State of the Forum
- Thread starter Watashiwa
- Start date
Some of these are simple: a Discord channel, some new themes.
Others are community based. Iron Fic's coming back. (Shh, don't tell anyone, haven't announced it yet) Outreach things like inviting authors in new fandoms to join and post.
And then there's a handful of deep level changes to the site that Ero and I are considering. More on that when/if we come to a decision.
Others are community based. Iron Fic's coming back. (Shh, don't tell anyone, haven't announced it yet) Outreach things like inviting authors in new fandoms to join and post.
And then there's a handful of deep level changes to the site that Ero and I are considering. More on that when/if we come to a decision.
AA is returning, KL is redoing the site, since the latest issue would require Bast's passwords to change, and they left AA with no heir or way to get a hold of them.
Second, is anyone else having trouble with not receiving the alerts for thread postings? I haven't gotten a single one for almost a week, and after checking, I see there have been posts.
Second, is anyone else having trouble with not receiving the alerts for thread postings? I haven't gotten a single one for almost a week, and after checking, I see there have been posts.
tbh, I've never use alerts for TFF. It's got little enough traffic that just browsing View Today's Posts once a day works just fine for me.
Something still generating conversations at the moment in more general fandoms would be the place to start. Doubly so with anything that's actually generating content beyond general talk in the talk sections, though talk sections might in turn generate ideas but if ideas aren't being floated around now even in higher traffic areas it might be moot without first going for the stuff that's still at least getting content in ideas and up.
We floated MLP a few times if nothing else to split it off from the cartoon section so that's probably the primary lacking area right now. Might also be useful to split off some of the comic/movie stuff into a Marvel/DC section or something of its own to regulate more of that stuff there and maybe reduce crossposting, though that being said people might instead crosspost to all three so that might not be wise either. Then obviously there's Star Wars which if nothing else might give people the idea to try for fics there which is generally a decent enough shot to maybe work. Looking through ideas sections for more ideas, the only thread that's generated multiple posts recently beyond that was a Dresden Files one so that might be more up our alley. Though that looked like a double rez and then ZeroHour floating an idea that got no response so that one's iffy.
At this point however the issue is less what fandoms are up because none of these seem like big pulls, it's lack of content and general posting outside of talk sections usually. Baring MLP which has been steadily been generating content thanks to Seitora, most general preview sections seem dead largely. And even those are not getting any actual posts beyond Seitora's own anyway. Maybe if we split off MLP to its own thing it'd be easier for anyone interested to find and potentially generate traffic there, but beyond that things aren't really getting posted anymore.
We floated MLP a few times if nothing else to split it off from the cartoon section so that's probably the primary lacking area right now. Might also be useful to split off some of the comic/movie stuff into a Marvel/DC section or something of its own to regulate more of that stuff there and maybe reduce crossposting, though that being said people might instead crosspost to all three so that might not be wise either. Then obviously there's Star Wars which if nothing else might give people the idea to try for fics there which is generally a decent enough shot to maybe work. Looking through ideas sections for more ideas, the only thread that's generated multiple posts recently beyond that was a Dresden Files one so that might be more up our alley. Though that looked like a double rez and then ZeroHour floating an idea that got no response so that one's iffy.
At this point however the issue is less what fandoms are up because none of these seem like big pulls, it's lack of content and general posting outside of talk sections usually. Baring MLP which has been steadily been generating content thanks to Seitora, most general preview sections seem dead largely. And even those are not getting any actual posts beyond Seitora's own anyway. Maybe if we split off MLP to its own thing it'd be easier for anyone interested to find and potentially generate traffic there, but beyond that things aren't really getting posted anymore.
Yeah, I mean Reborn, and that's my point- literally an entire series- entire FANDOMS- have lived and died before us. 
EDIT: You guys are absurdly insular. We need to look at what series are generating fanfiction, not what series 3-4 people that are ALREADY HERE would like because it lets them stroke one off to getting their favorite series here.
EDIT: You guys are absurdly insular. We need to look at what series are generating fanfiction, not what series 3-4 people that are ALREADY HERE would like because it lets them stroke one off to getting their favorite series here.
Nah, that's something you do more when you have a solid referral process going. First you want to be able to steadily generate content. That in turn creates more reasons for people to post, and in turn creates more reason for people to be referred here if there's a fic they like they want to put some input on, which is how I eventually found my way to the old site. If you can get that feedback loop going then you have something there for a recovery process, but once a fandom dies due to lack of interest in it anymore, then there's not going to be much use adding it, or indeed keeping it around.
