potential) problem. Most, if not all, of those younger members from those threads are no longer involved on the forum. Maybe they are still Alizee fans and just follow her on IG and FB, maybe they just moved on altogether. So if AAm moves to another platform such as Discord, ownership and/or administration should be given to multiple members, if possible.

That being said, I have never used or seen Discord, but I will check it out. For those that have used it, is there a way to control membership to a community? Can a community be moderated and memberships revoked?

If you go back to the early years of this forum and read some of the threads, there are threads that got hostile at times and the conversation went off in some unpleasant directions. There is enough unpleasantness in the world already and I would not like our community to go down that route.

Now I will ask the question, why would we want to move to Discord besides that AAm crashed for a few days?

Will it attract more new members, and how?

Like what Fall said, I personally do not advocate an abandoning of this site either, too much history, a Alizée Discord server would not be able to replace it. Especially cause Discord does not have threads.

However, I believe a Discord branch off could play a very key role in attracting the younger generation to become fans, and organize events, among other things in the future. A significant number of the younger generation use Discord, many use it to for certain communities, some others for gaming, and others for pure communication.

As for the question about moderation on a server. Discord does allow the owner of the sever to assign "roles" (which you can custom name) to different people. This will allow some members to be Administrators, Moderators, and etc.
As a admin or mod, you will be able too delete messages, images, add new sub-sections of the server, and even BAN users from the server if they ever get too hostile or inappropriate.

And as for the question of attracting new fans to the forum, that can be organized too. There are many ways to advertise Discord servers, and the people on discord are usually decently tech savvy. So I've been playing around with an idea. (It may seem ridiculous, so bare with me everyone)

I know there is still a general incentive on this forum to promote Alizée here in the US, as well as wish that Alizée should've been marketed more here in the US. Although it may seem pretty much hopeless at this point, I think a Discord server could be a major factor in making this happen.

If enough of the fanbase were to join the server I believe we could be able to organize pretty large campaigns targeting a US audience. Discord is primarily a messaging app, which you can access through the computer as a site, and through your phone as an app. You get instant notifications, just like giant sized SMS group chat. I think this could provide us the "Ease of Communication" which a forum doesn't really provide, to work on big collaborations and campaigns.

We could use the Discord to organize, maybe a crowdfund internationally (Patreon, GoFundMe, etc.) in order to be able to have the funds to promote Alizée, and the forum on the various social media sites (using targeted niche Facebook Ads, Instagram Promos, etc.) and for the Funds to be able to keep THIS site going, as well as money to go into making new improvements to the site itself.



IDK, I'm just being a idealistic youth. But hey, if there's a will, there is a way I guess.

[Ben]

Hey all,

Just want to chime in: I'm all for any sort of backup, or even a migration to another platform.

The last downtime was likely caused by bugs/limitations in our version of vBulletin. We haven't been able to update that in a long time due to loosing the original license when the site changed hands.

I've been trying to keep things running, but truth is we're on borrowed time without a serious over-hall. That's probably not as time or cost efficient as moving to a new platform, and archiving everything here.

I can't take point now, but would be happy to support any community effort, and can re-direct the alizeeamerica.com address to the new home once it's fully established.

Thanks, and apologies for the downtime!

[Scruffydog777]

Hey all,

Just want to chime in: I'm all for any sort of backup, or even a migration to another platform.

The last downtime was likely caused by bugs/limitations in our version of vBulletin. We haven't been able to update that in a long time due to loosing the original license when the site changed hands.

I've been trying to keep things running, but truth is we're on borrowed time without a serious over-hall. That's probably not as time or cost efficient as moving to a new platform, and archiving everything here.

I can't take point now, but would be happy to support any community effort, and can re-direct the alizeeamerica.com address to the new home once it's fully established.

Thanks, and apologies for the downtime!

Thanks for your input and all you've done for us Ben!

[CleverCowboy]

I know there is still a general incentive on this forum to promote Alizée here in the US, as well as wish that Alizée should've been marketed more here in the US. Although it may seem pretty much hopeless at this point, I think a Discord server could be a major factor in making this happen.


Most Alizee fans in the US just stumble upon her. Alizee, Mylene or any other French artist has zero airplay here. I'm not quite sure why, but there is a general distaste for French people in the US. Maybe it's because of how the movies generally portray the French as being rude and snobby to Americans? In my experience, I found that to be untrue, at least of those I had met.

I suppose there is a greater chance of people in the US stumbling upon Alizee on a Discord server than a standalone web site.

At this juncture, the Discord community would be an extension of this web site, not a replacement. When naming the community, I think it should contain "Alizee America" in it, or just be named it and nothing else. We can include a link to the Discord community on this web site, and a link to this web site on Discord. If it flops, we can dissolve it and we would still have this site. If it takes off as hoped, then we would have some decisions to make long term.

Edit:


The last downtime was likely caused by bugs/limitations in our version of vBulletin. We haven't been able to update that in a long time due to loosing the original license when the site changed hands.


Thanks for posting about the license. I wasn't aware of this and it explains a lot.



I can't take point now, but would be happy to support any community effort, and can re-direct the alizeeamerica.com address to the new home once it's fully established.


Any help you can give us would be greatly appreciated! :)

[Fall]

At this juncture, the Discord community would be an extension of this web site, not a replacement. When naming the community, I think it should contain "Alizee America" in it, or just be named it and nothing else.

I disagree. When this site was created, it's name of Alizée America was meant to signify that its members were a community from the United States in general, and maybe Canada and the rest of the Americas. At the time and until recently, Alizée Italia, Alizée France, Alizée India, Alizée Brazil, Alizée Russia, Alizée Spain, Alizée World (from Mexico), and many, many more fan websites and forums existed to represent a particular country or region of fans in the world. The dream was to try and build a large enough community that it could be recognized and perhaps bring Alizée over to perform or tour.

We've had many members from all over the world, and today, maybe 5 or 6 of us active members are in the US, with everyone else representing other locations. I think at this point, if we want to build a community for all Alizée fans, we should come up with a new name. Especially if the Discord server is not meant to be a replacement for Alizée America.

[Ben.Daly]

I disagree. When this site was created, it's name of Alizée America was meant to signify that its members were a community from the United States in general, and maybe Canada and the rest of the Americas. At the time and until recently, Alizée Italia, Alizée France, Alizée India, Alizée Brazil, Alizée Russia, Alizée Spain, Alizée World (from Mexico), and many, many more fan websites and forums existed to represent a particular country or region of fans in the world. The dream was to try and build a large enough community that it could be recognized and perhaps bring Alizée over to perform or tour.

Are all of these forums gone or are there still a couple that linger on? As someone who joined AAm only this year, I got the impression that it must've evolved into the place for English-speakers, and that perhaps there were other forums for those speaking Russian, Spanish, Italian etc. Considering how you see fans from all over the world in YouTube comment sections and on Instagram, are we sure all the other forums are gone?

