new feature on the blackcat site

[ggw]

I'm sure John Ashcroft and the Rand Corporation are somehow wrapped up in this.

[Jaguär]

Originally posted by ggwâ?¢:
  I'm sure John Ashcroft and the Rand Corporation are somehow wrapped up in this.

Oh, and you are forgetting SRI and TRW.  

[markie]

Originally posted by bags:
   Hell, Markie, you started the thread!
 

yes and I think the idea is a good one.
 
 I just wondered if they did web searches for everytime their name was mentioned, or if they found they topic fortuitously, i.e via a friend.

[thirsty moore]

A company that expects to go anywhere needs to know its target market.  Checking out an internet chat board is a good place to start.

[markie]

but if they checked the chatboards it would take a lot of time, and they found the topic very quickly. It would be more economical for the company to post a topic on the chatboard than to wait and see if one ever turned up, dont you think?

[ggw]

Do we know what Thirsty really does for a living?

[thirsty moore]

Does it bother you that people read what you post on this board and use it for marketing purposes?  Yes, it would be more economical.
 
 

Originally posted by Bubba:
  but if they checked the chatboards it would take a lot of time, and they found the topic very quickly. It would be more economical for the company to post a topic on the chatboard than to wait and see if one ever turned up, dont you think?

[thirsty moore]

Judging from the data I've accumulated, you most likely enjoy Kraft Macaroni and Cheese.  
 
 

Originally posted by ggwâ?¢:
  Do we know what Thirsty really does for a living?

[Liberte]

I hate to break up the highly entertaining speculation about how I ended up posting to this thread, but we are neither as devious nor as astute as various members have guessed.  In a start-up business you do not have the time to Google yourself every day to see what people are saying about you (and a passworded board like this won't show up in most search engines anyway).
 
 Wednesday afternoon our business development guy was on the phone with the 9:30 discussing the possibility of putting the TourVote button on this site.  The 9:30 person happened to mention to him that this thread had sprung up on their board.  Without that pointer--or some other third-party tip--we would never have known about it.  
 
 Our guy then e-mailed this news the rest of us.  I went to the site, registered so I could read what was being said, decided that a couple of misconceptions or mysteries might deserve clarification, and you can read the rest above.
 
 I do want to add that it is extremely helpful to see the comments of the people we want to serve, whether supportive or critical.  In the long run it enables us to do a better job.  I wish I had time to do more of it.

[Liberte]

Originally posted by bags:
  Liberte...who is involved?  (You may not be able to say, but that is the lingering question).
 
 And has it been useful? -- I see that it's been around for a while.

TourVote is a service provided by Demand ID Systems, a start-up company based in the Baltimore/Washington area.  There's no secrecy surrounding who we are--it's really just us.  We have no connection (at this time, anyway) with the established music industry except for having some very knowledgable industry folks serving (unpaid) on our Board of Advisors.  Interested persons with time on their hands are invited to check out the company web site:   DIDS home page
 
 As to whether it's useful, the answer changes every day.  The more music lovers who cast TourVotes for the acts they'd buy a ticket to see, the more useful it will become.  We have been around for a while, building out our infrastructure, but only since August have we been adding local area partner sites to carry the voting application.  So the data's pretty thin for making show placement decisions, although a couple of venues now have hundreds of ballots from their own site visitors.  It'll be a lot more powerful when we have 50K to 100K local fans involved, which is our goal.

[Liberte]

Originally posted by Jaguär:
  I too like having a say. I'm just worried about any spamming.

Please, if you have concerns (and we understand why you might) read our privacy policy before you vote:   TourVote privacy policy
 
 We mean it, too.  Selling you up the river to spammers would be the kiss of death for our business, even if we weren't concerned about the ethics involved.  Which we certainly are, whether one chooses to believe us or not.

[walkman]

I think the really important question here, Liberte, is what's your taste in music like?
 
 The success of your company hinges on your response.
 
 Kidding. (?)

[Liberte]

Originally posted by walkman:
  I think the really important question here, Liberte, is what's your taste in music like?
 
 The success of your company hinges on your response.
 
 Kidding. (?)

Heh heh.  The answer to your question is, "most of the above."
 
 If you looked at my CD/vinyl (I'm old enough to have been a legal drinker at the original Woodstock, which I was) collection without my telling you anything, you would probably guess that I started at one end of a big-ass Tower Records and took one item every 12 inches down every aisle, possibly without looking at them, until I had covered the entire store.  Okay, maybe I skipped a few sections, but not many.
 
 It would be the same mishmash for ticket stubs, too.  In the last year or so you'd find something like 2 classical, 20 or so various flavors of indie rock, 4 classic rock, 15 or so folk/alt-country/Americana (sorry, I'm too ignorant to know where the official lines are there) 3 bluegrass, 3 jazz, and 2 blues events.  And an off-Broadway musical.  No hip-hop unless you count a little attempted crossover by whiteboys in the indie rock area.  My bad, should learn how to listen to that stuff but just haven't had the time.
 
 Authentically made music is good regardless of where it comes from or who does it, if you take the time to get inside it.  I hate it when people slag artists because they're too popular or not cool.  Only thing that counts is, can they move you?  If not, is it really their fault, or yours?

[Seth Hurwitz]

Authentically made music is good regardless of where it comes from or who does it, if you take the time to get inside it.  I hate it when people slag artists because they're too popular or not cool.  Only thing that counts is, can they move you?  If not, is it really their fault, or yours?

whoa
 
 I'm at least going to hire this guy to post on the Forum for me

[thirsty moore]

You hiring?
 
 

Originally posted by Liberte:
 Authentically made music is good regardless of where it comes from or who does it, if you take the time to get inside it.  I hate it when people slag artists because they're too popular or not cool.  Only thing that counts is, can they move you?  If not, is it really their fault, or yours?