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#3
12-17-2016, 09:07 AM
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#5
12-27-2016, 02:32 PM
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Reality check
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Truth be told, she has never been much of a singer and as one Sony executive joked, the album "5" was named for the number of times Sony Music had to send her back to the studio to "fix" her vocals. Unless you are willing to accept her new role as a "television celebrity" and a dancer you're living in a world of fantasy. Alizee seems very comfortable as a wife and mother, an occasional guest star and dance partner to her new husband and to infer that "if Alizee doesn't make a new record I will hold my breath until I die." Sorry, but I don't think she cares to shape her life around the perceived needs of an ever-shrinking group of fan boys. When I joined the Alizee fan community over thirteen years ago there was AF and my Hub... and BOTH seem to be going away. Alizee was a manufactured Pop Idol whose style, image and songs were a creation of one of the most successful songwriting and video production teams of the last 30 years and an icon in French Music, Mylene Farmer and Laurent Boutonnat. Against the advice of most in the music industry, in 2006 after an ill-timed and virtually career ending "baby break" she decided that she wanted to become a chanteuse, or "serious singer" despite having no training as a vocalist, and no demonstrated skill as a songwriter. Like Britney Spears, Paula Abdul and BoA before her, she had primarily been trained as a DANCER, and relied on the skills of trained songwriters and producers until such time as she could realistic assume those jobs herself, and rely on studio wizardry to "fix" her singing and lipsynching for her "live" appearances. But in 2007, after a year-long struggle to find someone willing to sign her (her demos were rejected by most major labels due to the previously mentioned "weak vocals" and only one song that sounded like a potential hit: Fifty Sixty), she was signed by RCA Records, mainly based on her Mylene Farmer-produced Music Videos becoming an unexpected hit in Mexico. It didn't sell very well compared to the previous two records, and and sad to say 2007 was the year of the singer songwriter. Pop Idols Like Britney Spears were struggling to sell records and others like Paula Abdul settled into her career as a television celebrity. Alizee's one and only "World Tour" consisted of a half dozen dates in small clubs in Mexico, one gig in Russia, and the one booking in France was cancelled due to lack of ticket sales. This placed Alizee in the unenviable position of being the only French singer in history to mount a world tour and fail to have a concert in her home country. Things went downhill from there. Each record has sold less than the one before it, and Alizee seemed resigned to her fate but very comfortable with her new role in the last couple of years as a "celebrity dancer." If you're such a big fan, you should be comfortable with her decision also. If you love her so much then you support her new life and new career. How in the world do you think you have any right to attempt to bully her into doing what she has moved on from and public opinion has overwhelmingly not supported her in? If she wants to be a dancer, then GROW UP and love her for that: she spent her entire childhood training as a dancer so it makes perfect sense for her to do what she is good at. I've been warning you guys for several years that the Hub's continued existence relies on participation and none of you seem to be willing to actually do so: chat activity and posts are virtually non-existent from AAm members, and most traction nowadays seems to come from Asian Pop fans that are refugees from their own Hubs closing. Since the Hub is a "Female Pop Singer Hub" I've repeatedly warned you all collectively in main chat, and each of you individually in private chat, that since any realistic person has come to the conclusion that Alizee no longer qualifies as a "Pop Singer" that it's time for each of you to find some new favorites in the world of music in the 20 terabytes plus of Female Pop singers that we share with all of you. I measure the Hub's success on the level of downloads and uploads, so if you cling to the sad and pathetic mantra the "I only download Alizee" then you clinging to an unrealistic obsession that is counterproductive to the continued existence of the Hub. All of us ACTIVE participants will still continue to share one of the largest collections of Alizee available for download anywhere, but if you want the asset to still be around in the months and years to come, then you need to work with me according to the standards that I put in place in 2003. None of you are willing to do that: you want to have the Hub around as a database to provide you all with backup in case you lose a hard drive, and figure that tears of gratitude must well in my eyes with the incredible honor of having your nick and incredible godlike presence on my expensive dedicated server that based on inactivity clearly should be re-purposed to something else. Well, reality check: that's not enough and I've held my tongue for years considering that ten years ago a lot of you were teenagers entitled in a way by your youth to cling to your fandom and self-obsession. Alizee for many of you was your "first love" and after all these years still should not be yout "only love" in the vast and wonderful world of Popular Music. Most of you guys (the handful that are left) are in your, 30s, 40's, 50s, even 60s and should have the common sense and wisdom that the Hub has been ill-served by Alizee fans for years and from all indications has outlived it's usefulness as a distribution point for a former Corsican Pop singer who has not had a hit in nearly ten years.. If you really want the Hub to be around, then PARTICIPATE to MY standards, not YOUR OWN. Otherwise in a few weeks you run the risk of my domain being closed and if I do decide to create a new site, it will be based on the wants and needs of those that actually participate in Hub activities, and as of late December 2016, that's NONE of YOU GUYS. No, I'm not offering to give away the Hub or sell it, and I find the idea repugnant at any attempt to guilt me into accepting the idea that that's the proper thing to do. Even if that was technically possible, I am certainly not going to give away the product of my hard work since 2006 to someone who refused to follow the rules and really participate. I am not the problem here: your lack of support for one of the largest collections of Alizee anywhere is. I've never asked for money, I've paid all the expenses out of my own pocket since day one. My requirements for sustaining the Hub have been ridiculously minimal and your shortsightedness and arrogance in following your own rules in MY HUB is what will directly result in the Hub going, not some complex rationalization that you are working out in your own mind. Save the disrespectful hate speech towards me and/or the other Operators you might be already formulating and look to yourself for the answers: none of you have the will to form your own Hub especially when you lack the commitment to support the Hub that ALREADY exists to the Hub owner's satisfaction. Talk is cheap.... it's time to take ACTION if you want the Hub around. But sad to say, based of previous experience, I just don't think that's gonna happen. Drop by the Hub if you want to say your "goodbyes" or leave contact info if you have any interest in any future projects I might engage in. Sorry it had to come to this but you've had plenty of warning. Last edited by digimaze; 12-27-2016 at 03:42 PM..