We've had many members from all over the world, and today, maybe 5 or 6 of us active members are from the US, with everyone else representing other locations. I think at this point, if we want to build a community for all Alizée fans, we should come up with a new name. Especially if the Discord server is not meant to be a replacement for Alizée America.

I agree with this sentiment, though it shouldn't really be too much of a problem either way. Guess we'd need a new name for it.

[CleverCowboy]

We've had many members from all over the world, and today, maybe 5 or 6 of us active members are in the US, with everyone else representing other locations. I think at this point, if we want to build a community for all Alizée fans, we should come up with a new name. Especially if the Discord server is not meant to be a replacement for Alizée America.

There is a reason why Alizee sites are regional, and that is because of language. As far as I can tell, there are no native auto-translators on Discord. I see there is at least one add-on that can do translations, but at a cost. The more it's used, the more it costs. Otherwise, do we really want an international community all communicating in their native languages? From a moderating point of view, it would be a nightmare.

Don't underestimate the importance of our brand, which is Alizée America. Alizée knows us well. She has received gifts from us and there are a number of YouTube videos of her saying hello to us. There are videos posted from Scruffy representing AAm. If you do a Google search with Alizée as the search word or part of the search word, AAm comes up as one of the top results. Our threads have been crawled by every major search engine out there.

It's my opinion that starting from scratch would be a mistake, but that is only my opinion. We had a member in here not that long ago promoting his new Alizee site. It lasted two months and no longer exists. If the majority decides to start fresh, then I'll go with the flow and no feelings hurt, but there is value in name recognition.

Edit:

Are all of these forums gone or are there still a couple that linger on? As someone who joined AAm only this year, I got the impression that it must've evolved into the place for English-speakers, and that perhaps there were other forums for those speaking Russian, Spanish, Italian etc. Considering how you see fans from all over the world in YouTube comment sections and on Instagram, are we sure all the other forums are gone?


Alizee Ukraine still exists and I believe that Alizee Spain does to, but it is just a flickr site. They are mainly picture warehouses and no way to chat or communicate with other members. It just highlights the uniqueness of what we have going here at AAm. Before we all rush off and start a new thing, we need to consider what will be lost, and a bunch of old threads is not the only thing.

[Fall]

There is a reason why Alizee sites are regional, and that is because of language. As far as I can tell, there are no native auto-translators on Discord. I see there is at least one add-on that can do translations, but at a cost. The more it's used, the more it costs. Otherwise, do we really want an international community all communicating in their native languages? From a moderating point of view, it would be a nightmare.

Don't underestimate the importance of our brand, which is Alizée America. Alizée knows us well. She has received gifts from us and there are a number of YouTube videos of her saying hello to us. There are videos posted from Scruffy representing AAm. If you do a Google search with Alizée as the search word or part of the search word, AAm comes up as one of the top results. Our threads have been crawled by every major search engine out there.

It's my opinion that starting from scratch would be a mistake, but that is only my opinion. We had a member in here not that long ago promoting his new Alizee site. It lasted two months and no longer exists. If the majority decides to start fresh, then I'll go with the flow and no feelings hurt, but there is value in name recognition.

If the purpose is to create an online home for Alizée fans, then naturally we would have dedicated spaces for different language users. As the need arises, Mods for those channels would have to be recruited to keep things civil. FerAunger, for example, whose videos have recently been discussed on this forum, is a fan from Mexico who could be counted on to moderate a Spanish language channel(s). Jenny, a well known German member of AF and AAm, could be a moderator for a German channel(s). SkeLeton could moderate a French channel(s) and so forth.

For one thing, the efforts of our members, more than our name, have brought us a couple of miracles. Besides that, it hasn't yielded any fruit. Alizée has been to the US many times, but only on vacation and nothing more. And again, a Discord server would not replace AAm any more than the AAm Twitter account has. That was Ben's suggestion in the event AAm was gone for good. But you're right that we're the last established name and for that reason I don't think we should offer users the choice between AAm and AAm Discord. AAm should continue to exist for its users and a Discord server can offer something different for those comfortable with that platform. And lastly, Google search results vary greatly by locations, not to mention by user. Google wants to serve up the most relevant results to you.

Edit:

Are all of these forums gone or are there still a couple that linger on? As someone who joined AAm only this year, I got the impression that it must've evolved into the place for English-speakers, and that perhaps there were other forums for those speaking Russian, Spanish, Italian etc. Considering how you see fans from all over the world in YouTube comment sections and on Instagram, are we sure all the other forums are gone?


Of the names I listed, I visited or was a member of, Alizée France, Alizée India, Alizée Brazil, and Alizée World. All of these were forums like AAm where fans posted about news, shared pictures, created threads, etc. From what I can tell, none of these exist as forums any longer. They only have IG, Twitter, Facebook accounts. The Russian community I believe existed mostly on a site called VK which is similar to Facebook. AAm was definitely intended for English speakers, as was Alizée Forum who used it as the standard langauge, but offered subforums for German, French, and Spanish I believe.

[CleverCowboy]

If the purpose is to create an online home for Alizée fans, then naturally we would have dedicated spaces for different language users. As the need arises, Mods for those channels would have to be recruited to keep things civil. FerAunger, for example, whose videos have recently been discussed on this forum, is a fan from Mexico who could be counted on to moderate a Spanish language channel(s). Jenny, a well known German member of AF and AAm, could be a moderator for a German channel(s). SkeLeton could moderate a French channel(s) and so forth.

For one thing, the efforts of our members, more than our name, have brought us a couple of miracles. Besides that, it hasn't yielded any fruit. Alizée has been to the US many times, but only on vacation and nothing more. And again, a Discord server would not replace AAm any more than the AAm Twitter account has. That was Ben's suggestion in the event AAm was gone for good. But you're right that we're the last established name and for that reason I don't think we should offer users the choice between AAm and AAm Discord. AAm should continue to exist for its users and a Discord server can offer something different for those comfortable with that platform. And lastly, Google search results vary greatly by locations, not to mention by user. Google wants to serve up the most relevant results to you.

Having a Discord community and separating the members by language into their own respective channels is no different than having an Alizee America, Alizee Spain, Alizee (pick your country). It still falls short of the original intent, which is to somehow bring together under one roof the world's Alizee fans where they do not have to worry about what language they speak. They would still be separated into their own rooms.

If we would have to recruit moderators by language, such as Jenny or FerAunger, they can just as easily start their own Alizee Discord site in their own native languages and we wouldn't have to worry about recruitment and being sure they are following up on their commitment. For all we know, there might be communities dedicated to Alizee on Discord already. If there is, and we create ours, what would make a new Alizee fan choose ours?

