95 replies to this topic

[acstrife]

Also I seriously get the idea that people are afraid to speak their minds because of what might be said to them. Do it people, speak your mind about this. That's what it's here for.

I don't believe anyone is afraid to post, probably people taking their time.

I'm not really bothered either way.

In agreement there, I don't mind a small area where the few select that talk about the comic within the forum. I would think that would make FUS look diverse to new ideas and POV's. Granted the Archie comic is different in their characters and story line.

I understand that we must remain loyal to the SATam idea, and I am sure the admins here know that too. I'm sure they only do this since they believe this will help out, and I can respect that.

[Ratty Randnums]

I don't think adding comic information is going to get that much more traffic. I think a better thing to do is turn the forum into a general Sonic forum,

Ugh, now that is a horrible thought, no just, just no.
As for whether the comic is dying or not, I don't think you'd say that in the literal sense, more like it's lost it's roots/everything that ever made it good i. e. the SatAM influence. And that it's abandoned it's reader-base to make a quick buck off of Sonic game fans -who are mostly children who will desert Sonic once they get older/realize how terrible the games really are, and certainly most of them will leave the comic even before the games. Still I don't think it would be impossible to keep it afloat, you just need better writing/a better writer and to get the old readers back.
Most of the fans that stayed after the games originally started to go sour with the switch to 3D I'm convinced did so because they really cared about the well crafted/fleshed out characters both from SatAM and original/Game.

SatAM is not Archie and vise verse, but of course they are related to some degree, more than either of them really are to the games for example. But a lot of SatAM fans became frantic in the insistence that they weren't after the comic writing started to go south, but I've always said that such longtime readers should stand up as the only steady customers Archie can count on (until we get fed up with the crappyness and loss of focus), unfortunately this has not happened, maybe Archie wonders why their readership is going down? I'd stake that's a large part of it at the least.

*Edited to reduce rambling* (though I'll still say I think SatAM/original characters lend themselves better to storytelling than the rigidly controlled corporate mascots )

[randomizer]

What I'm trying to say in that really is I want to try to attract people like I was. just random people who stumble across the forum and join without knowing much.

Aw, I feel special now

[Nique]

Also Chief and Rocky seem to be talking about two different things. If you wanna expand the board yeah go for it, but then Rocky's talking about adding stuff to the site and... I wanna know exactly what's going to be added.

Yes, before I reply again can someone please clarify for me what exactly will be added and changed? One of you is saying it's just a board change and the other is saying the main site will change. There's a huge difference.

[Spade]

I have to say, whilst this move does feel against 'the nature' of FUS to reach out to Archie fans, I personally think it's a good idea. There just isn't all that much activity around this place anymore, even compared to when I first joined over 3 years ago, and I know people like Chief have said that you'd have to go a little further back than that to find FUS's 'glory days' when I'm gathering the forum was much more active. The lack of regular posting is probably due to a lot of us having or chosing to concentrate on our lives more, but I know for a fact it's not due to a lack of SatAM fans. I know of quite a few fans around other places on the net who don't hang out around here. And why would they? How much can you talk about a TV show that lasted 2 seasons and was canceled nearly 15 years ago?

Truth is, we don't have an active SatAM art community or fan fiction community and those are really the only two avenues left which can keep the show 'alive'. I'd love to see a lot more focus put on those two aspects of the fandom, have the galleries be a much larger part of the site instead of a bit of a second thought. Could heavily feature art and fics on the main page, maybe a monthly features on an artist or writer. Maybe do monthly or 4-monthly competitions with seasonal or random themes. I know prizes are the biggest problem so maybe a feature on the main site could be the prize? Maybe for an art contest have the prize be relevant to the site, like creating a banner for the site that'll stay up until the next banner competition?

The only contest I can think of that's been a yearly occurrence were the Halloween and Christmas themed fic competitions. And I know we didn't have a Halloween one this year and even when we had one last year only 3 people entered and there was a lack of interest from the rest of the forum. I think only 5-8 people voted? So maybe something like that would be more successful if it wasn't just a user's competition and was more like 'The Official FUS Halloween Fan Fiction Contest' and announce it on the homepage with regular updates; who's entered, the 'finalists', when voting opens, when voting closes, etc.

Hell, we could even have a stupid Caption Competition, if just for nostalgia's sake; the Caption the SatAM Picture thread used to be a goldmine for quick laughs 3 years ago.

I think the fact FUS is a shrine to SatAM is half the problem. There's relatively little interaction available around here, save a slightly barren forum and the IRC. Maybe if it was half shrine and half about massively involving the fanbase that would help? The problem is that we can't force people to post and create artwork or fics and can't force people to look, read or comment. But would something like that still be worth as try?

The only other SatAM projects happening now I can think of are the Season 3 comic and Freedom Fighter Frequency. FFF has made no progress for a while now, we've all been to busy, really. And Season 3 is slowly getting moving after a couple of false starts. But no matter how good those are I still don't think it will be enough to spark the forum back into life.

[chief]

I think Rocky wants to add a small seperate Archie section on the site. But that's not my field.. All Im up to is a expansion of the board.

[Spade]

The bookies would stop all bets on that because it's already happened with the Animator X season 3 stuff. Loads of people signed up and now that it's pretty much all over only a few seem to have stuck around.

The whole art and fan fiction community stuff only really became a thought as I was typing my post. Now that I think about it some more, I really would like to see some effort put into that. Without intending to sound amazingly corny (brace yourselves, people) maybe we need to be the Fan back into Fans United for SatAM... what? ... oh screw you all!

I'm serious though, put equal or near equal focus on the fans as much as our memories of the show. Update the front page of the site with SatAM news (of which there is pretty much none) and news on artwork, fics, contests, etc (which would be regular). It would probably require a better interface for the main site so people can leave comments and interact a bit more under artwork, fics, etc – I have to admit I have NO idea what the current one is like – but if it feels as much a part of the site as the forum does to those of us that still are still using it then I don't see why it can't work, in theory at least.

[randomizer]

Shoutboxes are a double-edged sword. They can boost the "community feeling" among those who use it but many people aren't comfortable with realtime chatting. Also, shoutboxes often cause a substantial decrease in regular posting, which is what we are trying to increase here.

[Valerie Valens]

You're right, it no longer is.

It's getting better.

[chief]

Adding anything would make it more open..


I dunno I'm not into all the Sonic sites but... How many out there have any SatAM mention? Because... If we still have mostly SatAM and ad in some other sections.. We will still stick out. I mean.. We also need to survive for the new generation that's coming up. And any way to attract new people and have that chance of showing them SatAM... well.. then SatAM lives on.

[randomizer]

We also need to survive for the new generation that's coming up. And any way to attract new people and have that chance of showing them SatAM... well.. then SatAM lives on.

That's the thing. All the new kids have only seen Sonic in his nightmare era of Sonic X and the countless crappy games he's in. "SatAM" means nothing to most people, even those who are about the right age to have seen it.