squirrelgrease said:

we all get our urges, but dang.

I am no longer shocked or appalled by anything that happens on the Princeternet. I'm all out of moral outrage. What I had left over from 1997 got used up in 2007.

This is just the way it is. And ever will be.....

It truly is a strange relationship that we hold onto.

emm said:

Huh? IMO, an artist's songs are a reflection of who he is as a person. So your statement confuses me. If you dig the songs, how can you *not* dig the person behind them?

these fan sites exist to serve the fan community.

these fan sites celebrate the persona and artistry of prince, but these sites do not exist to serve prince.

because this is true, i think it's counterproductive of aaron to shut down HQ in reaction to a request from prince's camp.

(and i'm saying this as someone who has his fingers crossed that HQ will reopen soon.)

the end result is, the fan community suffers.

and these sites exist to serve the fan community.

the end result is, we all cower once again at the gravity of prince's ever-evolving rules and regulations regarding online behavior.

yet these sites do not exist to serve prince.

(and i'm saying this as someone who has been all too pleased to help out prince's camp with whatever they've needed with regards to the org, and i'm also saying this as someone who has acquired a great deal of patience for prince's demands (if i do say so myself, lol).)

i think aaron should reconsider his decision and re-open HQ. i think he should think long and hard about the focus of his site, and how best to serve the intended audience of an unofficial fan site.

i think there's a way to bridge the gap between prince's camp and a proudly independent fan site. i think there's a way to balance diplomacy and compromise with strong standards and firm boundaries. i think once you work that recipe out, it benefits the fans, it keeps our favorite purple people eater appeased, and everyone gets what they wants or at least they don't care as much about what they can't have.

i don't blame aaron for locking up HQ for good. i really don't. but i really hope he finds a way to bring it back, because it would make a lot of people happy.

and it's THOSE people who HQ - and the .org - serve.

HatrinaHaterwitz said:

Jaysus!!....Hatrina...stop that darn cussing before I get the soap... Keep cussing like that and I'm gonna have to give you the "sailor" salute.
[Edited 1/30/09 17:19pm]

purplecam said:

I kind of agree with Hatrina. I dig discussing politics on this site because most of the Prince fans there are very bright people and I have made several friends in my 8 or so years here. It's not about Prince for me anymore. Especially with these latest antics.

I miss HQ already

Nothing personal to the people on the org. but it's just not the same. btw the layout gives me a freaking headache...pls Aaron reconsider!!

bluefish said:

now you want to dictate who can and can not post here?
i dislike the man but like the music. which box are you going to put me in?

wildgoldenhoney said:

Breakdown:

Aaron got his hand slapped again by Prince. HQuakers support him. Orgers who are not also Quakers really don't give a damn. Film at 11.

how about a new site called ORGQUAKE.com?

Quorg.com?

XxAxX said:

Plus all this fuss over a hat I bet she wishes she never wore it. Now Prince is mad at his fans and HQ is shut down, what next?

I already don't spend my money for Prince since 10 years... I make copy's and downloads and later buy it secondhand.
This way i don't support Mr. Prince direct with my money (which he uses to pay lawyers against his fans) wink
[Edited 1/30/09 3:00am]

Serena said:

If someone punches you in the face, expect to get punched back

Teacher said:

I wish you and I could have babies together.

japanrocks said:

Damn, there's more conspiracy theories here than ever !

Firstly, the simple reason that nothing's been said is that as many of you know, I look after the Prince liaison and legal statements for Housequake and I've been snowed under with my day job - in fact I only found out HQ was closed by email from one of the other mods this morning.

As some have noticed, relations with official sources have been very good of late, however mostly because we've been "playing the game" and trying our best to not offend P. An example of this is how we've had a header that doesn't even mention Prince's name nor shows his photo.

A couple of weeks ago, one member put together some excellent lotusflower "inspired" banners that used a symbol that looked a bit like Prince's but with a flower modification. As they didn't infringe copyright, we took the decision to put these live, along with the official banners we were supplied directly by P.

Roughly 24 hours later, we got a very blunt email saying "this must be removed" from one of his team. We tried to discuss this explaining that it's very difficult to have a fan website that doesn't have a picture of Prince or even show his symbol, however P was adamant that we don't "imply official status".

As someone else noticed on this thread, this was quite frankly the straw that broke the camels back and Aaron came to the belief that this really isn't a fun thing to do any more. Please remember that this is just a hobby for Aaron. It costs him money to run (we can't take donations any more as it changes our legal status and this was used by Prince's legal representation to claim we were a commercial organisation - nice huh ?) and take up a great deal of his time. Would you spend time and money on something you didn't enjoy ?

Is HQ over ? I personally don't know but I've spent a great deal of time playing "united nations" to repair relationships between Prince and all the PFU members (I brokered the "ceasefire" between the PFU and Prince) so I'm not about to give up yet.

It Ain't Over !

ps - thanks for the notes of support for HQ. This isn't about Prince.org vs Housequake, this is purely about fans rights to support an artist in a reasonable manner.

2elijah said:

The thing that gets me is...just because I said I'm nohttp://prince.org/msg/t giving Prince any more of my money, they immediately start in with "If you hate Prince so much...blah, blah, blah..."

I've never said anything of the sort. I don't hate Prince, couldn't if I wanted to but I'm sick of his shit! I feel like after 30 years of voluntarily supporting his every whim and giving him my money, I've earned the right...not to...and to say so, as much as I feel like it, damn it!

Ok, I'm done cussing...for you!




For now!

Now, we have the situation with the banners that was posted on the Housequake site, which apparently Aaron was asked to remove it from P's camp, because the banners created by a fan, that was posted on HQ, was just too similar to P's official banner, which may have caused fans to be confused as to which one was the "official" banner.

