Defense

Tomorrow I'll go into posts about people defending the LPU. Don't get me wrong, if you look at a really cool post today that I saw, you'll see the LPU is way better than most all fanclubs. However, it's still gone downhill like crazy recently.

Here's more thoughts from the LPUers:

outlawserenade
With the cost being $35 for international fans, I'm absolutely considering taking Bob's route of going online. Unless US$ suddenly drop way back down to be US$1 = Rp. 5,000. At the moment, Rp. 350,000 is spectacularly insane to pay for friggin' shoelaces - which I can't see adorning my high heeled sandals and/or pumps - and a bunch of other shittacular items that's not even worth the mention. Somebody should inform whoever made those trinkets that LP fans aren't solely consist of 15 year old kids.

And I say it's NOT worth it. At all. Not in this lifetime. Maybe if I were 15, I'd say it's good enough.

Geki
I think 7.0 is actually the worst package. I've only been a member of the LPU since 4.0, so I don't know how the previous years really were, I mean, I have the audio from the CD's, just not anyting else. I actually liked 5.0 for some reason, I liked Live 8 and the shirt was really awesome, as well as the website.

GraDoN
ya this is the one thing that pisses me off the most, MTM was just released so there are demos and b-sides, waiting for us the hear them but noooo lets put 10 live tracks THAT THEY HAVE on it...
i mean if MTM was to be released next year one could understand 10 live tracks but this...

Praya
That's total crap. Think about it for a second. We all know the LPU sucks. But do the new fans know? How about the people new to the LPU? No, so they end up getting screwed over by this scam. They are selling crap worth 20 bucks for close to 30 and trying to make it interesting. It's pretty gay that I am a dedicated fan and I have to pay a pocket full of change just to show some more suppourt but get nothing in return. Honestly, it's not as simple as don't join again. There are people here who have never gotten everything they bought from 6.0. I never got an annual newsletter! I just don't think its fair to try to rip off fans especially the unknowing. Sure WB has a chokehold on a lot of what happens, but where do you see LP picking up the slack?

I'd MUCH rather go to any other forum and in fact I do. The other sites are free and actually are working(at least LPF is) to make things fun during the LP downtime. In comparison to here. Where we get competitions around the album release and thats it for the next 4 years. Seriously, your getting ripped off. And talking nice and kissing ass isn't going to lower your LPU price.
Either way that's just my opinion. My first time getting the LPU was this 6.0 version and the expirience sucked. So theres a 95% chance i wont be renewin. (i just might do it so i can get backstage for the bmore show with Coheed)

KATHYxx
my email hasn't worked for a year. customer service wont respond to anyone. i respect them as artists, and this isnt about the art, but they better pay attention to the responsibilities they take, and get people in charge of giving services to the fans to do their jobs. LP should be caring about what people are doing to their businesses and their names.

Slipknotfan1
I would simply like to see some more LOVE for the fans thats all. I eman WE BLEED for them and spend our hard earned cash on them and this is all they cna say as a Thank You, would have expected better is all I am saying.

I do respect the band, TONZ, and am not ungrateful but I just think SUPERSTARDOME has gone to their heads and they have forgotten where they have come from and who supports them-THE FANS. Its their fault though they don't have much control over things like this, we they first created the LPU, even into the 2nd and 3rd years they still had TREMEDOUS control and they gave almost all of it up, SELL OUTS.

So I'm really sorry if you are taking what I am saying as no respect for the and and stuff because its the exact opposite.

I mean how many time can you have BTH, I mean jeeze dude. I mean live tracks are cool and all but when they ALL/or most you get year after year after year after year, then yeah people get pissed. Also this package looks like a 10 y/old put it togetehr. It has the EXACT same stuff as ALL the other packages except for SHOELACES, OOOOHHH BOYY SHOELACES, now I finally have something to hang myself with so I don't have to get let down AGAIN. LP have SOLD OUT in all aspects so to answer your question-YOU GET OVER IT.