Kajue mentioned there is no way to create a thread. So I am assuming a channel would be like a fancy chat box with one long continuous conversation that can go in any direction. Is this correct? If so, what would you chat about today? Alizee's makeup line? Alizee does not produce breaking news. Maybe she will in the future if she ever releases a new record, but for now, I am envisioning that an unstructured chat would go off topic continuously. Or maybe people will get bored and quit coming. There are a lot of thread topics here, and most of them are reminiscing. But reminiscing of what Alizee was and what she is today and everything in between is interesting and fun. I'm not sure whether this can be pulled off in Discord.

So, I know I am being difficult here and I am not trying to throw cold water on the whole idea. I am just trying to talk this through and see if it makes sense to have a site in that format. Kajue volunteered to create a site and he should feel free to do so and see what happens. :)

[Ben.Daly]

Kajue mentioned there is no way to create a thread. So I am assuming a channel would be like a fancy chat box with one long continuous conversation that can go in any direction. Is this correct?

Yes, that's essentially what it is.

If so, what would you chat about today? Alizee's makeup line? Alizee does not produce breaking news. Maybe she will in the future if she ever releases a new record, but for now, I am envisioning that an unstructured chat would go off topic continuously. Or maybe people will get bored and quit coming. There are a lot of thread topics here, and most of them are reminiscing. But reminiscing of what Alizee was and what she is today and everything in between is interesting and fun. I'm not sure whether this can be pulled off in Discord.

You can create separate channels on discord all under the one server, with each channel being about a specific topic or subgenre, similar to how we have different megathreads here (Media, Discussion, News etc). So that would make things a bit more organized and help keep conversation on topic, at least more so than just 1 big chat.

It's still not the same as the Threads here where everything is more structured and you can have many more smaller threads within topic threads, but it would help. We would definitely have an off-topic thread which I suspect might be the most popular channel.

[CleverCowboy]

You can create separate channels on discord all under the one server, with each channel being about a specific topic or subgenre, similar to how we have different megathreads here (Media, Discussion, News etc). So that would make things a bit more organized and help keep conversation on topic, at least more so than just 1 big chat.

It's still not the same as the Threads here where everything is more structured and you can have many more smaller threads within topic threads, but it would help. We would definitely have an off-topic thread which I suspect might be the most popular channel.

OK. Thanks for the explanation. So for an international audience, we would need a Media (English), Media (French), Media (Spanish), Media (German), etc. and so on through all the different channel topics. I would think this would really spread the members out.

So, I really want to get sold on this idea. Right now I have hesitations. Maybe it's a generational thing? :confused: I come from a time when emails were the hot thing. I still like emails because it gives me time to think out what I am going to put in it. Posting on a forum is essentially the same. Younger generations seem to not take so well to email and prefer texts and social media where things move quickly.

[Bamagirl]

My two cents’ worth is that while Discord could be an interesting adjunct feature for us, if we began using it exclusively it would pretty much end AA as we (and Alizée) know it. CleverCowboy rightly pointed out that she has a knowledge and a history with this forum. Also, Discord has been evolving, with features being added, removed and some now requiring a monthly subscription payment. My teenage daughter uses Discord. She chats with people about online gaming—which, I believe, is the main focus of most Discord use. She recently negotiated with us for a $4.99 monthly fee to add features. I could foresee a time when all users would be required to pay to access the service—or to upload videos, photos, etc.
I’m not sure how, exactly, the files are stored—I know that the software can be both cloud-based and also installed on a user’s hard drive. What happens to them if Discord starts charging for storage?
Bottom line: just like having a FaceBook page, I think Discord could appeal to some people and encourage interaction and participation. But I’d be very reluctant to see us abandon this forum for a totally different platform.

[CleverCowboy]

Also, Discord has been evolving, with features being added, removed and some now requiring a monthly subscription payment. My teenage daughter uses Discord. She chats with people about online gaming—which, I believe, is the main focus of most Discord use. She recently negotiated with us for a $4.99 monthly fee to add features. I could foresee a time when all users would be required to pay to access the service—or to upload videos, photos, etc.
I’m not sure how, exactly, the files are stored—I know that the software can be both cloud-based and also installed on a user’s hard drive. What happens to them if Discord starts charging for storage?

You actually bring up a very important point here - cost.

Having a site on Discord might attract current users of Discord because they are already paying a fee. However, would somebody join Discord and pay the fee only to have access to an Alizee channel? :confused:

I did some reading on the company. It has 300 million users and a $3.5 BILLION valuation. If you have been following tech trends, a hugely successful startup like this eventually gets bought out by big tech. For the two 30-something year old founders, the prospect of becoming an instant billionaire by selling out is hard to resist. The new owner can do whatever they want. Change the pricing structure and functionality are just for starters.

[Kajue]

My two cents’ worth is that while Discord could be an interesting adjunct feature for us, if we began using it exclusively it would pretty much end AA as we (and Alizée) know it. CleverCowboy rightly pointed out that she has a knowledge and a history with this forum. Also, Discord has been evolving, with features being added, removed and some now requiring a monthly subscription payment. My teenage daughter uses Discord. She chats with people about online gaming—which, I believe, is the main focus of most Discord use. She recently negotiated with us for a $4.99 monthly fee to add features. I could foresee a time when all users would be required to pay to access the service—or to upload videos, photos, etc.
I’m not sure how, exactly, the files are stored—I know that the software can be both cloud-based and also installed on a user’s hard drive. What happens to them if Discord starts charging for storage?
Bottom line: just like having a FaceBook page, I think Discord could appeal to some people and encourage interaction and participation. But I’d be very reluctant to see us abandon this forum for a totally different platform.

It seems to me, your daughter has "Discord Nitro" it's still discord but gives the user add-on features. The main discord features are still completely free, free users and Nitro users still have access to the same servers, and the same feature, except on Nitro those features are upgraded. However, I see your point.



Global emojis: Most Discord servers have custom emojis created by the community or the server owner. Typically, these can only be used on the servers on which they were made. Nitro allows people to use any emoji they have in their library, on any server.
Upgraded Go-Live streaming: Go-Live is a feature that allows you to stream your game to a small group of people. You can stream up to 720p at 30 FPS on the free tier, up to 1080p at 60 FPS on Classic, or at source quality on Nitro.
Custom Discord tag: Each Discord username has a random, four-digit number after it. Nitro allows you to change that number to anything you want, as long as that name and number combination isn’t taken.
Screen sharing: You can share your screen with your friends in up to 1080p at 30 FPS, or 720p at 60 FPS.
Increased upload limit: On the free tier, you can only send files up to 8 MB, but Nitro Classic and Nitro subscribers can upload files up to 50 and 100 MB, respectively.
Animated avatars: Paid subscribers can use an animated GIF as their avatar instead of a static image

^^^ Those are the main "upgrades." But it is completely not needed to create a server, and manage it, and voice chat, and live stream stream and share files.