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#7
12-28-2016, 11:28 AM
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Well to be perfectly honest, I had always looked upon the HUB as mainly a file sharing site. I thought anything such as chat was just incindental to it. Of course back in the day, there were plenty of fans around for all the sites to keep busy. I've been working hard to keep interest up in our forum and our Facebook page and that's not an easy job. I see viewership on FB getting lower and lower and the main stuff that draws a big response is when you find something from the early years fans haven't seen before or at least havent' seen in a while.
We had the tournee this year, the Pastry show, the Baptism, the wedding, all of which were just barely enough to keep fans around. We have the current season tournee coming up and I have little interest in that. Though I knew it was a pipe dream, deep inside of me I was hoping for another Les Enfoires appearance which has brought me a lot of enjoyment over the years, but that little candle was extinguished with her annoucnement that she will be appearing in the tournee. As far as posting stuff to the hub, I think we can all try and do a better job of it, when there's something worth while. I know there have been several videos and interviews I've added English subs to that I could upload. I've been meaning to do that with the DALS shows I had translated, but the problem I had, some of the videos I used were pal and some were ntsc. I tried making videos in both formats but when I tried putting those on a dvd, I had problems with them at some point stopping. I've tried several times to resolve it, but I should just go ahead and upload them anyways and let people see what works for them. They both work on pcs. It's usually on dvd players where you run into problems. Getting back to keeping interest up, AF was set to close down in a few days and I worked out a deal to keep them open a couple of months. There loss of fans which was heavily influenced by a lack of singing activity from Alizee was also affected by internal arguments. Things can be changed now to bring a better climate to AF, but what it really needs is something 'significant' from her . Thanks for all you've done with the HUB and I will like I said, start uploading more videos, but the only thing that can truly put a stop to this down ward spiral to parts of her career that truly interest and entertain us is Alizee and I have to be honest, I don't see that happening. Last edited by Scruffydog777; 12-28-2016 at 11:31 AM..
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#8
12-28-2016, 02:56 PM
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Reality check part deux
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Exactly and that's a realistic approach to take as far as Alizee's career is concerned. Unless she has plans to pay for her own recording sessions and release the results online as paid-for downloads of digital files (mp3's, aac's, etc), I presume her recording career is at an end. The point is: half the current members of the Hub are what you might call "former fans of Alizee" but truth be told, they grab what Alizee is posted but have developed other interests. To make it very clear if I haven't already, that attitude from a few more of you is what is needed to keep the Hub going. Unlike other places, I have not attempted to turn the Hub into a profit center for myself by accepting online advertising or web links that many times contain malware. I've kept the site a "pure" fan site by not doing that. You, I and Ray are Americans and our lovely "Copyright Police" are very specific about that: any attempt to generate income makes the site no longer qualify as a "fan site" potentially exempt from intellectual property issues. I've taken that very seriously: no hot links, no ad banners, no fees for "deluxe membership" no requests for "donations," it all comes out of my own pocket and has for over a decade... and let's face it: I am hardly what a lot of you self-proclaimed "Alizee super fans" would consider a "true Alizee fan" any more. Your participation in the Hub is what compels me to keep things going: a combination of online time and a willingness to try new things. Very very few of you post the new Alizee stuff that's online in main chat, we have to wait for other people from other forums to handle what should be done by the "prime fans" right here: You, Ray, Jenny, etc. Ray and a couple others are online 24/7 which is what is needed, but have yet to challenge themselves by trying ANY of the 100 GB A MONTH of new stuff from all over the world that is posted for the VIP members of the Hub. Do you really mean you are willing to risk the Hub going away in three weeks by adhering to your so-called "principles" and refuse to get daring and try something new and download a file or two a week???? That seems a little foolish to me. Deligna, whether through coincidence or accepting my challenge, downloaded dozens of Priscilla files yesterday. I LOVE that girl and pride myself in having everything that French cutie did in her all-too-brief heyday proudly online in my TEN TERABYTE SHARE. Combined with the other key members of the Hub we have at the very least the essentials of every major female Pop singer on earth. Are all you guys REALLY going to tell me there is NOTHING of interest to