Fan Works Revival Committee

[Lady Ashenwyte]

I would like to be a judge.

[Wylder Treejumper]

Alrighty, we have three.

[Wylder Treejumper]

Hello? Can we facilitate discussion here again?

[Hickory]

So are we still waiting for more fanfic contest competitiors, or what?

[Edraithel]

We could have a coloring contest. If someone wants to make a lineart (I could do that if nobody else wants to) then we could have people color it for a contest and have some judges pic the top two. We could have a digital and traditional category. The prize could be a drawing for the forums and a poem for first place and then second would get a drawing.

[The Skarzs]

Hello? Can we facilitate discussion here again?

So are we still waiting for more fanfic contest competitiors, or what?

I'm real busy, so I'm afraid I'm not able to join said competition, and most of my fan works (art and writings) are at a snail's pace as it is.

[Captain Tammo]

As someone who spends most of their time looking at the fanfiction boards, I have a couple of ideas I would like to add which could improve the overall quality of existing fanfictions.

We should pin a topic to the fanfic section that acts like a folder for "most popular fanfics". I think it would give new people a place to start when they get to the boards, as I've found getting a huge wave of fanfictions at once can be a tad overwhelming when trying to find where a good place to begin would be. What I think this would do is serve as a sort-of spark to that person in the sense that it would then influence them to go on and read more of the entries on the board afterwards. It's a very small thing to do, but I think it could add a little bit to the forum page, as well as give fanfic writers an incentive to write more. Who wouldn't want to see their story on that page?!

This brings up another idea for the fanfic boards. You see, there are a few fanfiction competitions here and there which serve as incentive to write new stories. But what about improving the old fanfics? Right now, there are over 250 individual fanfictions on the forum, many of which have not broken the 1,000 view and 5 non-author reply mark. While putting emphasis on new content is always a vital thing in that section of the forum, what about shifting some of our focus to improving the existing fanfictions? I propose that the fanfiction boards holds an awards ceremony in which awards are given out to fanfictions for different factors, like the Oscars (i.e. Most Original Character in a Fanfiction, Longest Fanfiction, Best Drama, Best Mystery, Best Action/Adventure, Best New Fanfiction, etc.) We could make enough awards to make a good number of existing works stand out and show that they have particularly good quality. This, in theory, should increase traffic flow to those fanfics. In addition, I feel that this should be something that happens every so-often (maybe bi-annually? Details can be worked out with the committee, but I'd like to help out on this project as well, should it be supported) so that the awards are moving around the forum and directing people to the fanfics that most deserve the attention. Of course, having 250+ fanfics, it may be a good idea to have authors submit their works into the competition... What do you think? I think it's completely doable and would yield a great amount of activity to the boards, as well as add incentive for people to write new works since now there's something to actually work for besides views and replies. I really do think that this could help!

[The Skarzs]

Very good ideas, Captain; I feel they should be considered. (I would say more, but my brain is fried.) I myself wish I could have more time to work on my fan fiction, so that should be something one might think about when considering the lack of activity in the board: the authors can be very busy.

[Captain Tammo]

Authors are busy, which is why we need an added incentive for new content, and something to shed light on the many existing works. I think that this will create short term spikes around award season and increase the long-term quality of the board. Additionally, with the forum revival movement, we could use outlets like the FNN (Forum News Network) to advertise the award ceremony/ changes we make and really take advantage of the increased traffic flow.

[The Skarzs]

In addition to that, I suppose we can all make the extra effort to encourage people to view the other boards.
  However, as I believe it was Dawnwing who said that the forum is going through classic site degradation; most people who have been online for a while are a bit burnt out on the topics, most things having been discussed and whatnot, and any questions they have have probably been answered. The newer members would be the ones reviving those old points, but their questions can be answered with a simple link to similar topics.

[Captain Tammo]

In addition to that, I suppose we can all make the extra effort to encourage people to view the other boards.

Right, but since you guys are the Fan-Works Section, maybe it'd be a good idea to advertise for only the Fan-Works Pages and let the other committees advertise for their boards lol

Anyway, I'd appreciate it if you guys gave my proposals a good read through and vote on whether it should be enacted or not. At the very least, this could be a fun thing to do for us fanfiction people

[Wylder Treejumper]

I feel the fanfic board should be mostly exempt from "burnout" because of the fact that the amount of times a fanfic is read does not degrade its quality- fanfics are made to be read, not discussed. In addition, imagination allows an infinite amount of different interpretations of similar events in narrative, which means two people can write fanfics on exactly the same subject and have two totally different outcomes, and both will be enjoyable to read as long as they are well executed. Now, not all fanfics are good to read- and that is the main problem. People want to read good ones, and sifting through all of the bad ones to find one good one is a bit difficult. That is why I agree with Tam.

[The Skarzs]

(I'm working on my fanfic. . . hopefully it'll be out soon.)

[Søren]

I am as well. However, work speed up for one day, and dropped off I cliff the next. But I have a good plot, and a few good paragraphs.

[Captain Tammo]

*original post edited out due to new info*

Glad to see you guys like the idea! I'll draw up some plans on how this could work for the awards and PM the committee members the product for approval/edits. You can expect to see that in your inboxes no later than Firday afternoon.

In the meantime, we could set up the "Most Viewed Fanfictions" board pretty easily. I'd say we just put the top 10 Fanfictions in terms of viewcount on there along with an approximate viewcount and an "Updated monthly" note at the top or bottom. Maybe we could copy and paste the Fanfiction descriptions and such over so it reads just like the directory for those fanfics? Here' a sample template:


#1. [Fanfiction name that is linked]
[some words describing the story (can be taken from the directory page). Blah blah blah]
[tags that this story has (again, reference the directory)]
Approximate number of views (I'd say we round it to the nearest hundred to simplify things)

#2. etc.

.....

#10 [stuff here]


"Board is updated monthly!"


Do you guys think that could work?