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Where is everyone????
I've noticed that the number on the site has dropped, just looking through the site stats and found that we are down by a third, is there a new site that people are visiting that I'm not aware off or is there something else that has caused the loss of membership.
Even the discord chat room has died down, the Role play room has also died down.
I'm really concerned, please let me know what if anything that I need to sort to make the site more attractive.
Fats
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...and the livin' is easy.paul wrote: Summer Time?
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Fats
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- AuGoose
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Diana Valkyrie went that way, the Aurora Universe has gone that way, etc.
Part of that is that the culture around us changes, but a core of strong contributors don't (want to). Hell, even Facebook is probably going that way over time, given that most GenZers and increasingly GenYers are moving in other directions. Part of being on the Internet.
We also live in a world where superheroines are everywhere in media, entertainment, etc. etc.
Or maybe it's just summer. I guess you'll know by December.
As far as stories, I have new stuff in the works. Will try to get something finished enough to post in the next few weeks. They will be novella in size, and instead of posting portions incrementally like I used to, I want to wrap it up before I post. I'm practicing for preparing finished works to sell on Amazon (for a song).
Shadar
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- Agent00Soul
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Shadar, I have to disagree with you there, If the site has become "gentrified" then there need to be major changes needed to make it more reverent to people, maybe we need to get rid of the forums and replace it with a twitter feed or Facebook style. Maybe we need to change the library from long form stories to short form stories.
I do not want this site to fade into the background because the members have lost interest in the site, or have "evolved" and are looking for something new, we should and can evolve with them.
If evolution is what's needed, I need to know what they want the site to evolve into.
Fats
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fats wrote: I just wanted to say that this thread is not calling out people for not being more active, I just wanted to know if there is a reason why the site has gone quiet.
Shadar, I have to disagree with you there, If the site has become "gentrified" then there need to be major changes needed to make it more reverent to people, maybe we need to get rid of the forums and replace it with a twitter feed or Facebook style. Maybe we need to change the library from long form stories to short form stories.
I do not want this site to fade into the background because the members have lost interest in the site, or have "evolved" and are looking for something new, we should and can evolve with them.
If evolution is what's needed, I need to know what they want the site to evolve into.
Fats
I wasn't trying to say you shouldn't evolve and innovate. To keep a large membership, you need to. But it can come with a price. I wasn't willing to alienate my original members to get new ones. So, to paraphrase Tolkien's Elves, "I faded away into the West" by deliberate choice.
You may make a very different choice, perhaps to stand upon the highest parapets of Minas Tirith in Gondor with banners flying.
Which could be a story itself. Perhaps the previously unheralded daughter of Galadriel lives secretly in Minas Tirith, pretending to be human. She possesses a very different kind of Ring of Power, for when she slips it on, she becomes physically powerful and invincible beyond the furthest boundaries of ordinary Elfdom, her feet so light she can soar with the Eagles. Yet she has her mother's golden heart, shining through her raiment like a star.
It was not her time to face the Dark Lord in the Lhord of the Rings, so she was not in Tolkien's story. But now, a new Great Evil casts its eyes on MiddleEarth. Her time has now come.
Shadar
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In general, I think it was very restrictive and stifled creativity as evidenced by 75% of the authors coming up with the same idea and several authors not submitting their works. To be truthful, I didn't care much for the reviews and I really wanted to say, "Hey, let's see you come up with a story on teleportation or worse, Super Intuition which is what Argo originally got.
I was working on another story which I have not as yet started back on. I need to get back to it. Just in a bit of a funk.
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Why not seek out active and semi active members that no longer visit and contact them?
I assume you have a data base of e-mails.
On a personal note I almost left Superwomanmaina when the Peril video producers Bluestone were given freedom to pedal their garbage on this site.
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Markiehoe wrote: It is kind of tough for the people that are here to respond why people have left'
Why not seek out active and semi active members that no longer visit and contact them?
I assume you have a data base of e-mails.
One of the big problems is that often people doesn't update their e-mails and many accounts have out of date informations that makes more complicate to contact the users.
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- Woodclaw
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When I take a step back and ask, "what are most people doing in the genre", it seems to me that most people are staring at imagery on DeviantArt. Obviously, 3d rendering technology has improved greatly over the last twenty years.. When the AU was started, the best way to enjoy all superwoman stuff was through stories. Now, people can produce, and view, really slick visuals in ways they couldn't only a few years ago.
