This month we’ve selected Donna The Buffalo fan site, DonnaFans.com. Here are Jeff Bauer’s words on the site…
“DonnaFans.com”: http://www.donnafans.com was conceived in early 2004 while I was trading Donna the Buffalo shows with a guy named Brian Reid. Along with his blank discs Brian sent me photocopies of photos he’d shot of Donna the Buffalo at the Clearwater Hudson River Revival, Croton-on-Hudson, NY from 6/16/02. I was blown away not just because he had unknowingly sent me photos of my first Donna show, but also because they were extremely high-quality images. "You should put together a web site to show these off," I told him. "I bet people would enjoy them." "Go for it," he said, and sent me his best images of Donna shows from 2001 to 2004.
For the past few years, I’d been writing reviews of each Donna show I’ve seen, sometimes posting them on various message boards. At the time, the online Donna the Buffalo community had a few great sites, but no central place where everyone posted reviews and photos of shows soon after they happened. So with a few dozen of Brian’s photos, my reviews, a little code crunching, and design help from my wife, Renee, DonnaFans.com launched in late November 2004.
The heart of the online Donna the Buffalo community is The Herd mailing list, an extremely active listserve (100+ messages on most days). Occasionally fans (the Herd) post links to their online photo albums of Donna shows they’d shot, and I ask permission to host their images. Being an extremely generous bunch, they’ve always said Yes. Same thing with the reviews.
The List is also where to find some of the best information about the band and upcoming shows gets posted. However, not everyone wants to wade through hundreds of messages every day to get this information. I do, and I post what I feel is the most valuable stuff, plus things I hear elsewhere, on DonnaFans.com’s News & Rumors pages, which gets updated every few days, more frequently when needed.
DonnaFans.com has grown fast. As of 6/1/05, almost 20 people had contributed photos of more than 40 Donna the Buffalo concerts, including 21 from 2005 alone, and reviews of 18, with more coming in every week. The site also offers advice on how to get live Donna shows in audio and video, links to the handful of other Donna sites, an About page, and more.
Thanks to Brian Reid and all of those who so kindly continue to provide reviews and photos, to my wife for her help with the graphics, to all of the generous tapers and traders who’ve hooked me up with shows in audio and video, and of course to Donna the Buffalo for making the music that makes my day.
Peace,
Jeff Bauer
DonnaFans.com