#loyaltytoall

[jeremyrennerapp-blog]

Jeremy Renner’s app - why I left and everything wrong with it.

First, I want to start this post making it clear that I will be not exposing names or sending hate towards anyone. I’ll merely talk about the reasons that made me choose to leave the app over the weekend. I will get into the topic of buying stars/boosts but I will NOT condemn people for doing it, as it’s not my problem what anyone does with their own money.

I joined the app on the same day it was released and I subscribed to it ($2,99/month). I was never very active over there, I would simply like the posts, make a comment or two and just watch people interacting and getting a hang of how things worked. And I wasn’t pleased. I will be writing this in topics, to make ir easier to understand. Things that weren’t seen by me or are just rumors will be marked as such.

1. The app itself: What it is and how it works; 2. Thecnical Problems; 3. Starts and Boosting; 4. The super fan label; 5. Bullying; 6. The “Clique“; 7. Contests/Replies ; 8. Favoritism; 9. Reaction from other fans; 10. What I think it should be done.

The app itself: What it is and how it works.

The app was released around March, 2017. Here’s the description of the app at the app store (I’m not an android user, so I’m not sure if it’s the same over there):

Stay connected to Jeremy Renner on his official app.

Do fun things:

- Check out the in-app social feed for live updates and videos.

- Boost your comments with Superstars, become a Top 3 Fan, and be seen by Jeremy Renner.

- Join exciting contests for a chance to win amazing prizes like meeting Jeremy Renner, event tickets, and more…

- Watch cool videos.

- Follow Jeremy Renner on social media.

- Listen to the FREE built-in playlist and add more songs from your personal library, Spotify.

We’ve just launched subscription service! Subscribers will get the exclusive subscriber badge to decorate their avatars and help them be seen, as well as exclusive content just for them. The $2.99/month subscription fee will be charged through your iTunes account as an auto-renewable, recurring transaction unless you cancel your subscription before the end of the current subscription month. You can manage your subscription, cancel it, or turn off auto-renewal at any time by accessing your iTunes account.

Jeremy does post content there. Some pictures, a few videos here and there and he takes a little time to reply to fans when he can. As we all know, he is a very busy man so no one expects him to reply to a lot of comments all the time. We understand and respect that, so this isn’t an issue.

As you can read on the official description, there is a subscribe service. For $2,99 a month, you get access to everything in the app. Some posts are tagged for subscribers only (or “Super Fans” as the app calls us who pay the monthly fee). Sounds good to a certain point, so I joined and started to learn my around the app.

Thecnical Problems From day one, the app had a few issues. Of course we understand that it was recently launched so that is completely normal. I’ve had issues with the app crashing multiple times and the notification tab not working, but tumblr user @Sephirayne had a lot more problems as she stated on this post.

Another user had her account closed for no reason and when she got it back, her stars were gone. Ecapex’ Technical support worked on it and gave her stars back, but it took a little bit.

Hopefully, the notification tab will be improved and fans can have a better experience on the app. Since is still a relatively “new” thing, let’s give them time to work on all the problems and bugs.

Stars and Boosting

The app works with a system of “boosting” comments. To do that, you need “stars”. They can be earned by using the app or they can be bought (when you download the app you get a starter pack of 100 stars). Here are the packs and the prices (iOS version):

Now, like I said in the beggining, I am not against people buying stars. As Jeremy is very busy, boosting comments give fans a better chance to be seen by him and having their comments replied to. This topic is just to explain how this feature works.

Aside from boosting comments, you can boost yourself to get to the much wanted “Top Fan Section.” That means your profile picture will be featured under his post with a “#1 Fan” (or #2 or #3) as seen here:

Clicking on your profile picture will let you know how many starts you need to boost yourself up to that position. For example:

As previously stated, that gives you a chance to be seen by Jeremy, since your post would be on top. A lot of people only use the starts they gain within the app, others buy it and use it to boost themselves or other fans that have good comments.

The super fan label

This is where I started to get a bit uneasy. The app has a badge for people who pay for the monthy fee and they are described as “Super Fans.”

This is the badge:

Bullying

This are RUMORS I’ve heard. I wasn’t online when it happened and any clarification about this is welcome.

There were rumors that a fan was bullyied by the “clique” until she left the app. That same fan talked about this last night on instagram and deleted her fan account because she was extremely disappointed with Jeremy.

I can’t get in touch with her now since I only knew her fan account, but if she wants to come forward (as the person accused of the bullying) they’re welcome to share their thoughts.

