What Can We Do to Make MFC Better?

[teenagedreamer98]

I really like the new look of the website!  Very colourful 

[Gabry74]

New year and new look! I love it! 

[Boucarilla]

Yes I totally agree, it's better like that!

[dcdeb]

6 hours ago, Loo said:

Thank you for everything you do @dcdeb , as soon as the idea given it is implemented!

 

Thanks, but not always.   But I'm trying!

 

In fact, silver, mellody, mari62 and all the Mod Team are always working to make MFC as good as it can be! I'm really loving this discussion -- it's probably long overdue. Thank you all for your input and let's keep it going!

[zia Giovi]

MFC is so rich of materials, and there are so many devoted people working every day in order to make them available for the largest possible amount of fans, that I reckon Mika fans should be grateful to have the chance to be a part of it. After all, it’s free and most of the contents are available even for guest visitors.
Creating new sections or quick links, updating the colors and so on can improve the forum’s image but I don’t think people will massively start subscribing after these changes.
As far as Italian fans are concerned (and considering that Mika’s career is mainly focused here right now, this makes a big difference in terms of new subscriptions), MFC and MFCers have a bad reputation. The common perception is that people are not friendly, sometimes even rude and they cheat when it comes to competitions, ticket giveaways and this kind of stuff.
Now, as reported by @Siri and @Ele.Magna but I may add a few episodes myself, sometimes these perceptions have valid bases. 
So in my opinion we can make the difference if we are fair to each other, if we try be polite even when we are tired, if we don’t turn down people each time something wrong is reported thinking they’re just jealous, but most of all we can try to convince people to come here and change MFC from its interior.
Being critical is quite easy, giving a contribution to make the difference is far more difficult.
(And now I wait in my corner until I’ll be banned)
 

[dcdeb]

6 minutes ago, zia Giovi said:

(And now I wait in my corner until I’ll be banned)
 

 

I hope you were joking when you said this.

 

I've been a moderator here since July 2007, and I can count on two hands the number of people we've banned (not counting spammers and porn, which are banned automatically). And those people were either verbally abusive, menacing or violated our guidelines repeatedly in some other way. We have never banned anyone for simply stating an opinion. I don't know why so many of you seem to think that just having a discussion is a reason for being banned. This isn't some sort of dictatorship where we ban people on a whim. I mean, this is NOT me! ---> 

 

Please read our guidelines on this if you have any questions or doubts.

 

 

[Siri]

 

46 minutes ago, dcdeb said:

I don't know why so many of you seem to think that just having a discussion is a reason for being banned. This isn't some sort of dictatorship where we ban people on a whim. I mean, this is NOT me! ---> 

 

 

Well, it's not against you. I think this is due to MFC's reputation in Italy. And I agree with @zia Giovi

 

1 hour ago, zia Giovi said:

As far as Italian fans are concerned MFC and MFCers have a bad reputation. The common perception is that people are not friendly, sometimes even rude and they cheat when it comes to competitions, ticket giveaways and this kind of stuff.
Now, as reported by @Siri and @Ele.Magna but I may add a few episodes myself, sometimes these perceptions have valid bases. 
So in my opinion we can make the difference if we are fair to each other, if we try be polite even when we are tired, if we don’t turn down people each time something wrong is reported thinking they’re just jealous, but most of all we can try to convince people to come here and change MFC from its interior.
Being critical is quite easy, giving a contribution to make the difference is far more difficult.

 

I don't know how we got to this point in Italy, but this is what doesn't work here, not the forum itself.

Edited February 1, 2018 by Siri

[cat_loves_mika]

Going off what @zia Giovi and @Siri said, maybe other Italians can start promoting MFC to start dispelling the rumors it seems to have from awhile ago. 

[carafon]

Just thinking one more thing :

Why not asking local forums like "Mika Italia" ;'Mika France" ;"Mika Website" and so on , to create a special topic dedicated to the MFC  with links for the most important topics here ?

 

Edited February 1, 2018 by carafon

[cat_loves_mika]

6 minutes ago, carafon said:

Just thinking one more thing :

Why not asking local forums like "Mika Italia" ;'Mika France" ;"Mika Website" and so on , to create un special topic dedicated to the MFC  with links for the most important topics here ?

 

 

Apparently there is a sense of competition, but if we can work something out... why not have all of us promote each other? Fan websites usually do that. I'm not too sure being the "official" fan club how that would work though. 

[Loo]

The reputation problems of forums are everywhere on social networks. I read it for MFC, Italia FC and the Forum Mika France as well.
And always with the same reproaches: favoritism for old members, jealousy of the new ones who have the impression that Mika is guarded and feel deprived of her presence, bad words between members...