[Kajue]

Alright everyone the Discord is up and running:

https://discord.gg/SMKpgP

[Ben.Daly]

Alright everyone the Discord is up and running:

https://discord.gg/SMKpgP

Looking good.

I encourage anyone who hasn't yet joined to get on it. The analogy of it essentially being an advanced version of the chat box is a good one I think, it will be interesting to see the balance between discourse on AlizeeAmerica compared to the Discord.

Hopefully it doesn't swing too far either way. It would be a shame if either AlizeeAmerica became a dormant archive of content, or the discord became inactive.

I'm sure we'll find out a good balance.

[Fall]

Having a Discord community and separating the members by language into their own respective channels is no different than having an Alizee America, Alizee Spain, Alizee (pick your country). It still falls short of the original intent, which is to somehow bring together under one roof the world's Alizee fans where they do not have to worry about what language they speak. They would still be separated into their own rooms.

If we would have to recruit moderators by language, such as Jenny or FerAunger, they can just as easily start their own Alizee Discord site in their own native languages and we wouldn't have to worry about recruitment and being sure they are following up on their commitment. For all we know, there might be communities dedicated to Alizee on Discord already. If there is, and we create ours, what would make a new Alizee fan choose ours?

Kajue mentioned there is no way to create a thread. So I am assuming a channel would be like a fancy chat box with one long continuous conversation that can go in any direction. Is this correct? If so, what would you chat about today? Alizee's makeup line? Alizee does not produce breaking news. Maybe she will in the future if she ever releases a new record, but for now, I am envisioning that an unstructured chat would go off topic continuously. Or maybe people will get bored and quit coming. There are a lot of thread topics here, and most of them are reminiscing. But reminiscing of what Alizee was and what she is today and everything in between is interesting and fun. I'm not sure whether this can be pulled off in Discord.

So, I know I am being difficult here and I am not trying to throw cold water on the whole idea. I am just trying to talk this through and see if it makes sense to have a site in that format. Kajue volunteered to create a site and he should feel free to do so and see what happens. :)

The question of there being an existing Discord server was one of my earliest thoughts. After I created a Discord account, I searched for an open Alizée server but couldn't find one. I imagine that if one exists, it is non-searchable and invite only. What would make someone join ours instead? I don't think it's quite so black and white. They can easily switch between servers, like they probably also follow Halo, FIFA, Star Wars, Harry Potter, etc. servers as well. I think we would have to look at other servers if we wanted to "compete" to offer a better experience.

What would we discuss today? Well any number of things that come up. We can have multiple channels within the server, such as dedicated channels for her official music videos, for remixes, for anything. We don't need to "wait" for daily news to activate a conversation. Fans never wait to discuss things.

Speaking of, I believe you created one as well already. It was linked on your post, though it appears to have been edited out. What happened? :confused:

Yes, that's essentially what it is.



You can create separate channels on discord all under the one server, with each channel being about a specific topic or subgenre, similar to how we have different megathreads here (Media, Discussion, News etc). So that would make things a bit more organized and help keep conversation on topic, at least more so than just 1 big chat.

It's still not the same as the Threads here where everything is more structured and you can have many more smaller threads within topic threads, but it would help. We would definitely have an off-topic thread which I suspect might be the most popular channel.
Exactly. We can have a number of threads dedicated to fun topics, activities, and games to keep it interesting.

My two cents’ worth is that while Discord could be an interesting adjunct feature for us, if we began using it exclusively it would pretty much end AA as we (and Alizée) know it. CleverCowboy rightly pointed out that she has a knowledge and a history with this forum. Also, Discord has been evolving, with features being added, removed and some now requiring a monthly subscription payment. My teenage daughter uses Discord. She chats with people about online gaming—which, I believe, is the main focus of most Discord use. She recently negotiated with us for a $4.99 monthly fee to add features. I could foresee a time when all users would be required to pay to access the service—or to upload videos, photos, etc.
I’m not sure how, exactly, the files are stored—I know that the software can be both cloud-based and also installed on a user’s hard drive. What happens to them if Discord starts charging for storage?
Bottom line: just like having a FaceBook page, I think Discord could appeal to some people and encourage interaction and participation. But I’d be very reluctant to see us abandon this forum for a totally different platform.

You actually bring up a very important point here - cost.

Having a site on Discord might attract current users of Discord because they are already paying a fee. However, would somebody join Discord and pay the fee only to have access to an Alizee channel? :confused:

I did some reading on the company. It has 300 million users and a $3.5 BILLION valuation. If you have been following tech trends, a hugely successful startup like this eventually gets bought out by big tech. For the two 30-something year old founders, the prospect of becoming an instant billionaire by selling out is hard to resist. The new owner can do whatever they want. Change the pricing structure and functionality are just for starters.
Each and every one of those questions about money can be asked about AAm too. So far, Discord is a free service. Sure, you can probably pay $4.99 for glittery text and a 3-D avatar or something. Can you go without it? Yeah. AAm is free to us, but as I understand it, it costs Ben space on a server he pays for. Neither he nor Brad ever charged members or put up ads, but that could change. If I'm not mistaken, Ricardo of AF began to ask for donations continuously and those who donated were granted special privileges. Personally, I think "donating" with the intention of buying yourself a say is a dangerous thing. Could that happen here? Yeah.

As for worries that creating a Discord server would threaten AAm, I posted this in the Mod forum to address those fears.

You really needn't be threatened. I suppose I can simplify it further. Imagine a cloud of dots on a piece of paper. Each dot is an Alizée fan. Now draw a circle around some of the dots on the left. The circle is AAm, the dots inside are AAm members. Outside of that circle, remains a sea of dots. Those dots used to belong to a myriad of other forums and sites. Some of them, much bigger than this one. For whatever reason, they have not migrated into the AAm circle. Even with it being the last remaining circle. My idea (and it was only an idea, as I had not put anything into action other than asking if others knew or used Discord and what their thoughts were) was to draw a circle around the other dots and into the first circle.

So what you have is a Venn diagram. Some AAm members belong to both circles. Some only belong to AAm. The rest of the dots now have a new circle to hang out in. That is all. AAm, with all its security faults and lack of updates, has stood the test of time well beyond other forums. It is neither passé nor a dinosaur, that would be unfair. It's perhaps more like the pyramids, that have survived the other Wonders of the ancient world. There is no reason to dismantle or abandon it as long as we can work on updating it. However, that discussion has stalled for many years. We haven't even changed the Home page picture.

The Discord server would be an outside project that would be worked on by anyone here who can volunteer some time. Hopefully, the day never arrives that AAm disappears. It can't be replaced anymore than other forums have been replaced. What we can do is create a new, separate space where fans can interact. If you don't see any value in that, no harm done. AAm needs volunteers too. :)

[CleverCowboy]

Speaking of, I believe you created one as well already. It was linked on your post, though it appears to have been edited out. What happened? :confused:


I created one to get my feet wet. I never used Discord and wanted to know what it was like, the look and feel. I went through the process of creating a few channels, reviewed the configuration options and some other stuff.

