Future of our Fandom

[midwestmutt]

I've been sad thinking the SSSS community was ending. It's worth the effort to try to keep it going. I'm in.

[Vulpes]

Oh dear, I seem to have come off as wanting to ban all discussion of LP or Minna's newer work, or assuming that all fans of the new work are bound to be intolerant and problematic*... I knew I was being incoherent. Was that end-of-day fatigue or lack of caffeine? Whichever, it was not at all the direction of my thoughts. I won't try to reformulate them, because I'll just dig myself deeper. But I will say that I am reassured that Gwenno doesn't see moderation as a problem - I was imagining the mess from the comment section migrating over here, and how that would be a lot to deal with.

I like the various suggestions, particularly an "other works" section that would include LP and newer Minna works on an equal footing with other stuff; that would address the conundrum of wanting to acknowledge her new work, and yet not give it the spotlight. With so many clever people thinking this through, I'm positive we'll find a way to make this work smoothly.


*which would have been intolerant and problematic on my part

[Róisín]

Mirasol, glad you are staying. And Gwenno, I agree that we should not automatically expect bad faith and bad manners from LP fans. Let’s ask them if they would like to join. If they are part of the board the same rules about civility and decency and mutual respect should apply to all, I think.

[thegreyarea]

Vulpes, I didn't get that idea from your comment. I got it as a possibility that we should be aware of. But Gwenno's post gave me even more confidence that we can do it.
The ideas we gathered so far make me believe the future of this Forum, while surely challenging, will be, above all, exciting!
(and I count that as my Little Moment of Happiness for today! )

Also I'm very happy to see so many of us willing to remain as a part of this! Hopefuly many more will come soon!
(can I count two LMoH today? )

[Tarnagh]

I second (third?) a comic-of-the-week thread (or threads, I think that's what Sc0ut is proposing), and I waaaaaay second Wilde Life! It's my #2 comic after SSSS. Incredible character development and storytelling, good humor, great art, and I know for sure that Pascalle is a respectful and kind person.

About the re-read: I agree that just one page at a time is glacial pacing. Maybe two- or three-page chunks is better. Or, sure, at first we could break the prologue into larger chunks, nationality by nationality, to cover it more quickly. Maybe a couple of people could be in charge of making those posts, and each person chooses a day of the week they're in charge of do to the posting? Or we could have a rolling thing where each week/month/some chunk of time, a different person volunteers to announce the current page/s? I would be happy to volunteer for either. I'm picturing maybe . . . Wednesdays and Saturdays, to sort of offset the MWThF update schedule Minna has going on?

Gwenno is right, we shouldn't calibrate ourselves to assume the worst of people who like LP and whatever Minna creates next. Number one, we have no idea what that next thing will be like! Some of us are apprehensive, which is completely reasonable, but we shouldn't make decisions right now about the unknown. Number two, we didn't all have the same feelings about LP. Those of us who liked it are, of course, still absolutely welcome here and should be able to discuss their feelings/impressions/inspirations just like everyone else. I think it would be counter to the values of this community if we didn't provide a space for people to explore their appreciation for LP (and possible future works) without feeling shut down. We should trust each other, and trust the mods.

I'm open to Jitter's Other Stories/About Other Creative Works board. I think a lot of us have a lot of beloved things to share, and if we're to include discussions about LP and Minna's future works, the bare minimum would be to create a thread for each of those. They would fit nicely in an "And here's other stuff that we like to share with each other and discuss" board. And if we need to expand or shift around again, we can do that. The decisions we make here, while important, aren't permanent.

I feel like I should ask: For people reading this thread who liked LP, would you like to have a space to explore what you liked about it? I don't want to put words in anyone's mouths. I also don't want to make anyone feel called out if they don't feel comfortable saying that they did like it (it's still a contentious issue after all). Just, it feels weird making suggestions on behalf of LP-appreciators without asking you directly.

I'll toss my hat into the ring and "THIRD!" on Wilde Life! Pascalle is currently on a chapter break until 3 May so now's the time to get caught up! 

I like the Weds/Sat idea for comic discussion.

