Future of our Fandom

[catbirds]

Practically speaking the odds of finding something that fits all those boxes is basically zero, or getting infinitely closer to zero, or some other tight probability.

And, yeah, SSSS is probably going to be the glue that keeps us together. In another universe where Minna did not make the same decision, though, I feel like a lot of us might've continued following her work even if it was sssomewhat different? Didn't tick off all those boxes? E.g. while aRTD had a pretty different audience, a pretty significant portion of this forum the audience was willing to jump into SSSS when it came. And these stories are pretty different, so being open to non-SSSS works that update consistently is probably a good way to go through with this.

OH consistent updates, I forgot to add that. That's also VERY important, from what I see. Because of SSSS's (???) relatively rapid update schedule, people could pretty much come home from their day jobs, sit down, and enjoy a page and all the discussion that came with it. That's a big part of why this community managed to form, and a big part of what we need to consider moving forward. While it could be achieved by following multiple comics, it just won't quite be the same

As for her next work, it's waaay too soon to speculate on its themes, update schedule, tone, pacing, quality, all the stuff. And hey, maybe it'll be a well-paced, well-written story just with a different inspiration. All I personally know is that I won't be into it, based on what Minna's written. And I think most others also know their general stance/feeling about it. But if it isn't, uh, [vague gestures], then I wouldn't have any problems with keeping up with it on a surface level.

[JoB]

E.g. while aRTD had a pretty different audience, a pretty significant portion of this forum was willing to jump into SSSS when it came.

(Just in case that you mean this here forum, it started in Sep-2014, while SSSS began, after ARtD's conclusion, in Nov-2013. And almost half of its users registered in 2016 or later, so ...)

[catbirds]

(Just in case that you mean this here forum, it started in Sep-2014, while SSSS began, after ARtD's conclusion, in Nov-2013. And almost half of its users registered in 2016 or later, so ...)

Oh, yeah, I know a couple of people with accounts here who have said (usually on twitch/tumblr) that they went from reading ARtD to reading SSSS pretty easily.

(I don't know the official "official" capitalization scheme for the acronym, all I know is that a lowercase must be somewhere in there)

[JoB]

(I don't know the official "official" capitalization scheme for the acronym, all I know is that a lowercase must be somewhere in there)

(The variant I have memorized as being the most-oft used is "ArTD" - which might help pronunciation, but makes no sense whatsoever acronym-capitalization-wise. So I'm working off "I think it should be ..." myself here.)

[thorny]

Oh, ok, that makes sense and I’m totally fine with that.
I do want to say that the idea suggested about adding other Nordic apocalyptic comic to this forum to get away from SSSS as a center did not sound so great to me. Different comics have different attitudes and I can even say, sometimes there are things I do not want to associate with. Like, I came to this forum because of SSSS and because I know what it is and how it is and what people read it. The forum changing in such a fashion may draw me away from here (it’s just thoughts, I don’t know how it is going to be in reality) So, I’m just not sure about that idea.
Otherwise, I mostly agree with you guys about reshaping the forum, in a way to accommodate everyone. 

I very much doubt that there is any way to accommodate everyone. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't try to accommodate as many people as possible; but it does mean that if we try to accommodate every single person entirely, we're going to be lost.

I've got sympathy for those just wishing that Nothing Would Change; but that is not an option open to us.

SSSS itself is going to die; we just don't know when. There is no getting around that one. And where Minna is going is in a direction that a lot of those who are or have been here "don't want to associate with"; so just continuing to follow Minna alone will clearly not "accommodate everyone".

Neither will simply going around and around and around re-reading SSSS accommodate everyone, even presuming that Minna continues to make it available, which isn't certain. Some aren't up for a re-read at all; others of us may well be up for one re-read, but not for just doing so over and over again indefinitely, with no openness to all the other artwork being done in the world. Yes, people are still talking about Shakespeare, despite there having been no new works for over 400 years -- but, to be blunt about it, Minna has not produced that sort of body of work, and doesn't seem likely to do so.

