Why the Fanfic section closed at the MLP Arena

[sunstar]

I thought I would take the time to clarify why the arena closed down the fanfic section because I've noticed the question has been poping up. according to Loa, who was recently put in charge of the fanfic section, told me that the section was being closed down because there weren't enough people using it. over the last six months, (Nov 2008 - Apr 2009) only 16 people acessed it. I know I was one of those people. Yes, I am sad to see it gone, but I get why it was taken down. I run a website for Kingdom Lost, and my web host charges me 50$ a year to host it. I bet for a site the size of the arena, it has got to be costly.

[BrightGlow]

That's true in the last time mostly the RPGs ruled the MLp Arena's fanfic forum whit almost the same people, but there was a conflict between badjuju 86 and Lola and I thought that the Arena's fanfic forum closed because that.

[Moonshy]

why not just get a free site like webs?

[sunstar]

Webs is free, for the first twenty pages. after that, it costs money. My web host is Webs.

[caelum]

Thank you for posting this, Sunny. I feel it's something that really needs to be addressed.

Guys, I understand that we were all sad when the fanfic forum on the Arena closed, but we need to see things from their point of view. The market for MLP fanfic is, let's face it, extremely low at the moment. Most people are focused more on collecting the actual plastic ponies instead of worldbuilding and characterizing and such. That wasn't quite true back in the 90s, when the G2s were doing poorly and MLP fans were only just beginning to come together, courtesy of the dot-com boom. Lady Moondancer's told me that there were all sorts of fanfics floating around in those days, and I can believe it--when I discovered MLP in the early 2000s, I was able to find all sorts of old fanfic archives on old MLP fansites. Most of those sites and archives have been shut down now, unfortunately, and as long as there are still new ponies to come out, chances are there won't be much demand for other kinds of interactions with Ponyland beyond collecting. If the production of the G3s ever stops, of course, that could possibly change, and people would become more interested in the fanfic. As it is, though, there's really only about fifty people who actually care. If even that many.

And given that the Arena is a huge, advertisement-free website that probably costs a lot of money to run, it's perfectly within their right to close down a forum that few people actually care about. It had nothing to do with any personal issues forum members may have had with each other--the Arena moderators know how to keep their personal lives to themselves. It's a professional place, not some random catfight arena.

And really, we have no good reason to dwell on it. We've got this place now, which is great because we've got our forums organized nicely, and it's our own little corner of the web. It's nice. I like it. And I like the fact that I can get to know everyone here, as opposed to the Arena, where I feel a little overwhelmed by the many members. (And I love the Arena, I really do, it's just...I have issues when it comes to socializing and being extrovertive. I'm extremely introvertive. Even on the internet.)

I'd like to ask that we all stop whining about how the Arena's fanfic forum was shut down. It was, and we were sad, but this place is better for writers, I think. And also, if we end up spending all our time complaining about the Arena, instead of putting work into this place, it'll end up just the same, with only a few people actually caring.

If we don't want this place to die, we need to take care of it ourselves. Write a short story. Take part in a writing challenge. Ask other people for their help in worldbuilding, or character development, or random research you need to do to understand how something in your story would work. (Yes. I research. I research a lot for my fanfics. Maybe not so much for my MLP stuff, but I'm working on a fic for another fandom that's gonna involve quite a bit of psychology and post-traumatic stress disorder and a government organization of agents enforcing order, much like the Stasi of post-WWII East Berlin, and a rebel group much like the Polish Rebellion in WWII, and lots about rocks and minerals and dirt. The more I come up with, the more I realize I don't know, the more I research, the more I actually learn about the world I live in. Wikipedia is my friend.) If you read a story, review it. If you see problems with it or didn't like something about it, give the writer some nice, friendly, solid constructive criticism. Concrit makes the writer's world go 'round. If someone gives you some, give it the consideration it deserves. No one's writing is sacred, and once we realize that, we give ourselves the opportunity to become better writers. Come up with a different story. Not everyone needs to save the world, you know. There are plenty of enjoyable fanfics I've read that have nothing to do with wild, insane plots. They're simple and sweet. Start an RP. Play in an RP. Keep the RP going, and when you post, post more than three sentences, or else you'll get nowhere and the story will die. DO THINGS WITH THIS PLACE. We have it. It's ours. Let's make it worth something.

......Wow. Well. That's my rant/advice/whatever for the night. And now I'm seriously jetlagged and need to go to bed. G'night everybody.

[BrightGlow]

Yesterday I was browserin the Fan art forum at the Arena and I found the topic where Moonshy sent his/her story in the first time and BritgetsMum wrote this to there before she closed the topic:

"There were many reasons why but one of them was it was extremely hard to moderate, especially when the stories got to be like 20 pages."

[anna]

Bravo, Caelum.
I couldn't have said it better.
[tips hat]

[ladymoondancer]

I can understand why it was shut down, given how few people were using it. It happens . . . not much on the interwebs is permanent. ^_~

I do wonder if we could rename this board, though. It's not affiliated with the Arena, even if some of us came from there, so I vote to strike "Arena" from the title.

[caelum]

Thanks, Anna.

And I agree on striking "Arena" from the forum's name. Unfortunately, the only person I can see with that sort of capability is skibbereenfarms, the girl who started this forum in the first place, and she hasn't been around in months. I'll email her--even if we don't change the name, I'd like to make sure she's okay. (Also, I'm not sure if name-changing is possible on proboards...)

[sunstar]

I'm in a writers cramp which is why I haven't written anything. by the way, in three weeks, I'm going on vacation to Yellowstone! Did you know that Yellowstone is a supervolcano? I'm bringing my laptop so I will still be here. I found an online super mario bros game called Super Mario Flash. You can create and submit your own levels. I agree, let's strike Arena from the name.

[BrightGlow]

I know, this is a little forum and we don't break any rules, but I think that, we need an active mod here. What do you think?

edit: Maybe this forum could be dropped up whit some kind of MLp background, but we can't do i now because the forum admin isn't here and there isn't any mod here who can do that.

[sunstar]

I'll glady handle mod duties. I'm here pretty much every day.

[BrightGlow]

I would happily help too, but I wouldn't be able to do those duties, because I haven't got enought experiences and knowladge for it.
Do you have any idea about what kind of mod avatar or sig would you have if you would be a mod Sunny?

[sunstar]

The avatar and sig won't need to change. the only difference would be the place where it says full member, or in my case, senior member, would change to the word moderator.

[BrightGlow]

I don't want to open a new topic for this, so What kind of stories wouuld you like to write/read lately?

Lately I would really like to read stories about Hasbro ponies and summer stories. I reallly would love to read about how the ponies spends the summer and what kind of things are they do?