We were still discussing whether it was to extend AAm or be an entity all to itself. I went ahead and posted the link for those who were curious, but in the end I decided to remove it. I didn't expect a unanimous decision one way or the other whether to call it AAm or something new, but you can tell eventually which way the consensus is leaning. At that time, I really didn't know, and I still wasn't sold on the idea anyway.

Anyway, somebody else stepped up in the meantime, so we can see where that leads us.

[Kajue]

Just putting the Discord link here for reference and for anyone who stumbles upon this thread.

https://discord.gg/SMKpgP

[CanadianLoonie]

Alright everyone the Discord is up and running:

https://discord.gg/SMKpgP

#1)...I had a sudden urge to come check out a few forums that I used to frequent back in the days due to a flashback...turns out I haven't logged-in here for 13 years!

#2) It took me 4 tries to get my password right.

#3.) The discord link is invalid as it wasn't sent to never expire...

[CleverCowboy]

#1)...I had a sudden urge to come check out a few forums that I used to frequent back in the days due to a flashback...turns out I haven't logged-in here for 13 years!


Thirteen years! That was one heck of a flashback. :p

Anyway, thanks for the visit.

[Kajue]

#1)...I had a sudden urge to come check out a few forums that I used to frequent back in the days due to a flashback...turns out I haven't logged-in here for 13 years!

#2) It took me 4 tries to get my password right.

#3.) The discord link is invalid as it wasn't sent to never expire...

Oh thank you for bringing it up.

https://discord.gg/ucwbmyQ (Link set to never expire)

And welcome back, even just for a visit.

[AlizéeSuperFanFIN]

I want to say! That if only it is possible, keep this AA for as long as possible!!!

All of these other Facebook, etc. are good at supporting the idea, :cool: but none of them replace AA’s purpose! :nervous:

No way!!!

Almost all Alizée fans who just use Google, etc., know AA. It is the Alizée fan center, more of an archive today, when now here is quite quiet.

Really important archive! :bow:

In the beginning, a global forum was discussed, etc. :13: I have long had the wish that it would be just that!

For example, I would like to do all the fan activities in Finland, but it is always doomed at the moment. No fan can easily find each other here! :noway:

Because here, if where, fans can find each other more easily.

For example, Russians, I know "my neighbors", refuse to speak English... :w:

It would be great if AA even had its own sections for different languages ​​as subgroups and in English AA was at the top.

But I understand, of course, that if it doesn’t suitable everyone, big changes are hard to make.

[CleverCowboy]

I want to say! That if only it is possible, keep this AA for as long as possible!!!

All of these other Facebook, etc. are good at supporting the idea, :cool: but none of them replace AA’s purpose! :nervous:

No way!!!

Almost all Alizée fans who just use Google, etc., know AA. It is the Alizée fan center, more of an archive today, when now here is quite quiet.

Really important archive! :bow:

In the beginning, a global forum was discussed, etc. :13: I have long had the wish that it would be just that!

For example, I would like to do all the fan activities in Finland, but it is always doomed at the moment. No fan can easily find each other here! :noway:

Because here, if where, fans can find each other more easily.

For example, Russians, I know "my neighbors", refuse to speak English... :w:

It would be great if AA even had its own sections for different languages ​​as subgroups and in English AA was at the top.

But I understand, of course, that if it doesn’t suitable everyone, big changes are hard to make.

There is no plan to shut down AAm. There was a point several years ago when the forum was very slow and Alizee was not doing anything where the thought was that maybe it was the end of the line for AAm. But since then, more new members started joining and activity in the forum increased. Alizee had revealed that she was pregnant and the rest is history.

As a forum, AAm is the last of its kind in the world. The archives go back 14 years, and some of the old threads back then are interesting to read. Just about every year or so, we discuss an upgrade of the forum, or moving to a new platform. The archives are just too valuable to discard, so migrating to a new forum would require the history be migrated as well. The chances of success of a new forum starting from scratch would be poor. AAm is well known in the Alizee fan community and Alizee knows who we are.

The subject of supporting different languages has come up if we eventually upgrade the forum to a newer version that has language support. :)

[Scruffydog777]

I mentioned recently the Alizee forum that was based in Europe and folded a few years ago. It was a larger forum than this one with different language rooms. It was in trouble for a while and I tried to help it out with a few donations but it seemed no one there was interested anymore with helping it out. A month or so after it folded, I contacted one of the individuals who ran it to see if I could by the archives of the site but he wasn't interested which is really a shame.

As mentioned, you can't carry on the same type of discussions in other sites such as FB as you can in a forum like this. We need some changes but without going into details, it looks like that's not going to happen anytime soon but not because anyone is opposed to it.

[AlizéeSuperFanFIN]

Edit. ^^I almost forgot. Very good to know Clever!

I mentioned recently the Alizee forum that was based in Europe and folded a few years ago. It was a larger forum than this one with different language rooms. It was in trouble for a while and I tried to help it out with a few donations but it seemed no one there was interested anymore with helping it out. A month or so after it folded, I contacted one of the individuals who ran it to see if I could by the archives of the site but he wasn't interested which is really a shame.

As mentioned, you can't carry on the same type of discussions in other sites such as FB as you can in a forum like this. We need some changes but without going into details, it looks like that's not going to happen anytime soon but not because anyone is opposed to it.

I remember! I had to ask more about that, good, when you told now.

I thought at the time that it would be good to bring it back to the internet if at all possible, but a bad thing if its owner doesn’t want to??? :confused:

However, it probably doesn’t depend on the cost? - but for some other reason...

[Scruffydog777]

Edit. ^^I almost forgot. Very good to know Clever!



I remember! I had to ask more about that, good, when you told now.

I thought at the time that it would be good to bring it back to the internet if at all possible, but a bad thing if its owner doesn’t want to??? :confused:

However, it probably doesn’t depend on the cost? - but for some other reason...

I could get you the name of one of the admins who is active on FB. It wouldn't hurt to ask, though he may no longer have the files. I'm sure he doesn't want to start up another site himself. We could raise the money for it if it's reasonable price.

[AlizéeSuperFanFIN]

^Thanks! It might be interesting to explore the possibilities a little, unless it causes too much work.

Fortunately, however, this AA exists, even if that other one doesn’t come on the lines, the Russians ’own problem, unless they speak English. LOL.

By the way, do you remember what platform it was on; phpbb, vbullet, etc.

I think upgrading from the old version to the new one can also be a problem or just harder when you want to restore the old data.

I have phpbb forums myself, but technical support and maintenance elsewhere. At least there are problems transferring them if the files are large and quite a few can do it.

Sure, it could also be kept only as an archive and in the old version, but security might suffer, etc.

Edit:

Edit. I already did more research. :) :bye:

I found...