Which is why KHR is not the best idea with it having been finished for so long, meaning not much reason for people to talk about it anymore, thus not much reason to generate ideas for people to talk about and eventually spawn fics. For a similar example of this, Bleach was the last big fandom I generated fairly solid traffic in beyond talk, both me and Knight did a huge bunch of world and idea generating in back in the day. But as the series got worse and petered out, we lost our luster for it and eventually it too died largely. Then it ended and though it's doing a bit better than most of the general sections the crosstalk compared to before is still pretty lacking.
You want to generate content, you look for what people are talking about or are interested in. There's little point in picking a random fandom that's popular and expect huge numbers of people who are not already here to see it. Even assuming you then have everyone go out to refer people here, if they come to find that the fandom they like is empty and not generating conversations, they're not going to stick around then either. You have to start with that general flow of content first, then hope they stick around, maybe find other fandoms they like, and hopefully revitalize those too.
Which is why I suggested Star Wars even without the similar examples of other cases where it's actually generating idea content. That's popular enough and has had a lot going on with the fandom lately that it could be a good breeding ground for content. MLP too is also talked about and bunch and is also still generating content, so if nothing else people coming here would find it, see stuff being written, and maybe stick around to talk about it.
Which is why KHR is not the best idea with it having been finished for so long, meaning not much reason for people to talk about it anymore, thus not much reason to generate ideas for people to talk about and eventually spawn fics. For a similar example of this, Bleach was the last big fandom I generated fairly solid traffic in beyond talk, both me and Knight did a huge bunch of world and idea generating in back in the day. But as the series got worse and petered out, we lost our luster for it and eventually it too died largely. Then it ended and though it's doing a bit better than most of the general sections the crosstalk compared to before is still pretty lacking.
You want to generate content, you look for what people are talking about or are interested in. There's little point in picking a random fandom that's popular and expect huge numbers of people who are not already here to see it. Even assuming you then have everyone go out to refer people here, if they come to find that the fandom they like is empty and not generating conversations, they're not going to stick around then either. You have to start with that general flow of content first, then hope they stick around, maybe find other fandoms they like, and hopefully revitalize those too.
Which is why I suggested Star Wars even without the similar examples of other cases where it's actually generating idea content. That's popular enough and has had a lot going on with the fandom lately that it could be a good breeding ground for content. MLP too is also talked about and bunch and is also still generating content, so if nothing else people coming here would find it, see stuff being written, and maybe stick around to talk about it.
Not really, we're discussing the state of the forum, and ways to mitigate it. Also this bit of that post was key:
The key factor to generating new users is giving them a reason to join the community. Frankly if they want to just shoot the breeze, there are plenty of other forums to choose for that which have more content that are far more vibrant than we are at this point. What made TFF different and why I joined it was that content was being generated here that I could only get here first (Or at least I was only aware of it being here anyway), and thus could make inputs on it before it reached the masses. Once I was hooked on that, then I integrated into the community itself to the degree that even lacking that anymore I'm still willing to hang around and shoot the breeze.
So in order to generate new blood, you first need to generate content people want to get or talk about early exclusive to here again, and in turn give them a real reason to join this community instead of any of the others. That plus an actually robust easy to find and see structure for fandoms in terms of idea and preview generation is what makes TFF different from places like SB, which has similar stuff but finding them is a pain in the ass which is why over there I mostly only shoot the breeze too even if I might be interested in some of the idea threads generated there. Too much of a pain to find/talk about fandom stuff there beyond key singular stuff I specifically follow, like Digimon or KH.
(Oh I suppose I also did a Quest there, but that I put on hiatus. And even that didn't generate much traffic so I'm thinking of moving or even crossposting it to SV instead. If nothing else the one guy who was reliably voting every time to the degree that it was basically only him making the decisions is there too so that won't change. )
Regardless my point is people have to have a reason to come here and join the community before that can be used to resolve matters. Adding a dead or empty forum given the current state of things won't really help things. So the good starting point is to pull out and make easier to find stuff that people are already generating content for now, like MLP.
The key factor to generating new users is giving them a reason to join the community. Frankly if they want to just shoot the breeze, there are plenty of other forums to choose for that which have more content that are far more vibrant than we are at this point. What made TFF different and why I joined it was that content was being generated here that I could only get here first (Or at least I was only aware of it being here anyway), and thus could make inputs on it before it reached the masses. Once I was hooked on that, then I integrated into the community itself to the degree that even lacking that anymore I'm still willing to hang around and shoot the breeze.
