LiveDaily Community

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Live Daily, or LiveDaily as its spelt on the site (all one word) is a US based website run by ticketmaster, which has the slogan 'get the full story', as well as, I believe its 'Americas No. 1 concert source'.

On the site you can find tour information, articles and interviews with music groups and singers. There's a 'song of the day' and a search box for searching for tickets (not surprising, since ticketmaster owns the site). ...
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and the LiveDaily home page can be found here:-

http://www.livedaily.com/


- Postcard exchange -

For anyone interested, a member on the BSB forum has set up a postcard exchange open to anyone on LD, so you can send people postcards and they'll send you one back. It should be fun, we can get postcards from people all over the world! I've sent 6 already.

If your interested, ... more

- Introduction -

Ok this is the most random review I've done to date but I want to give it a shot anyway. I feel quite qualified to discuss this place, for a couple of reasons, the first being that I've been a member for quite a long time, since December 31st 2001 to be precise and the second being because ive got what I believe to be the highest post count there out of all the members (though I can't cofirm this right now due to the memberlist being disabled by admin sometime last year but I did have the highest post count by quite a few thousand posts a couple of years ago and I haven't seen anyone else post with a similar post count).

Also be aware that I do discuss the website itself and the variety of forums but this is mainly about the main forum I, personally, post in, which is the BSB (BackStreet Boys) one, which shouldn't surprise people who know me lol (see, I said its kinda random!) thats not to say that its all about BSB discussions though...

Onto the main review...

- So, what is Live Daily? -

Live Daily, or LiveDaily as its spelt on the site (all one word) is a US based website run by ticketmaster, which has the slogan 'get the full story', as well as, I believe its 'Americas No. 1 concert source'.

On the site you can find tour information, articles and interviews with music groups and singers. There's a 'song of the day' and a search box for searching for tickets (not surprising, since ticketmaster owns the site). There are also links to podcasts, a section for contests and a photo gallery.

Thats all nice enough but its something else that I'm really talking about here and thats the forums, the very last section listed from the websites homepage. There are many different forums under the forums section and their not all music oriented either (though there are plenty of music oriented forums). For example, there are individual forums for discussing books, film and TV, opinion and lifestyle, general news, politics and even one specifically on climate change/global warming. Those are just the ones I think are of most interest but there are others too, so there's quite a wide variety of forums to choose from.

Also you only have to register once and its free to register, once your able to log in, you can post in any and all of these forums.

However, not all of the forums are as busy as the BSB one that this review is mainly about, you'd have to check for yourself but some forums, for singers or groups that aren't doing all that much at the moment, they might not be as busy.

Alot of people know about this website from the initials LD and the BSB forum (along with the Christina (ie Christin Aguilera) forum) has a particular reputation, that is of being really dramatic, that is full of arguments and drama and the like. This is what this review is mainly about (I told you it was going to be random, huh? I guess its partly for my own amusement and to document it all).

- So, who posts here? just teenage yanks? -

No, not just yanks. I like the forum because there's alot of members, literally from all over the world. This includes other Brits, Canadians, people from North and South America, people from Europe, Africa, Asia including mainly South East Asia, China (hi Tony!), Japan, Australia (Hi Jay!) and New Zealand. Probably other places, oh yes Russia too, so there are people from all over the world, not just America. There are teenagers and men and women of all ages, from about 13 to 50. Some people are parents and others are still in school, so there is a wide age range here too (its mainly women in their late teens to mid 20s that post there though, generally speaking).

- So, you go to the BSB forum and just chat about the group? -

Again, no. Although I do go there to check for any news about the group, as any news about them is always quickly posted on the site, so you can tell if there's any big news by quickly browsing the thread (discussion) titles on the first few pages of the forum, there are also lots of non BSB related discussions.

I know I already mentioned the fact that there are many forums on LiveDaily, non music ones but even within the BSB forum, you will find quite a few threads that have 'OT' at the start of the title. What does this mean? well, OT stands for off topic, ie its not about the group or one of the guys. I've been a member for many years and trust me, there's a really wide range of issues that have been asked about and discussed in this one forum. Issues from political issues, to news articles of all kinds, to personal dilemmas and advice threads/discussions and all sorts.

Once you get to know people there and feel comfortable, you can ask or talk about pretty much anything there, as long as your alright about it being publically available of course but people do discuss lots of things. I remember discussing what religious beliefs other forums members had, I've discussed the death penalty and ive seen a few discussions on abortion, among other things.