"To purchase a domain and / or forum, email: riccardo83@gmail.com"

Did you just contact him, Scruffy? :)

Looks like Riccardo wants to earn with it, and of course I can’t blame him for that. But on the other hand, it would be great if he himself or we other fans could publish it online in some other way and even in read-only format, unless there is no other option (i.e. only in the archive).

I also search a picture of the history, and it was also Vbulletin.

https://i.ibb.co/PzNPVMw/IMG-20210323-113450.png


In addition, a person named [B]Vibhash Chandra, apparently an AA member, had asked Riccardo to agree to merge AF and AA, apparently in VBulletin it’s easier. I personally don't know this platform at all...?

[Scruffydog777]

I contacted him via FB and he went under the name of Riccardo Ulpts. Here is how that went,
"You sent December 31, 2018
Hey Riccardo. I hope you're having a happy birthday. I wanted to ask if you still have the server or the old files for AF. It be nice to have access to the history of the Alizee Forum.
1/3/19, 7:32 AM

Riccardo sent January 3, 2019
im sorry, i might have but not sure
Riccardo sent January 3, 2019
look into the future not past ��".

[AlizéeSuperFanFIN]

I contacted him via FB and he went under the name of Riccardo Ulpts. Here is how that went,
"You sent December 31, 2018
Hey Riccardo. I hope you're having a happy birthday. I wanted to ask if you still have the server or the old files for AF. It be nice to have access to the history of the Alizee Forum.
1/3/19, 7:32 AM

Riccardo sent January 3, 2019
im sorry, i might have but not sure
Riccardo sent January 3, 2019
look into the future not past ��".

You've been active Scruffy again! Once you have been active in this regard too! Thanks! :)

Hmmm... A little weird answer from Riccardo. :13:

Theoretically...

I think if someone still tries, Riccardo would like a direct offer or something like that?

The problem is knowing from the start what is a reasonable offer for such a product. :confused:

[Scruffydog777]

You've been active Scruffy again! Once you have been active in this regard too! Thanks! :)

Hmmm... A little weird answer from Riccardo. :13:

Theoretically...

I think if someone still tries, Riccardo would like a direct offer or something like that?

The problem is knowing from the start what is a reasonable offer for such a product. :confused:

I don't think we should worry about the price. If it's too high, it's too high and we'll have to give up the ship, the good ship Alizee forum that is. The main issue is does he still have the files?

[CleverCowboy]

I have my 2 cents to put in on this topic. ;)

From the screen shot of the forum, the vBulletin version is 4.2.2. We are running vBulletin version 3.8.4. They are one major version apart, which can be significant.

vBulletin uses a MySQL database to store data. It's a relational database, so similar data can be stored in its own entity (tables). I don't know the architecture of the vBulletin database, but a simplified one might have all the posts populating one table, thread information in another, forum information in another, member info in another, etc. There are established relationships between the tables so that the vBulletin software can retrieve the data and organize it and present it on a browser.

Even if we were to get only the database for AFI, the chances are very slim we could do anything with it, such as merge the history into AAm. The database structures most likely changed with the version upgrade. We would have to migrate all the user information and their security settings. Given enough time, it could be done, but the level of effort would be very high.

The only viable option in my opinion is to buy the whole site from the latest backup. We would have to host it somewhere and rebrand it or leave it as AFI. Who knows if the owner still has a backup, but I have a feeling he did not just delete it permanently.

[AlizéeSuperFanFIN]

Good comments from both! :)

After reading old texts which I found ... I felt like Riccardo was somehow “angry” or offended that in 2017 No one at the time immediately knew yet to ask about the subject when he apparently closed his page?

Scruffy apparently asked then 2018/2019, like some others?

That’s why it just came to mind... So is that the reason maybe why he answers related queries so vaguely, etc.?

It seems strange that he would have destroyed it -:confused: unless it is accidentally destroyed in some way.

Of course, someone unknown may already have been able to buy it from him, but that’s pretty unlikely.

[CleverCowboy]

After reading old texts which I found ... I felt like Riccardo was somehow “angry” or offended that in 2017 No one at the time immediately knew yet to ask about the subject when he apparently closed his page?

Scruffy apparently asked then 2018/2019, like some others?

That’s why it just came to mind... So is that the reason maybe why he answers related queries so vaguely, etc.?

It seems strange that he would have destroyed it -:confused: unless it is accidentally destroyed in some way.

Of course, someone unknown may already have been able to buy it from him, but that’s pretty unlikely.

Several years have passed since then. Too much is going on in the world to stay angry over some petty offense.

I would ask Riccardo again but without any reference to "buying" it. Ask if he would give it to us. Maybe he would be willing to upload a backup to a google drive and be done with it.

My reasoning is this. If we buy it, there would be some expectation that he should support us as we attempt to resurrect the site as a whole or just the data. Maybe he recognizes this and does not want to be on the hook for providing any support. Also, what happens if we raise some funds here and send it off to him, and we get unusable garbage in return? There could be missing files, corrupted data, etc. Then we have angry people who put up the money.

However, if he gives it to us, it would be a no strings attached arrangement, and who knows, he might go for this option.

[BroKenSkullDG]

However, if he gives it to us, it would be a no strings attached arrangement, and who knows, he might go for this option.

I don't know the last thing about all this computer stuff. Nonetheless, this would be the ideal option and the only one I'd go for. Like you said, you don't know what you may end up getting.

[Fall]

Hmm. The quote feature seems to be malfunctioning, but to quote AlizéeSuperFanFIN:
I want to say! That if only it is possible, keep this AA for as long as possible!!!

All of these other Facebook, etc. are good at supporting the idea, :cool: but none of them replace AA’s purpose!


For you and for anyone else, now and a hundred years from now, as clearly as I can: there is no replacing AAm. This effort was not engaged in trying to replace AAm. Only AAm is AAm. We should do everything we can to preserve this resource. As you noted, anyone who Googles Alizée can find AAm. Unfortunately not very many join us. But that's ok.

Just as important, though people didn't really pay it any attention:
This idea was to give AAm members, and those who do not wish to join AAm, a place to come together under one "roof" so to speak. It required a significant amount of planning, communication with other communities, but all that went out the window for some reason. I don't know what the discord spaces that were created look like right now, but they are likely no threat of "replacing" AAm. I've repeated myself enough on this topic.

[Scruffydog777]

I'd be happy with having it as an operating forum with it's same name as long as we could get the cost of operating it down to what it costs to operate our forum. We pay Ben $25 a month. It used to be much higher but getting rid of a very good video section brought it down. Sometimes you got to make sacrifices.

[Ben.Daly]

It used to be much higher but getting rid of a very good video section brought it down. Sometimes you got to make sacrifices.

Were any videos lost completely with the deletion of that thread?

