Unofficial fansites don’t hold as much financial influence as you make them out to. The fans are their regardless of this. Unofficial fansites don’t make fans, the artists themselves do. I’m not going to stop being a Prince fan or supporter just because I didn’t enjoy my user experience on his website, I’m a fan because he has always been a great musician. And I’m not going to hear his songs on any website other than THE official Prince/NPG site. I’m not going to see any current photography of him other than from sources who have the proper rights to them. I can get Prince related news from thousands of news sources on line, including his website. This site is not that crucial.

I can visit most any message board, or online community and find people who absolutely love Prince and have great discussions about the man and his music. No one HAS to come here for that. That’s how many fans and aficionados he has, they span WAY beyond the scope of any UNofficial fansite.

Prince (the NPG, whatever you want to call it today) has launched at least 3 official sites during the tenure of prince.org. We seem to uh, not be ‘dead’. In fact, after every attempt by Prince to create an official site, we end up with disgruntled fans coming to prince.org and staying, enjoying themselves. If they didn’t, they’d leave (some do, hey, freedom is a great thing.) prince.org sees more daily user sessions than Prince has packed into any single venue in the last 20 years. Obviously, there’s something of value here.

As to the ridiculous ‘business venture’ comment: I must be the worst businessman ever, then. I operate this site at a pretty significant loss every month. Running this site has cost me tens of thousands of dollars over the years. It has never come anywhere close to ‘break even’. If anything, we drive $ into Prince’s pocket. Artists who actually ARE smart businesspeople understand the value of a vibrant UNofficial fan community online. I couldn’t prove it, nor could you prove otherwise, but I am certain if all the unofficial sites shut down tomorrow, Prince’s bottom line would suffer for it.

If I, or anyone else cares to disrespect Prince, here or anywhere else, that’s our right. See, we have this thing called the Constitution. You might want to check out Amendment I sometime. It’s not illegal to say un-nice things. If I were “defending my stance in continuing to use the man’s image” (your words, not mine), I would be defending my rights as an American, something I do do, and care deeply and passionately about. It’s insulting to ME that you or others say that about prince.org, as we possibly more than any of the other sites, go out of our way to enforce policies that are respectful of Prince’s business goals. But still, it’s your right to offend me, and I respect that.

“I don’t care what Prince thinks…” Yes, that’s right, I don’t care what he thinks. If I did, I’d have shut the site down long ago, since I know he doesn’t like it for his own control-freak reasons. The people who participate in the site love it, and that’s whose opinion I care about. As I said in the podcast, if the userbase told me the site wasn’t working for them anymore, and they left, I’d shutter the site.

If you are sickened by this site or my opinions, that’s your prerogative. Thanks for the comments, buh-bye.

But you’re using his brand name and image. The foundation of this community was built on that. To say it’s not about him or what he wants is a total insult. Then to gossip about the man?

That’s like making friends, business deals, by dogging someone else out, or dogging them out after the friendship/deal is established. You use and disrespecting them.

Rename the site, change the content to be non-Prince related and if they’re that gung-ho about this community, the subscribers will come back. By defending your stance in continuing to use the man’s image says a lot about the value of his image in this site’s existence.

Without his image this site would have never come into fruition, yet the man whose image that you used to benefit from got nothing from THIS.

And your response to this fact is:
“I don’t care what he thinks?” ~Micheal Dean

You’re not really a fan, then. You’re a LEECH! This is a business venture for you, and that’s it.

You guys have made being a fan into a business. You are overly infatuated with each other, and each others’ infatuation of Prince. It’s sickening.

Look at this man’s track record, he’s damned protective about his brand/image. It’s too bad that you guys are so full of yourselves that you can’t see where he’s coming from.

i used to think that you held on to this place out of some nostalgia but now i get that there is more. for one it’s your baby and you don’t want anyone else poking around under the hood. (car reference as i see you enjoy cars ) and i think maybe it’s about giving back to the community… although i am still at a loss to know why i deserve it. but i love you for it.

so many friendships and connections made here… all thanks to you. i am soooo glad that PFU was initiated. if we as a community can’t stand together, what then??? i realize it is super easy for me to say here in my livingroom but as i have said on housequake and to aaron, you do what you have to do. and keep filling us in.

oh and molove!! great show!
and a word to princeypoo… honey, i ain’t never going to be your “fam” but i will buy a ticket to a concert… so just get on with it please!!!

plus it was encouraging to hear your take on recent actions
you have a great way of looking at all of this
respect

and thanks for inspiring the latest prince song
ya know he couldn’t have written it without you!
now that’s something u can take 2 the bank!!
lol, hit ‘em in the pocket now
kidding!

peace