LionTamerE2K
THE BAD
The CD is awful. Even if it was a real vote I would probably be dissatisfied, because I'm a picky LP fan and don't want ANOTHER live CD full of singles. The shirt's uninspiring, and the shoelaces are not the innovation we were looking for in the LPU 7 package.

THE GOOD
A ton of other fan clubs - Chili Peppers & Keith Urban, for examples sake - charge at least the same price for fan club membership and only give you access to a website and forums. No shirt, no CD, no stickets, and not even any shoelaces. Another black t-shirt is better than nothing, and any CD is better than no CD.

It sucks that as Linkin Park get better, their fan club gets worse, but there's not much we can do other than tell the guys in person at the meet & greets or hope Mike reads our comments here.



Lastly, in case you haven't seen the LPU7 tshirt:














LPU 7 Pass
- LPU 7 CD with 10 Live Recordings featuring the Best of Projekt Revolution 2007
- LPU 7 Shirt
- LPU 7 Membership Card
- LPU 7 Sticker Pack
- LPU 7 Shoelaces
- LPU 7 Carabiner Keychain
- Letter from Linkin Park
- Annual Newsletter
- Mobile Benefits including Exclusive LPU Ringtone, Wallpaper, Contests, and Text Alerts*

Julien-K Thoughts

Here's some thoughts from the Julien-K fans about the LPU. These two posts are from the JKMB. Also, if your first time visiting is today, be sure to read the whole blog! Tomorrow we'll get back to more LPU rants from the community.

ryanshock
*after seeing a 50 second M&G video w/LP*
FUCK! thats a meet and greet for a mainstream Band?

Im fucking glad i met JK when they are still underground......

And...i feel a lil bad for LP fans....

MyAnalogDied
that one is referred to as a meet and greet... and thats the one i would have been in had i been chosen... guess i didnt miss much...

linkin park is selling out... warner seems to be in control of everything now... and the fan club you join to get "exclusive" content just announced the "exclusive" cd will have tracks from projekt revolution... and as we all know they recorded all of them and most people in the lpu have all of them anyways... or at least more than they need... (i personally only have about 7 of them).

breaking the habit live has been on the last 3 cds in a row... it seriously better not be on there again.

theres so many things i could write about it but i dont have the time at the moment... so just read hahnninators blog if youre interested...

i pray to god julien-k doesn't sell out...

dude... ive downloaded so many of the torrents you posted on there i cant count them...

your work is appreciated, even if warner is full of assholes

Tomorrow

Tomorrow I'm going to post more thoughts by the fans and I might actually take an adventure to the Julien-K boards to see what they think about it. The folks over at the JK boards are awesome...it's a really, you know, "different" community than the LP one because it's much smaller but the hearts and souls of the people there make it seem just as big. It's a really great place and I love being there, so I'll give you all some Julien-K fan "thinkage" tomorrow when I'm less tired (or have less homework).

Also, someone asked me today what made me mad about all of this. They were saying how they knew I was mad about Warner screwing with the fans for all these years (I've been going on and on about it for a while lmao), but they wanted to know what caused me to 'explode' when this particular event happens. I thought really hard and I came out saying it was the LPU7 CD.

Why?

It really makes you feel depressed when this kinda stuff happens. I happened to work my fucking ass off by staying up until 4am on school nights some nights and screwing my school grades up - I managed to get all those PR shows. With the help of some hardcore LPUers, we liberated the hell out of all 28 shows on Demonoid. We got all those shows up within like 2 days of them being posted on LPLive. We owned it and made sure every single person in the community that wanted the pro recorded shows got them. We even had a mod on the LPU going with it, who made a thread on the boards with links to all the shows. It was a freaking party and we had a blast. And then one day it dissapeared. Noone knew why. The mods didn't do it - some admin of LP.com (probably instructed by the mean fucks at Warner) removed it with NO explanation.

