SO, you knew it was doomed from the start didn't you? Here's the basic facts:
In Bree's last video ( Ransacked!), posted 2am PST time Monday, she said she would be chatting at 6pm pacific "tomorrow" in the lonelygirl15 chatroom about what she should do. (Her hotel room had been trashed, presumably by the Order that is watching her. Her and Daniel's money was gone, save for $100. Apparently every cop and federal agency is infiltrated by this Order.) The phorum (i.e., the official lonelygirl15.com forum) admins clarified that Bree meant this chat would occur at Tuesday at 6pm PST, and that they hoped to have a new chat interface up by then.
OK, say it with me: Disaster foreshadowing!!!
5pm PST Tuesday. No new chat interface is up. The official phorum chat (userplane platform) is filling with people. 50+ and counting already, 60, 70, 80 . . . . The chat admins are posting every 30 seconds or so that the new link for the chat will be posted, and that the chat WILL NOT be on userplane, but in the new chatroom.
5.45 PST. it becomes clear to all that the new chat interface is not coming (like you couldn't have guessed this already)! The main chat room "Bree's House" has already exceeded 100 users, the claimed limit.
The other phorum chat rooms (normally titled Lobby and OpAphid, I believe) are renamed Bree's House 2, 3. A 4, 5, and 6 are created (though 5 and 6 later disappear) (One chat room is also labeled in-character chat for a short time, but that disappears). People are shunted from one to another without rhyme or reason, and people are frantically asking where Bree will be. Random posts are flying around. "Aaron Spelling: My penis hurts!" Casual fans are posting stuff like "Who is Jonas?" (FYI casual LG15 fans: Jonas is the newest LG15 character.)
SO, it turns out that Bree et al. will be in room 3. Or so we are told at about 5:58 PST, in whatever room I stumbled into, which was not golden Room 3. Interestingly, nikkibowerreport leaves room 1 and shows up in room 3 before anyone know where Bree will show up. (FYI casual LG15 fans: nikkibowerreport is an 'investigative report' that posts videos about bree - she seems to have an inside scoop, but is not proven to be lg15 'canon' yet.)
SO, Room 3 is immediateely filled with over 100 people (somehow) and keeps rising during the chat. There must be a backdoor - because it gets up to 320 users in there before the hour is over.
320 users who don't have to keep quiet. Picture a middle school auditorium filled with sugar-addled teens. Anybody can post in the room, and they do. It is madness (or so I am told). Admins try to relay some of bree, gemmas, and jonas posts to the other chat rooms, where some people are bitching big time about being shut out. One person I saw had been waiting 3 hours in chat to make sure to be included.
Daniel apparently doesn't show up at all for the chat because he though it was stupid? Or so said Bree. (And you question our love for daniel, Creators?)
Apparently Bree hems and haws about what to do. Jonas offers for Bree to come stay with him, or he can send her money. Jonas says he cannot be a cop, because, well, he's a skateboarder. Ah, instant cred! Posts from random people fly so far and fast on your screen no one can really tell what is happening.
Then Bree leaves. BYEE!!
OK. This fiasco could have been predicted. Oh yeah, i did predict it!! The amount of traffic should have been expected. I bet over 1,000 fans would have attended the chat if usable access was afforded. Everyone should have been silenced, except for bree, daniel, and gemma, and a few here and there through admin control to allow for some interaction.
A transcript is slowing appearing at the lgpedia, at this page. Be sure to look for witty commmentary from fans like "I poop in your mouth."
About 30 minutes after the chat concluded, TWJaniak (big lg15 fan and also head admin at the lg15 official forum now) posted the ultimate spin of the chat screwup at the phorum boards. You gotta hand it to TW, he should be a political speechwriter:
10:30pm 11/28 (EST):
The production team of lonelygirl15 is overwhelmed and excited by the turnout for the first ever LG15 live web chat. Tonight hundreds of you became part of a completely new form of entertainment, yet thousands of you could not participate.
We are beta testing a NEW entertainment experience and a NEW way of telling a story, and unfortunately we underestimated the volume of viewers who wanted to participate. Over 350,000 of you visited our site during the chat. Though we had a solution in place for handling a large number of participants, last minute technical difficulties forced us to resort to less than optimal methods. In the future (and their will be future chats) we will be ready for the load, and the conversations will be easier to follow.
Thank you for your support while we work out the kinks.
With greatest appreciation,
The Lonelygirl15 Production Team
Spinny spin spin!Um, chatrooms are not a brand new form of entertainment. I mean, Al Gore invented them looong ago! And 350,000 hits? Well, that is easily explainable. People were looking for the link to the new chat interface that was promised, and kept refreshing like crazy looking for it. Far less then 350,000 people had even viewed the Ransacked! video announcing the chat at that point.
Milowent are you a hater? No no no. Its just obvious this could have been handled so much better, it was completely predictable. Ok, maybe they didn't have a National Intelligence Estimate telling them everything that would happen, but you can't plan to debut a major new website feature with no testing, and then abandon your plans 15 minutes before tee time. Because the default userplane chat was completely inadequate. I really feel for the casual LG15 fan (who makes up the bulk of their youtube views) who wanted to participate and was completely stymied.
So what does upset you? The obvious conclusion that Danielbeast is being written into a minor role on the show, and Jonas is rising like the market-tested wife-beater-wearing O.C. character he is.
EDIT to add: 11/28/07: One year later, I think my snark may have been a bit over the top in places. But, then again, I was kinda pissed at the time that I and many others I knew couldn't get into the chat. The Creators were really flying by the seat of their pants during this period.
