Keeping This Site Alive

[Tom]

I have been for a long time thinking of ways to help reinvigorate this site, rebuild interest, bring fresh and new content to the site.  The first step in doing this was to open the site up for much much more than just Evangelion-based fanfic stories.  I've known for a long time that keeping this site tied to a series that has been out of the limelight for as long as it has isn't exactly going to keep the visitors flowing to the site.

All of the changes that have happened to Darkscribes since I took over as the chief developer of the site is to help sustain the site.  I have no intention to see the site die.  Many of you here know I've put in more time than one would consider healthy into the maintenance of this site.

I know that some of these changes haven't been seen as popular among the Darkscribes community; believe me, these changes needed to be done.

I've not talked much with LD within the last couple of months.  He has been dealing with some personal issues that have consumed much of his time and hasn't left much time for keeping a watch over this site.  This has left me as the sole person to keep watch over this site for much of the last three to four months.  I have no problem with this, I can keep this site alive.

But I also know that I can't do all of this on my own.  I need help from the community and visitors of this site to help drum up more content and to keep visitors flowing and interest high.  I am more than open to suggestions, in fact I welcome them.  I want to hear from each and every one of you on ways to help keep this site alive and to bring new authors, stories, and visitors to this site.  I will listen to each and every idea and consider them all, the days of "the gestapo" are over and I promise that everyone will have a voice in the coming future of this site.

[Fresh C]

Well here's an idea. You could perhaps host a fan fiction writing competition of some sort. I know I personally missed the days of the WAFFATHON competition and even though it wasn't officially hosted at this site, I think it helped reader traffic quite a bit (though maybe it just seemed that way to me).

Now I'm not saying that the competition necessarily has to be a Waffathon one (though that's always a possibility) but I think such events keep a site interesting and make them exciting. I know there's a still a bunch of writers old and new that would be interested in testing their metal against other serious players.

Work needed: We would need someone to think of a concept for the competition, draw up rules for submission, possibly create a webpage in order to handle displaying the fics and voting (assuming implementation of anonymous voting and not a group of judges).  We'll also need some people to advertise on other forums and perhaps even "talent scout" on popular fan fiction sites like FFN.

Problems: There are usually prizes that go along with these things. Somebody had got to want to pony up some cash if we want to keep with that tradition. (Tentively speeking, I might be convinced to help out a little... but I know I'd never flip the bill for the whole thing.) If we can get a few people to throw in some chump change it would go a long way. Prizes aren't essential, but they sure do go a long way toward garnering interest.

Uncertainty?: Will this help the site stay alive? And for how long? Is the effort worth the pay out? These are things to consider. Also, if the idea ends up working, then we could always try another one again.

In any case, You've got a worker in me Tom, if you decide you want to do something like this. I figured I'd at least throw the idea out there for you to mull over.

Edit: If the topic of the competition is indeed Waffathon, we should look into pulling in the people who worked on the previous Waffathon contest like Zoro50 and Nutger

[Tom]

Well, I like the idea behind a story contest and I've already started changing the infrastructure of Darkscribes to be able to vote on a per-story basis as versus the old per-chapter basis.  Making it is a per-story basis makes it so that people can vote a story as a whole story thus making the whole idea of a story writing contest capable of being done within the confines of Darkscribes itself.

How do we separate the stories participating in the contest from those that are not?  Simple, make a genre for contest stories.  Then, authors can include their stories by simply changing the genre to that of the contest.  Simple yet effective.  We can even have multiple contests going on all at the same time.  Like one for best original story, best WAFF, best Lemon, etc.  Or we can create a special part of the system in which it is only meant for contests.

A story would then be only capable of participating in one contest at a time thus not taking away the limelight from other stories.  Taking your story out of a contest or changing contests would then reset all votes on the story.  Anything can be done, it's just getting the infrastructure in place to handle such a system of voting.

Yeah, I do agree.  We need to be able to make people want to join a contest; a prize for instance.  But what could we give away?  Certainly not big ticket items like cars or whatnot.  Money will have to be put forward for prizes by the staff of the site if we are going to make this work.

Even if we don't do it this way, I've wanted to change voting to a per-story basis as versus the per-chapter basis that it was before.

[Fresh C]

Well I think the obvious prize possibility would be some sort of anime paraphernalia.  Either some sort of figurines or toys, or perhaps even something as nice as a DVD if we really wanted to push it. The problem is that very few people would want to contribute money for this, so the prizes will probably have to be cheep OR someone will have to dig deep from their pockets. We could even give out gift cards to someplace like Amazon.com. Everyone likes money.

However, if we could create some sort of cheaper incentives as well then that might also help garner interests. Maybe we could create a special signature tag for winners. Or some other profile customization. Just something simple to distinguish winners from losers. Yes people enjoy prizes, but they also enjoy the competition aspect of it. I think if we could get some decent writers lined up for the competition more people would want to join in order to try and beat them.

also, multiple competitions might be a good idea eventually, but first we should see what type of turnout we get for one competition. If we don't get a good turn out for one competition it would make no sense to start another one at the same time. We'd just thin out the competitors that way.

