Thanks for the new Mazzy Star forum

[Hermesacat]

Hi Emma,
Thanks for starting this new Mazzy Star forum. Your timing appears to be good - just before Hope's own official site hopesandoval.com seems to have removed its forum, & after two other Mazzy Star fan sites with forums went defunct this year. I fear the hopesandoval.com forum may have been killed possibly due to discussion about bootleg recordings occurring there. Some other forum members recently brought up the topic, & I added to the discussion, & I wonder if that may have helped prompt the forum's removal (-?).
I'll try to help spread word about your forum by "advertising" it at a few of the more popular Mazzy Star uploads to you tube I've made. There are quite a few subscribers to my youtube channel, most of them are likely Mazzy/Hope fans, & hopefully that will bring some new members to the mazzystar.free.fr forum.
Now that Mazzy Star's so active, releasing a new album, & touring, a fan forum is very desirable to have available at this time, so thanks again.

[MikeRMD]

Hello Emma,

My thanks as well for starting this forum. It was depressing to think that we wouldn't have a forum while Mazzy Star release their 4th album and tour in support of it. I was quite busy a few months ago and wasn't able to visit the mazzystar.tk site by Sorcerer often but vaguely recall a post in the 'administration' area asking for financial support for the site. It might have been better to put it in the music section of the forum where more would have seen it. I don't know if lack of response is why Sorcerer dropped the site. As far as hopesandoval.com not having a forum anymore i think it has to do with the waves of spam that kept hitting it (a lot of it in Russian looking script?) although Hermescat might be correct as well in thinking it may have to do with bootleg posts. I was reading posts on hopesandoval.com but never registered nor posted on their forum as i have issues with officialdom (or officialdumb as some say). On Mazzy Star Boulevard one was free to post reviews of songs or shows etc whether they be positive (as my review of 'Through the Devil Softly' was), or negative (as was my review of Hope and Colm's disgraceful attitude during the show in Vancouver a few years ago).

As far as bootlegs go: I have always differentiated between bootlegging and pirating. Pirating is when someone makes a copy of a legitimate album release and doesn't pay for it. I own and will buy Mazzy Star CD's etc. Most people who are bootleg fans just want to hear live or rare material by artists that they like and usually they have already purchased everything that they can legitimately by the artist. Hermescat and others including Sorcerer provided lists of bootlegs on Mazzy Star Boulevard and hopefully that can happen here but only with upfront permission from Emma.

Thanks Hermescat for providing the info for this site on a YouTube video. I've been checking recently just for such info as i figured if anyone knew of a site or forum it would be you.

Cheers,
Mike

[Emma]

Hermesacat and MikeRMD,

Welcome and thank you for joining the forum!
I hope that we will be able to recreate the community we formed on Anders' and Sorcerer's sites.

I started setting up this forum when I realised that Sorcerer's forum had disappeared for good but at that time, I was not sure if I would put it online: To be honest, my computer skills are limited and I did not know whether I would be able to run the site properly ; I also realised that Colin's official forum already included a Mazzy Star section with active members and I thought that this new forum would be redundant.

Just like you, I do not really understand why the official forum was closed. I saw the bootleg thread but it seems a bit radical to me to close an entire forum just because a few members mentioned bootleg recordings in one thread... As Mike said, it could be due to spamming. I noticed that the site was targeted by spambots.

Hermesacat, thank you for mentioning the forum on your YT channel and spreading the word. I will try to do the same on other community and music sites. With the release of the new album and the upcoming tour, I hope that more people will join us.

[MikeRMD]

Hi Emma,

What do you think of contacting Colin at hopesandoval.com about mentioning this site or having a link to here? The link to Mazzy Star Boulevard used to come up first in online searches about Mazzy Star but it will take time and more traffic for that to happen to this site. With the new album out and upcoming tour there should be lots of interest so let's hope for the best.

Cheers,
Mike

[Emma]

Hello Mike,

I took your advice and sent an email to Colin. I hope that my request will be accepted.
Thanks for your suggestion!

PS: Check your PM.

[opalstardream]

Emma,
Thanks for the invitation to join your site. I am friends with Hermesacat from youtube, where we both post many rare Mazzy Star tracks. My channel as opalstardream covers the origin of Mazzy Star through the Paisley Underground scene: The Rain Parade, The Dream Syndicate, Clay Allison, Rainy Day, Opal(w/Kendra), Opal(w/Hope), Going Home(w/Hope), Mazzy Star, Kendra Smith Presents The Guild Of Temporal Adventurers, Kendra Smith(solo), Suki Ewers(solo), Hope Sandoval and The Warm Inventions.

The subject everyone seems to be dancing around is, will you allow links to the many bootleg recordings on the previous MS sites by all these bands to once again be posted on your site and available to everyone?
Sorcerer and Hermesacat were very kind with sharing all the musical gems they found with others on the other (now gone) forums, but I don't think posting them caused any of the problems. I have been posting the same music on youtube for years without any copyright warnings or issues at all. The only music I've ever had taken down by Mazzy Star (actually Capitol records, a division of Warner Brothers) was a couple of studio tracks.
Hoping your site can go beyond what was before,
David

[MikeRMD]

Hi Emma et al,

The first link that comes up when i google Mazzy Star right now is Wikipedia and their Mazzy Star page. What do you think about trying to have a link there to this site? I don't know if that's allowed although a lot of their references were from the Mazzy Star Boulevard site so they relied on that site for info. Hopefully more of the people from the old sites will wend their way here.

Cheers,
Mike

[Emma]

Mike,

As you suggested, I tried to add my URL to the External Links section but It was immediately removed by Wikipedia's robots. Apparently they do not accept discussion forums as external links.
Thanks for the suggestion though.

[Emma]

opalstardream,

Thank you for joining the forum.
Please check your PM.

[Hermesacat]

Good to see here Mike, & my helpful youtuber pal opalstardream (he's made available to me some fine rare recordings, & he posts many to yt). As for the "dancing around" qu. opalstardream mentions, I wanted to answer Emma's Private Message to me in this regard, but the site doesn't yet give me permission to send or reply to PMs (can this be remedied?). It seems very short-lived fan site mazzystar.tk is definitely gone with no explanation from webmaster Sorcerer, even to me who he designated a "site administrator". He issued no advance warning, made no announcement, & hasn't replied to my email. He just pulled the plug one day, apparently, & vamoosed. I have theories as to what might possibly have happened, but will save those for another time.