Quick story...

I bought the first shinedown album about a year ago, or so. I liked it. I soon grew eager to hear some more stuff by them. I bookmarked their site, and checked it every once in a while. No updates. Kept checking, no updates. Then last week, my alarm clock went off in the morning and who did I hear? None other than Shinedown, with a nice catchy new tune.

Later that day, I checked the "Official Shinedown Website" once again. NO MENTION OF A NEW ALBUM. Surely they would post SOMETHING... ANYTHING about a new album. I double checked with Amazon, and sure enough "Us and Them" was available for immediate purchase. What gives?

Well, after a quick google search I find a different "Official Shinedown Website" that makes plenty of mention of the new album. It turns out that Shinedowns old site still exists at http://www.shinedown.com/shinedownsite/news/default.asp, and a new website immerged at the simpler http://www.shinedown.com.
I then tried to contact the webmaster of the site to inform him/her/them that they should probably consider a redirect, or a message for people to update their links located at the old site. But it would seem, this is an impossible task, for there is no link/address/form with which to contact anybody.

The point of all this is, Shinedown is potentially losing fans and sales due to a poorly conceived website. I have tried to direct this problem through the appropriate channels, but I've failed. If you know of who can correct this problem, please do so, if not for me, for the band.

End of rant.

personally i would like to thank you for ranting...i too feel the maintenance leaves much to be desired. someone needs to get on the schtick.

Actually esholly you have a great point! I didn't realize that I'd been checking the OLD official site until my graphics card went up on my computer. I had to use my husband's computer for a few days. When I went to the Shinedown site, it was COMPLETELY new...and I had missed a local tour date in San Diego. I'd been checking the tour dates regularly too. My bookmark still takes me to the old site, but if you click the 'Official SD site' on that page it takes you to the new page.

~Terry~

I had no problem finding it - I said "lets try shinedown.com" and sure enough, it worked

quote:

Originally posted by stpmattb:
I had no problem finding it - I said "lets try shinedown.com" and sure enough, it worked

Of course it works if you search for it...the problem arrises for those of us who have had the official site bookmarked for a long time. The bookmark takes you to the OLD site. They should just get rid it.

~Terry~

I don't think they should get rid of the old site since there's still interesting material on it (I actually used the link to connect someone with the official LAW lyrics). However, they should tell people the site changed & give them a link. I forgot how I knew they had a new site, can't remember for the life of me.

Well, frankly, I would think that just about any person who has ever used the internet before would try something as simple as 'www.shinedown.com' to find shinedown's official web site, and anyone who is a "FAN" of the band I highly doubt would stop being a fan just becasue they can't find the updated new site. But, behind your melodrama lies a good point. And, I will forward your suggestion to someone who can help get it a redirect on there. I only realized a few months ago that we were having the same problem with the message board. There was a link to the old board on the new board, but no link to the new board on the old one.... thats been corrected by now, so I'm sure it'll be no troublem to add one on the site.

quote:

Originally posted by Cheer8734:
Well, frankly, I would think that just about any person who has ever used the internet before would try something as simple as 'www.shinedown.com' to find shinedown's official web site, and anyone who is a "FAN" of the band I highly doubt would stop being a fan just becasue they can't find the updated new site. But, behind your melodrama lies a good point. And, I will forward your suggestion to someone who can help get it a redirect on there. I only realized a few months ago that we were having the same problem with the message board. There was a link to the old board on the new board, but no link to the new board on the old one.... thats been corrected by now, so I'm sure it'll be no troublem to add one on the site.

WHY would I search for it, when it's bookmarked on my computer?? AND the bookmarked site kept working and didn't mention the new site. I know that LOTS of other people actually missed concerts because of this issue. I was very upset to miss a show in San Diego.

They don't have to 'get rid of it', they can archive any important material and link it from the site. But it would have save us all a lot of headaches if the old site automatically re-directed us to the new one.

~Terry~

Cool.

Cheer has got it. NO LOSS of any FANS due to a website. Maybe no gain, but again... I thought this was about the music. Damn, I get it wrong everytime.

quote:

Originally posted by Cheer8734:
Well, frankly, I would think that just about any person who has ever used the internet before would try something as simple as 'www.shinedown.com' to find shinedown's official web site, and anyone who is a "FAN" of the band I highly doubt would stop being a fan just becasue they can't find the updated new site. But, behind your melodrama lies a good point. And, I will forward your suggestion to someone who can help get it a redirect on there. I only realized a few months ago that we were having the same problem with the message board. There was a link to the old board on the new board, but no link to the new board on the old one.... thats been corrected by now, so I'm sure it'll be no troublem to add one on the site.

if i weren't so easy going and had actually posted the original message i might have to take offense to your condescending tone...

I really don't see how they would be loosing fans just because their websight might not be the greatest out there

OMG it's not so much LOSING FANS, maybe that was worded poorly. HOWEVER fans have definitely missed updated information AND SHOWS because our bookmarks took us to the old site. I checked the site EVERYDAY looking for tour dates with no idea that there was a new site. How many times have we seen posts begging SD to come to their area, then they find out that the guys were just there? It's happened quite a few times.

All we are saying is make the OLD site linked to the new one, OR put some sort of notice on the old site linking people to the new one. They may not be losing fans, but they have definitely sold less concert tickets because of it.

~Terry~

Well, arguing about it is pointless, so I don't know why you are trying to continue an arguement. No one said having a link between sites was a bad idea. In fact, I said it was a good idea, and I'd see if I could help make it happen. People are just disagreeing that its making them lose fans. If you really like a band and desparately need to see them in concert, I'd hope you'd try more than one site. Personally, I'd check their myspace, ticketmaster AND their official site. SD's official site has ALWAYS been a little slow with posting tour dates....

quote:

Originally posted by Cheer8734:
Well, arguing about it is pointless, so I don't know why you are trying to continue an arguement. No one said having a link between sites was a bad idea. In fact, I said it was a good idea, and I'd see if I could help make it happen. People are just disagreeing that its making them lose fans. If you really like a band and desparately need to see them in concert, I'd hope you'd try more than one site. Personally, I'd check their myspace, ticketmaster AND their official site. SD's official site has ALWAYS been a little slow with posting tour dates....

EXACTLY arguing about it IS stupid. We have a valid point about the website, and hopefully the 'powers that be' will consider our suggestions to eliminate the confusion.

YOU ALL are arguing about it...and making us feel stupid because we don't search for new SD websites everytime we log onto the internet. You are basically calling us stupid.

~Terry~

So, is there always this much drama here?