GothZilla’s debut album “50 Stories of Sadness” is the first album on Figment to go gold!  The band received their golden horn certification this weekend for reaching the 100 albums sold mark with “50 Stories of Sadness”.  Reached for comment the band has this to say about their achievement, “That ole thing?  Really?  Shi….”  When asked why they thought the album resonated so well with fans, they responded “We have no idea.  Honestly we’ve moved on and are working on a new album.  It’s kind of a Perry Como inspired lounge kinda thing with marked Polka influences.”

For those of you who are not familiar with our horn certifications, Figment awards those bands whose albums reach certain sales marks with horn certifications.  These certifications include an icon that’s placed on the album’s page as well as special lucre rewards, which we refer to as “filthy lucre”.  To give you a better understanding of the various horn certifications – here are the icons and corresponding “filthy lucre” rewards for each:

Gold Horn Certification = 100 sales of an album

Filthy Lucre Award – 500 pieces of Lucre

Platinum Horn Certification = 250 sales of an album

Filthy Lucre Award – 1,000 pieces of Lucre

Diamond Horn Certification = 500 sales of an album

Filthy Lucre Award – 5,000 pieces of Lucre

So congratulations GothZilla on being the first to reach gold!

I don’t know about you, but I often wonder where some indie bands these days get their names.  While some bands go for the ordinary, “Spoon”, others go for obtuse, “The Sea and Cake”, or scholarly sounding “Architechture in Helsinki.”  Now this isn’t to say I don’t like these bands or their names, because I do, but it does make you think about what led them to the name they selected and whether or not it’s hurt or helped their careers.  A new article by Beat Crave takes a look at the latest name obsession – animal names – and dares to point out which ones are overused.

When picking a name for your fake band, make sure you pick one that stands out from the crowd but still matches and sums up the sound you envision for the band.  Since there is no sound involved with a fake band it’s important that you connote as much of a feel for the band as you can with every detail you provide.  After all, if you pick the wrong name or one that’s doesn’t catch someone’s attention you’re likely to get lost in the shuffle.  So spend some time thinking about your name, because on Figment sometimes it is ALL in the name.

Just wanted to let you know that we got the problem with our server fixed and Figment is back up. We apologize for any inconvenience this temporary service interruption may have caused.

Well, thanks to Patrick you can once again upload pictures for your bands and albums.  The bug has been fixed and we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.  For those people who released an album between this morning and Tuesday (9/9/08) and would like to add an image, please send us an email asking to upload a new image via the feedback link at the bottom of every Figment page.  We will ban your album temporarily which will place it back on your dashboard and allow you to edit it.  Once you’ve added the image you can ask for the ban to be removed by clicking on the ban removal request link on your dashboard.  We will remove the ban and your album (with image) will be accessible again.

Again, we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.  Now remember – image is everything!

You may have noticed that the site is not allowing you to upload images for your bands and albums on Figment lately. Normally you see a “Image Not Available” icon for bands or albums that have not uploaded an image.  Unfortunately, Figment currently has a bug that is keeping the images users have uploaded from connecting with the corresponding band/album page and as a result every band/album now has a “Image Not Available” icon showing up on their page.  I just wanted to let you know we are on the case.  The bug has been occurring since Tuesday, but we hope to have it fixed soon.

Although this is an issue that effects both bands and album, it’s less of a problem with the creation of a new band since band pages can be edited at any time.  So feel free to create your new band.  You can always add a band image later once we have the issue resolved.

As far as albums are concerned though, you should hold off on releasing any new albums for your bands until we have the problem fixed, because once you release an album there is no way to edit it.  For those people who have already released an album during this time period and would like to add an image, please wait until the problem is fixed (we will update this post when it is) and then send us an email asking to upload a new image via the feedback link at the bottom of every Figment page.  We will ban your album temporarily which will place it back on your dashboard and allow you to edit it.  Once you’ve added the image you can ask for the ban to be removed by clicking on the ban removal request link on your dashboard.  We will remove the ban and your album (with image) will be accessible again.

We’re really sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.  Please bear with us while we get the problem fixed.  Please check back here for updates.  We’ll be sure to let you know as soon as the bug is fixed.

We here at Figment consider ourselves a pretty fair bunch and as I’ve said in other posts we go out of our way not to over police our site for what we consider offensive material, but rather try to allow the users to self-police those bands they find offensive.  If enough people agree that a band is offensive than we mark it offensive, that is unless something is truly over the top in which case we step in.  We have never removed a band or album from Figment for being offensive (when we mark something offensive it is only filtered out of view of those people that asked not to be shown offensive material when they created an account on Figment), until now. 

Today I removed a band that made fun of people who suffer from Down Syndrome.  I thought long and hard about whether or not I should remove this content from Figment, but in the end decided that there are certain boundaries we have to set for the site and this band crossed those boundaries.  Making fun of people with developmental disabilities is something that has been done before, but it’s a slippery slope and one that requires a lot of finesse on the part of the person delivering the joke in order for it to be funny.  When it’s not it’s simply mean-spirited.  We found this band mean-spirited, and even if it wasn’t meant in harm, felt it could cause harm simply by perpetuating a stereotype that increases the stigma attached to those who are developmentally disabled.  That’s not what we created Figment for.

