Interest Problems

[Rampala]

Obviously, the whole purpose of the Writer's Corner is for Fan Fics of the misc. Final Fantasies and a it deserves its own fora.

However, it seems a lot of time when Fan Fics are written to for a certain Final Fantasy it won't recieve much feedback from the acutal active members of that forum until posted in the forum of the Fantasy is applies. (Huh?) Rather, if a Fan Fic is written for FF7, most of the FF7 fans won't get a chance to read it because they don't visit the Writer's Corner. This problem seems to promote Fan Fic posting in the Fantasy Foras.

I guess this is also a problem of some lack of interest in the Writer's Corner lately, so it seems.

It just seems the interests are misplaced. The question would be if a Fan Fic is written for a Fantasy does it belong with the other Fan Fics, or the Fantasy fora? Its pretty much pre-determined it should be with the other Fan Fics, but we run into the interest problem.

I don't know what a solution would be, but does anyone have any ideas on how to redirect interests for those who are perhaps just unaware of the distribution of threads?

*hopes that made sense....*

[Dr Unne]

The fanifc forum is pretty dead. I don't know if you posted a fic in an FF forum if a staff member would move it or not. I'd kind of agree that posting them in the FF forums would give more people the chance to read them.

The dead fanfic forum is kind of sad though. I don't know why no one goes in there. Well I know why I don't go in there, I just don't like fanfic or poetry. But I would've thought other people would go in there.

[Spatvark]

We are trying to revive the Writer's Corner at the moment... don't forget, by going ahead with your plan, the fanfics may get read but what of all the original stuff? They'll get left in the Writer's Corner with people still not reading them, and that's just not good enough. There are a couple of threads in the Writer's Corner about things just like this but I guess it wouldn't hurt the fanfic writers to actually ask the admins if it's allowed...

[Daryl]

Originally posted by Dr Unne
The fanifc forum is pretty dead. I don't know if you posted a fic in an FF forum if a staff member would move it or not. I'd kind of agree that posting them in the FF forums would give more people the chance to read them.

That would perhaps get them more exposure, but if I saw a fanfic in a FF specific forum, I'd move it to the Writer's Corner because that's why we have that forum. It is a shame, though, that you guys get so little traffic.

[Garland]

A lot of people wonder why Final Fantasy IV is the only SNES FF not to have it's own forum, and the answer has always been because separated from 1,2,+3, neither forum would get any traffic. Therefore, it made sense to clump them. Why not do that with the fan art and fan fics? It'd boost the traffic to the fanfics, and since fanfics aren't getting any traffic anyway, wouldn't overfill the fan art section. Anyway, that's my humble suggestion to fix the problem.

[The Man]

Ya know, Garland just might be right.

The problem, for me, with the Writer's Corner is that I have to sift through the fanfics to get to the ones from games I've actually played. I don't want getting spoilers from the ending to, say, FF7, so I don't read fics from that game. I find it occasionally irritating to have to do the same with the FF1-4 forum, but there, I live with it.

I asked the admins at one point if they'd consider giving the Holy Sword Legend (Seiken Densetsu) games their own forum; they said no, it wouldn't have enough traffic. However, I think the Writer's Corner doesn't get much traffic either. How much of that is the viewers' fault? I dunno. I can only view, with any sense of decency, fanfics from five games, and these five are all SNES, which means there isn't as much fanfic to view because they're old.

I'm not sure what the solution is, but yes, we have a problem. And it needs some working out.

Peace
The Man

[Dr Unne]

Fanart and fanfics used to be the same forum. We had a seperate forum for talking about books people read. That forum was always totally dead. I don't know, the forum layout probably isn't the problem. If people were interested in fanfics, they'd probably read them no matter where they were posted. The fact that they aren't read probably indicates that people aren't interested, for whatever reason.

[Loony BoB]

*personally thinks that Writer's Corner should no longer exist, and that FF Fanfics should be in FF Forums, or else we should move back to the combined FanArt & FanFic forum*

[Spatvark]

Yeah, and what happens to the originals then BoB? They get treated even worse then... don't forget, it's not only Fanfics in the Writer's Corner and if you actually spent more time there, you'd know that...

Ah well, I don't think that's ever gonna change though... EoFF just isn't a writing site...

[Rampala]

I don't know, the forum layout probably isn't the problem. If people were interested in fanfics, they'd probably read them no matter where they were posted. The fact that they aren't read probably indicates that people aren't interested, for whatever reason.

I have to disagree. A FF8 Fan Fic was posted in the FF8 forums and got a ton of replys, 20-30, and most Fics in the Writer's Corner doesn't even hit 10. It was then moved to the Writer's Corner where traffic has since died down. I think if it was orginally there, it wouldn't have gotten as many replys as it did, not even close.

I think part of the problem, though, is member awareness. I orginally joined for the FF8 fora, but have now branched out and visit many more. However, a lot of members join for a fora and only visit that fora. I'm worried about the Signature problem, because it's not posted in the Announcements and I know many members who don't even know there is a General Chat :rolleyes2
For the same token, many probably are unaware of the Writer's Corner's exsistance.

As far as the spoilers b/c of what Fantasy the fic belongs to, that's annoying but could be easily fixed if we asked people to post in the title (A FF# Fic), or something to that effect.

[Britt]

Originally posted by Spatvark
Ah well, I don't think that's ever gonna change though... EoFF just isn't a writing site...

I strongly disagree with that, to be honest.

I believe the most logical course of action would be re-combining the arts forums into Fiction/Art once again. We'd originally divided them because the art/writing ratio was enormous, but anything would be better than what's going on now.

[Shira]

Hmm... I think the problem is there's too many originals and poems and stuff just about literature in the Writer's Corner, so when people who are into fanfics see that they're just like "what? No fanfics here. I'm leaving." So I'm for putting fics in the forums for the actual games themselves.

[Garland]

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.

[The Man]

Originally posted by Britt
I believe the most logical course of action would be re-combining the arts forums into Fiction/Art once again. We'd originally divided them because the art/writing ratio was enormous, but anything would be better than what's going on now.

*agrees with Britt*

Originally posted by Shira
I think the problem is there's too many originals and poems and stuff just about literature in the Writer's Corner, so when people who are into fanfics see that they're just like "what? No fanfics here. I'm leaving." So I'm for putting fics in the forums for the actual games themselves.

That might be true as well.

Actually, I think authors should simply start posting short summaries of their works and their intentions at the tops of said works. Then people can know whether they're interseted in reading them after a few short seconds. The problem we're dealing with, as I see it, is that many people have very short attention spans. Perhaps writers in the WC should also be allowed to change the titles of their own threads, because works change after they've been worked on for awhile, and I think it's only fair that a user be able to rename his/her work without having to get a moderator or administrator to do it for him/her.

I think synopses for authors' works sound like a nifty solution, though. This might be a highly roundabout idea, but if there were some way to display some information about original works on the thread view in the Writer's Corner, there might be more viewing of stories. It seems somewhat impersonal the way it is right now. Works of literature are different than discussion of games, and classifying them in the same way seems... wrong. Or something. I certainly think that organizing by game rather than date in the case of fan fiction sounds like a wonderful idea.

But I dunno. Maybe I'm talking nonsense.

Peace
The Man

[Shlup]

The Writer's Corner is depressing... I posted my prize haiku in there and no one sent me flowers or anything! It was gold, I tell you!