- Where is the drama in all of this? -

Ah, the drama... the drama is definitely there, don't you worry, its there! usually, pretty much any thread/'discussion' with the word/name Nick in it, will cause the dreaded d word - sorry Nick fans but you know its true! lol! well, thats one cause anyway... what I like about the forum, in one way, is the fact that most people don't hold back. They speak honestly and if that involves a strong opinion, which it normally does, then so be it. Of course, there are those that don't take kindly to such extreme, or particular, views and their equally more than happy to let that be known too. You get the picture... I can usually guess from a thread title and the number of pages (each page containing 15 posts) it has, whether the dreaded d word has taken hold there or not.

The drama isn't just there as far as topics about Nick are concerned though. Arguments can erupt in off topic, uh topics or discussions, as well, when you get topics such as the death penalty or abortion, then I suppose thats to be expected. I guess im just someone who is somewhat (as sad as this is!) fascinated by such arguments, who has what point of view and how people clash and stuff.

When it gets really bad, however, is when things get personal, this is what I may call the dark side of LD. Unfortunately it does happen, I have had ocassions where I have been name called, just last month I was sent a PM {private message) in which I was accused of being certain things, which enfuriated me at the time but im pretty much over it now, I'm pretty happy that what she said wasn't and isn't the general consensus.

Also, I wouldn't want to be a moderator there by any means, thats a tough job and you don't even get paid. I've heard that somebody who used to moderate the forum, actually got personal threats sent through her MySpace and her personal email address, from people who resented the fact that she banned them because they broke the rules! thats both dramatic and crazy stuff, ive had my say in many discussions and been involved in some arguments but ive never been threatened, thankfully.

- Why keep visiting and posting if its so bad? -

To be honest, it is an addictive site or forum. The forum is particularly busy, there will pretty much always be a few other people on, browsing and posting at the same time you are. There were topics posted right through the years when BSB were 'on hiatus' (ie from 2002 to 2005), so it is particularly busy.

I met my best friend through LD too, so I have that to thank the site for. My best friend, who is one of the nicest, friendliest people ive ever known, as slushy as that is, its true. I still go to the forum because there are very nice and friendly people there, similar people who I'm friends with. Its so busy that you can post messages and get a response from them within a couple of minutes, if you agree to meet up there at a particular time or if you just happen to be on at the same time, which does happen often. So you can have real time conversations, plus if your friend isn't on, you can post a message and they should be able to get it whenever they do log in next, if their not on then.

It is quite 'clique-y' , in that there are groups of people that have their own thread, like the AJ fans, they have an AJ thread and there's a Brian thread and there are more general threads, like an awesome thread, which im a part of. Their really just a bit of fun. I like it, as cheesy as it sounds, because it makes me feel like I belong, although there are times when I feel like I don't fit in, quite as much as I used to. It maybe seems a little unfriendly when you first join but stick with it, I assure you there are perfectly nice and kind people that are worth getting to know, if your looking for online friends and you like BSB at all or even pop music, its worth going there. It is free to join and post and/or just lurk (view the pages without posting), after all.

- Help & advice -

I like that people ask for advice, on any and everything and people who reply, you can tell they give their honest opinion (which can be harsh but all the same... its not always), so I feel I'm not getting sugar coated responses if I want to know honestly what people think I should do, regarding a certain topic or whatever.

I have posted topics asking for help with computer/IT issues, asking for help to find certain kinds of programs and so on, as well as topics asking for advice and help with some, mainly minor, personal issues. Thanks to some people, I now have and use some useful programs and have had help with stuff, that I perhaps wouldn't have, if it weren't for LD.

- Themes/styles & navigation -

Its simple enough to navigate the site. The text isn't generally too big or too small and its fairly common sense, how to go from forum to topic and read and post your own posts and so on.

However, if your bored of the look of the site, you can change the layout somewhat, by changing the site 'theme' used. There are a few themes pre-loaded and that you can choose from, on the site. The drop down menu used to change to a different theme is somewhat hidden away, on the bottom left of each page, underneath where the 'posting rules' box is.

Basically, the different options give you a choice of different colour schemes, which is whats meant when I say theme. Some are darker and some are brighter, the choice is between the default ('new default'), new classic (bright blue and white), new essence (a much lighter blue, different shades of light blue), new black (grey and black) and new navy (different shades of blue again, a pretty dark blue with a textured blue image in the background).

- News -

Another thing thats handy with LD, is that any breaking news, anything big (news worthy) that happens in the US, Canada, Britain or Europe mainly but pretty much anywhere, will be posted here, in the BSB forum and probably elsewhere too, as well as BSB information.

I like that as it means if I don't have the TV on, or if something happens in the US which the UK news doesn't cover so heavily, I know I can find out about it, read up about it and discuss it here and find out what peoples opinions are, on the latest news. The awful news about that plane crash in Spain was posted, as most news stories are, really quite soon after the event occurs.

