New DreamTheater.com Site

[DreamTheater]

Hey fellow Jordan Rudess / Dream TheAter fans! My name is Steve Johnson and I started up a Dream Theater portal under the domain name www.DreamTheater.com (http://dreamtheater.com), which I recently purchased. The site that for so long pointed to a movie production company at long last is a portal to Dream Theater-related websites like this one. In fact, the Forums page links to this forum, along with Portnoy, Petrruci, and other forums.

My goal is to build a portal that promotes various Dream TheAter website like this one and adds other community features for fans like blogs, picture galleries, etc., all in a moderated, safe, and fun online environment for fans. Most importantly, I want to create a place where fellow musicians can upload and share their original music, post their gigs to the gig calendar, create blogs, share playing tips, and generally connect with each other.

Interestingly, the Jordan Rudess news story on my site is the #3 most visited page just after tour dates and Dream TheAter videos. He is obviously hugely popular with Dream Theater fans, so I thought I’d let you folks know.

I hope to work with the band and their management to become an official site of some sort. In the mean time, I’m linking to their side projects, forums, and the like in an effort to direct fans to the wealth of great information that exists on the net. Feel free to come visit the site, create a blog, link back to your forum articles, and generally take advantage of the resources we are creating. This site is for all DreamTheater fans, so let me know if there are any features or other feedback you wish to share with me. Just use the Contact Us form on the page.

Thanks,

Steve Johnson

[Ricky Garcia]

On one side allways great to see people dedicating time into the band and willing to create communinties and help to promote. On this special issue I would have prefered to have seen the domain beeing left over to the band directly to point to the official website. I am assuming they are satisfied with the work of their webmaster as he is doing it for many years allready.

Overall this is all a bit confusing looking specially with such a important webaddress. Your site is nicely done though and I am sure you invested a lot of time allready creating it.

Well just my opinion.

[DreamTheater]

On one side allways great to see people dedicating time into the band and willing to create communinties and help to promote. On this special issue I would have prefered to have seen the domain beeing left over to the band directly to point to the official website. I am assuming they are satisfied with the work of their webmaster as he is doing it for many years allready.

Overall this is all a bit confusing looking specially with such a important webaddress. Your site is nicely done though and I am sure you invested a lot of time allready creating it.

Well just my opinion.

Thank you for sharing your opinion. I am trying to reach the band's management now (Mr. Solomon) to discuss transferring the domain to them. I created this site as a demonostration of the kinds of information and techniques that I believe better promote the band. For example, lots of people hit the "What is Ytsejam" trivia question, presumably because they don't know the answer. When they click "read more" they learn a little about the Majesty history and get exposed to Ytsejam Records, which they may not otherwise have visited due to the small icon on the current official site.

In short, I want to at least demonstrate for a little while quantitative proof that Dream Theater deserves an upgraded approach to their current Internet presence. YouTube and MySpace are good starts, but even that is late in the game and cannot compare to a solid fan and band driven website on a larger scale than what is in place presently.

Perhaps the name will simply transfer to the band. Whatever the case, I hope that my contribution here has a positive and long-lasting effect on the bands continued success, and the fans who appreciate them as much as I do.

[Ricky Garcia]

Well seems that you had good intentions then and you still hold the option open to have the domain transfered if requested and also stated out so on your site. Thats good and fair.

Unfortunatly there are some websites out there that might have access to important addresses and just use them to place comercial banners etc. so I have to admit my first thought was going into this direction when I saw this post.

Lets see what happens... :)

[RemcoG]

You are the fair buyer, so you should do with it what you want. But I believe to transfer links with the band is maybe better (and maybe a little extra for you? :tongue: )

[Georges]

Chances are that DT decides that it wants to get hold of the domain, then whatever you would do, the band holds a preferential right to buy the domain.

In the meantime you should explicitly mention on your website that it is an unofficial homepage and point to the official website at a clearly visible spot, preferably in the menu or in the logo. That way you can avoid any potential legal trouble...

Nonetheless, nice work done, always good to have some sort of overview.

P.S.: It once happened to the Symphony X official website. In the beginning, some guy bought the .com domain to put up his unofficial Symphony X homepage. Of course, the webmaster of the official Symphony X website decided to hunt that .com website down (I remember his excitement about this, lots of discussions in their forum) and finally got hold of the .com domain.

[DreamTheater]

Yes - my goal #1 was to secure the DT.com domain name and make the site related to the band. I have posted throughout the site links back to the official page (inluding the home page and tour dates page (most popular) and I clearly indicate that the site there now is an unnofficial web site.

My goal #2 is to track the visitor statistics on my setup to show the band and management quantitiatve proof of what's going on there (number of registered users, feedback from fans, number of clicks to Ytsejam Records, etc.)

I should make contact with band management sometime next week to discuss options and figure out a way forward.

[Margaret]

Your site looks very professional. Keep up the good work!