There may be some truth to it, but maybe it's just a feeling or a state of mind.

 

When I see what's going on with Mika who is himself the "IDOLE".
If he doesn't post, he is criticized saying that he could think of his fans; when he posts, we tell him that he should go to the studio or play concerts; when he does concerts, we say that he should go to other countries as well...

 

Maybe humans are just grouchy nature!

 

[silver]

1 hour ago, Loo said:

The reputation problems of forums are everywhere on social networks. I read it for MFC, Italia FC and the Forum Mika France as well.
And always with the same reproaches: favoritism for old members, jealousy of the new ones who have the impression that Mika is guarded and feel deprived of her presence, bad words between members...

There may be some truth to it, but maybe it's just a feeling or a state of mind.

 

When I see what's going on with Mika who is himself the "IDOLE".
If he doesn't post, he is criticized saying that he could think of his fans; when he posts, we tell him that he should go to the studio or play concerts; when he does concerts, we say that he should go to other countries as well...

 

Maybe humans are just grouchy nature!

 

 

As far as Mika is concerned, we are just never satisfied  

 

You are right about forums generally having the same sort of problems. There are always people who want to look important and make it seem they are better than other fans; and new fans always feel they have somehow missed out on something. 

[silver]

Nothing to do with changing the forum, but I just remembered this post

 

How many forum members does it take to change a light bulb?

 

 

Spoiler

 

1 to change the light bulb and to post that the light bulb has been changed.

14 to share similar experiences of changing light bulbs and how the light bulb could have been changed differently.

7 to caution about the dangers of changing light bulbs.

27 to point out spelling/grammar errors in posts about changing light bulbs.

53 to flame the spell checkers.

41 to correct spelling/grammar flames.

6 to argue over whether it's "lightbulb" or "light bulb"...another 6 to condemn those 6 as -retentive

2 industry professionals to inform the group that the proper term is "lamp".

15 know-it-alls who claim *they* were in the industry, and that "light bulb" is perfectly correct.

56 to email the participant's ISPs complaining that they are in violation of their "acceptable use policy".

19 to post that this group is not about light bulbs and to please take this discussion to a lightbulb group

23 to demand that cross posting to hardware forum, off-topic forum, and lightbulb group about changing light bulbs be stopped.

11 to defend the posting to this group saying that we all use light bulbs and therefore the posts *are* relevant to this group.

36 to debate which method of changing light bulbs is superior, where to buy the best light bulbs, what brand of light bulbs work best for this technique, and what brands are faulty.

27 to post URL's where one can see examples of different light bulbs.

14 to post that the URL's were posted incorrectly and then post the corrected URL's.

3 to post about links they found from the URL's that are relevant to this group which makes light bulbs relevant to this group.

33 to link all posts to date, quote them in their entirety including all headers and signatures, and add "Me too".

12 to post to the group that they will no longer post because they cannot handle the light bulb controversy.

19 to quote the "Me too's" to say "Me three".

4 to suggest that posters request the light bulb FAQ.

44 to ask what is a "FAQ".

4 to say "didn't we go through this already a short time ago?"

13 to say "do a Google search on light bulbs before posting questions about light bulbs".

1 forum lurker to respond to the original post 6 months from now and start it all over again....

 

 

[Loo]

8 minutes ago, silver said:

Nothing to do with changing the forum, but I just remembered this post

 

How many forum members does it take to change a light bulb?

 

 

  Hide contents

 

1 to change the light bulb and to post that the light bulb has been changed.

14 to share similar experiences of changing light bulbs and how the light bulb could have been changed differently.

7 to caution about the dangers of changing light bulbs.

27 to point out spelling/grammar errors in posts about changing light bulbs.

53 to flame the spell checkers.

41 to correct spelling/grammar flames.

6 to argue over whether it's "lightbulb" or "light bulb"...another 6 to condemn those 6 as -retentive

2 industry professionals to inform the group that the proper term is "lamp".

15 know-it-alls who claim *they* were in the industry, and that "light bulb" is perfectly correct.

56 to email the participant's ISPs complaining that they are in violation of their "acceptable use policy".

19 to post that this group is not about light bulbs and to please take this discussion to a lightbulb group

23 to demand that cross posting to hardware forum, off-topic forum, and lightbulb group about changing light bulbs be stopped.

11 to defend the posting to this group saying that we all use light bulbs and therefore the posts *are* relevant to this group.

36 to debate which method of changing light bulbs is superior, where to buy the best light bulbs, what brand of light bulbs work best for this technique, and what brands are faulty.

