I think the last time i felt certain there was a good possibility that Darren was lurking on a board was the SG BBS and since the split, that certainty has not returned. But even when i felt Darren was close to us online and quite interactive, that's not what kept me coming back, it was my fellow bbsers. You are right Nic in that it was easier to act positive back in the SG heyday because i think everyone on that board that posted regularly did so because they enjoyed most SG things. I also think that discussions of the albums didn't get the negative label back then, for whatever reasons.
I would just like to clarify the two instances that Nic refered to, just because i was closely involved with them. I am not sure what special treatment you are refering to with Caedn at a show, the closest i can think of is the time she was allowed inside the MuchMusic studio for one of Darren's appearances and that was a thank you for her work as a moderator. As for Dyan's mention on TV, that was actually the work of Caedn, myself and a number of other SG BBSers who arranged to ask Darren if he could show his feet to Dyan, it was all part of a bbs joke at the time about seeing Naked Hayes Feet LOL
I can't really comment on the change of mentioning fans by Darren because, to me, there has always been the same amount of support and jealousy towards fans who get mentioned.
I agree with what Dyan said, that the support was still there and many fans felt furthur alienated when they were told they weren't being supportive or that they weren't fans. I'm glad you got what i mean Dyan because you were still very supportive after your more stereotypical supportiveness faded...can i call it maybe a more fanatical supportiveness? The more blatant support i refer to is more, back in the day, when you would post things that came across as "don't say negative things about Darren, he can do no wrong" (which you may or may not have meant to say) and sometimes it would get my back up and i remember a few of the arguements i either watched or participated in LOL. I mean, there was a time when you and i didn't get along very well LOL Though the exact state of our mutual disagreements was in constant flux and wasn't the kind of dislike that we have seen in the past between "rival" fans and we got past it eventually, to my pleasure because i consider you a good online friend of mine. I think it's when you modified your support to something easier for me to deal with (not to say you changed because of me, you merely reacted to Spin like we all did) but it wasn't the kind of white charger, never admit defeat kind of support that seems to be prefered by the powers that be. You were willing to admit that Spin might not be a chart-topper, that maybe Sony wasn't promoting it correctly, you dared to suggest they were making mistakes.
The thing they don't get or don't care about is that you said those things because you cared. You are completely right that many of us, and yes i don't mind being used as an example, were really hurt because we were told we weren't supportive, we weren't fans because we wouldn't play the Darren defender role anymore. Our support was judged and dismissed, and often our hurt over the break up of SG seemed to be perceived as an attack on Darren. I know many people who felt they were not allowed to publically grieve the death of the band. And it was something people needed to grieve about. I had a few of my closest online friends call me in tears when they heard the news.
That hurt and bewilderment was often rudely dismissed by other fans, as questions about the break up were seen as being insulting when often people were just trying to get a clear picture what had happened because the break came out of nowhere for many people. Before that, what we were told, what we read in magazines mostly made sense as a whole. After the break was announced, that's when we started to realize just how little we really knew, how much we had assumed or just thought was the normal state of affairs. With the rug pulled out from under us, i know i started to question things i never thought i'd question or doubt. And it hurt me to even question, i didn't want to stop being on that easy street where everything was gold. But i was still supportive, otherwise i wouldn't have bothered to try to figure it all out and i wouldn't be here today *chuckle*
eep my posts seem to be getting longer @_@ anyway, just my perspective [img]redface.gif[/img]