In short, just because something is delivered as a joke doesn’t mean it isn’t hurtful and we all need to be mindful of that fact.  Is it a right to think whatever you want regardless of whether it hurts someone’s feelings?  Yes, but it’s also our right to restrict the use of our bandwidth to promote something we feel crosses the line.

Right now the movie “Tropic Thunder” is also under attack for scenes that use the term “retard” and although I’m not sure I support the idea of a boycott, I do think the filmmakers should have considered some of the complaints leveled at their movie prior to releasing it and practiced a little self-editing of their own.  That is certainly what we are asking all of you to do on Figment.

So what other boundaries have we set?  Well, I don’t want you to think that we are telling you what to express, but let’s face it there are certain areas that I think we would all agree are overtly offensive.  For instance, racist, sexist and hate related material.  We aren’t looking to play the role of big brother on Figment, but we do expect everyone to play our game in a respectful and fair manner and if we feel something doesn’t meet those criteria we will exercise our right to remove the material or it’s creator from Figment.  We also understand that there is always room for interpretation and will try to consider that before making any decision related to permanently removing any form of content from Figment.  Furthermore, we promise to always notify the user as to our decision and allow them an opportunity to remove the material themselves.

We’re open to hearing what you think about this issue so feel free to leave us a comment with your perspective.

Well as you may have noticed things have not been that smooth of late.  No I’m not talking about the U.S. economy, I’m talking about Figment.  We do apologize for some of the bugs that have popped up of late, but we just moved the site to a new server and unfortunately had some hiccups along the way.   We’ve cleared most of them up and actually added a few new things so I’m proud to say that the State of our Figment Union has NEVER been stronger. 

One new thing you may have noticed is the addition of a brand new spanking “Thanks For Being A Fan!” autograph that appears when you become a fan of a band.

This replaced the old box that used to appear at the top of the page and we think adds a nice graphic touch to the page.  We’ll be adding a similar autograph for when you buy an album real soon, so be on the lookout.

You’ll also be happy to know that we’ve made some changes behind the scenes that will make the site respond a lot faster, so the next time you want to check out Rumble Squad’s band page it’ll be up quicker than you can say…well…Rumble Squad!

So what else is up you ask?  Well, we’ve added a bunch of new Figment users in the past week and they’ve already added some new bands like White Buffalo, Oliver Klosoff, Washing Dishes, Satan’s Shitkickers and Escape Velocity among others.  So be sure to pay their band pages a visit, let em’ know what you think and if you like them, become a fan!  After all, we can all use a fan or two right?

Looks like the bassist from Pincher Nipple is promoting more than just a new solo album!

You may have experience some glitches with Figment of late – sorry to all those bands that didn’t show up in the Recent Additions chart and to those new users who have had trouble creating accounts.  Just wanted you to know that we are working on it and should have things squared away soon.  We’re in the process of moving Figment over to another server and unfortunately it’s taken us a lot longer than originally expected.  I apologize for the delay and the problems it has caused.  I hope you’ll be patient and continue to visit Figment.

Another quiet week on Figment, but a few new bands and few golden oldies we wanted to give a shout out to!  So here’s what we Picked to Click!

Shadows of the Sea - The third album from this emo band, “Crying Stars”, is as strong as their first two.  Unfortunately, due to a technical glitch, you likely missed it if you aren’t already a fan because it didn’t show up on our home page.  Our apologies to the band’s creator KukiSuki, who clearly understands this band’s esthetic and always supports it with great song/album titles and top notch album artwork.  The only advice we can pass on is to make the artwork look a little more like an album – text anyone?

Inchworm – Looks as if Pincher Nipple’s got more than just a sibling rivalry going!  Check out their band page to get the skinny!  And watch your back Pincher Nipple!

Crotch Rocket - Released their first album, “Pistol Grip” and it’s a blast!  Rod Johnson definitely knows how to rock out with his cock out!

Now some golden oldies that you may have missed the first time around:

Fredulous McUncleton - the band description will tell you everything you need to know.

A B.S. in B.S. – We all feel remiss that this band was never featured in our Picked to Click! posts, but hey sometimes good things need time to pass before they are fully appreciated.  This band’s first album “Alternative Splicing” is post-graduate ska for the masses!  A belated A+ with a heavy recommendation to buy it!!

Dip Cup - Great band description and a strong debut album “Girls With Back Tattoos” for this alt-country juggernaut.

Abba, Crosby & Phish - We overlooked this band a bit in the early days of Figment, but the band name and song titles on their debut “Exodus on Main Street” are among the best.

Wet Stetson - They put the blue in bluegrass with their two albums “Puddle of Love” and “A Drop in the Gene Pool”.

Well that’s it for last week’s picks.  Show em’ some love by becoming a fan, buying their albums and giving them a listen.