The future of SWFans ...

[Atreyu]

... well the discussion here has gone awfully quiet lately. Everyone must be sick of reminiscing. :)

How's this for a change of tack - where do you see SWFans as being in the next 6 months? Year? 5 years? etc.

Will it self implode, die away, bring back the glory days (or whatever)? Conquer the Earth?

Post your thoughts. :)

[Morgan Evanar]

Six months it will probably be roughly in the same position it is now. 5 years? I think some of us will still be in touch but I sort of doubt that the board will exist.

[CMJ]

I think it'll be a slow death. A few of us will probably never leave - we'll just find some smaller board to hang out at.

[Morgan Evanar]

Or get this hosting package greatly reduced or whatever.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

You guys are depressing.

[Morgan Evanar]

Why? In five years I'm going to be 28, should be living somewhere other than Florida, might be married, and will have completed at least 3 rallies. I don't see what's so depressing in the fact that Fans might just be a handful of people keeping in touch in five years. Hey, if it starts to rival some big websites or whatever I'll happily eat my words but if not I'm not going to be crying about it.

[JMK]

I agree, but I do see where Hollie is coming from. This place has been a 'hangout' for many years now for a lot of the same people, and like all things it's inevitable that it will eventually die, or at the very least get weaned down to some die hards.

IMO, this board will go as Star Wars as a franchise goes. When the TV show comes out, the board will probably spike a bit in terms of activity. When that's done, the prequels and originals will probably be ready for a tweaking & re-issuing and the hype/rumor mill will crank up for that, leading to another surge here. Once that's done, then I think the slow death will take hold. But that's likely to be in 3-5 years from now.

[Dasquian Belargic]

If it does die in a couple of years, I won't be sad. This place has had a good run and I've enjoyed my time here. I'd rather it just went all-together than clung on pitifully.

[CMJ]

I have to say...I'll probably be one of the last ones to leave. LOL!

[Dasquian Belargic]

I expect I'll be one of the last ones here too. I lurk at the board everyday, even if I don't post. It's just become habit. SWfans is one of the first places I check when I come online.

[JMK]

I'll be around to the bitter end as well. SWfans is my homepage. It's automatically the first place I visit! :lol

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I think that the board might have a higher chance of survival if more people tried to make it succeed.

But that's just my, minority, opinion.

Everyone else can curse the darkness, but I'm going to light my candle. ;)

[Morgan Evanar]

Words.
Edit: you talk a lot about advertisting but I haven't see you actually purchase ads anywhere. So until I see George Washingtons floating off to some banner somewhere on the interweb, you talk pretty. I don't feel like being disparaged because I don't have a "positive attitude."

[Jaime Tomahawk]

I heard lots of things about making this place grow again, but I aint seen a lot since I originanlly said the same sentiments as almost everyone else in 2004. And I got flamed for it then, but I have been proven right, there has been a slow decline and very little action apart from the reset since then.

Oh dont get me wrong, I'm happy to do stuff and add content. But I dont really see much changing, it will be way with ALL Star Wars sites now the general interest in Star Wars is declining.

[CMJ]

Yeah i wasn't trying to be negative or anything. There will always be movies, sports, and boxoffice for some of us to talk about an I'm sure a few RP will keep at it. But we'll still lose people slowly.

I will probably have to be kicked out the door though. ;)

[Mu Satach]

When you all stop posting I'll stop. I can't seem to shake this place or CC.net. But then, for me it's always been the people that keep me coming back.

[Pierce Tondry]

I tried to get back into the swing of things here, but my mindset is just so different these days I know I'll never be posting here as I once did. If I ever did feel I could write well again.

But, there are some people here who I would love to keep in touch with. For me, that has become the primary purpose of this board.

And speaking of that, I have an e-mail to write.

[Atreyu]

Wow, seems as though the topic touched a few nerves here and there. :)

Interesting responses. I think that, with the way things are at the moment, SWFans will probably just fade into a sort of gathering point for old-timers who just want to post and aren't really bothered trying to expand or atract newcomers to the site. The site itself will probably surivive until no one can be bothered paying for it anymore.

In a lot of ways I see CC.Net being like SWFans but a little bit further down the road (no offense to those who post and support it over there).

One simple thing that you can do if you want more activity though is simply post some more threads. I posted a thread in SW Amalgam a week ago and it promptly hit 20 replies. People tend to respond if there's something already there to talk about.

Personally, I wouldn't mind get our old Box Office contests back on the road. Unfortunately however I simply aren't online much (1-2 times a week) to get such a thing going (heck, it's taken me a week to get back to this thread). :\

But anyway, is anyone still really interested in building SWFans back up? I've trawled through the old threads and noticed there was plenty of discussion in 2004/2005 about ways to attract new blood and the like, but it seems as though people are good talkers but not so good doers (which is pretty much the entire history of SWFans it seems).

[Jaime Tomahawk]

I personally think it was a bad idea to disallow general threads in the Box Office forum. That should be allowed to run as it once was - it was a great and interesting political discourse forum

Admins should allow it to run its course and the B.O. guys to talk about anything. Forcing to one General forum has not worked.

