The Rivers Correspondence Board

The Rivers Correspondence Board (originally named Rivers Criticism Board and commonly abbreviated RCB) was a fan-run bulletin board in existence from 2002-2005. The board gained notoriety through posts from Rivers Cuomo, who frequented the board as 'Ace' from February through July of 2002 and again in March of 2003.
==History==
The Rivers Criticism Board was started in early 2002 by three fans (screennames: Asschun, Pickles in my Undies & Queero McGayguy) who were unhappy with the discourse of the main Weezer forums on the official site and other ezboards. The three opened the RCB as a place to air their grievances with the band's then-current output (the Maladroit sessions). The board grew in membership after it was hinted that a poster known as "ace" was Rivers. This was soon confirmed when ace posted of his wish to grow a beard days before pictures first surfaced of Rivers with a beard.
With the influx of new members -- and in response to a request from Cuomo, who wished for privacy from the media -- the ruling triumvirate closed off public access, set up a registration system and banned users for the most trivial of issues. The name of the board was also changed to Rivers Correspondence Board. After a few weeks, forum founder Pickles had a falling out with the other two and deleted the board. However, the other two started the RCB back up, where it remained until its deletion in 2005, following Make Believe.
==Rivers interacts with the fans==
During his time posting on the RCB, Rivers let fans in on his songwriting frame of mind, and quite often, in a confrontational manner, proclaimed his preferance for the current and future output of the band over the Pinkerton and Blue Album material. In one of Rivers' most famous episodes, Rivers called "Only in Dreams" "GAY!GAY!GAY! DISNEYGAY!" During this time, Rivers spoke of a desire for fan input on some issues, such as which songs should be on Maladroit. However, he largely ignored the opinion to go back to more personal songwriting, claiming that while he may in the future, for the present, he envisioned writing perfect pop songs.
Despite antagonizing them, Rivers developed a relationship with many of the fans on the board, which led to many meet and greets with board members after the summer 2002 Enlightenment Tour. Rivers spoke honestly with the fans, such as when he gave his impression of first meeting Rick Rubin in the summer of 2002, and of his being on a European Tour in 1996 and realizing that Pinkerton may be a commercial failure before its release.
The RCB had a closed culture and its leaders were not open to dissension. Still, as the board where Rivers posted most frequently, as well as the source of many of Rivers' original demos, the RCB served as an important bridge between the fans and the band. Demos that he posted at the board included:
*"Hot Tub"
*"1,000 Years"
*"American Girls"
*"Little Sister"
*"Lover in the Snow"
*"Wanda (You're My Only Love)"
*"Afraid of What We Need The Most"
*"Come to My Pod"
*"Oh No, This is Not For Me"
Rivers stopped posting on the board in July of 2002. However, he returned for a few nights in March 2003, where he leaked the the demos of "Hold Me" (acoustic and part of an electric version) and "I Don't Want Your Lovin'".
On the board's one-year anniversary, the demos of "Cryin' and Lonely" and "New Joint" were shared by a user who had access to them.
==Notable visitors and posters==
Other people of note who visited/posted on the RCB:
*Karl Koch
*Brian Bell
*Todd Sullivan
*Tim Wheeler
==External links==
*Partial RCB Thread Archive
Category: Rivers Cuomo
Category:Websites