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Wotmania is closing.
Jan. 30th, 2009 08:45 pmMike decided to close it down in a few months.
I somehow managed to miss the news for two days. Then I read the announcement and ended up blinking tears away. And panicking. And then had to write my feelings down.
I can understand Mike – after all it’s been over decade and life moved on. He is not the same person who started it. And the site is much bigger then he anticipated. It takes too much time and resources (even if he has a very good deal on hosting). The RL needs more attention.
This is the curse of internets – things are born of fannish delight and dedication but then either dwindle or get taken over by companies.
I’m not criticizing nor complaining. I get it. I’m thankful Mike kept it going as long as he has. I’m just sad.
I almost exclusively visit Other Fiction section but I appreciate the whole – especially the community it created. I know many people formed lasting friendships and even got married thanks to it and I’m glad I took (a very small) part in it.
I’m going to miss wotmania’s Other Fiction horribly. It was my first message board. The first time ever I joined a community and posted something on the web. I’m by nature a solitary and withdrawn person. Deep inside I’m a lurker. The very fact that I started posting says something about how interesting I found the site. Interesting enough to take part in it and so wonderfully ran I stayed for all those years. I appreciated that unlike so many MB dedicated to certain works wotmania wasn’t only about Wheel of Time. The Games Forum, Writers’ Board and of course Other Fiction become almost separate entities which allowed for much more diverse group of people visiting the site then just hardcore fans. This allowed people who liked and disliked WoT to meet and work together. This was always one of my favourite aspects of OF. After all people who dislike what you like are not evil and their voices also help others in choosing next read. I’m also grateful for the OF mods for assuring the discussion never turned into flame war and trolling.
Even though there are so many other sites with sf&fantasy discussions, many more popular then wotmania’s OF it’s still the one I visit most often. From there It always seemed to be most universal. It is my main source of knowledge about which books, TV shows, movies and even comic books are worth checking (well at least for the English language fiction – and recently, thanks to Larry, also Spanish language). Despite the blogs rise in prominence I prefer the message board format. I know that, as the interest in the WoT dropped and the blogs rose as a most important venue for advertising new stuff and publishing interviews, activity on the board became lower. Still there’s an advantage message board have over blogs as many people can post in the same place – all it takes is registering – bringing with them their different interests and views. Blogs are just about one person (or a few). Message Boards create community.
I have never been very active and most people probably doesn’t even recognise my name but I’ve been dropping by to check for new posts every day for years and I will miss all the people horribly. Changing MB will also be hard for me. The most popular choice seem to be Westeros with its lively Literature section but I’m not a fan of asoiaf and that’s hard to go among people who’ll flame you for any wrong word. My problem with malazanempire is exactly opposite – I tend to spent too much time in the books section and then feel depressed I have nothing new to read (BTW – now that I have something to read and the time to read it I think I delurk there again). I don’t know why I haven’t warmed to bookspotcentral and sffworld – maybe because they. I think it’s just that with wotmania’s OF I had all info in one page – news, recommendations, discussions and books, TV, movies. I think that I can switch for some of that to io9 but it’s too often obnoxious and misleading (and a blog).
I’ve always preferred the nested comments layout of wotmania to other MB. This way you can follow a discussion with question-answer directly instead of screening multiple posts through several pages to find if someone responded to you. Also if somebody asked a question you’d want to know an answer to you just can see if there is one immediately not search through the whole thread. Which with treads having dozen pages can be really discouraging. This is one of the reasons I chose livejournal and not blogspot.
I glad that not all that came out of wotmania will be lost. I hope that the movement to make the ransition will succeed. I hope that at least some part of the community survives. This was a great time and it is a wonderful place. Thanks, Mike.
I somehow managed to miss the news for two days. Then I read the announcement and ended up blinking tears away. And panicking. And then had to write my feelings down.
I can understand Mike – after all it’s been over decade and life moved on. He is not the same person who started it. And the site is much bigger then he anticipated. It takes too much time and resources (even if he has a very good deal on hosting). The RL needs more attention.
This is the curse of internets – things are born of fannish delight and dedication but then either dwindle or get taken over by companies.
I’m not criticizing nor complaining. I get it. I’m thankful Mike kept it going as long as he has. I’m just sad.
I almost exclusively visit Other Fiction section but I appreciate the whole – especially the community it created. I know many people formed lasting friendships and even got married thanks to it and I’m glad I took (a very small) part in it.
I’m going to miss wotmania’s Other Fiction horribly. It was my first message board. The first time ever I joined a community and posted something on the web. I’m by nature a solitary and withdrawn person. Deep inside I’m a lurker. The very fact that I started posting says something about how interesting I found the site. Interesting enough to take part in it and so wonderfully ran I stayed for all those years. I appreciated that unlike so many MB dedicated to certain works wotmania wasn’t only about Wheel of Time. The Games Forum, Writers’ Board and of course Other Fiction become almost separate entities which allowed for much more diverse group of people visiting the site then just hardcore fans. This allowed people who liked and disliked WoT to meet and work together. This was always one of my favourite aspects of OF. After all people who dislike what you like are not evil and their voices also help others in choosing next read. I’m also grateful for the OF mods for assuring the discussion never turned into flame war and trolling.
Even though there are so many other sites with sf&fantasy discussions, many more popular then wotmania’s OF it’s still the one I visit most often. From there It always seemed to be most universal. It is my main source of knowledge about which books, TV shows, movies and even comic books are worth checking (well at least for the English language fiction – and recently, thanks to Larry, also Spanish language). Despite the blogs rise in prominence I prefer the message board format. I know that, as the interest in the WoT dropped and the blogs rose as a most important venue for advertising new stuff and publishing interviews, activity on the board became lower. Still there’s an advantage message board have over blogs as many people can post in the same place – all it takes is registering – bringing with them their different interests and views. Blogs are just about one person (or a few). Message Boards create community.
I have never been very active and most people probably doesn’t even recognise my name but I’ve been dropping by to check for new posts every day for years and I will miss all the people horribly. Changing MB will also be hard for me. The most popular choice seem to be Westeros with its lively Literature section but I’m not a fan of asoiaf and that’s hard to go among people who’ll flame you for any wrong word. My problem with malazanempire is exactly opposite – I tend to spent too much time in the books section and then feel depressed I have nothing new to read (BTW – now that I have something to read and the time to read it I think I delurk there again). I don’t know why I haven’t warmed to bookspotcentral and sffworld – maybe because they. I think it’s just that with wotmania’s OF I had all info in one page – news, recommendations, discussions and books, TV, movies. I think that I can switch for some of that to io9 but it’s too often obnoxious and misleading (and a blog).
I’ve always preferred the nested comments layout of wotmania to other MB. This way you can follow a discussion with question-answer directly instead of screening multiple posts through several pages to find if someone responded to you. Also if somebody asked a question you’d want to know an answer to you just can see if there is one immediately not search through the whole thread. Which with treads having dozen pages can be really discouraging. This is one of the reasons I chose livejournal and not blogspot.
I glad that not all that came out of wotmania will be lost. I hope that the movement to make the ransition will succeed. I hope that at least some part of the community survives. This was a great time and it is a wonderful place. Thanks, Mike.
