Pages

Monday, October 6, 2008

www.elvispresleyfanclubuk.co.uk

Leafing through the latest issue of the magazine from The Official Elvis Presley Fan Club of Great Britain I spotted a small add reading:

"Elvis online: Visit the Website of the Official Elvis Presley Fan Club on www.elvispresleyfanclubuk.co.uk for Elvis news, views, pictures, travel offers and the new on-line shop featuring a wide range of dvds, cds, books, vinyl and miscellaneous merchandise."

I nearly choked on my coffee. Could this be true? As you may know, I've written earlier about how strange it is that the English fan club in this time and age doesn't have a site on the Internet where you can read the latest news and pay your membership fee, amongst other things.

Quickly, I scrambled to my computer, punched in the address and was greeted by this:

Not the most imaginative of layouts, but that isn't the problem. Actually, I prefer simple solutions on the Internet without blinking adds and so much information you don't know where it begins or end. (Would've been nice with a picture of Elvis, though...)

No, the problem with this site is that it isn't updated. Clicking on "News" I noticed the last posting was from August 7 this year, two months ago! Also, on the first page, Todd Slaughter writes:

Like our fan club magazine, this site is your site. You will have the opportunity to contribute, support, and participate in its development. The only "editorial" control, will be my daily utterings, and the reading and vetting of contributions for libel and decency.

Unfortunately, there aren't any "utterings" and how I as a member and reader can "contribute, support and participate" is, to say the least, pretty unclear. I tried to register but nothing happened, and nowhere on the site did I find a messageboard or any other way to contribute to the page.

Under the capture "Galleries" I found two fan photos, dating from the summer of 2007, and no fans pictures whatsoever. I'll gladly contribute with some of my own photos from Memphis, but how?

The one thing that seems to be working on the site is the shop, which have a decent selection of CDs, both from Sony BMG and FTD. Also, the paintings by artist Teresa Winston look cool, although expensive, to say the least. But the range of DVDs and books is unimpressive with only two titles in each category up for sale.

I for one applaud the fan club for finally being online, but if it's gonna work the site must be regularly updated. And if the fans are to play an important part, then the possibility for that must exist. Otherwise, no one will visit www.elvispresleyfanclubuk.co.uk, and it will fall into oblivion.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi,

great writing, but the link you're offering is "http://www.elvispreslyfanclubuk.co.uk/"

which will lead to an error-site, because the "e" in preslEy is missing. ;)

Greetings

Rocker

Anonymous said...

It's the link at the end of the article, not in the middle....

;)

Thomas said...

Thanks for pointing that out, I'll correct it at once!

Anonymous said...

Hi from Spain, totally agree with you, pretty strange the OEPFC from Britain didn´t have a web til now, but ... did you try to register? I tried twice, filled all the spaces and ... nothing happened. What is it good for? I don´t know.
By the way, congratulations for your blog, I regularly read it though didn´t make it up to write for my bad english. Keep on rocking.

Thomas said...

Hola John Burrows!

Gracias por leer mi blog. Creo que escribes buen ingles. (Hablo un poco espaƱol.)
Yeah, I tried to register, too, but nothing happened. Pretty strange, ehh?
Hope you'll continue to visit my blog, it's cool to have a reader from Spain!

Saludos!