Hey all!

In case you were wondering, I'm Josh, your official go-to Web Nerd here at RCA.

DavidCookOfficial.com (or DCO as we call it) is a budding, interactive environment for David's fans offering news, exclusive content and opportunities to the die-hards and pedestrian American Idol fan alike. Take a look around, check out the forums and FAQ's, and get to know the community! If you have any questions, just shoot me a private message (PM for slang) or hit up my moderator sidekick extraordinaire Lisa (FoolsApril64), one of your fellow fans hand-picked by RCA that helps me sleep at night!

So as expected, I get a LOT of private messages and more often than not it's the same questions. I'll do my best to cover all the bases, if I don't respond to your messages or send you a link to this FAQ, please do not be offended! It's a tall order to articulate the span of my responsibilities at RCA and beyond, but I admittedly am not a one-trick pony.

There are many websites, MySpace accounts and other social networks for all of RCA's artists that need just as much love, without them I'd have ramen noodles for dinner every night

Quick links:

Welcome to DavidCookOfficial.com! - Bienvenidos, Wilkommen, Welcome to WalMart... I'm Esther
FAQ - And boy do I mean frequently!
Forum Etiquette - Play nice now, and please use "inside voices"

What does Josh do for DCO.com and its users?
- updates the news feed
- updates the calendar
- uploads official videos/photos/music
- updates the David Cook MySpace and Facebook accounts
- sends the official newsletter
- tries to make DCO users happy
- tries to know as much info as possible about what he posts (please be kind if he does not)
- speaks in the third person

What does Josh not do for DCO.com and its users?
- call the shots (I have a boss, he has a boss, she has a boss too.)
- take suggestions on where David should tour
- talk to David Cook directly (I rarely talk to him directly, he's got "people", promise!)
- withhold information (I love interacting with DCO users, repeated questions however...)
- accept or ask for personal information, ever
- offer personal info/pictures about himself (picture T.R. Knight and Poland having a baby)

Why is the site occasionally slow?

The server is literally operated through an intricate system of hamsters and wheels, there was a recent hamster food shortage...

DCO.com isn't the only site occasionally effected by bandwith issues, ultimately there can be fatal errors effecting our servers (operated externally and not by me!) for many great artists at RCA and beyond. Our tech folks have now given DCO its own server but whenever we have live updates or new software, there's inevitable bugs that we try to knock out. We're aware that some of you are still having issues with uploading content to the site, and like the slowness, we're working on that too. When the site is slow, it's no picnic for me either, simple edits, uploads and updates can take much longer than my patience permits!

Why didn't you post a concert date I heard about?

I'm evil!

If I didn't post it, it's not confirmed. I'll admit we Web Nerds are human, even the occasional event can slip past our radar but in general rumors are rumors for a reason. We would much rather know there's a gig for sure than have a mountain of DCO users rain down on us for booking airfare/hotel for a gig that either has no tickets available or doesn't exist.

I have the entire calendar for December 2008 in front of me as I type this to you, from my eyes to these fingers I assure you I've posted every approved event for the year! It will not be some time until the 2009 calendar comes out, when I do? It will go live!

WHY IS ____________ U.S. ONLY?!?!?!?!

This is where the music meets the business in the music business, in many countries, we're not cleared to distribute David's content in multiple territories at multiple times on multiple sites. As American Idol is broadcasted in the U.S., that's where 99% of his fan base is hailing from, and it's ultimately the most feasible practice to exclusively premiere content in the country where David lives, tours, is on TV, and has his music distributed. It's our fervent hope that David truly attains the status of an international superstar one day, so while fans have to wait an extra 24-48 hours to have a first look, we're bustin' our behinds to have promotions approved like the live blogging we did at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York City. We're not in the business of excluding fans, we're in the business of getting as many ears listening to David's music as possible, in order to sell the most records possible, so David can keep making his music and so eventually I can upgrade to cup o' noodles from ramen. We love DCO's international users! We promise!!!

Josh... I have the white screen of death.

Total bummer! Send me a private message, I'll get our top dogs on it.

I have a question about Axium/Analog Heart.

I work for RCA, that band and album aren't on RCA, not my jurisdiction folks!

I feel like I'm being harassed on the DCO Forums/when I comment on events/news.

I take comments like this very seriously, I scan the boards to see what provokes the responses, who are repeat offenders and the content of the responses. If I feel that a user has abused their right to enjoy the open community we provide-- it is within my power to bounce you indefinitely. I don't like doing this, you don't like when I do this, all in all the likability factor gets a 0.0 from the Croatian judge (Olympic jokes still hold up right?)

DCO is reserved for everyone with a vested interest in David Cook, maybe for someone the recent TV interview brought up a taboo topic or the new single didn't rock them like the first. Feel free to disagree just don't go on the offensive! And remember, anybody can see this site, so please be adult about it, not "adult-rated" about it!

What happened to the fan content on YouTube/MySpace I saw recently?

Ah yes, fan-generated content on YouTube. In your travels you may receive a message that your channel or video has been flagged by Sony BMG (our parent company). There's no particular person on our end doing the takedowns. The mechanics of it are complicated, but essentially YouTube has a filter that automatically flags any content (audio/video) associated with RCA (the same goes for huge companies like NBC, Universal etc.) as to avoid any discrepancies with copyright infringement.

We can't as a whole condone all content like this, folks might go a step beyond our comfort zone of using content that was intended to put food on the band's table : )

Since YouTube is a huge company these days, we don't have a timestamp if YouTube has you in the doghouse, but if the content is deemed appropriate I'll see what we can do to get everything back in order sooner than later.

Why didn't you respond to my PM?

I am either working on the solution, I've answered it elsewhere on the site, the question is just plain silly or you were rude. I'm a delicate flower.

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That's all for now, I'll update this as needed.

Thanks everyone!

Josh