[AlizéeSuperFanFIN]

All the comments above are good! :)

I was already almost “going to war” outright, :fight: although of course I already had time to think about the cost.

Mere transfer can cost a lot if you don’t have vbullet experts... unless they do it for free, etc.

^It's unfortunate. I ask the same as Ben Daly above? Did a lot go? .

[Scruffydog777]

Were any videos lost completely with the deletion of that thread?

None were lost but most of her good ones were here. A new fan didn't have to go searching. Another good thing we had was English translations for most of the videos.

[joebanana]

None were lost but most of her good ones were here. A new fan didn't have to go searching. Another good thing we had was English translations for most of the videos.

Why don't we make AAF YouTube channel? It is a free platform to upload videos. Most of the video material would be in one place, and not as it has been spread on the Internet so far.
We can make a new thread specializing in videos from that YT channel, something as simple as we do with Instagram photos from Alizee.
Here is a large part of my video collection that can be used for uploading. All of this on YT with a nice tunbnail looks a lot more organized and visually nicer, and I’m sure AAF members have a lot to share with new members especially since some videos are disappearing from the internet

https://t.me/alizeefiles

Unfortunately I don’t have the time but I would support the person or persons who would deal with it.
Here’s a suggestion on how I would do it.

The forum lacks a brand logo, something that people would immediately recognize and link to the forum when they see it, for example to create a tumbnail or a brand image on a channel.
The reason to add a visible logo to the tumbnail is that we want it to stand out among other tumbnails and people will eventually recognize it and immediately know from which channel the video material is and what to expect.
Here’s an example with the stupid “Joe Banana” logo, but I’m talking about something more serious here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FuonkBCHOY&ab_channel=JoeBanana

Technically creating a logo is not difficult to make. For example "Joe Banana" is just a PNG image format with a transparent background and can be resized as needed. The real logo is done in a different format because if you want to enlarge the logo and put it on the panel, the image becomes pixelated, but for the needs of the YT channel, the ordinary PNG image format is more than enough.

BTW.
Since we don’t have an official channel to search for this video, does anyone know where it can be found?

https://i.imgur.com/TZAQ4oH.png

[Ben.Daly]

Why don't we make AAF YouTube channel? It is a free platform to upload videos. Most of the video material would be in one place, and not as it has been spread on the Internet so far.


I think that sounds like a good idea. There is already the AlizeeAmericaVideos channel, though there hasn't been a new upload in over 9 years and there's only 20 videos on the whole channel.

https://www.youtube.com/user/AlizeeAmericaVideos/videos

The About section of the channel doesn't tell much else. I have no idea who the admin is, though someone else here might have an idea.

[joebanana]

I think you would be a great person to lead a project like that. After seeing the commitment from your forum statistics table you have my vote.

Now I saw that I was watching a video on that channel without even being aware of what it was just talking about the importance of branding and some kind of logo.
My opinion is that the same logo should be made on all social networks so that people can instantly recognize AAF. A picture of Alizee is a good idea but there are a lot of different channels with a picture of Alizee and you don’t stand out among the others.
The logo on all social networks should be the same so that people can immediately recognize that it is AAF. A good example of this is Skeleton. He has the same image (Logo) on every social network and it is very easy to follow him.
After all, that channel (AlizeeAmericaVideos) does not even have the same name as the forum, totally confusing. I don’t know why the channel didn’t call it the Alizée America Forum. Maybe someone else made the channel and not AAF members.

I think that job can be done much better.
There is a lot of different video material (More or less interesting) that can be posted.
If you ask me I would post everything to be a document in time and in the description of the video put a link to AAF and Link where you can legally buy music from Alizee.
I would make a tumbnail of a video with the AAF logo to stand out to people in YT feeding.
Maybe start with the first pre-career videos from Alizee, and then in chronological order. I have very stacked files that can help with that and stretch all the way back to 2008 (I upgraded them, and the real credit goes to other people for making and sharing them).
Here is one example screenshot and the others are in the link to the files I shared.

https://i.imgur.com/mz8AOSL.jpg

[Ben.Daly]

I think you would be a great person to lead a project like that. After seeing the commitment from your forum statistics table you have my vote.

Now I saw that I was watching a video on that channel without even being aware of what it was just talking about the importance of branding and some kind of logo.
My opinion is that the same logo should be made on all social networks so that people can instantly recognize AAF. A picture of Alizee is a good idea but there are a lot of different channels with a picture of Alizee and you don’t stand out among the others.
The logo on all social networks should be the same so that people can immediately recognize that it is AAF. A good example of this is Skeleton. He has the same image (Logo) on every social network and it is very easy to follow him.
After all, that channel (AlizeeAmericaVideos) does not even have the same name as the forum, totally confusing. I don’t know why the channel didn’t call it the Alizée America Forum. Maybe someone else made the channel and not AAF members.

I think that job can be done much better.
There is a lot of different video material (More or less interesting) that can be posted.
If you ask me I would post everything to be a document in time and in the description of the video put a link to AAF and Link where you can legally buy music from Alizee.
I would make a tumbnail of a video with the AAF logo to stand out to people in YT feeding.
Maybe start with the first pre-career videos from Alizee, and then in chronological order. I have very stacked files that can help with that and stretch all the way back to 2008 (I upgraded them, and the real credit goes to other people for making and sharing them).
Here is one example screenshot and the others are in the link to the files I shared.

https://i.imgur.com/mz8AOSL.jpg

Thanks Joe! :D

I will certainly consider the role. But I'm going away for the next few days so can't continue the conversation right now.

[Scruffydog777]

I think that sounds like a good idea. There is already the AlizeeAmericaVideos channel, though there hasn't been a new upload in over 9 years and there's only 20 videos on the whole channel.

https://www.youtube.com/user/AlizeeAmericaVideos/videos

The About section of the channel doesn't tell much else. I have no idea who the admin is, though someone else here might have an idea.

I have no idea of who started that channel. Maybe a "search" of our archives might come up with something. I'm sure who ever did is no longer active.

As far as adding a logo or watermark to videos we upload to a channel, I don't feel comfortable with that idea. This forum isn't about us or the forum, it's about Alizée. Those types of marks have always bothered me when watching videos and taken away from my enjoyment and I don't want to see that happen to others. If I saw a good video like that which had some type of mark, the first thing I'd do was look for one without it.

I've put together several fan videos that weren't all that good but several of them took a lot of work. Someone could easily have taken them and put their own mark on them but I didn't care. I wanted the one without distractions to be out there. The only thing I do is add "scruffydog" to the title.

I had a couple of exclusives I'd guess you'd call it with my visits to Ajaccio, once for the autograph session on her birthday in 2013 and then when I visited the studio over a year ago. I could have easily put my marks on these and they would be the only ones out there unless someone did some video editing, but that's not what I want. I want her fans to enjoy these moments to the fullest and I don't want them go searching elsewhere for the original videos.

