Pet Shop Boys Community

Did anyone else get this strange email from Aimoo ....

Dearest Aimoo Member,
This email reaches you for the purpose of letting you know what exactly happened since the upgrade of version 8.0.1 on November 12, 2007. As you know, Aimoo is facing the biggest challenge since the release of Aimoo version 8.0.1, unstable program and severer, so many glitches and problems and so on. All these problems worry Aimoo staff a lot. So far there are still so many glitches waiting to be addressed. We have done our utmost to revert Aimoo back to the glory as six years ago. But as a result, we just screw up everything. We have to admit that the upgrade is frustrating. Overall, we are really sorry that Aimoo owners and members have to go through all these problems before holidays with us.

During the past one month, Aimoo technological team stays up late to address all the problems step by step in order to offer you a more stable environment. The special service group is taking all their hands to offer assistance to all members who are driven mad to adapt to the new and unstable environment. But we are sure that all these work are worthy, because we know that you stand with us all the time.

To be honest, Aimoo have encountered a lot of big problems such as the error pages always bother you and the chat room didn’t work for you any more some time before the release of version8.0.1. There were a large number of threads and posts stocked in our old WEB system on a few servers. Some of our veteran members may got to know that our Aimoo servers couldn't stand anymore, if we do not make some changes, they will also be “crazy” and then collapse completely. That’ why we take a risk to upgrade.

What we have done is intended to make you feel at home but not destroy everything as some members mentioned. The great“ambition” to upgrade distracts our attention from the demands of our members.

In the process of data transfer, we do the stupid thing to just transfer your threads and replies to the new version, but not all your data including your customizations which you put all your hearts and soul into. Our data processing division is regret to what they have done.

We sincerely apologize for the upgrade has caused to you, and please have faith in us that we will get everything done perfectly in the near future.

Although you miss Aimoo version 7 a lot, it will not come back again. Because it cannot adapt to the new hardware environment.Please don’t be sad, we will make the current version 8.0.1 perfect for you. And it will be your warm home. Let’s together to make our home more comfortable. Your any comments or suggestions will be highly appreciated.

Hope all is well with you, your family and friends.

Best regards
Aimoo


I take it they kept a database with all our addresses on ?

Yes, I got that this week too. Probably a good decision to move on all the same given the self-flagellation that's obviously going on there...

Reminds me of Basil Fawlty suggesting to guests that they can kick him for his incompetence.

Drico.

I don't remember the 90's at all. No, that's not true. Was Aimoo one of Casper's ghostly friends or friendly ghosts?

I do remember Usenet. alt.music.pet-shop-boys was the f*** Wild West in 1993.
No mods prissily editing your curse words like a Victorian nanny, like in the above sentence. Think of the children! Ugh.

It was fun, debating the merits of Very, all of us fairly new to finding other PSB fans for the first time, on an international scale.

Aimoo is barely a blip in my memory. Like that one guy who did "Elusive" and had a full-on nance-attack tizzy and denounced PSB because they didn't treat him as the royalty he thought he was. Mike Fiorenza?

Ah. Memory Lane of PSB fandom on the Internet. Quite hard to be sentimental about it, because honestly, PSB fans tend to be cold and unpleasant, putting it mildly, right back to the beginning of the Internet. Which is fine. Been there since day one.
Happy New year all.

I generallly stayed away from usenet, although i was on the introspective list from 1993-97. Of course I remember aimoo, as I was intrumental in moving us there at the time. Funny that they kept our details even after deleting the board, but I guess you could sign up to other boards from the same account, so...

I've long said that there are 4 main types of PSB fan. It is quite possible to belong to more than one type, of course, although the characteristics of one type are usually dominant.

1. The intellectual. Usually left wing/liberal. Loves PSB for Neil's lyrics.

2. The gay man. Identifies with PSB because of their sexuality. Displays varying degrees of stereotypical "gay man" behaviour.

3. The electro-lover. Loves PSB for the music. Is often irritated by one or both of the first groups.

4. The girl who fancies Neil/Chris. Can be harmless or deteriorate into one of the worst troublemakers in the community.

I'd say I'm a 1 with a bit of 3...

Mix up varying amounts of each type, throw in vastly differing degrees of how seriously people take internet interaction, and you have a recipe for fun and larks...

I know of several long term couples who've met through PSB fandom, including of course my wife and I. Also I have several PSB fan friends that I first met online, so I wouldn't say PSB fans are all cold and unpleasant at all.

That said, there are plenty that I'd struggle to find a good word to say to were I to meet them...

mike was pretty cool guy. his site was the site to go to plus I miss his track by track reviews. as far as his falling out with them only he really knows.

think about that other nice guy who was doing the orginal official PSB site was also a great guy and he got cast aside by the PSB kinda coldly if you ask me so you dont know.

hey its their right to do so, but IMO the site is still clunky and weird looking despite the great unreleased stuff that happens to be on it.I can imagine they can be "difficult". cripes sake they are men yet cant tolerate the smell of coffee.you do the math.

I got the Aimoo e-mail too. Why did we all up and move here in October 2003? I'm too gin-addled to recall.

Dipso wrote:I got the Aimoo e-mail too. Why did we all up and move here in October 2003? I'm too gin-addled to recall.

We didnøt - we moved to Sky first. The main forum history goes as follows:

1) Dotmusic
2) Hostboard
3) Aimoo
4) Sky
5) Community

Then of course there are several other forums as well. But that's the main line. For me the peak will always be dotmusic.

BlueSwan wrote: We didnøt - we moved to Sky first. The main forum history goes as follows:

1) Dotmusic
2) Hostboard
3) Aimoo
4) Sky
5) Community

Then of course there are several other forums as well. But that's the main line. For me the peak will always be dotmusic.

1) Dotmusic
2) Hostboard
3) Sky
4) Aimoo
5) Community

I'm pretty sure it was Aimoo after Sky.

All have been great fun in one way or another, with all the different egos and personalities that have come and gone. It's good to see that there's always been a solid core of long time members holding them all together though.

Edited.

I was a late comer and joined Aimoo. We all left Aimoo when their servers suffered a major crash around October 2003 (must have been around the same time as PopArt)

Aimoo's significance in PSB fora history lies in it being the independent republic of PSB fandom. It only took four months for the proles to move there after the purges of Sty...

In the meantime, the rebels were holed up in Dotmusic's redesigned bierkeller and at Hostboard, which at this time acted as a mere backup when the main board crashed.

The original Dotmusic represented the innocent childhood of PSB forumites. The move to Hostboard resulted from a botched painting and decorating job that festooned our beloved home in garish technicolour. Usability was forgotten and soon so was Dotmusic.

We upped sticks to Host. For tradition's sake, Steve PSB continued moderation duties. For a while, the move seemed to work, but some longed for gimmicks and toys and these were happily provided by Sty - a forum for the aspiring caudillo...

I must write a history of PSB fora - and it's more notable characters - some day...

Drico

Don't forget that at the time I found sky, we thought that hostboard was about to close. In the event it didn't, but I wouldn't even have looked otherwise... Ah the benefits of hindsight...

Dot was good fun and still had a few stragglers up to not so long ago.

I remember having fun stirring it up on Sky. Having been banned for absolutely no reason whatsoever, I kept signing on under different usernames on different PCs to wind up the moderators and let everyone know I had been banned.

Yeeeees, you were quite the rebel, Mary.

Right, Aimoo was after Sky. How could I forget that.