To give an example, I posted LaPorte Caves to DeviantArt as it was being written. Then, as the story postings began to dwindle, I started posting Lowerbase's visual art on the same subject. The number of people "favoriting" and "watching" me on DA quadrupled. People want the visuals.
And if people want visuals, then maybe that is an area to focus. You could transforms teh "few images" into a proper gallery, with tags and thumbnail views and the other normal gallery stuff. But I dont'w know if it's realistic. There's work involved in creating that infrasturcture. And there's cost involved in bandwidth-intensive images and videos. But I expect that having a high quality gallery would be attractive to the site's historical audience as well as new participants.
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circes_cup wrote: It's a hard question to answer, Fats, because we never know whether our opinions are widely shared. Ace didn't like the parameters of the workshop, but that didn't bother me. Markiehoe didn't like the advertising of peril stuff here, but I didn't even know that was going on.. I personally think that improvements to the library would make a big difference, but there are active participants here who wouldn't agree with me.
When I take a step back and ask, "what are most people doing in the genre", it seems to me that most people are staring at imagery on DeviantArt. Obviously, 3d rendering technology has improved greatly over the last twenty years.. When the AU was started, the best way to enjoy all superwoman stuff was through stories. Now, people can produce, and view, really slick visuals in ways they couldn't only a few years ago.
To give an example, I posted LaPorte Caves to DeviantArt as it was being written. Then, as the story postings began to dwindle, I started posting Lowerbase's visual art on the same subject. The number of people "favoriting" and "watching" me on DA quadrupled. People want the visuals.
And if people want visuals, then maybe that is an area to focus. You could transforms teh "few images" into a proper gallery, with tags and thumbnail views and the other normal gallery stuff. But I dont'w know if it's realistic. There's work involved in creating that infrasturcture. And there's cost involved in bandwidth-intensive images and videos. But I expect that having a high quality gallery would be attractive to the site's historical audience as well as new participants.
I think that Circes makes a very good point here: SWM is a hybrid site. We are a story repository, a gallery of sorts, a forum and a lot of other things. BEing a hybrid we survive crisis a lot better than other realities, but we are also more susceptible to problems since each and every user is looking for something different.
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I personally find that there is very little decent material which crosses over ubergirls and SciFi and/or high fantasy.
Star Wars with ubergirls on both sides.
Tolkien with beautiful, ultra-powerful Elves taking on unspeakable evil (along with lots of Orcs and a Balrog or two).
Star Trek with alien ubergirl NSFW themes on exotic planets.
Firefly where Inara or Kaylee or River gains incredible physical powers (even pheromones in Inara's case). .
And so on...
Very little decent material in those areas out there in recent years. But I can't speak for the size of the audience except from my personal interest in such themes.
Shadar
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Unlike Ace, I really liked the WS. A story, I had no intention of writing, was written because of Fats list. I had a lot of fun writing it.
That being said, i'm unlikely to participate again. It reminded me of a time when I taped Sunday night football. Had nearly $1000 on the Packers to win. I was So excited to watch the game, got my nacho's made, bowl of salsa and sour cream flanking either side....Turn the game on, and my wife comes downstairs and says "I bet your happy the packers won". I was glad the packers won, but.....now there was no point in watching the game. The thrill of it was gone - I confirmed on my phone that my team won. Even the nacho's didn't taste good anymore.
That's kind of how I felt about this WS. I have no idea how many votes were cast. I have no idea if I was second third or fourth..I have no idea if I got blown away, or if it was close..Just that I lost. Which i'm certainly fine with, but it certainly did put a spear through any competitive spirit. Which unfortunately, is my main drive for the WS.
Other than that, I find that there's no need to log in unless I intend to post something. Everything is available without logging in. I don't know if logging in directly effects the stats.
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The visible vote stats were basically just frozen on the vote deadline day. At least it was that way the last time I participated, which has been a while.
The current black-box "winner only" approach leaves me numb. It's also probably intimidating to new writers. One of the most pleasurable things for a new writer is to see people voting for your story, even if you don't win. That says you pleased some folks, and that's gold-plated encouragement for a writer.
I know I've had periods when I was thrilled if a single person enjoyed what I wrote. Just one person who liked it best was all it took to make me happy.
Shadar
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