So in order to generate new blood, you first need to generate content people want to get or talk about early exclusive to here again, and in turn give them a real reason to join this community instead of any of the others. That plus an actually robust easy to find and see structure for fandoms in terms of idea and preview generation is what makes TFF different from places like SB, which has similar stuff but finding them is a pain in the ass which is why over there I mostly only shoot the breeze too even if I might be interested in some of the idea threads generated there. Too much of a pain to find/talk about fandom stuff there beyond key singular stuff I specifically follow, like Digimon or KH.
(Oh I suppose I also did a Quest there, but that I put on hiatus. And even that didn't generate much traffic so I'm thinking of moving or even crossposting it to SV instead. If nothing else the one guy who was reliably voting every time to the degree that it was basically only him making the decisions is there too so that won't change.
)Regardless my point is people have to have a reason to come here and join the community before that can be used to resolve matters. Adding a dead or empty forum given the current state of things won't really help things. So the good starting point is to pull out and make easier to find stuff that people are already generating content for now, like MLP.
I don't know what KHR is...
To be honest, not that my opinion matters much mind you, or that my tastes generally match mainstream. But I'm not overly sure what fandoms are actually generating enough fan fiction to warrant their own sections these days... practically every series in the last 5-7 years I've bothered to pay attention to for fan fiction has stalled or otherwise not become the hit post series I expected it too... Sekirei, Haruhi Suzimiya, Index/Railgun, Fate Stay Night, Zero No Tsukaima, History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi, Log Horizon, The Marksman and Vanadis, GATE, Hidan no Aria, Demon King Damio, etc...
Going back even further, that trend continues, Read or Die, Full Metal Panic, Black Lagoon, Garden of Sinners, You're Under Arrest, Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito.
About the only ones to come to mind is maybe RWBY and maybe High School DxD, but I do not read much of either of those that are not crossovers.
To be honest, not that my opinion matters much mind you, or that my tastes generally match mainstream. But I'm not overly sure what fandoms are actually generating enough fan fiction to warrant their own sections these days... practically every series in the last 5-7 years I've bothered to pay attention to for fan fiction has stalled or otherwise not become the hit post series I expected it too... Sekirei, Haruhi Suzimiya, Index/Railgun, Fate Stay Night, Zero No Tsukaima, History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi, Log Horizon, The Marksman and Vanadis, GATE, Hidan no Aria, Demon King Damio, etc...
Going back even further, that trend continues, Read or Die, Full Metal Panic, Black Lagoon, Garden of Sinners, You're Under Arrest, Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito.
About the only ones to come to mind is maybe RWBY and maybe High School DxD, but I do not read much of either of those that are not crossovers.
Oh it was closed before too, I still joined. I'm referring more to the referral process, that's how I originally joined. There was an author I liked whose profile I read who mentioned they posted on here, so I ended up joining as a result to read their stuff here. We start generating content like before and those people post to say FF.Net and have a link in their bios to here and we can start getting similar referrals that way. So the key is generating content people want to view and talk about here, then maybe those new blood start spreading and generating content/ideas of their own that way.
Again that's just speaking of how I joined, if anyone's aware of different strategies that could work that's fine, but my basic point is just adding dead or empty fandoms for people to post in when no one currently here is interested in starting to generate content for those here here isn't going to generate that new blood out of nowhere. You need the bait first, only then can you expect the fish to bite after all.
Again that's just speaking of how I joined, if anyone's aware of different strategies that could work that's fine, but my basic point is just adding dead or empty fandoms for people to post in when no one currently here is interested in starting to generate content for those here here isn't going to generate that new blood out of nowhere. You need the bait first, only then can you expect the fish to bite after all.
What about motivating those who already write here to write more often and, more importantly, not to take their stories elsewhere?
I remember someone -was it the one who writes that rather popular Fate/stay Night x Sword Art Online crossover? Or do I remember wrong?- who now doesn't even update here, let alone before FF.net. If the site is made more comfortable to post stories in; easier to access (I mean in terms of how well it's organized, not actually making it an open forum), it would hopefully make formerly very active members (and currently rare visitors) show up often and post stories.
I know I'm a (relatively) very new member, but I like this community, and would prefer that it be more populated and posted in without losing the quality.
I remember someone -was it the one who writes that rather popular Fate/stay Night x Sword Art Online crossover? Or do I remember wrong?- who now doesn't even update here, let alone before FF.net. If the site is made more comfortable to post stories in; easier to access (I mean in terms of how well it's organized, not actually making it an open forum), it would hopefully make formerly very active members (and currently rare visitors) show up often and post stories.
I know I'm a (relatively) very new member, but I like this community, and would prefer that it be more populated and posted in without losing the quality.