27 to post URL's where one can see examples of different light bulbs.

14 to post that the URL's were posted incorrectly and then post the corrected URL's.

3 to post about links they found from the URL's that are relevant to this group which makes light bulbs relevant to this group.

33 to link all posts to date, quote them in their entirety including all headers and signatures, and add "Me too".

12 to post to the group that they will no longer post because they cannot handle the light bulb controversy.

19 to quote the "Me too's" to say "Me three".

4 to suggest that posters request the light bulb FAQ.

44 to ask what is a "FAQ".

4 to say "didn't we go through this already a short time ago?"

13 to say "do a Google search on light bulbs before posting questions about light bulbs".

1 forum lurker to respond to the original post 6 months from now and start it all over again....

 

 

33 to link all posts to date, quote them in their entirety including all headers and signatures, and add "Me too".

 

Me too!

 

You're really not afraid to post this kind of thing, it's so tempting to answer it all over again!

 

[maggie112]

You have pointed at a lot of interesting points, both about the site itself and the community!

Talking about the community, sometimes it's not really clear to find out when "single fans initiative" and "MFC initiative" start and end.... and it can cause misunderstandings, gossip and stuff that you know of course  there were even people saying that "MIKA team" wanted to give best tickets "in secret" to the fans he prefers (but I know that if we start to list all the gossips we hear,  we end up dead )

As an example, the Florence presale (I mean, the subscription to Florence Maggio Musicale): not having an official fan presale (I'm not blaming MFC or Mika team, if we hadn't , it means it wasn't possible) everyone organized by himself, I mean, in small or bigger groups, not sharing information on social media since everyone was afraid that even presale tickets would end so fast (and it didn't happen, luckily) 

Then , the day of the show, MFC (not single fans, MFC) was thanked for buying subscription tickets and then donating them (not the Mika show of course) to several associations ... was the initiative ever proposed on MFC channels? Did it exist an "MFC presale" that nobody knew about? 

And it's just an episode, but I mean, in Italy we experience a lot of internal competition between fans, we are always concerned there is no place for everyone at events.... and it's easy seeing selfish behaviors... but I don't really see a way to solve this problem, as you said, we can't moderate real life 

Edited February 1, 2018 by maggie112

[kath]

We have seen many changes on MFC over the years. I know that  A, I am old and B, I have been here forever but I am more than happy with MFC. It has always been THE place to get every little but of Mika info and I would be very sad to see it go no matter how old fashioned it may be. It's a community. 

[maggie112]

On 31/1/2018 at 12:35 AM, Sabine64 said:

All I can say is whenever I go to Italy for any event I get a lot of help from Italian MFC´iers and I always have a good time with them. Same for all my times in France. 

 

I think it's not exactly the same if you are known as a longtime MFCer, and maybe you already know or chat with them on social media,  or if you are a "new" fan who noone knows ... but also here, I don't want to generalize, everyone is different and has different experiences, but that's the feeling we can get listening several fan stories, I think the truth lies in the middle, "MFCers" are not all evil and selfish people and "newbies" are not all jealous people who tell lies and badmouth MFC just because they are jealous  Most of all,  it's difficult to define what "MFCer" means at this time, since we are all MFC members 

Of course there are also good sides about the community, it's not just drama, or I wouldn't still be here after 5 years 

 

 

 

Edited February 1, 2018 by maggie112

[mellody]

33 minutes ago, cat_loves_mika said:

 

Apparently there is a sense of competition, but if we can work something out... why not have all of us promote each other? Fan websites usually do that. I'm not too sure being the "official" fan club how that would work though. 

 

Indeed we have a thread somewhere dedicated to local Mika fan pages. I guess it hasn't been active for ages, anyway I haven't seen it for a long time. A few years back, there were a lot of local Mika fan sites, but most of them are dead now or have moved to Facebook, where it's easier to reach the few local fans that are left in these countries.

 

I think with the big local sites, in France and Italy, it was always more of a competition than a cooperation. I don't remember why, actually - I only vaguely remember a few events where the French and Italian Fansites were working against MFC, and maybe they had their reasons, but I don't know what these reasons were.

 

I know MFC made some enemies with the queueing system. It was fair in the early days, first come, first serve, no matter if MFCer or not. But some weren't happy that they couldn't jump the queue, and as the queueing system lost its importance over the years (see my previous post here), there also was some misuse of it, also by MFCers. So some were complaining that MFC was playing police in the queue. And the more Mika's fame concentrated on 2 countries, the more international fans were complaining a) about this fact and b) that queueing was so chaotic in these countries. Maybe some fans took this personally.