The “Clique”

I will NOT be throwing names in this topic. I will call them “Person A”, “Person B” etc if I need to. This is not intend to send hate towards them or anyone, this is simply my view on things and again, I might be wrong.

There is a little “clique” in the app. A group of fans that can afford starts and are always on the top fans section. Nothing wrong with that, people can spend their money however they want, but they monopolize the top fan section and that doesn’t give other fans a chance.

Contests/Replies

I’m not sure how many of those we had, since I’m not willing to download the app again and go through every post. But the ones I remember are:

Video replies: Fans asked questions and Renner posted video replies daily during a month;

Signed photos: Fans answered a question and best answers got signed pictures. I believe there were 10 winners;

Set visit: Fans asnwered three questions for a couple weeks and Renner chose one to visit the Avengers set in Atlanta. Starts bought during this contest had the money from it redirected to Hurricane Harvey Relief (around 14 thousand dollars)

With that being said, let’s move on to the next topic: favoritism.

Favoritism

This came to mind after the results of the last contest on Sunday. Since the app began, I’ve been seeing a pattern being made where the same people were always in the top fan section, which made them get a lot of replies from Jeremy.

A few people of this group also got video replies, the signed pictures and one of them was the winner of the latest contest, the set visit in Atlanta. I will not criticize the money spent on stars on this because it went to a great cause, but the way the contest was handled really set some people off.

Answering questions for a chance to win, doesn’t work for everyone. Being busy as Jeremy is, he can’t possibly read through all the comments, which means that, as we all knew, said person won. Her comments were boosted a lot (which is nice, it generated more money for charity) but that’s making people think that there’s something else to it.

Did he get to read other comments that weren’t on the top section? Did we even had a chance in the first place? Probably not. Fans are hurt from seeing the same people benefiting on every contest/giveaway simply because they have more money. This is not a contest, it’s an auction and Jeremy should have made that clear from the beggining, because other fans have been pouring their hearts out for a chance to win when they never had a chance in the first place.

It’s hard not to think of favoritism when we keep seeing the same names and the same people over and over again. It fells like it’s Jeremy + his super fans and the rest of us are just the rest. And yes, it’s hurtful.

If he can’t give everyone a fair chance, he should think of a different system for these contests.

Reaction from other fans

After the winner of the set visit was announced, a lot of fans expressed how they felt. They were quickly buried by “let’s be positive” comments trying to shut them up and a fan was even banned from the app (I talked to her, if she wants her name here, she knows how to contact me).

People were accused from “stealing the winner’s spotlight” ou being “sore losers” simply because they pointed out that the whole thing wasn’t fair from the beggining. Some people (me included) weren’t surprised at all with the winner because, like I said, there’s a pattern.

I am NOT speaking for everyone (although I saw simmilar reactions) when I say that, as a fan, I am hurt. Deeply. I am hurt because I’ve been a fan for years, I run a big fan account and in that app it’s like I’m nothing because I can’t afford to buy his attention or a chance on those contests.

Fan accounts have been deleted, fans left the app and others say they will only stay there from the friends they’ve made, but that they were equally disappointed. Huge fans are being treated like they’re not worth as much as the other ones simply because they can’t spend as much money on the app. Does Jeremy have an idea of how much this affects people (negatively)? What about his staff? His PR?

He made two instagram posts after the contest announcement. One of them has multiple comments from unhappy fans and they’re all being ignored. There was an open letter I posted and that was shared by another fan account that it was ignored as well. It’s like we don’t have a voice.

What I think it should be done

I’m not asking Renner to change his mind about the contest. She won, let her enjoy it. What I’m asking is for him or his staff to say something about the unhappy fans, to show us that our voices have value and to tell us that the next contests will be fair. I want them to make it clear which is a contest and which is an auction, so fans don’t waste their time on something they won’t have a chance.

I need to be proved wrong when I say that, right now, it feels like money matters more than true fans. Our love CANNOT be measured by the amount of money we spend and people CANNOT feel less of a fan just because they don’t have as much money as the other ones.

Jeremy, BARTON UP.

Clint fucks up all the time, but he always admits what he did and tries to fix it. This is hurting your fans, the people who have been supporting you for years and have helped you get to where you are right now. This is hurting the people who will still be here when shit goes down. You used to call super fans there your “loyal fans”, but we are ALL loyal. We are ALL superfans. I hope you get to see what’s truly happening, because I think the main reason you’re not talking about is because you don’t know.

This app is dividing people instead of creating a community. Everything seems bright and shiny because people ignore what happens out of what? Fear he’ll be mad? This only leads to Renner not knowing what’s truly happening.

