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toyboy

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Posts posted by toyboy

    2024 - Mika @ Accor Hotels Arena (Bercy) Paris, France, 25 March

    in Before the Show

    Posted

    30 minutes ago, Jaela said:

    You would think, since this drama has been repeated time and again for the last 10 years or so, if not longer, that you would start asking yourself what is really the problem here, that those young fans don't want to adapt to your old ways, or that you don't want to adapt to those young fans, to keep the fan club accessible and inclusive to all? Assuming that is really what you want, of course. 

     

    The drama about privileges and people not knowing where to find what and therefore feeling left out isn't new, but the people who are having issues with it are. Again and again a new generation of fans is running into the same problems. 

     

    I feel like it also constantly takes a drama to change something, which is odd. How many times did people have to rally on social media, before you started sharing MFC links to presales, M&G inscriptions, etc. on your Twitter and Instagram accounts, rather than expecting everyone to find out through the forum, for example?

     

    I think people get the impression that you're gatekeeping, because the info on the forum is found almost exclusively by those who are avid users of it, and thus it's always the same people who get the same things. It's a self sustaining mechanism. 

     

    To you guys using the forum feels like second nature, it may be hard to understand the perspective of someone who didn't grow up with the 2000s version of the internet. I would say it's possible to learn how the forum works, but it takes A LOT of time and effort, which not everyone is ABLE to put in, because as you've said, we have all got lives outside of this fandom.

     

    You can argue that those who want the MFC privileges need to put in the work to study the forum, but is it really fair to expect that of everyone? Those who have been on forums all their lives intuitively understand better how it works, just as those who grew up with new tech intuitively know better how it works. I see you say that Instagram, Twitter, your iPhone, etc. aren't easy to learn to operate either, but that's EXACTLY the point. The way you feel about those apps and that tech, is the way we feel about this forum. You can learn to get the hang of it, but it'll never feel quite natural, and you'll always continue to run into some issues. You prefer the forum because it's familiar to you, we prefer social media because it's familiar to us. 

     

    I have been on here since 2015, and I'm still finding out new things, like the purpose of the RSVP list. I guess from now on everyone will be RSVPing for every event, just in case, but as always the communication about this is retroactive, rather than proactive, and that's where the problems arise. 

     

    Hopefully the things you're working on with the new younger mods with regards to the "how to MFC" will change this and will make it easier for people to learn to use the forum. Keep in mind that this forum, for most young people, is the first and only forum which they will ever use, they are completely unfamiliar with the concept, and the interface is completely different from that of any social media app. Social media apps are driven by algorithms and are catered to its users to give them all the information they need as quickly as possible. On this forum, to find the information you need, you often need to click through at least 3 different pages, read a lot of text, and the search engine really isn't that great either. Young people are not *used* to go through all these steps, it's like learning a whole new language. There's no need to insinuate that they are lazy for that, they have simply not learned the same skills as those who experienced the internet in its early days have acquired.

     

    The forum isn't going away, and the importance of MFC in the lives of all Mika fans is not going away either, as long as Mika's team, that faceless entity, feels comfortable to outsource work *they* should be doing to you instead, so you can do their work for free. I will say to the newer fans that there is no point in arguing against that, indeed that should be taken up with Mika himself or his team (if only we knew who his team are, lol). But don't be deterred from expressing your grievances when things go wrong, because it's only through speaking out and discussing the issues we run into that we can bring about some change. 

     

    To conclude: as long as everyone is so heavily reliant on this forum to get any privileges, can we pleaaaseee try to make sure that they're accessible to everyone and can we try to make it as easy and transparent as possible. You can say that you're already trying to do that, but as i said at the start of this little essay, if the same problems keep arising time and again, you really should question where the root of the problem lies and whether what you're currently doing is enough. 

     

    Lastly, this thing has turned into a broader discussion of the revelance and the usability of the MFC forum again, but as for the Bercy drama itself we can simply conclude that the organisation and the communication about it were handled poorly. There's no shame in admitting that something could have been handled better, even if you tried to organise it to the best of your abilities. The situation was upsetting to a lot of fans, and they're not all jealous crybabies for feeling that way. Rather than putting blame on those who felt upset and act like their feelings are invalid, I think it would also help if fans felt like their grievances were taken more seriously, which is not the sentiment i get from the discussion which is being held here, unfortunately. 

     

    But anyway what's done is done, just try to do better in the future, it's not your first rodeo after all. 

     

     

    I feel exactly the same way as a younger fan. I never used forums like this before and it’s quite difficult for me to understand where to find everything and how everything works in general. I often ask people for help because it confuses me. For me, I simply don’t have the time to spend so much time on here especially because it’s difficult for me and I do appreciate what this Forum does for people and that it’s good to find things, but that only works if you know how to navigate that. As for Bercy, these lists seem have not to been that obvious to everyone, even to people who have long been in the fandom so it can’t just be a few people who have problems with figuring it out. Communicating is important and to share your opinions and views as well so I‘m definitely agreeing with what Jaela is saying!

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