Digital Meltdown: Hanson.net
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
| Meta | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Digital Meltdown: Hanson.net |
| Creator: | Laura Motta |
| Date(s): | 2000 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom: | Hanson |
| Topic: | official website |
| External Links: | brightandbeautiful.org/hanson/meltdown.htm |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Digital Meltdown: Hanson.net is a 2000 meta essay written by Laura Motta on her website Bright and Beautiful.
It was written in reaction to the launch of Hanson's new website and ISP.
Excerpts
It's not that its rather formidable replacement, Hanson.net, isn't fun. It is. It has enough message boards, pictures, trinkets, bells, whistles and e-mail boxes to sink a small tour bus, but what it doesn't have in any kind of traceable amount, is Hanson. They haven't posted there once. None of the content is written by them. None of the pictures are taken by them. There is nothing there to indicate or personally reflect the band that the service takes its name from. When will we ever see one of Zac's Paint Shop masterpieces on Hanson.net? Or a picture that a fan drew that personally appealed to them? Or a letter that meant something? Sure, the digital universe is impressive, but it's also highly impersonal. MOE was something intimate, something that came to you from them, as assuredly as that envelope read "Tulsa." Hanson.net is a behemoth at its outset. It's not a club. It's an institution run by a bunch of faceless digerati in New York who don't know you from to the next David Bowie fan. And for all of the information it provides, and all of the pictures it houses, and all of the "exclusives" it entitles you to, it's also very expensive.
And that's where this situation truly starts to get sticky. Hanson et al have been pressing Hanson.net at us like it's the greatest thing they've ever done. They've been pressing so hard that they're neglecting nearly every other outlet that they've created for their fans. Hansonline.com has become a shameful wasteland in the wake of Hanson.net. Once the only official online source for Hanson information, it now remains perpetually unupdated, even while important news, especially about the tour, sails right past us, information about everything from tour dates to on sale times to venue information. If it weren't for the Hanson Hotel, many a MOE member (That's MOE, the fan club, that contrary to Hanson's opinion, does indeed still exist.) would be in the dark about preferred seating for this tour, information that they're entitled to. It's become all too clear that preferential treatment is being given to Hanson.net members while MOE members are left to scratch for information wherever they can find it. Because it's not that the important information isn't being posted. It is, but it's being posted at Hanson.net, and whether this was their goal or not, it gives the impression that information is being deliberately withheld in order to goad MOE members into signing up for the service. Even the MOE alternative, the free e-mail "newsletter" that all MOE members will be signed up for after the publication is discontinued, smacks of an opportunity to advertise Hanson.net, to spread the word about all of the exciting exclusive information we're missing out on.
It's not unwise to move the fan club closer to the Internet. One thing that Hanson.net will assuredly have over MOE is that it will be timely. Information that took months to distribute can now reach us at the click of a button. But putting the club on the Internet and only on the Internet will surely serve to alienate more than it will welcome. There are still some of us who don't have computers. There are still some of us who enjoy what is palpable. And there are still some of us who want Hanson, and not a frozen, digitized shadow of them.