I think our best chance for continuing is indeed to open out to other work (not necessarily only Nordic apocalyptic, though not excluding that.) There's no need to drop Minna's works entirely; SSSS in particular should always remain part of the history of the board, and to whatever extent people want to continue active discussion of SSSS, and to discuss other works of hers, there should be space for that; and if some members are only interested in that space, while others are only interested in other works, they may still come together in some of the general discussion and personal space. But I suspect that after SSSS itself comes to an end, that discussion will gradually become less active, as currently the aRTD discussion, while still there, is much less active than the SSSS discussion.

Practically speaking the odds of finding something that fits all those boxes is basically zero, or getting infinitely closer to zero, or some other tight probability.

Oh yes, I'm not suggesting that we restrict ourselves only to works that fit all of everyone's boxes, even if such a thing exists; only that to the extent that there's overlap among what people are looking for (and there seems to be quite a bit of it) we look for works that meet a number of those criteria; different works not necessarily all hitting the same ones.

[wavewright62]

I am so glad y'all are having this discussion, and are being so thoughtful and supportive. 
As for me, I try to look ahead past my current toxicity and ...

I hope I regain my sense of humour and balance sooner rather than later.

[Jitter]

[Vulpes]

I am so glad y'all are having this discussion, and are being so thoughtful and supportive. 
As for me, I try to look ahead past my current toxicity and ...

I hope I regain my sense of humour and balance sooner rather than later.

The humour is still there, I see. Bitter humour, but humour nonetheless. It's been a long haul, may you get your balance back soon. 

[Róisín]

thorny, I think you make very good points!

[SkyWhalePod]

I think thorny has just about said it all -- it sounds like the best course of action would be to do some housekeeping to make this forum more open to discussion of additional types of media, including more active sharing of other webcomics and stories, as has been suggested. Old SSSS forum stays basically as it is and a re-read happens for those of us who would like one (I certainly would, I have no friends who read SSSS no matter how often I name drop it, so I've never been able to talk to anybody about it). Future Minna work is, by default, treated just like any other work that's being shared and discussed. Same discussion rules (respect and manners) apply.

And I feel that it would be good if this thread, or something like it, stays open as we move forward in case a new community need arises that wasn't originally anticipated.

wave:

[thorny]

Thanks, both of you.

And I agree that this thread should stay open; it may well die down for a while, but I think it's likely to have (and to need) intermittent bursts of activity as things here work themselves out.

And a long-distance hug for wavewright; and for everybody else who needs one.

[Róisín]

Seconding that. Hugs all round.

[viola]

Hello! I have been reading this thread, lurking a bit. I first want to say that you guys are awesome. You have every right to want to give up on this community and move on, and instead you have worked together to come up with ways to stick together and move on to new things together. It's really inspring. 

I've seen such a thing happen successfully in a discord I was in, which started as a writing discord for the show Lucifer, but as some people grew tired of that show, the discord opened up to other shows like The Witcher, Good Omens, and Doctor Who for example. It still functions well as a writing community, and some people from the original group have stayed, as well as some new people have come in who wouldn't have been there otherwise. We still have writing groups together and encourage each other to write, regardless of fandom.

For this site in particular, it's definetly going to mean some reorganization, and that's going to start with the site team. We're going to shift a few things around and train some new people who can help support this transition.

Things are happening, but just a bit slowly. Long term, some other things will have to be considered, like whether or not to keep the forum theme, if we still want to be linked to Minna's page, or even the url of the site.

In the mean time though, you are all more than welcome to continue to discuss other medias in the general discussion board.

[thorny]

Feartheviolas! Very glad to see that post; good to know that the admins are willing to work with this.

And also glad to see that you know of a successful example! That's very encouraging.

[Grade E cat]

Fun fact: Tv Tropes technically started out as a thread on a Buffy the Vampire Slayer fansite.