A Lament for Fansites

[Fryguy64]

This seems to happen more and more these days: I have a list of Nintendo fansites that I regularly visit, but I keep getting the feeling that despite the sites being popular, the staff lack the level of enthusiasm that brought the site into existence in the first place.

I travel to places like The Mushroom Kingdom, Kirby's Rainbow Resort, Legends of Zelda, Starmen.net, etc... and the sites are still among the best of their type, but there seems to be no desire to improve all that much.

Case in point, The Mushroom Kingdom. Awesome website, should be enjoying a busy time of it thanks to a million Mario games on the horizon and a huge pile of staff members... but the site gets updated once every few weeks. Kirby's Rainbow Resort hasn't been updated in ages, Legends of Zelda I shouldn't really groan about, as they update about as often as I do... but it continues to surprise me.

I've lamented this before, only to be surprised when everything springs back to life for a short while. But as someone who loves visiting these websites just for the sake of reading them, I find myself checking in a lot less regularly than I believe I would have done.

Perhaps my disappointment is misplaced, as if you look at the forums of these sites they are still full of chatting fans... but still, this seems to have detracted away from the site itself. Communities are one thing... but keeping that community fresh by keeping everyone informed is something much harder - and more worthwhile - to achieve.

PS. Because these dips in enthusiasm seem to by cyclical, I am fully expecting many Nintendo fansites to erupt into an orgy of activity as soon as the first Revolution games are announced... especially Smash Bros... it hits the spot every time!

[flamedude]

Bleed for sega

[Hiker of Games]

I somehow made it off your list, whew. Forums do almost seem to detract. Months ago my forums were doing rather well, but the site itself was dead. Now the site is more active than it has been in years, but the forums are all but dead. A coincidence? Possibly.

But yeah, it is rather sad when sites reach a certain aging point that they don't get updated, they get 'maintained'. It's like plugging a site up to a machine to keep it alive rather than taking the time to cultivate it.

[Fryguy64]

You made it off the list because your site has updated quite a lot recently... since your upgrade.

My site sometimes falls into not updating too. This is usually because I'm experimenting on new sections, doing "research" (playing games and reading other websites) or... well... busy doing other stuff.

Maybe that's just it. I'm 22 years old... I have a full time job, a live in partner and excellent TV to watch (Lost, CSI: Miami... ahh, bliss)... I'd love to spend more time on my site, I really would. But WHEN!?

[Hiker of Games]

See, that's where you went wrong. TV and women, bah. I stragetically avoided any semblances of a life.

[Blueberry_pie]

admin said:

...and excellent TV to watch (Lost, CSI: Miami... ahh, bliss)...

Ah, another Lost fan on the forums eh? Excellent ;D
I apologize for the off-topicness.

[Fryguy64]

It's not been on here long. We're about halfway through the first series. It is the awesomeness.

[nocturnal YL]

KRR isn't that bad, at least it has minor updates once a while.

As for TMK, it seems that they could not keep track to the newer games. A lot of new games pages are missing.

I know I shouldn't be complaining that the case of my own site is far worse: update once a month, every time just one or two minor things updated, despite that the whole site is actually a single game.


LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAME!!!!!!

[Soylent Heliotrope]

I notice a distinct lack of criticism specifically against Starmen.Net. I would like to know what you think of it- being a staffer there (though admittedly I'm really more of a "maintainer"), I can do something about the lack of updates.

[Hiker of Games]

To be honest, being able to update a Earthbound site at all is saying a lot considering there's not really anything 'new' to cover. So I don't think there could be filed too many complaints on it.

[Fryguy64]

It received a distinct lack of criticism because it's one I hardly visit at all any more. Updates there seem centered entirely around the community, and not around the games themselves.

I'll admit, I'm highly impressed with Starmen.net's community. Massively so. My sister is a much bigger Earthbound fan than myself and occasionally submits stuff there (when she can get an internet connection running).

But I'm all about the games, and rarely join fan communities (a few messageboard posts may get done here and there, I used to do fanart, but generally I avoid them), which also means site updates stagnate more easily.

But it's not so much of a criticism towards Starmen or any of the other fansites listed... it's a general lament towards fansites in general. The big ones are notable for being excellent sites with many fewer updates these days, small ones have almost become extinct, and new ones more often than not are projects to get some kind of web-design career going (eg. every Metroid site I've ever been affiliated to). It's just a shame, as when I joined up for this internet malarkey it felt so thriving as people clamoured for information.

Perhaps we've just informed them all too well.

[Hiker of Games]

The solution is to systematically reboot the internet. Start over.