Post by G on Jan 6, 2009 13:46:25 GMT -5
This may seem corny, but what the hell? I havent wrote much in awhile and this thought has been finding its way into my head, so Im just going to let it go. I tend to like to look back at specific points and see where I was at that time and then compare to the present and see if things have gotten better or worse. So therefore, I thought I would put my thoughts on where I think this board is being it is the beginning of the year. Maybe I will do it again next year and compare where I am and what happened.
With that, I begin by remembering where I was at the beginning of 2008. Basically I was still getting the board together and trying to tweak it to become more focused on the subject matter. In 2007 I was basically all over the place and wanting to appeal to too many audiences and really what was happening is I was appealing to none. So, towards the end of 2007, I began making the main focus strictly comic books with a couple of side areas. Instead of comics being just one area of equal weight with other areas. I thought that improvement alone was worthwhile.
When the year begin, Underdog installed the quick link menu, which I have no idea if anyone uses or not. I know I do when I want to go somewhere else. There have been a few tweaks along the way and Im thinking of tweaking it again. If there is some links you would like to see there, let me know.
cfs added his Checklists around April or so. And I'll admit, I dont use it much, but occasionally I will use it for reference especially when I am looking for wanting to know specifics about how many issues a certain company had or if Im missing something. I do use it when I need it. So therefor, Im glad its there.
I personally added the comic news widget at the bottom of the page. I find myself going to some of the stories down there occasionally. Ive even used a piece or two in the threads here. Sometimes I find some cool stuff there. But just like anything else, I dont know if the rest of you guys use it at all.
Finally, I added an arcade link at the top. I'll admit, a lot of the games are cheesy. But I found a few that were temporarily addictive and I played often. I have to admit, I havent used it in quite awhile. And I get a vibe the rest of you dont use it at all. If I do use it, Im just killing time. But I think I will leave it as it doesnt distract anything and its there if someone wants to play. Its just another option here.
I think content wise, the board is so-so. There are times there are real nuggets of info flowing around here and it makes me glad I have this board, but most times there isn't too much happening. This gets into the problem areas of this post. There is not any corner of the market covered here. Its broad ranged. Any subject is fair game. But even with that being a good thing, its also a bad thing. When boards specialize in a subject, it tends to bring people in. Unfortunately, my only claim to comics is being a fan. I cannot corner a company, an artist, news or values, checklists or behind the scenes insider info. I rely completely on what I see and hear which isnt a lot and more realistically I rely a lot on what others bring to the table. Comics in my opinion seem to be struggling. Its obvious the younger generation around today do not appreciate comics the way we did and I feel this hurts long term growth for the comics industry. Sure, there are movies and video games with comic characters and comic characters will remain a strong part of Pop Americana. But the enthusiasm for comic books as we know it seems to be waning and I fear where the strictly comic book industry will be in 10 or 20 years. Therefore, I think the board tries to be an ambassador to the joys of collecting comics. And I think each of you plays a part in that.
Obviously, the board is too slow and doesnt have enough members. I have honestly tried a lot of things to get that to change and admittedly, sometimes I get frustrated that the board doesnt do better. All the better boards Ive ever been on are the ones where the members talk back and forth and people jump in. Or better yet, the members create their own threads all by themselves and then others jump in. Those to me make the best boards and its honestly something severely lacking around here. I repeat, I've tried my best with what I can think of. I'll generally post a new thread anytime I think of it. I think my thought or hope is that eventually there will be enough subjects and threads here after a long time that when someone new comes, eventually there will be plenty to look at and to do. And hopefully that will make them want to stay and participate. So therefor, I just posted as many subjects as I could hoping for participation. Sometimes I got it and sometimes I didnt. I've had to learn to remain patient. When I get truly discouraged, I generally just take a break and let the board run on autopilot and wait for better days and more inspiration. I still feel the best is yet to come with this board but I also fight the urge to shut it down an awful lot. What generally keeps me going is I know there is an awful lot of work here and I dont want to give it up. If I had one wish personally for this board would be to have more members and participation. Id be happy with about 7 posters for starters if they meshed well and carried on conversation. Im not very fond of huge boards. But a small one with good people would be ideal.
We seemed to have suffereed some losses in posters and Im down to 2-3 regulars. It seems the board peaked around May-June. At that point the board was as close as I ever felt to being self sufficient but since then the board has whittled away to 2-3 regulars and some RARE appearances by others. Be that as it is, I am very thankful for all who come and post. I try to make it a point to show my gratitude for all that do come. No one has to come at all and I know that. There is a million other choices on the internet. So to have a few drop by is gratifying. I remember when I started, I spent literally the 1st 2 months talking alot to myself. So its a lot better than that and I know it could be worse and Im thankful.
The one area of the board I am happy with and I feel made major strides is the structure of the board. I feel the subject tree here has tons of branches covering just about every aspect related to comics. And its these branches I feel the more they fill in with material, the better off this board will be. Little by little, each area gets a little here and there and its one area of growth that I hope eventually becomes like a library of subjects. I am happy with the overall layout. I think there is a few more areas I can create and I will this year. But compared to where the board began and where it was at the beginning of 2008, I think structure wise, its come a long ways. I also feel this board has a lot of photo-visuals. Lots of scans and pictures to see. I always find that a lot more interesting than just text. So with this, I will say, this is an area I am happy with.
Well, there you have it. The 2009 state of Gotta Start Somewhere. As always, Im open for anybody's comments and thoughts on these matters. I feel a lot of weakness was tackled in 2008. But there is still a ton of weakness left, and Id like to tackle those weaknesses too. That may be why I finally let myself post this. Im hoping a year from now when I look back, I'll be happy about the progress that was made.