As far as music information and BSB information, or news, is concerned, it is always up to date and I know I can tell, by simply browsing the first few pages of the forum, whether there is any news on them or not. This is very handy for me, I can tell with a glance whether there's anything much going on, without having to check news and music/fansites individually.

- Discovering new things -

Thanks to LD a few years ago, I became a Good Charlotte fan, or at least I bought two of their albums anyway, from hearing about them on the forum/website. I had never heard of them before and this happens a few times, where I'll read about a group or a book or movie or something on LD and that will encourage me to check it out, to find I have a new interest, another group I like or a movie or book I enjoyed. I've discovered a few things I've enjoyed through reading what other people on the forum like, so thats quite good.

- He knows, you know! -

One reason why the BSB forum is so popular, at least in part anyway, is that Nick is aware of the forum and does read it, certainly from time to time. How do I know this? well people have heard him talk about it but also, just to confirm it, he mentioned the forum by name in his thank you messages for the Never Gone album. Of course, this caused, at the time, a major influx of new members and some rather *ahemannoying* over the top messages ('OMG Nick read my messge, I love you' etc etc!). One of the BSB forum moderators has met him recently and told him off for causing her so much work with all the drama surrounding the fact that its public knowledge he visits and reads the forum. People (me included) wonder what his username might be and whether he has posted on the forum, perhaps posing as a fan, to ask other fans their thoughts on things, so he knows what we think, without us knowing it was him who asked! maybe thats happened, who knows... we should always remember that its very easy to lie online about who we are, anyway can say their an 20 year old Brian fan from New York or whatever, it doesn't make it automatically true, so, beware of that but that is just common sense.

- Displaying/showing off my username in real life -

I wasn't sure of the best name to use for this heading but I wanted to say that when I went to see BSB live in London in 2005, I hung out with some of the other British fans who post in the 'UK LD HQ thread' on LD (which, I believe, I started). One of the girls made these fun pink tshirts that said 'LiveDaily UK Fans on tour with BSB 2005' and it had our username near the bottom too (with 'Backstreets Back Alright!!!' on the back lol). So I wore that to the two concerts I went to in London, which was fun.

This year, I decided to (instead of making such a tshirt, as I wasn't really with the same group of people, most of them didn't come as far north as Glasgow) write my username on a large sticky label, which I put on my tshirt when I went to meet the group and watch them in concert, in Glasgow in May. I decided to do that rather impulsively the day before I went to see them, as I knew some people from LD from other countries were flying over to see them in Glasgow too and also people from the fanclub had mentioned they'd be there too and I have the same name in the fanclub, so I thought if I had a label then people might come up and say hello. I knew that most people probably wouldn't recognise me otherwise and I didn't know what many of them looked like either. As it happened, when I had a few extra seconds with the group, I pointed to the label when I was next to Brian and said to him see this is my name because your my favourite lol! its cheesy but oh well, he read it and said that it was cool anyway, which is nice!.

- If only I was studying psychology! -

I've thought many times that the forum is crying out to be made into some psych dissertation or something lol its hard to explain but its such a condensed community there, where people know certain other people, there are the cliques (as mentioned above) and the general threads and the drama, oh the drama lol plus the fact that, as ive also already mentioned, its populated by people all over the world, it provides this fascinating insight into how people feel and what they think about any and everything! I found it very interesting, for example, to see how the Americans reacted to the election results for the 2004 US elections. I'll be interested in seeing what happens there this year too... see its definitely not just BSB thats discussed in detail, even in the BSB forum!.

- Time out -

Last year, due not only to the fact that I guess I put too much of my private/personal life onto the forum and I cared too much what some people think. I wasn't happy with BSB in general anyway and I felt personally quite tired, my posts on LD were getting ratty sounding and I felt fed up in general, so I made a conscious decision that it was more than daft to let a forum online and a music group, get me down (which is probably obvious to most people but oh well, this is what im like I suppose). So I decided to take a break from both, I logged out of LD and stayed away from their websites and other forums (that was mid January 2007) and I didn't go back to LD again until February 2008. Some people im sure thought I'd never leave last year for long, I have a big post count and some im sure think I'd never leave or whatever (how dramatic, I know, hey I said its dramatic there lol!) but I did and I know I can again.

If im to be honest, certain issues are coming up again, where I feel a bit, annoyed by some perhaps and I do roll my eyes at some of the arguments, I feel the forum was perhaps slightly friendlier in the past but there you go. I still go there and I know I can leave if things get me down too much.

I was quite sad that some, if not most, of the people I used to chat to on LD in the past, had stopped posting when I came back. I feel I lost some good friends there. I know people move on and everything, of course but it is a shame that I didn't get the chance to keep in touch with some of them, I did have some good friends that ive lost touch with and that is always a shame.