:huh: is ... :unsure: ... that .. :huh!: sarcasm?!? :unsure:
About trying to make the site popular - I'm (non-staff opinion) of the idea of trying to make some parts public i.e. accessible without registering, but there are authors in here who like the idea of a private forum to talk about plots and ideas without general internet scrutiny. And so, the idea was killed. :blue:
-chronodekar
About trying to make the site popular - I'm (non-staff opinion) of the idea of trying to make some parts public i.e. accessible without registering, but there are authors in here who like the idea of a private forum to talk about plots and ideas without general internet scrutiny. And so, the idea was killed. :blue:
-chronodekar
I think it was also an issue that sectioning private vs public in Icyboards is a right hassle for the admins.
Forum popularity is a virtuous circle: if there's content, people show up, and when people show up, they post content.
Personally... if you look at the most active threads around there, they're talking about fanfiction, but they aren't really for fanfic as such. So I think that's the most useful thing to consider, for growing this board.
"What features should we have" is kinda a different discussion, I didn't even know how much I wanted threadmarks until I had them on other boards for example, so there's stuff you could want but don't have.
From my own perspective, all the other fanfic boards I hang out on are built on Xenforo instead of IcyBoards. So if it's just "differentiation", then I think looking at what IcyBoards can do that Xenforo can't could be, like, a competitive advantage.
If it's content...
Actually for a while as just a casual thing, I was posting threads of the "You're an ___!" template inviting people to describe how they would react if inserted into different series / anime story archetypes. It was decently popular but I basically stopped doing it because I devoted energy in other places.
So yeah if it's "let's generate content for people to participate in", then let's think about that; if I posted a new one of those every month (or whatever) then do you think that would do okay at building engagement?
Forum popularity is a virtuous circle: if there's content, people show up, and when people show up, they post content.
Personally... if you look at the most active threads around there, they're talking about fanfiction, but they aren't really for fanfic as such. So I think that's the most useful thing to consider, for growing this board.
"What features should we have" is kinda a different discussion, I didn't even know how much I wanted threadmarks until I had them on other boards for example, so there's stuff you could want but don't have.
From my own perspective, all the other fanfic boards I hang out on are built on Xenforo instead of IcyBoards. So if it's just "differentiation", then I think looking at what IcyBoards can do that Xenforo can't could be, like, a competitive advantage.
If it's content...
Actually for a while as just a casual thing, I was posting threads of the "You're an ___!" template inviting people to describe how they would react if inserted into different series / anime story archetypes. It was decently popular but I basically stopped doing it because I devoted energy in other places.
So yeah if it's "let's generate content for people to participate in", then let's think about that; if I posted a new one of those every month (or whatever) then do you think that would do okay at building engagement?
Couple things real quick since I'm sick:
Yes, we plan to open new forums. If you know writers in a specific fandom who want feedback, please tell them to talk to me and we'll see about getting them established.
I'm against telling people to write stories JUST for this site. TFF should be a place for writers to pitch ideas and get real feedback before posting elsewhere so they don't have to beg for constructive feedback.
New features are something I'd really like to see and I'm generally open to suggestions. There's a limit on what I can do with icyboards' format, but that's no reason to stop thinking about it.
Content, though, is king. The big issue with TFF as it currently exists is that most of our primary boards are old fandoms, and what's still active is seeing talk instead of writing. So yeah, we need people writing for Harry Potter and Type-Moon, but we should be recruiting people interested in RWBY, the various MOBAs, Hero Academia and as always Pokemon.
So yeah actually daniel, I would like to see you do a monthly thing. Throw in some writing challenges and Iron Fic over the summer and recruitment and... well, at least we'll have fun.
Yes, we plan to open new forums. If you know writers in a specific fandom who want feedback, please tell them to talk to me and we'll see about getting them established.
I'm against telling people to write stories JUST for this site. TFF should be a place for writers to pitch ideas and get real feedback before posting elsewhere so they don't have to beg for constructive feedback.
New features are something I'd really like to see and I'm generally open to suggestions. There's a limit on what I can do with icyboards' format, but that's no reason to stop thinking about it.
Content, though, is king. The big issue with TFF as it currently exists is that most of our primary boards are old fandoms, and what's still active is seeing talk instead of writing. So yeah, we need people writing for Harry Potter and Type-Moon, but we should be recruiting people interested in RWBY, the various MOBAs, Hero Academia and as always Pokemon.
So yeah actually daniel, I would like to see you do a monthly thing. Throw in some writing challenges and Iron Fic over the summer and recruitment and... well, at least we'll have fun.