HatrinaHaterwitz said:

Okay, I'll excuse you this time lady...


But seriously though, the guy can't seem to win with some members of HQ or the Org. Is there a time when the members of both sites are not b*tching about wanting more from P? In the past he was nice enough to issue tickets to members of his fan club first, where they had the opportunity to get the best seats before the tickets were opened to the general public. Then when there were passwords given exclusively to members of his club, you still had members here and on HQ giving out the passwords to non-members of his club. Then every time it seems there's news about P putting out new music, you have had members posting false info on the tracks or finding ways to get the music for free, and even admitting publically, they will find a way to download it for free when the release date of P's music comes out.

Just recently, he had a radio personality play a few of his new tracks, what do some fans do? They go and download/copy the songs from that site, then post it for other fans to listen to elsewhere. When there are unauthorized sites playing his new songs, people post the links to it, and share it with others. others. Then fans get pissed at Prince because the links are pulled off. Why? It’s his music. If he chooses to give it away for free, then it’s up to him, but if not, the choice is still his. All the above and people wonder why artists get pissed over people stealing their music.

Then there was some person who created a “fake” blog with the same name as Prince’s new site, which confused many Prince fans who thought it was “the real deal” (including me, but it turns out it wasn’t an official blog that belonged to Prince), and it took the mods from the Org to notify members that the blog was indeed "fake" and did not belong to P or his camp.

Then on that same "fake" blog, someone posted the "so-called" lyrics to a poem called “Lotus Flower”, mislead some fans into thinking those so-called lyrics posted were the actual words to Prince’s song, supposedly with the same name, and it turned out the "so-called" lyrics posted on that blog, by a poster there, actually belonged to a poet who had been dead for years now. (Earlier that day, I googled the name of that poem, because I got suspicious as to how it could be a song, with such long verses attached to it, and found out that the so-called lyrics posted on that fake blog, actually belonged to a poet who had been dead years ago.)

Then the person who posted that poem, apparently had the nerve to use someone else’s username from the HQ site, to made it look like that actual member of HQ posted the so-called lyrics to P's song on the fake blog.

Now, we have the situation with the banners that was posted on the Housequake site, which apparently Aaron was asked to remove it from P's camp, because the banners created by a fan, that was posted on HQ, was just too similar to P's official banner, which may have caused fans to be confused as to which one was the "official" banner. So now Aaron decides to suddenly close down HQ the day before the anticipated or supposed opening date of P's official site.(because we are still not sure when P's official site was actually scheduled to open) and now you have some members from HQ and the Org blaming P, when they should be directing their anger, questions and concerns about the HQ closing to Aaron, the owner of HQ, who made the conscious decision to close HQ "until further notice" without notifying members of his site in advance first before closing it down, and leaving the members of hQ in thee dust.

So I guess you can say, a lot has happened over the past few weeks. Popcorn anyone?
[Edited 1/31/09 6:52am]

emm said:

That, dear emm, was exactly why i posted what i did..... there are some people out there

...
But seriously though, the guy can't seem to win with some members of HQ or the Org. Is there a time when the members of both sites are not b*tching about wanting more from P? In the past he was nice enough to issue tickets to members of his fan club first, where they had the opportunity to get the best seats before the tickets were opened to the general public. Then when there were passwords given exclusively to members of his club, you still had members here and on HQ giving out the passwords to non-members of his club. Then every time it seems there's news about P putting out new music, you have had members posting false info on the tracks or finding ways to get the music for free, and even admitting publically, they will find a way to download it for free when the release date of P's music comes out.

Just recently, he had a radio personality play a few of his new tracks, what do some fans do? They go and download/copy the songs from that site, then post it for other fans to listen to elsewhere. When there are unauthorized sites playing his new songs, people post the links to it, and share it with others. others. Then fans get pissed at Prince because the links are pulled off. Why? It’s his music. If he chooses to give it away for free, then it’s up to him, but if not, the choice is still his. All the above and people wonder why artists get pissed over people stealing their music.

Then there was some person who created a “fake” blog with the same name as Prince’s new site, which confused many Prince fans who thought it was “the real deal” (including me, but it turns out it wasn’t an official blog that belonged to Prince), and it took the mods from the Org to notify members that the blog was indeed "fake" and did not belong to P or his camp.

Then on that same "fake" blog, someone posted the "so-called" lyrics to a poem called “Lotus Flower”, mislead some fans into thinking those so-called lyrics posted were the actual words to Prince’s song, supposedly with the same name, and it turned out the "so-called" lyrics posted on that blog, by a poster there, actually belonged to a poet who had been dead for years now. (Earlier that day, I googled the name of that poem, because I got suspicious as to how it could be a song, with such long verses attached to it, and found out that the so-called lyrics posted on that fake blog, actually belonged to a poet who had been dead years ago.)

Then the person who posted that poem, apparently had the nerve to use someone else’s username from the HQ site, to made it look like that actual member of HQ posted the so-called lyrics to P's song on the fake blog.

Now, we have the situation with the banners that was posted on the Housequake site, which apparently Aaron was asked to remove it from P's camp, because the banners created by a fan, that was posted on HQ, was just too similar to P's official banner, which may have caused fans to be confused as to which one was the "official" banner. So now Aaron decides to suddenly close down HQ the day before the anticipated or supposed opening date of P's official site.(because we are still not sure when P's official site was actually scheduled to open) and now you have some members from HQ and the Org blaming P, when they should be directing their anger, questions and concerns about the HQ closing to Aaron, the owner of HQ, who made the conscious decision to close HQ "until further notice" without notifying members of his site in advance first before closing it down, and leaving the members of hQ in thee dust.

So I guess you can say, a lot has happened over the past few weeks. Popcorn anyone?
[Edited 1/31/09 6:52am]