Of course if someone here goes through the trouble of starting a Youtube channel with our name or something as close as they can get to it, they will be the one(s) that have the final say on that and of course what the majority of our members here think should be a deciding factor too.

I don't really care if we're the top site out there. We try and make this a good place for fans to come to. I feel "one" of the reasons the Alizee forum folded was they were too strict with their rules at least with the ones about staying on topic. Many a good conversation was broken up because members drifted off topic. Going off topic makes it difficult to search for something that might have been said as recently as last week because it's not in the thread you think it should be in, but that's a price we pay for having a more easy going forum imo.

There used to be some big battles between some of the FB pages. I'm not sure what it was about, maybe a numbers competition? It could have been one site sharing photos that the other site felt were exclusive to them? There again, what ever I get, I put it all out there, if someone else copies it and claims it, it bothers me, but as long as it benefits Alizée, I can live with it. If our FB page gains a bunch of new fans or only one or two, it's all okay.

One other thing I want to mention here about a YT channel, several years ago we had a member here who started one and was uploading just about everything out there. He had a very large collection and he used put his own mark on all his videos so I never would watch his videos. He made the mistake of adding his mark to one of mine, It might have been the ones from the birthday autograph session in Ajaccio and that did not go over well with me and I did not react well to that, but that's not my main point here. Eventually his channel was taken down for copyright violations.

Today it seems things have changed. It seems like a lot of videos that were getting nailed for c r violations before, now are getting the "Suggested by Moi, Alizée". They must've realized there was a way to make a little money off of these videos? So hopefully there won't be an issue with someone uploading a bunch of her videos.

[joebanana]

I have no idea of who started that channel. Maybe a "search" of our archives might come up with something. I'm sure who ever did is no longer active.

As far as adding a logo or watermark to videos we upload to a channel, I don't feel comfortable with that idea. This forum isn't about us or the forum, it's about Alizée. Those types of marks have always bothered me when watching videos and taken away from my enjoyment and I don't want to see that happen to others. If I saw a good video like that which had some type of mark, the first thing I'd do was look for one without it.

My suggestion is just the opposite, I one hundred percent agree with you but I don't think we understood each other. My suggestion is to put the logo on the tumbnail not on the video. It's not some kind of video tagging but just helping people so that when they click on that tumbnail they can know that serious video material is waiting for them inside, (With no logo or similar nonsense) Alizee material belongs to everyone. It's just a way to make it easier for people to find quality video content, nothing else.

[Scruffydog777]

My suggestion is just the opposite, I one hundred percent agree with you but I don't think we understood each other. My suggestion is to put the logo on the tumbnail not on the video. It's not some kind of video tagging but just helping people so that when they click on that thumbnail they can know that serious video material is waiting for them inside, (With no logo or similar nonsense) Alizee material belongs to everyone. It's just a way to make it easier for people to find quality video content, nothing else.

That sounds like a very good idea and I'm all for it. I still want my views on the subject to be out there so who ever decides to create this channel will know my views even though I might be the only one with them. I'd rather say something now before it's too late. I see guys in Discord, including yourself I believe are working hard to get the best videos of every performance of Alizée out there and it would be a shame to give her fans something less than the best.

[joebanana]

Of course it all needs to go in agreement, I would love to hear the opinions of other forum members about it.

[Scruffydog777]

It's great the work you and others are doing to get the best videos and if we were able to create a YT channel or somehow take over the existing one, it be nice if it got the reputation from fans out there that if you want to get the best videos out there, go to AA's YT channel.

Edit:

I think that sounds like a good idea. There is already the AlizeeAmericaVideos channel, though there hasn't been a new upload in over 9 years and there's only 20 videos on the whole channel.

https://www.youtube.com/user/AlizeeAmericaVideos/videos

The About section of the channel doesn't tell much else. I have no idea who the admin is, though someone else here might have an idea.

I just made a comment on one of his videos, asking him to e-mail me and of course, giving him my address. Maybe he'll see it?

[joebanana]

If anyone else is interested I found the video I was looking for

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1ittG_k7O0&ab_channel=Ali%C9%80%C3%A9eArabFans

[AlizéeSuperFanFIN]

^I first thought about JB’s YouTube idea if it’s worth it because most of the videos are already there.:13:

But in fact, it would probably be a good place to market AA and Alizée in the long run if it got a lot of content and activity. :thumb:

In any case, if I think about it myself, I consider it a prerequisite to be able to bring a lot of content into it in the most organized way possible so that it has more relevance (marketing succeeds, people find it, etc.).

Good ideas are often difficult to implement.

So if the idea comes true, maybe we need to set up a group of members who make and produce content there, etc...?

[Alizée-Nederland]

^I first thought about JB’s YouTube idea if it’s worth it because most of the videos are already there.:13:Popular videos on YouTube are getting recommended by YouTube, resulting in even more views, so you should avoid duplicating existing videos is they are exactly the same, on YouTube you can create playlists and easily include existing videos and decide the order in which to show them etc.

[failax]

You can use my videos if you are interested:

http://youtube.com/channel/UCXE4TpiaHDSprFxC-r6czSw

I've used very modern filters to upscale everything in 1080P 50/60 frames per seconds.

[AlizéeSuperFanFIN]

Popular videos on YouTube are getting recommended by YouTube, resulting in even more views, so you should avoid duplicating existing videos is they are exactly the same, on YouTube you can create playlists and easily include existing videos and decide the order in which to show them etc.

Good things to consider. :thumb:

You can use my videos if you are interested:

http://youtube.com/channel/UCXE4TpiaHDSprFxC-r6czSw

I've used very modern filters to upscale everything in 1080P 50/60 frames per seconds.

I've watched some great videos you've uploaded!:)

Very high quality channel! :thumb: Hope many find it in the future!

[Mr Coucou]

Yes, I think an AAm youtube channel would be useful.

In terms of content, I'm thinking (at present) of two things:

1) upscaled videos (such as those created by Failax)
2) English captioned videos

[AlizéeSuperFanFIN]

Hmm. The quote feature seems to be malfunctioning, but to quote AlizéeSuperFanFIN:



For you and for anyone else, now and a hundred years from now, as clearly as I can: there is no replacing AAm. This effort was not engaged in trying to replace AAm. Only AAm is AAm. We should do everything we can to preserve this resource. As you noted, anyone who Googles Alizée can find AAm. Unfortunately not very many join us. But that's ok.

Just as important, though people didn't really pay it any attention:
This idea was to give AAm members, and those who do not wish to join AAm, a place to come together under one "roof" so to speak. It required a significant amount of planning, communication with other communities, but all that went out the window for some reason. I don't know what the discord spaces that were created look like right now, but they are likely no threat of "replacing" AAm. I've repeated myself enough on this topic.


Oops.

I hadn't even immediately noticed this, but thanks for the confirmation/statement too! :thumb: