[Crimsondude]

I am the last person who is going to defend dumpshock so ...

I agree. They need to get their shit running again.

[CanRay]

There's more than the forums?

[Crimsondude]

Well, there used to be.

[Bull]

I tried really hard for about 6 months to move forward with getting the sub-sites running again and to try and recruit folks to maintain and clean up the Dumpshock SR WIki (Which is packed to the gills with unofficial information, probably from someone's home game, which is less than helpful), get some kind of chat up and running, etc.  Other than Jackal volunteering to host the http://irc.dumpshock.com I wasn't able to get any interest or help from the other mods, the Dumpshock Data Haven project stalled out because I couldn;t get anyone to do layout (and most people agree after the slop 'n go layout I finally did myself that I should never be allowed near layout again), and then I got wrapped up in other things (And then the CGL "Situation" happened). 

I do need to talk to Redjack and get my password for my FTP site so I can at least start getting my site back up and running.  I started that (and started to try learning CSS), but again time became an issue.

Bull

[CanRay]

Hey, Bull, who said you could get off Missions writing!

Don't make me get the whip!   

[Sidious]

I got into playing Shadowrun with second edition, and that was after first being exposed to the Sega Genesis game that came out in the early 90's.  It has been a regular rotation in my RPG group's play schedule ever since.

Once I got into the internet scene, I became hooked on the idea of a fan site in general.  I was overjoyed when I saw what some of the Shadowrun fan sites had to offer.  I honestly believe that it is one of the things that has made the game one of my favorites.  Seeing that decline, due to things like Twitter, Facebook, the lack of places like Geocities, et cetra is disheartening to say the least.

While I agree with what others have said about the decline of the fan site having a negative influence on fan participation, I have to ask: is there something more that could be done with the new things the internet has to offer us?

Hosting a fan site anymore costs money.  In an economy such as is right now, that is not possible for many people.  Social networking sites are free to make, but are not well suited for what the fan sites of old could provide.

What about the wiki style site?  I have seen in the past, other game fans use a wiki style site to provide not only setting content, but also a place to provide house rules they feel the need to put out there for others to see.  There are wiki sites that are free, so that absolves the cost argument.  Anyone can edit a wiki site, that one could be a problem.  However, it could also turn into a benefit, if done correctly, it could draw more people into contributing.  Would that not increase fan participation?

The only argument that can not be turned away is the effort argument.  It would take effort to start, to compile the information, to ensure the site was staying accurate.  I know my life does not offer itself easily to endeavors of the like, even with my abundance of "free time."  So I can only imagine what it would be like for people that have to worry about family \ school \ careers.  However, if people spent just a portion of their time on maintenance of a wiki style site, that would typically be spent perusing through a message board, it could be done.

That is just one example of a modern internet staple that could be used to help breath some life into fan participation.  What more could someone come up with if they just thought outside of the box?

Then again maybe this entire post is merely the idle ramblings of mine during a post dialysis washout.   

[Crimsondude]

Bull brings up a big issue with the 6WW--it had no Editors out mods our whatever you want to call adult supervision. It had entries for every creature in the paranormal animal books WITH pictures, but the Seattle article is lacking. I don't know how our where to look for new editors even if I were to right this second create a new wiki, which anyone could do through wiki dot or whatever.

[Onion Man]

There is this wonderful thing called advertising. If you build a good site, throw up some ads and boom, it pays for itself.

It's not that simple.

It's no where near that simple.

You've never run a for profit website with ad revenue as the only income, have you?

[Crimsondude]

Ha! Leave it to Google.

http://www.google.com/sites/help/intl/en/overview.html


tl;dr: They host free sites, even wikis, because of course they would.

[FastJack]

Bull brings up a big issue with the 6WW--it had no Editors out mods our whatever you want to call adult supervision. It had entries for every creature in the paranormal animal books WITH pictures, but the Seattle article is lacking. I don't know how our where to look for new editors even if I were to right this second create a new wiki, which anyone could do through wiki dot or whatever.

Heh... I think I put most of the images up there. Man, that was a while ago.

[Crimsondude]

I spent three hours this morning writing articles on new characters and on organizations for CGL's internal wiki. And not "Meet the Press is on" this morning. Pre-dawn this morning. Because that's how I roll.

EDIT:
And now I'm back to it. The funny thing is that much of this is specifically written to be overview and not replacement (because we have the damn books), and since I tend to hold my cards close anyway most of this could go on the 6WW or some other wiki without much if any editing. For example, I'm writing articles on UCAS law enforcement that will probably exceed what appears in Conspiracy Theories, but would probably be of immense use (or interest. Maybe?) to someone somewhere about exactly the scope and scale of what the Marshals Service does, including the Matrix Marshals. BTW, I'm currently running at a dozen agencies and two sub-agencies. That is a Hell of a lot fewer than IRL.

[John Schmidt]

There is this wonderful thing called advertising. If you build a good site, throw up some ads and boom, it pays for itself.

It's not that simple.

It's no where near that simple.

You've never run a for profit website with ad revenue as the only income, have you?

Well...there is a difference between a for profit website and a fan site with ads. A fan site has the monthly cost of the server and the annual cost for the domain name. The assumption being that the fan isn't paying for the creation of content or adding it to the web page.

Still, I have to agree with you...there is going to be threshold of web page quality that advertisers are going to look for before they are willing to shell out money to put banners on. Not to mention the work that goes into the arcane lore of search engine placment.

[CanRay]

Ha! Leave it to Google.

tl;dr: They host free sites, even wikis, because of course they would.

Just another step towards world domination through ways that aren't evil.

[Bull]

Ha! Leave it to Google.

tl;dr: They host free sites, even wikis, because of course they would.

Just another step towards world domination through ways that aren't evil.

That's what they WANT you to think!

Google is just as evil as everyone else.  They just control the PR spin better.

[CanRay]

Well, with that many nerds, they probably read Shadowrun and went, "Hey, Aztechnology has the right idea."