[Mu Satach]

Originally posted by Atreyu
In a lot of ways I see CC.Net being like SWFans but a little bit further down the road (no offense to those who post and support it over there).

None taken, and I agree with you... we're currently in a state of change so it will be interesting to see CC is like 6 months from now. :)

And I agree with Marcus that too much seggregation and policing of topic items tends to limit discussions instead of enhancing them. I hate starting topics in any of the forums around here for fear I'll be smacked down for not using the search button before posting. ;)

"Good God! 3 months ago someone posted a thread about such and such... don't you know how to use the search button moron!"

I'm over exagerating and being melodramatic. But that encapsulates the vibe I've picke up.

[Atreyu]

Originally posted by Jaime Tomahawk
I personally think it was a bad idea to disallow general threads in the Box Office forum. That should be allowed to run as it once was - it was a great and interesting political discourse forum

Admins should allow it to run its course and the B.O. guys to talk about anything. Forcing to one General forum has not worked.
It took me nearly a month or so to notice the forum's title had been changed (used to be '... and Other Discussion', now it's changed to Other Media) and I had been wondering why all the general topics had vanished.

I suppose it's understandable with the creation of the General Discussion forum to have all the general stuff in one place. Though when you have 2 near separate communtiies on the one board, trying to get them all into one place doesn't always work - you inevitably have one dominate the other (which is probably why General Discussion is dominated by roleplayers and there's hardly any BOers posting there).


Originally posted by Mu Satach
None taken, and I agree with you... we're currently in a state of change so it will be interesting to see CC is like 6 months from now.
Ooooooh, big plans afoot are there? :)

[Lilaena De'Ville]

It is very nice that while the staff has been sounding out ideas (and some/a lot of you are ON the staff even) that nothing has been brought up. Things have been changed, but they were changed by general consensus.

You all had a voice. You still do have a voice. This is not a dictatorship, and it never has been.

[Charley]

I'm willing to throw an indefinite amount of cash into whatever we need here. I'm not going to bankroll the places charter or bandwidth naturally, but I've already said I'm game for funding some advertizing so long as we work and find the right means to do so.

[Charley]

Also, the well isn't dried up on things and we need to remember that. We've still got a few Star Wars shows and a lot of EU and other medium that will be coming down the pipe more or less indefinitely.

I doubt we'll see numbers that we've seen around the release of eps 1, 2, or 3, but I don't think that we need to worry about the well drying up in the next few years.

[CMJ]

I liked the idea of having a general are to talk in theory. We could get more exchange between the two groups. But as was stated, it hasn't worked out that well unfortunately.

[Atreyu]

I assume there must have been a big plan to organise advertising or something since everyone keeps referring to it. I know nothing about it.

Even if you did advertise, do you feel the board is in a good state to promote? What is SWFans main goal anyway? General SW? Roleplaying? Boxoffice? All of the above?

At the moment roleplaying is the only real area that has regular traffic. Boxoffice ticks along as it always has, but its fairly quiet. unfortunately the main SW sections are all nearly dead (which is a pity since it's a SW site).

For roleplaying specifically, I've often wondered how different the board would be if it had adopted the free-form roleplay kind of like I proposed to the staff in 2001 (kind of like the old Sony boards prior to SWG release), expecially considering how quiet all the groups have become lately.

And no Hollie, you're not an evil dictator. :)

[Darth McBain]

I agree with a lot of what people have said so far. I come here every day, though at this point I more lurk than jump into a lot of threads. These boards will probably follow the SW flow. If some TV stuff comes out there will be a bit of activity, but it seems that without SW, the boards just slow down.

[Mu Satach]

Originally posted by Atreyu
And no Hollie, you're not an evil dictator. :)

Absolutely not, as those of us at CC have a copyright on that title, thank you very much. ;)

he he...

:angel

I'm not sure what's in the works for CC, JMP is kind of working out something and I'm just waiting in the wings to help out coding wise if needed. Would be more involved, but school ya know.

[Atreyu]

Absolutely not, as those of us at CC have a copyright on that title, thank you very much. ;)
I'm sure Hollie will let you have it. :)

Just so long as no one takes 'benevolent dictator' - that's mine forever. :p


I'm not sure what's in the works for CC, JMP is kind of working out something and I'm just waiting in the wings to help out coding wise if needed. Would be more involved, but school ya know.
Sounds cool. I'll start keeping an eye on CC.Net from time to time to see what develops. :)

[Lilaena De'Ville]

It's impossible to be a dictator when there are two other admins with more authority than I have. ;)

[Mu Satach]

Holly can't let me have it, I OWN it! :D

I don't care if they find me in a hole in the desert, lock me up and put me on trial! I'm the dic-K-tater! And I will spout insults at the judges bench... BAH!

I rule.

[ReaperFett]

The numbers will jump up when the next big Star Wars related thing appears, then start to slide again.