I want to clarify something too because I'm sure some of you have read the things I've posted in the LP thread. The subject matter didn't bother me, it's how the subject matter was presented. I was entirely fine with reading a nominally "Christian" themed story until it started beating me about the head and neck with a lot of bad memories. It was never about the theme but the heavy handedness. If Minna's future works contain the same theme, I wouldn't be averse to reading them as long as they avoid that. I'm not sure they will but I'm willing to give them a try. At least THIS time people like myself will have a frame of reference for what to expect from her new works, which we didn't have going in to reading LP. Sort of a pre-emptive "content warning" of sorts. We recognize what it might be. I guess the point is that even some of us (namely, me) who have been extremely vocal about the awfulness contained in LP are keeping an open mind on future works. I am at least and I'm pretty sure I've seen other people early on in the LP thread say essentially the same things I did about LP and Minna's future work.

[thorny]

I'll toss my hat into the ring and "THIRD!" on Wilde Life! Pascalle is currently on a chapter break until 3 May so now's the time to get caught up! 

[surfaces briefly from page 44]

Fourth.

ETA: can we also do Witch Door, though?

[catbirds]

I think there's a poll option that the mods can start when the time comes for this kind of thing! If you guys are looking to get a vote for this thing, you should look into that.

(I am also hoping for some place for discussion on Witch Door, it's more to my personal taste than Wilde Life. But I'd still hang out here if it didn't turn out that way )

[thorny]

Um, re Wilde Life: Arachnid warning.

(Doesn't bother me; but I think somebody else here said they were bothered.)

[Maple]

I plan on staying too. I have so many ideas for fanfic (that I'm mostly holding off on right now because I want to see how the comic ends), so I'll be creating content for this fandom for a while yet.

And if we decide to talk about other webcomics, I have a few I'm also following that might be fun to talk about here. We'll see.

[Tarnagh]

ETA: can we also do Witch Door, though?

I've seen people mention Witch Door so I just went and found it ... and have now read it all the way to current.

I will toss my hat into the ring for Witch Door as well.

[Róisín]

Thank you for the arachnid warning, thorny. They don’t bother me; indeed I am quite fond of spiders, scorpions and the like, but I am aware that several of the fans and Forumites whom I know IRL are phobic of them. Wilde Life does sound interesting anyway.

[Tarnagh]

Um, re Wilde Life: Arachnid warning.

(Doesn't bother me; but I think somebody else here said they were bothered.)

Ooof. Good thought.

Wilde Life IS a horror comic although it's a different sort than SSSS, although I've got one story arc in mind that could give even Sleipnope a run for its money.

Wilde Life is more of a real-world-in-current-time story with lots of supernatural creatures, divine/semi-divine beings cropping up in the story line.

[JoB]

I think there's a poll option that the mods can start when the time comes for this kind of thing! If you guys are looking to get a vote for this thing, you should look into that.

If you mean to have a vote on the comics to prep topics for, I have a hunch that we're gonna elect "Other (please specify below)" for president.

[Raaffiie]

I'm glad my suggestion could help! I like the way Sc0ut puts it where each comic has its own thread. The way I see it is that you would have that, plus an overview thread to keep track of the list and offer new suggestions.

If you mean to have a vote on the comics to prep topics for, I have a hunch that we're gonna elect "Other (please specify below)" for president.

Maybe people could suggest comics in a thread, and we'd periodically vote to see the most popular ones out of those? It's not entirely ideal though, since it would be biased towards the comics that are already well-known, and might make it a bit harder for more niche but well-loved works to go through. But that would at least give some structure to the whole idea, and allow people to submit their favourites as they please without it getting too erratic or the same options showing up repeatedly.

[Sc0ut]

Maybe people could suggest comics in a thread, and we'd periodically vote to see the most popular ones out of those? It's not entirely ideal though, since it would be biased towards the comics that are already well-known, and might make it a bit harder for more niche but well-loved works to go through. But that would at least give some structure to the whole idea, and allow people to submit their favourites as they please without it getting too erratic or the same options showing up repeatedly.

As an alternative to voting (which sounds to me like it would be a bit of a pain to organise), we could just let people sign up to create threads, and whoever creates the thread decides on the webcomic discussed for that week - this way, many people could suggest their favourites even if they're not necessarily popular. We should coordinate somehow so that there are no overlaps and we get a good genre variety from one week to the other ofc. I imagine this being organised in a similar way like the Advent Calendars were a few years ago (I haven't participated in a while so I don't know if it changed).