Hello, everyone!
This message is meant to kick off another of our GateWorld "family discussions" about not just this community (and not so much changes to the forum), but about the main GateWorld Web site. If you consider GateWorld something of an online home (whether or not you are a forum regular or not), we want you to participate.
Several people have asked me since Thursday's news of SGU's cancellation about what will happen to GateWorld, now that we're all facing the prospect of having no new Stargate on the air after June 2011. The purpose of this thread is to discuss, get some feedback, and even brainstorm some ideas for GateWorld's future. There are some decisions that David and I will have to make in the coming months, and we want long-time members of the community in particular to be a part of the process.
First Up: To be absolutely clear, GateWorld is not going anywhere! We are committed to keeping you entertained and giving you a place to chat with other fans. As long as we can still pay our server bills, we're committed to being here for you.
Second: If the franchise ends up on hiatus for a year or more, I am absolutely confident that it is coming back, at some time and in some form. This is not the end of Stargate, and so we need to think about the future of the site and the community not so much as "A.S." (After Stargate), but in terms of what we do in the interim, before the fourth series or new movies arrive for us to enjoy.
So, with that in mind, I'd like to open up the floor for your ideas and suggestions for the future of GateWorld. What kind of a site would you want us to be? What things do you want to see on the GW home page when you visit? You might have some thoughts about what the site is overall, and what sorts of things we do and cover -- or you might just have little brainstorm ideas about the forum, or the podcast, or a regular news column, or a design element.
(NOTE: This is NOT the place for generic suggestions or requests for the current iteration of the Web site. This thread is about rethinking our identity without Stargate on the air.)
Now, to kick things off, let me lay out a few really general options that I see. Feel free to discuss these, but don't let these few bullet points set the agenda for the whole thread. (We're not here simply to vote on what I've already been thinking about!)
A few of the possible options moving forward, as I see them:
Part of me is enticed by elements of each one of these options. Maybe there's a fifth or sixth that I haven't thought of, which is part of why I want to open up a "family discussion" here. I also want to know that, if we were to choose one or the other of these, you guys who call GateWorld your home will largely be on board with it.
Thank you, and Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
This message is meant to kick off another of our GateWorld "family discussions" about not just this community (and not so much changes to the forum), but about the main GateWorld Web site. If you consider GateWorld something of an online home (whether or not you are a forum regular or not), we want you to participate.
Several people have asked me since Thursday's news of SGU's cancellation about what will happen to GateWorld, now that we're all facing the prospect of having no new Stargate on the air after June 2011. The purpose of this thread is to discuss, get some feedback, and even brainstorm some ideas for GateWorld's future. There are some decisions that David and I will have to make in the coming months, and we want long-time members of the community in particular to be a part of the process.
First Up: To be absolutely clear, GateWorld is not going anywhere! We are committed to keeping you entertained and giving you a place to chat with other fans. As long as we can still pay our server bills, we're committed to being here for you.
Second: If the franchise ends up on hiatus for a year or more, I am absolutely confident that it is coming back, at some time and in some form. This is not the end of Stargate, and so we need to think about the future of the site and the community not so much as "A.S." (After Stargate), but in terms of what we do in the interim, before the fourth series or new movies arrive for us to enjoy.
So, with that in mind, I'd like to open up the floor for your ideas and suggestions for the future of GateWorld. What kind of a site would you want us to be? What things do you want to see on the GW home page when you visit? You might have some thoughts about what the site is overall, and what sorts of things we do and cover -- or you might just have little brainstorm ideas about the forum, or the podcast, or a regular news column, or a design element.
(NOTE: This is NOT the place for generic suggestions or requests for the current iteration of the Web site. This thread is about rethinking our identity without Stargate on the air.)
Now, to kick things off, let me lay out a few really general options that I see. Feel free to discuss these, but don't let these few bullet points set the agenda for the whole thread. (We're not here simply to vote on what I've already been thinking about!)
A few of the possible options moving forward, as I see them:
- Archive Mode. We don't update the site as much with new content, but focus all our efforts on catching up on those static portions of the site that are unfinished or out of date (the episode guides for past shows, the Omnipedia, etc.). The site as it exists now is all here (yes, including the forum), when you want to visit and look up something -- but we don't do much in the way of new content.
- Business-As-Usual. We continue on course doing what we are doing, in terms of news coverage and occasional cast and crew interviews. We just have a lot less to talk about when the show is not in active production. But we can continue to report on Stargate tie-in merchancise, conventions, what the actors are up to, etc.
- Expand A Little. Since there are no new episodes of Stargate to cover after June, we might expand our coverage a little to include a small handful of other sci-fi shows that are "close to home." These would primarily, or perhaps exclusively, be genre shows with a Stargate connection (e.g. actors in common) -- Sanctuary, Rage of Angels, Riese, etc. There are not a whole lot of these on TV right now, however.
- Expand A Lot! The idea here would be the same as above, but without the necessary restriction of having a Stargate connection in order for GateWorld to cover a show. We'd open the doors to genre television as a whole, no doubt focusing in on a few of our own favorites to give special attention (in the form of interviews, etc.). And we'd need more people to help accomplish the much greater workload.
The model here is GW Forum: We have slowly added discussion folders for other shows over the years because people have asked for them, because they want one place to talk with people they already know about other shows that they enjoy. (You might love Doctor Who, but you're not hardcore enough to go establish yourself as a daily or weekly presence in a Doctor Who-dedicated site.)
Part of me is enticed by elements of each one of these options. Maybe there's a fifth or sixth that I haven't thought of, which is part of why I want to open up a "family discussion" here. I also want to know that, if we were to choose one or the other of these, you guys who call GateWorld your home will largely be on board with it.
Thank you, and Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
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