This needs to change. He has other social media to interact with fans, the app is NOT the only way. Things need to be fair to EVERY ONE, or people will keep leaving.

#BartonUp #LoyaltyToAll

(The ask box is open to anyone who wants to share their thoughts on this. I will NOT be posting submissions that attack other fans or Jeremy himself. Please, be respectful.)

[jeremyrennerapp-blog]

Regarding the latest events

Hi guys! Well, for the fans who are not in the app, shit hit the fan again this weekend and I wanted to explain.

(Yes, I got back in the app on friday to check if things had improved, but decided to leave again since well... no big changes were made.)

This is going to be a very long post with images. I blurred out everyone’s names (except Jeremy’s), but if you own any comment here and want it removed, let me know.

* To the app people: same note. If you want me to the remove the images, let me know.

AGAIN: I’m only reporting what I saw in the app and social media. It’s confusing and ugly, so get your popcorn and let’s go.

On the last episode of “what the fuck is going on with this app”, I talked about how the app works, the latest contest, the winner and everything I thought it was wrong with the app itself. In case you missed that, you can read it here.

Now for this post, I’m getting into the mess that happened after a video was published on instagram by one of Jeremy’s friends. I believe the video got out friday night/saturday, not sure with the crazy timezones. 

In the video (which you can see it here) the winner of the contest appears to be with Jeremy’s friend at his house. Note that the set visit didn’t happen yet at this point. The video was filmed using those instagram filters and I, ME, MYSELF, couldn’t really see shit about where they were, but people pointed out simmilarities with Renner’s house, specially after he gave an interview where he walked around the place. 

Things got crazy from there. People were questioning why she was at his place and how she was so close to one of his friends even before she claimed the prize of the contest. (Now, both her and Renner are adults, I don’t give a shit what they do to each other, that’s not the point, but.... favoritism much?)

After a few hours, the winner showed up and decided to clear things up with this comment. Let’s focus on the highlighted part of it:

That seemed to clarify the confusion, right? Wrong. A fan pointed out Jeremy’s dog in the background of the video as well as other simmilarities in the furniture/decor and how it sounds odd that they were at a bar with no music or loud conversation. Most of the people didn’t buy it. She deleted the comment after Renner spoke up.

Even before she posted that comment, one of hir biggest supporters in the app also had enough of it:

The “Batman” she’s refeering to is one of the administrators of the app. Which leads to accusations of the administrators boosting up positive comments to bury complaints:

I noticed that one of the comments that complained about the whole thing was #1 for a very long time, but then, the commend above her got boosted a LOT in a very short period of time. As I write this now, the complaint post is back at #1 with 73 starts more than the #2 comment. This is it:

After the winner claimed she WASN’T at his house and DID NOT MEET HIM, Renner showed up with the following post:

So, apparently the whole story about meeting Jeremy’s friend at a bar and not seeing him was a lie. Renner himself confirmed she met with him for dinner since Marvel didn’t allow the set visit. The winner has since deleted her previous comment.

That is totally FINE. She won a competition and since the original prize could not be claimed, he made up for it by taking her to dinner. Cool, that’s not the issue at all, but let’s focus on the lies and the favoritism we’ve been seeing from day ONE and the accusations against the winner herself and app:

1. She lied about not seeing him, said people should be ashamed of themselves for voicing their opinions. This comes from someone who has been accused of lying and bullying more than once.

2. Administrators boosting her to make her the top fan. Did this happen throughout the competition? Did fans really spent money and time on something they never had a chance of because Renner had already chose the winner before things even started? And if he did, it was based on what? Personal interest? 

3. Administrators boosting positive comments during this shitstorm so Renner doesn’t see what the real fans are thinking about it?

4. Is it really him replying to fans and making posts? If it is, why did he chose to post a half-assed explanation that only made things worse and made everyone sure that the girl was lying? People pointed out that the last post doens’t fit the way Renner usually communicates. 

Here are some comments from fans. These were taken between two different posts:

Things have been going on from there and there’s a lot more comments of unhappy fans. People are, again, feeling hurt and used and that is NOT how fans should feel. People from the MCU cast have had contests to take fans to the set through other platforms and everything went great, so maybe Jeremy should do this as well.

It’s great that a lot of money went to charity, but everything was VERY poorly handled and I doubt this is going away any time soon

As always, if anyone invold in this wants to clarify stuff or ask for removal of any content they own, my inbox is always up.

#BartonUp

Ps: Sorry about any spelling mistakes. English is not my first language (don’t even try to use that against me lol)