 

So indeed there is some history behind it all. But in my perception it was always just individuals or small groups, from both sides, who preferred to cause trouble instead of working together. So I find it interesting that you guys say MFC/ers generall has/ve a bad reputation in Italy. Does MFCers in this context mean, everyone who is posting here regularly, or international fans in general (most of those who travel for gigs are indeed MFCers), what about Italian MFCers, do they also have a bad reputation? I guess it doesn't mean everyone who is registered here, because many do register here just for competitions and never come back after that.

 

Anyway, anyone who says "MFCers" are unfriendly, rude and cheating, who do they mean? If they have met 2 or 3 MFCers who are like this, why do they think that automatically everyone else on this forum must be the same? Is it about the Mods/Admins, that there are rumours or misunderstandings that we have done or not done something? This fear of getting banned here for voicing your opinion sounds like it might be part of the problem...?

[maggie112]

13 minutes ago, mellody said:

 

 

I know MFC made some enemies with the queueing system. It was fair in the early days, first come, first serve, no matter if MFCer or not. But some weren't happy that they couldn't jump the queue, and as the queueing system lost its importance over the years (see my previous post here), there also was some misuse of it, also by MFCers. So some were complaining that MFC was playing police in the queue. And the more Mika's fame concentrated on 2 countries, the more international fans were complaining a) about this fact and b) that queueing was so chaotic in these countries. Maybe some fans took this personally.

 

Yes, in Italy is often quite chaotic since there are a lot of people who would want to have front row (more than some years ago, I mean)

So it became like a rush to start queuing before other groups, sometimes arriving at quite crazy hours when it wouldn't be  needed (I think it's not needed to arrive the evening before if in the early morning there are the same people)  and then starting blaming other groups for doing the same thing for the same reason 

For example, once a group of grown women who goes to a lot of events made a video mocking a group of young girls (who went to only one gig) because they started queuing really early when it wasn't needed... well, I didn't liked it at all, at least they removed it quickly  people who represent MFC shouldn't be seen as bullies by the community

Edited February 1, 2018 by maggie112

[silver]

3 minutes ago, maggie112 said:

Yes, in Italy is often quite chaotic since there are a lot of people who would want to have front row (more than some years ago, I mean)

So it became like a rush to start queuing before other groups, sometimes arriving at quite crazy hours when it wouldn't be  needed (I think it's not needed to arrive the evening before if in the early morning there are the same people)  and then starting blaming other groups for doing the same thing for the same reason 

 

 

This happens in the UK as well - people start queuing earlier and earlier to get front row places.

[mellody]

33 minutes ago, maggie112 said:

You have pointed at a lot of interesting points, both about the site itself and the community!

Talking about the community, sometimes it's not really clear to find out when "single fans initiative" and "MFC initiative" start and end.... and it can cause misunderstandings, gossip and stuff that you know of course  there were even people saying that "MIKA team" wanted to give best tickets "in secret" to the fans he prefers (but I know that if we start to list all the gossips we hear,  we end up dead )

As an example, the Florence presale (I mean, the subscription to Florence Maggio Musicale): not having an official fan presale (I'm not blaming MFC or Mika team, if we hadn't , it means it wasn't possible) everyone organized by himself, I mean, in small or bigger groups, not sharing information on social media since everyone was afraid that even presale tickets would end so fast (and it didn't happen, luckily) 

Then , the day of the show, MFC (not single fans, MFC) was thanked for buying subscription tickets and then donating them (not the Mika show of course) to several associations ... was the initiative ever proposed on MFC channels? Did it exist an "MFC presale" that nobody knew about? 

And it's just an episode, but I mean, in Italy we experience a lot of internal competition between fans, we are always concerned there is no place for everyone at events.... and it's easy seeing selfish behaviors... but I don't really see a way to solve this problem, as you said, we can't moderate real life 

 

There was definitely no MFC presale. Apparently there was an option to subscribe to the theatre for a certain amount of money and thus get tickets in a presale, and some fans used this option. I think, some Italian fans also helped international MFCers with this. If I remember correctly, the idea to donate the "rest" of the subscription came up only after buying the tickets, and I don't know who decided to say it's from MFC - maybe it was just the MFCers who didn't need the other tickets they got through that subscription.

[Siri]

1 hour ago, mellody said:

I think with the big local sites, in France and Italy, it was always more of a competition than a cooperation. I don't remember why, actually - I only vaguely remember a few events where the French and Italian Fansites were working against MFC, and maybe they had their reasons, but I don't know what these reasons were.