you in what we offer? Then don't deplore the demise of the Hub, just look in the mirror for the person responsible. Due to response from several of the Hubbers, I might start a new project next month which will in no way be connected to Alizee or her fans. My attempts to link the Hub to other fan forums a few years ago was greatly hampered by the name of the Hub. As one forum admin put it: " I don't mean to be offensive, but isn't Alizee sort of a 'one hit wonder' whose career was over years ago?" Sad to say that is how most music fans look at her. I get "PAID" by seeing Hub activity... the guy that founded the Hub left it in late 2005 because he got tired of the constant emails and several cyber attacks from obsessed "super fans" that didn't like the way the Hub was run... it should be run THEIR WAY as a matter of fact. Two of those guys are now the key players in "the other" forum" and I don't think it will take much guesswork to figure out who they are. So I turned it into a general Female Pop Singer site, hosted it myself, and built a brick wall around it so the nasty little script kiddies who viewed themselves as the Only True Fans of Alizee couldn't take it down any more. I LOVE sharing my love of music with everyone and it is really fulfilling to be able to have a place to share all this stuff. It would be sad for this to come to an end, and if the Hubs closes and I start a new project, the member list which currently favors Alizee fans will be wiped clean and I will start all over again through private invitations which will NOT include anyone who hasn't sufficiently supported the Hub over the last few years. IS that really what you all want??? Only you can prevent this from happening. Think about it. Meanwhile, here's a little holiday "oldie but goodie": In my share: Girls' Generation - All I Want for Christmas Is You (MBC Christmas Fairytale 2011.12.25).ts online download: https://mega.nz/#!6VVjBaLQ!zJJqFPYaN...Y8olDA2fyFW9Ik -- Happy Holidays Everyone.. I wish I didn't have to bring such bad news. Last edited by digimaze; 12-28-2016 at 03:03 PM..
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#9
12-28-2016, 03:27 PM
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So let me get this straight... you're effectively holding the Alizée Hub ransom unless we conform to your musical tastes and spam the hub chatbox with "SUGOI DESU YO NE?" All because Rev asked an honest question about whether or not the information in the OP is current? A question that is made all the more valid by the fact that the information is not current (OP says you need to share 1GB, currently it is set at 10GB)? If it sounds crazy when I say it out loud like this... well, that's because it's crazy.
Like Scruffy said, chatting is incidental. Why should I feel compelled to write something nobody cares about and nobody will bother to read? I will say something if I have a reason to, but I've yet to come across one on the hub. That doesn't mean that I don't support the existence of the hub or appreciate it, just that I have nothing to say. Why is it any of your concern what music we like? Outside of Asia, things like Kpop and Jpop are pretty niche tastes. There's obviously not going to be much overlap in interest between Asian pop and French pop, so you're fooling yourself if you think Alizée fans are going to start gushing over Psy and doing the Gangnam Style dance all of a sudden. And just because other French pop artists are French doesn't mean we have to like them. "My requirements for sustaining the Hub have been ridiculously minimal and your shortsightedness and arrogance in following your own rules in MY HUB is what will directly result in the Hub going..." Yes, the requirements have been minimal, and nowhere have they ever stated that we are required to use the chatbox and become Kpop fans. You're pulling arbitrary "rules" out of nowhere here. Look, I appreciate what you've done for the hub, but I'm not going to sit back and pretend like this isn't ridiculous. Other users might too polite to say anything, but I'm sure we're all thinking the same thing.
__________________
 J.B.G.
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#10
12-28-2016, 04:31 PM
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Woah, alot of negativity brewing here. I really appreciate the hub digimaze, as i doubt there is any other place on the internet with this good quality media of celebrities i like. Im gonna be honest though.
Im not in the hub because i love celebrities in general, i like a few. I have downloaded alot of Alizée stuff and some Priscilla, because that content is hard to come by in a neat, high quality package, considering they are not well known and not as active today as they were 10 years ago. I want to preserve it and make sure i have access to all that footage 10 years from now! However, i dont have harddrive capacity or the will to download something im not obsessed about, or something that is readily available in good quality on youtube. Im not a celebrity worshipper, im an alizee worshipper, and whatever few celebrities i get enjoyment out of. Im also not that sold on using the hub for discussing. The chat is deleted everytime i log off for the night and whatever response people send me needs to be sent when my computer is turned on. I much rather prefer to discuss in a forum.
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