And now we know why. Jesus.

So we're waiting for LPU7 and we get this. 10 live tracks from Projekt Rev 07. The exact same crap we worked our asses off to get. The exact same stuff. Exact. What the hell is the point of that? Wouldn't that make YOU mad? Frankly, that pisses me the fuck off. Seriously. We know they recorded at least 4 more songs, we know they mixed and mastered more songs completely, we know they recorded another song with strings on it, we know they just recorded a new song in Thailand, we know they have demos and b-sides backed out their ass and down the street, and we know it wouldn't be too much to ask for three or four on the LPU 7 CD. But no, we get this. WHY?

Thanks LPU. I appreciate it.

You are AWESOME.

Today's Thoughts

Devilcus74
I most likely will either not renew or use the online only option this year. I just really do not like the shirt design this year and the CD is awful. I have so many live LP tracks on my iPod already, I don't need anymore. And seriously, I really think the shoe laces are stupid. It seems to send the message that the LPU is for children (or that they're just rapidly becoming more stingy each year and want to throw in cheap items while raising costs). Hopefully LPU 8 will be better. I've been a member since 3.0, and this is honestly the only time I've really been dissatisfied with the package. I mean even 3.0 was okay for me because I was just happy to get anything (plus I was upset I couldn't listen to those songs from LIT on the CD). On a side note, it seems like many of the people who are saying "Stop bitching, support LP always, etc." are the ones that only signed up for the LPU in the last year or so. I have a feeling that if most of these people had been here for 1.0 and 2.0 they would understand why some of the longtime members are pissed off. I can't claim to be one of those members since I missed out on 1.0 and 2.0, but having been here for a significant amount of time, I too feel that annoyance. I agree with the person who said it seems like LP never truly came back from their long hiatus; like something about what made them such a cool, personable band isn't there anymore. It's sad in a way. Every year I've looked forward to renewing as soon as I had money. It's hard to believe I won't be this time.

More Stuff

Check out this awesome artwork piece I found on the web. Shows you how much you're being ripped off. Also, if this is your first time seeing the blog, be sure to read all the other posts. This is a big post here.












So today, I found a ton of people saying how emo the shirt was and how LP didn't design it, but rather someone at the label did. Hah. Here's more thoughts from the hardcore fans of the band, saying what they think about the new LPU 7.0. Also, the list of people I've seen not renewing for LPU 7 has grown to about 35 now. Congratulations Warner. Sotrix (host of my site) is talking to me now and said "not a single b side or demo, not even no roads left. also, im still laughing about the shoe laces, thats priceless. warner went from taking down fansites to destroying their own official sites. ever since MTM, i think a disconnect has been created between the "hardcore" fans and the band. spead that link around, we have to stop new people from joining as well. wage war. 1 year to edit a username, that defines the lpu right now." Daaaaaaaaaang. He's right though, I wanted to remove ONE NUMBER from my username that was LPU'S FAULT in the first place and it's taken a YEAR to fix. Hell, it's not even fixed yet.

littleblackstone
I knew it, I already knew it... I already fucking knew it!

u know what?!
sometimes i wonder myself same thing... why i still love them? do i still love them?

to be honest, i don't know... i mean, it has dissapointed me so badly... i guess i'm getting tired of all this!

it's hard to me saying all this cause i really was an hardcore fan, always have been... but now i'm getting sick. Since MTM came out, LP have never been the same, that's a fact. And I'm not talking only bout their music...

i think we, true fans, don't deserve to be treated like that, even if it's all Warner's fault or shit, i don't care.
This is all bullshit and I'm not saying anything else. I'm done.

Lucas de Hellflame
One thing I'd like to point out about all this though is that yes it's very dissapointing, but the outcry has been an absolute joke. Some of the stuff I've seen people on various forums say is jusy ridiculous.