 

I think the competition is always here, not only back in time (and not only in Italy for what I saw)

 

1 hour ago, mellody said:

So I find it interesting that you guys say MFC/ers generall has/ve a bad reputation in Italy. Does MFCers in this context mean, everyone who is posting here regularly, or international fans in general (most of those who travel for gigs are indeed MFCers), what about Italian MFCers, do they also have a bad reputation? I guess it doesn't mean everyone who is registered here, because many do register here just for competitions and never come back after that.

 

Anyway, anyone who says "MFCers" are unfriendly, rude and cheating, who do they mean? If they have met 2 or 3 MFCers who are like this, why do they think that automatically everyone else on this forum must be the same? Is it about the Mods/Admins, that there are rumours or misunderstandings that we have done or not done something? This fear of getting banned here for voicing your opinion sounds like it might be part of the problem...?

 

I personally wrote MFCers to distinguish them from other fans in my previous posts, so MFCer: registered here. I didn't mean it in an offensive way like it seems you read it (?) - afterall I'm a MFCer too and have friends who are as well. Not every single MFCer is unfriendly and rude.

 

I think the bad reputation in Italy is due to those competition problems between groups you were talking about. And because there are MFCers part of those groups that never show off here normally, but when MFC can offer them tickets or some priviledge they are the first ones who know it; when MFC is not useful they act selfishly.

 

About Reps I already asked my questions (some unsolved yet - but still)

 

For the fear of being banned: that's how those groups work. If you have a problem, it's your business. If you have a problem with me, you are lying because you are jealous and if you try to have a discussion I'll ban you or make you shut up in some way. Unless you can be useful to me: in that case I'm hyper kind and helpful.

 

And for external ppl thanking MFC even if it isn't involved, well, if I was the baker of the cake or the theater or a random association and receive an order/a donation from a group of Mika's fan, I'll automatically thank the official fan club. How could I know there are so many different and independent small groups?

Edited February 1, 2018 by Siri

[cat_loves_mika]

Maybe a lot of this queueing and ticket drama would be solved in Mika’s team handled it better. There’s obviously too many people at these shows for just general admission. There probably needs to be a VIP option for more money, for people to pay more to get into the venue first to eliminate some of the competition and pettiness. That’s what a lot of people do. I understand the concept of being fair, but there’s practicality to the paying more money thing as well. Unless of something like this already happens. I wouldn’t know. 

[mellody]

5 hours ago, cat_loves_mika said:

Maybe a lot of this queueing and ticket drama would be solved in Mika’s team handled it better. There’s obviously too many people at these shows for just general admission. There probably needs to be a VIP option for more money, for people to pay more to get into the venue first to eliminate some of the competition and pettiness. That’s what a lot of people do. I understand the concept of being fair, but there’s practicality to the paying more money thing as well. Unless of something like this already happens. I wouldn’t know. 

 

Then those who don't have the money to pay for these tickets would also say it's unfair. Maybe Mika should use a stage design as in Bercy, with the catwalk into the crowd, then the front row would be longer. But then he'd also have to do half of the show on the front stage and half on the second stage, unlike in Bercy... otherwise it's unfair again. Besides, such a stage design only works in big arenas.

I don't think Mika wants to offer such VIP tickets, he wants everyone to have the same chances. Well, mostly... I've seen exceptions from that, too. And if you don't have the time or energy to queue for 2 days, you also don't have the same chances as those who do. Anyway, it's never 100% fair, no matter what we or Team Mika do, so I guess they will leave it as it is.

[maggie112]

6 minutes ago, mellody said:

 

Then those who don't have the money to pay for these tickets would also say it's unfair. Maybe Mika should use a stage design as in Bercy, with the catwalk into the crowd, then the front row would be longer. But then he'd also have to do half of the show on the front stage and half on the second stage, unlike in Bercy... otherwise it's unfair again. Besides, such a stage design only works in big arenas.

I don't think Mika wants to offer such VIP tickets, he wants everyone to have the same chances. Well, mostly... I've seen exceptions from that, too. And if you don't have the time or energy to queue for 2 days, you also don't have the same chances as those who do. Anyway, it's never 100% fair, no matter what we or Team Mika do, so I guess they will leave it as it is.

Exactly, at least in Italian big dates if you want to get a good front row spot you have to start queuing at least at 4 am but sometimes it’s not even enough 🙈

then most of the fans who get front row would have got it in a fair way, queuing all those hours, but there will always be the “smart ones with generous friends” who keep their place and skip the effort 😂 and then maybe say they have queued for 3466346 dates and this time they deserve to relax 😂 but well, I’m sure this happens at every gig, it’s not Mika fandom perks 😂