Thanks for your time.
-gowaltrip
With that, I begin by remembering where I was at the beginning of 2008. Basically I was still getting the board together and trying to tweak it to become more focused on the subject matter. In 2007 I was basically all over the place and wanting to appeal to too many audiences and really what was happening is I was appealing to none. So, towards the end of 2007, I began making the main focus strictly comic books with a couple of side areas. Instead of comics being just one area of equal weight with other areas. I thought that improvement alone was worthwhile.
When the year begin, Underdog installed the quick link menu, which I have no idea if anyone uses or not. I know I do when I want to go somewhere else. There have been a few tweaks along the way and Im thinking of tweaking it again. If there is some links you would like to see there, let me know.
cfs added his Checklists around April or so. And I'll admit, I dont use it much, but occasionally I will use it for reference especially when I am looking for wanting to know specifics about how many issues a certain company had or if Im missing something. I do use it when I need it. So therefor, Im glad its there.
I personally added the comic news widget at the bottom of the page. I find myself going to some of the stories down there occasionally. Ive even used a piece or two in the threads here. Sometimes I find some cool stuff there. But just like anything else, I dont know if the rest of you guys use it at all.
Finally, I added an arcade link at the top. I'll admit, a lot of the games are cheesy. But I found a few that were temporarily addictive and I played often. I have to admit, I havent used it in quite awhile. And I get a vibe the rest of you dont use it at all. If I do use it, Im just killing time. But I think I will leave it as it doesnt distract anything and its there if someone wants to play. Its just another option here.
I think content wise, the board is so-so. There are times there are real nuggets of info flowing around here and it makes me glad I have this board, but most times there isn't too much happening. This gets into the problem areas of this post. There is not any corner of the market covered here. Its broad ranged. Any subject is fair game. But even with that being a good thing, its also a bad thing. When boards specialize in a subject, it tends to bring people in. Unfortunately, my only claim to comics is being a fan. I cannot corner a company, an artist, news or values, checklists or behind the scenes insider info. I rely completely on what I see and hear which isnt a lot and more realistically I rely a lot on what others bring to the table. Comics in my opinion seem to be struggling. Its obvious the younger generation around today do not appreciate comics the way we did and I feel this hurts long term growth for the comics industry. Sure, there are movies and video games with comic characters and comic characters will remain a strong part of Pop Americana. But the enthusiasm for comic books as we know it seems to be waning and I fear where the strictly comic book industry will be in 10 or 20 years. Therefore, I think the board tries to be an ambassador to the joys of collecting comics. And I think each of you plays a part in that.
Obviously, the board is too slow and doesnt have enough members. I have honestly tried a lot of things to get that to change and admittedly, sometimes I get frustrated that the board doesnt do better. All the better boards Ive ever been on are the ones where the members talk back and forth and people jump in. Or better yet, the members create their own threads all by themselves and then others jump in. Those to me make the best boards and its honestly something severely lacking around here. I repeat, I've tried my best with what I can think of. I'll generally post a new thread anytime I think of it. I think my thought or hope is that eventually there will be enough subjects and threads here after a long time that when someone new comes, eventually there will be plenty to look at and to do. And hopefully that will make them want to stay and participate. So therefor, I just posted as many subjects as I could hoping for participation. Sometimes I got it and sometimes I didnt. I've had to learn to remain patient. When I get truly discouraged, I generally just take a break and let the board run on autopilot and wait for better days and more inspiration. I still feel the best is yet to come with this board but I also fight the urge to shut it down an awful lot. What generally keeps me going is I know there is an awful lot of work here and I dont want to give it up. If I had one wish personally for this board would be to have more members and participation. Id be happy with about 7 posters for starters if they meshed well and carried on conversation. Im not very fond of huge boards. But a small one with good people would be ideal.
We seemed to have suffereed some losses in posters and Im down to 2-3 regulars. It seems the board peaked around May-June. At that point the board was as close as I ever felt to being self sufficient but since then the board has whittled away to 2-3 regulars and some RARE appearances by others. Be that as it is, I am very thankful for all who come and post. I try to make it a point to show my gratitude for all that do come. No one has to come at all and I know that. There is a million other choices on the internet. So to have a few drop by is gratifying. I remember when I started, I spent literally the 1st 2 months talking alot to myself. So its a lot better than that and I know it could be worse and Im thankful.
The one area of the board I am happy with and I feel made major strides is the structure of the board. I feel the subject tree here has tons of branches covering just about every aspect related to comics. And its these branches I feel the more they fill in with material, the better off this board will be. Little by little, each area gets a little here and there and its one area of growth that I hope eventually becomes like a library of subjects. I am happy with the overall layout. I think there is a few more areas I can create and I will this year. But compared to where the board began and where it was at the beginning of 2008, I think structure wise, its come a long ways. I also feel this board has a lot of photo-visuals. Lots of scans and pictures to see. I always find that a lot more interesting than just text. So with this, I will say, this is an area I am happy with.
Well, there you have it. The 2009 state of Gotta Start Somewhere. As always, Im open for anybody's comments and thoughts on these matters. I feel a lot of weakness was tackled in 2008. But there is still a ton of weakness left, and Id like to tackle those weaknesses too. That may be why I finally let myself post this. Im hoping a year from now when I look back, I'll be happy about the progress that was made.
Thanks for your time.
-gowaltrip