Although then again, hopefully whoever the hell was responsable for the LPU tracklisting will see this and think twice about repeating anything like this for future referance. Some live tracks with some B-sides is fine, a whole tracklisting of live tracks is just stupid.

Fear
What the fuck! This is worse than six high quality tracks from Live Earth even! I'm still going to renew, but this is the worst news I'd had all day, and this is by far the worst LPU Cd. I want to see the tracklisting just so I can see how many Breaking The Habit's are on the CD.

Bob (this is really good)
Sure, many clubs don't give you such a package, but what about a CD very few want? 87% of the voters (as of writing) are unhappy with the CD. They're also charging more for the packages. So we're paying more, and paying for things many don't really want (shoelaces?).

I know, no one is forcing us to renew or we can go with the online only membership, which I'm sure many will do. However, this too has gone up in price! Is this forum really worth $15 a year? Sure, I can afford it, but it's dying, and isn't going to get any better.

If M2M can't rescue the LPU, I don't know what can.

Dark4521
At this point when I'm reading what I*m suppose to get these are my thoughts:


- LPU 7 CD with 10 Live Recordings featuring the Best of Projekt Revolution 2007

okay let me guess 5 times breaking the habit?

- LPU 7 Shirt

Why the fuck a pair of scissors? that is the meaning of this LPU is not a sewing club it is a Linkin Park Fan Club so we should get a t-shirt LP related and at this point i can't see where scissors are related to LP or do you?

- LPU 7 Membership Card

Yeah okay I got the other 2 Cards but seriously did anybody of you guys ever use this card?

- LPU 7 Sticker Pack

more stickers come on guys you can do better!

- LPU 7 Shoelaces

what the fuck is up with that people normally don't look at shoes only if you got colorful shoes or jordans with the dead president on it.

- LPU 7 Carabiner Keychain

sorry I don't own enough keys to put this one on somewhere.. and we still got one from LPU5 if you don't remember

- Letter from Linkin Park

okay this one could be nice. HOPEFULLY WB/SPARKART DIDN'T WRITE THIS FOR THEM!!

- Annual Newsletter

I NEVER RECIEVED MY LPU 5 NEWSLETTER!!!!

- Mobile Benefits including Exclusive LPU Ringtone, Wallpaper, Contests, and Text Alerts*

Yeah right are you kidding me why the fuck should i want this crap? you never think about your internation fans you should think about it seriously nobody outside of the US can get this.

- FIVE collectible bonus LPU items from the past years (LPU 1 through 6), as selected by LPU Headquarters! Bonus items will include one CD and four other select collectible items (such as a photo, sticker, guitar pick, wristband, postcard set, pin, or membership card).

yeah right?.. i can bet 99% of the renewers will get stuff from 5 or 6.

does somebody think the way I do?

Raiden
First of all sorry for my english, I'm from Hungary. I am very disappointed. Waiting for this? I thought that they should learn now. NO MORE LIVE TRACKS. Especially 10. Ten demo should be. T-shirt? Black again? And the artwork pff...More money...what the f**k they were thinking? I am very unhappy. I hope they will try something else. I don't know what to say...the only thing is the Bonus pack, because I haven't got any LPU cds. To bad I can't what to choose.

lpfaint43
nope not atall, WHY LIVE TRACKS?!?!? people who want those live tracks already have them, remeber the cds where sold and posted allover the LPU?, and WTF? shoe laces? you gota be kidding, my last keychain fell apart...literaly, only good thing is the 5 LPU things with the bonus package

Scott360
this seems a bit pointless.... i mean the countless number of treads saying that WE DON'T WANT BLOODY LIVE TRACKS - so that made no difference, maybe LP don't pay much attention to fans, or more likely it went something like this
LP: We want to put some of the demos on our LPU7 EP
WB: No, we own you so you do as we say, for we want the monies!
who want shoelaces anyway? perhaps a mass uprising is in order lol *joke*

harakiri
i could be wrong, but i don't remember ever voting to get live tracks instead of some new shit. everybody got their liuve tracks from the past tours i guess. this is pointless, as pointless as the lpu 5.0 cd and 100 versions of bth. and i don't need shoelaces, thank you. who the hell voted for that? and what's up with the newsletter? i still wait for the last TWO newsletters to arrive at my home.