So here's what I figure needs to be done first:

1) You have to decide what type of prizes (if any) will be given to the winner(s) and where to get the capital for them.

2) Create whatever code needed for the voting process

3) write up some rules of submision and deadlines.

4) Advertise to the anime communities abroad.


And hey, if anyone else is interested in helping out with this idea, now would be the time to chime in. Even if you aren't willing to donate money, we'll definitely need folks to spread the word.

[Tom]

I've never been too good with writing rules, terms and conditions, and such so scratch me off of #3 task.  #1 task seems like something we need to talk about with the community at large.  #2 task is easy for me!  #4 task is something that people like Midnight Meadows and folks like you are going to have to think about.

Midnight Meadows has already talked to me about possible linkage from 4chan and the like but we have to be careful to not making it look like we are astroturfing either.

Like I said in my opening post, these revitalization ideas can't be done just by one man.  We need the whole community on this one hence the call out I made in my initial post.  I want to work with you guys to rebuild Darkscribes.  I know that we can do it but I also know that it will take time, effort, and a lot of dedication to that cause.

[Fresh C]

I can write up some basic rules if need be. And we can open up a poll topic to figure out what genre the contest should be (Waff, Horror, Angst, Mystery... ect.) My personal vote would be for horror... haven't seen a horror contest done yet and perhaps we could get it up in time for halloween if that were the case. That would give authors about 2 months to start writing... which is a crunch for some, but still doable... and yes I'm getting ahead of myself.

But if you'd like I can create a topic for the general public to see what type of competition they'd like to see.

[rattusdei]

Midnight Meadows has already talked to me about possible linkage from 4chan

do you have a death wish?

[Dartz]

There's always TvTropes....

If anyone has an account there, they can link us. I think we're already mentioned on the Eva fanfic recommendations page.


Fanfic contest would be fun. I tried to stir one up at Evamade years ago, but nobody outside the site was interested, so I just gave up. I might be able to find some of the rules I scratched together at the time.... I'm a fucking notorious Rules Nazi.

[ianx777]

As far as prizes go, I would be willing to donate a little treasure I happened upon. I found a few sets of Eva stationary in an alley behind my work. I'm not sure if it's official merchandise but it's foreign so that's cool. I can send pics to whoever wants to handle it then we can talk about shipping and such, scene?

[Tom]

Any little bit helps.  I'm glad people are coming forth now.

If you hadn't noticed I sent an email via the main site's dispatch system inviting all current and past users to come see the web site again and to contribute again.  Hopefully some more people will be coming back to the site and help rejuvenate site growth and visitors.

[Himonky]

Midnight Meadows has already talked to me about possible linkage from 4chan and the like but we have to be careful to not making it look like we are astroturfing either.

Darkscribes: The New Anontalk.

I can write up some basic rules if need be. And we can open up a poll topic to figure out what genre the contest should be (Waff, Horror, Angst, Mystery... ect.) My personal vote would be for horror... haven't seen a horror contest done yet and perhaps we could get it up in time for halloween if that were the case. That would give authors about 2 months to start writing... which is a crunch for some, but still doable... and yes I'm getting ahead of myself.

Damn you.

Too close though.  2 months wouldn't be near enough time to code, advertise and write.  If there is gonna be a contest, it has to be long term.  Coding/rules needs to be done before any date is set.  And that will take a couple weeks at least, realistically.

I'd like to point out, constructively, that the thing with contests is they generally need to be focused on one anime or something.  If we want to broaden the sites horizons, we can't do Eva.  However, that is what most of us know.  Making it open to all animes would open a can of worms rule wise as well.  I'd focus more on show/that sort of thing before necessarily a genre.

What'd be really cool is if we choose a new show/something that no one here had read/seen yet.  Announce it on a day and everyone has like 4 months to learn the canon and write something on it.  Just tossing that out there.

[Himonky]

Well for a little bit I was genuinely interested in this...but then I saw it corresponded with a supposed EFO revival.

Focusing on small goals lead to big ones falling.  Now it just looks like you're talking about stuff and nothing will ever come of it.  You can't divide yourself.  Focus on one or spend your time on something more productive.

[Tom]

So you are basically saying to let EFO die and concentrate on Darkscribes?  Honestly, if you ask me Darkscribes has a lot more potential than EFO does mainly because Darkscribes is open to a lot more.

[Himonky]

I'm saying pick one and stick with it, don't divide your concentration.

I'd say DS because for EFO you'd be basically be building from the groundup.

Also, you seem much more interested in DS Tom.  If you're going to spearhead the revivial, you need to be as interested as you can be.  So DS for sure in my mind.

[Dead Pool]

This is just me spit balling here, but if you want to gain capital for potential rewards from this contest- you could charge per entry. Say something nonsensical like a dollar. Then continue accepting donations from the general public to help with rewards and/or shipping.


Probably not going to be a very popular idea, but I thought I'd offer my two cents.