Despair Faction
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The Despair Faction is the official fan club for American hardcore outfit AFI. Founded in April of 2002, the Despair Faction claims world-wide membership in excess of 25,000 fans spanning the globe from California to Asia and every where in between.
History
In July of 2001, following the release of The Art of Drowning in late 2000, AFI's final album on Dexter Holland's independent record label Nitro Records, the official AFI website launched a "Name the Fan Club" contest, calling fans to submit possible names for a future fan club in the works. After nearly 4,000 entries, the band settled on the Despair Faction, a play on words from The Art Of Drowning's track The Despair Factor. Nearly one year later, the official AFI website announced the opening of The Despair Faction, the contest winner receiving a free membership and special recognition on the fan club's website.
Membership Benefits
For a one time fee of $29.99, US dollars, Despair Faction members are awarded life-long membership and receive an introductory package of AFI-related merchandise. The package is comprised of one AFI t-shirt, a poster of the band, a membership card, and an AFI patch, sticker, button, and armband. This merchandise is exclusive to the Despair Faction and is delivered to members in a special shipping box adorned with the Despair Faction's signature black heart logo. The specific style of the merchandise in the membership package changes from time to time to feature new artwork and logos, most of which is designed by Alan Forbes and Linas Garsys. When the Despair Faction first opened itself to registrations, approximately one hundred new members received autographed promotional photographs of AFI with their membership packages.
The membership package is regarded by most as a secondary benefit, many Despair Faction members having joined with pre-sales for tickets to AFI shows and access to exclusive Despair Faction events in mind. It's customary for the Despair Faction to offer special events at which members may interact with the band when AFI is on tour. These events include sound checks where members are allowed inside the concert venue to watch AFI perform before the night's main event and meet and greets where fans are alloted usually a half hour to an hour of time to meet the band personally, collect autographs and take pictures with AFI members. Access to such events is gained through earning a spot on coveted guest lists compiled through member contests and random selections a few days before the band is scheduled to play.
Despair Faction members receive a free copy of each issue of AFI's official zine, Under the Rose. Under the Rose, or UTR for short, features AFI related content, music reccomendations from the bands, and interviews with AFI's musician friends like Nick 13 of Tiger Army and Rob Aston of The Transplants.
Another point of interest for Despair Faction members is the AFI message board, where fans - Despair Faction members and non-members alike - congregate, sometimes religiously, to discuss everything from the band's latest album to straight edge to current events, and occasionally wanting to mess. Members of the Despair Faction who participate on the forums have access to more exclusive Despair Faction content, including a forum called "Ask AFI" where members may post questions to members of the band and (maybe!) receive answers.
Community
The Despair Faction makes up a large portion of AFI's notorious community of fans found primarily on the Official AFI Message Board. Known for displaying an often extraordinary level of devotion not just to AFI but also the community of fans that follow, the Official AFI Message Board and the Despair Faction have received separate recognition for propogating a standard of community institutionalized by participants and others who've taken notice of their activities.
The Official AFI & Despair Faction Message Board has been acknowledged by such alternative rock magazines as Kerrang! and Alternative Press for its place as one of the internet's more outstanding and well-known music communities.
While the message board is where most Despair Faction members are inducted into the AFI fandom, once there, members are known to expand their experience in the AFI community to real life by participating in fan-organized meet-ups in areas like Southern California or the East Bay, or anywhere else large numbers of board and Despair Faction members are located. It's activies such as these that inspire members to remain active in the AFI community even after they lose interest in the band's music.
Despair Faction members in particular forge friendships with other members of the community through social events organized around AFI shows, such as arriving in cities while AFI are on tour days before a show to spend extra time with fellow fans and friends, or sleeping outside venues with other fans the night before AFI plays - an event in the AFI community known in the past as "midnightXcrew". Other Despair Faction members have become almost famous for following the band(and crew) throughout entire tours out of sheer love for the communal experience of AFI's live performance.
Fans known for taking their participation in the Despair Faction to greater extremes have also acquired more personal experiences with the members of AFI as a result of their persistence. Known from the beginning for the unique relationship they have with their fans, it's not uncommon for AFI to be able to recognize fans by name and face, and they're even known sometimes for becoming friends with the most ubiquitous fans.
Members are also known for having an active interest in contributing their own resources to the AFI community by creating websites to compile a symposium of information regarding AFI releases, touring, and the band's history.
In 2005, a Youtube link of a strange video surfaced on the message board. The video was that of a forum member dancing to "The Leaving Song pt. 2." She has been referred to as Capey McGee, and can be seen here. Said link was suggested by NoPoeticDevice, and can be found here.
On May 17, 2006, Mike123456789 will be able to post on the Official Message Board once again. This will be short lived due to Mike123456789's past dealing with child pornography. He is also a fruit. Very much so.
Staff
The Despair Faction is run and maintained by a group of long-time AFI friends and staff members as recognizable to devout fans as the band members themselves.
Jake ("Fritch") and Gavin are identified as the Despair Faction's "core team."
Fritch, who's also AFI's merchandise salesman, handles internal affairs of the Despair Faction like organizing special contests for members, and he's credited as an editor of Under the Rose. Gavin maintains the Despair Faction website and is administrator of the AFI message board.
Along with several other members of the AFI team, running the Despair Faction is a collaborative effort among AFI and their friends!