Moridin
Am I satisfied??
No! Fuck No!

Hella Fuckin No!!

That's fuckin weeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaak!!!!

Where are the other 4 or 5 songs from the MTM sessions??!!

And SHOELACES???!!
What the fuck do i want shoelaces for??!!

im actually angry about this.

Are they taking the piss or what?

xdistantxsanityx
I find the design hideous, and the only people that care about shoe strings are 5 year olds and the annoying Hot Topic emo kids with the giant dyed black hair, 10 pounds of eyeliner on each eye, that only weigh like 90 pounds and all they wear are super tight pants, striped shirts, and converse chucks with Fall Out Boy shoe strings, not like there's much of a difference anyway...

LinkiedTheory
LPU HQ should take a look and see that 82% of LPU members despise the new package. That is way too much of a majority for them to do nothing.

Response

In either a response to my constant complaining of my issue that hasn't been fixed for over a year now on the LPU or in response to this blog, I had an LPU staff member PM me and give me a personal email address to send my problem to.

Looks like these things work. I can now help anyone out that needs it, just leave a comment here if you have an LPU problem and I'll try and get it to the right person for you.

Thanks!

SpringFlower

SpringFlower posted a great post on the LPU, check this out:

SpringFlower
Your blog is giving me a headache lol. Really almost physically hurts to see all the shit that is happening here written down in one place.

Thanks a lot for doing it though. It is really time those things were pointed out even though I have little hope anything will change. If the band doesn't seem to even put any effort in the package anymore why should they care about the problems of the LPU overall. Not that I blame them personally, they have busy schedules but I think they should care about how things are run and their hardcore and long term fans are treated.

Of course things change through time and to expect the LPU always to stay as amazing as it was in year one and two would have been naive. Although back then I thought the LPU becoming bigger and swamped with people who aren't even true fans or just sign up for the wrong reasons would be a problem. Not the LPU itself treating their customers like shit.

So far I've been lucky. I've always gotten into the meet and greets I wanted (except for London but there are just too many LPUers). I won't apply anymore though because in the three m&gs I've got everything out of being rushed by them like cattle. No complaints here, I knew what I signed up for. I just think it's a pity that they don't make smaller and more intimate m&gs. But that is just my personal opinion. And I know LP's opinions seems to be different and that's alright.

But I never got my LPU5 newsletter. Nor do I know anybody in Europe who got theirs. And I do find it a bit odd that nobody seems to care or want to know why thousands of newsletters went missing. Yet they still seem to have them in HQ so they now send out 2-3 to everybody who gets to complain about it. Which is little I suppose as a lot of people probably don't even know how to complain about it or that they were supposed to get a newsletter at all. I know people say it's their own fault when they don't complain or call to the US or whatever. But still all those people paid for their newsletters so I find it a bit disturbing they are not getting what they paid for and nobody seems to notice/care.

Why not get rid of LPU support-tickets completely when one knows they will never be answered and people won't get help that way? I get that the LPU doesn't have enough staff but to take months/years to help people out? I wonder when my ticket about my newsletter from months ago will be answered.

Why not just be honest with people? I guess that is what irritates people the most. Just honestly say that LP itself are too busy to put much effort into the fan club anymore and that the LPU is so understaffed they can't guarantee all the service they offer anymore. Then people will know what they'll sign up for lol.

I'm not saying everything is shit. The presales always worked for me. I'm enjoying LPUTV a lot and I've met some amazing people here. LP and the LPU just meant/means so much to me it is such a pity it is going downhill like that.