I admit to being pretty insecure at times, indeed sometimes I can be slightly frustrated and feel a bit ignored in some way but I think thats probably just telling me that I need to get out more LOL I know, no need to tell me, im aware of that lol... I always hope people like me and the following section shows that luckily, the general consensus seems to be that I am liked.

- You love me, you reaalllyy love me! *sniff* -

What can I say? when I first logged online on Sunday morning (this Sunday past, August 17th), I had no warning or anything of this but anyway, I found this topic:-

http://talk.livedaily.com/showthread.php?t=632355

(it should be viewable without registering, I think)

Now that just really cheered me up (I am the person their talking about). I mean I didn't ask for anything to be said about me but any and all compliments I get, I very much take to heart, so, I love this topic! lol people I don't talk to outside of the forum, or even much ON the forum, have posted there, complimenting me... so... it leaves me feeling self assured that im liked and that makes me, well, very happy. I don't know what I do to deserve some of the praise but I gladly accept it. As I say, I feel the opinions shared there are all very honest, so I'm happy that they mean what they say and it means alot to me. If any of them are reading this, thank you! I know, I get a bit soppy, sorry lol

- Any other warnings? -

When you register (for free!) to post on the site, it can take a while for your account to be fully activated. This is going by what others have told me, it was done automatically for me through automatic email confirmation like most forums but I think they have become a bit more strict with the registration system and now a moderator must manually approve registration requests, which can take anything from a day to a few weeks, I believe.

Once your account is fully activated and you can post, don't expect to become too cool and popular overnight, it can take a while. Even I feel out of place at times and im one of the old regular type posters, just be sure to introduce yourself with a 'Hello, im new here' type thread, people will welcome you, if no-one else does, I will :-)

Try not to worry if someone criticises a post you make, stand your ground and if somebody swears or breaks a rule then alert the moderators, its best to nip that sort of thing at the bud, so to speak.

If you wonder how other members have their own small pictures under their username by every post, these are called custom avatars and you cant use these right away, as you need to have posted just over 500 posts before your allowed to upload and use one of those. If you reach that post count and aren't able to make a custom avatar of your own (they currently have to be 100 pixels by100 pixels size and/or under 32kb in file size, whichever comes first), then you can post a topic requesting one and someone else should be able to do that. I can make avatars for other people too. If you think its bad that you need to have 500 posts before your allowed to use one, it used to be alot worse as in 2002/2003, I remember I had to reach 3,000 posts before I was allowed to use one and the image used in custom avatars had to be copyright free, otherwise I had to gain permission from the copyright holder before I could use it.

Also, currently, be aware that the forums have a habit of running a bit slow. Most of the time its alright, pages load quickly enough but maybe a couple or a few times a day when its really busy, it can crash and your stuck with the message 'the server is too busy at the moment. Check back later' or it just times out while trying to load the forum page, so you just have to be patient and wait for it to come back, which can take anything from a few minutes to, at the worst, an hour or so. It isn't normally so bad, its only been like this for the last couple of months and im hopeful the admins/mods will fix this with a prune of the boards soon (where they delete the oldest topics to make room for new ones), or to add more bandwidth so more people can load the forums/pages at once...

Oh yeah and if your like me, free some time in your schedule to check it and chat and have fun there every day or so.

- Links -

So you want to check it out? you think you can handle it? are you sure? positive? is that your final answer?! ok, here you go. The forum im specifically talking about can be found here:-

http://talk.livedaily.com/forumdisplay.php?f=6

The main forum page is here:-

http://talk.livedaily.com/index.php

and the LiveDaily home page can be found here:-

http://www.livedaily.com/

- Postcard exchange -

For anyone interested, a member on the BSB forum has set up a postcard exchange open to anyone on LD, so you can send people postcards and they'll send you one back. It should be fun, we can get postcards from people all over the world! I've sent 6 already.

If your interested, search for threads started by CrazyBeautiful28, she's posted a few threads (topics) about it and wants to get as many people involved as possible.

- Conclusions -

This has become somewhat like my second home. It may only be an online forum but there are some fascinating discussions held there, with some really interesting arguments and points of view put ahead. There are some really nice people there, its definitely worth checking out. If im online and im not on Ciao, this is where I'll probably be.

Thanks for reading my review, I hope you enjoyed it and found it useful. Thanks for all r/r/c's.

*edit:- I have just added some extra headings/sections to this review, I apologise if I accidentally duplicated a bit of information... ive tried to check it and I can't see the same info. elsewhere but its a long review so it might have happened, sorry if I did...* 

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