How do we revive the forum?

[Dashnic]

I love this series. I grew up with it. I started reading when I was 11 years old. I finally found this forum this year, and quite honestly it is dying, if not already dead. Surely there are many like me who have a passion that burns brighter than the flame of tar valon for this series, so how do we bring the forum back? I want it to flourish just as the asoiaf forum does.

Edited July 3, 2015 by Dashnic

[Ryrin]

Do you mean the discussion here or the site? Because DM is flourishing in other areas.

 

I would think that when the encylopedia comes out in November, there will be lots of discussions.

[Dashnic]

What other areas of the site are flourishing? I'd love to visit them!

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

We just enjoy it while it lasts and if there are no new books... Cause the encyclopedia will cause a temporary blip, it's not the same as new books with new stories... If that doesn't happen we hang out with the people we enjoy and we either evolve into something else or we move on.

 

Nothing lasts forever and that's ok.

 

I don't know that I'd say anything was flourishing, though valiant efforts are being made to keep people posting. The mafia forum is doing well. Other than that... Like I said, it's just hanging out with ppl you like until everyone drifts away.

[Shad_]

Interesting, that.  Forums are a dying breed in general, and I kind of fell in love with this place when I found it last month because it DOES still have a vibrant community.  Mafia seems to have a lot to do with that, and I really wish I knew about the game years ago and could have introduced it to the old forum communities I used to belong to before they became truly dead.  But the social groups here are also a really special blast from the past, and from what I've seen they're doing quite well.

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

It is so hard to believe you haven't been playing mafia forever

[Ryrin]

The White Tower and Warders have lots of things going on as well as the Band of the Red Hand. "Valiant efforts" are not required there. I think the Black Tower is active too.

 

Just look under the forums. You can join as many as you wish. Those just here for discussion may not find a lot of activity because all of the books are out.

 

The encyclopedia should light up the discussion forums for quite some time.

 

This from ToR.com

 

The story of The Wheel of Time spans fifteen books, but the fantasy world which that story resides within is more complex and detailed than even those books could relate. Only a fraction of what author Robert Jordan imagined ended up on the page, the rest going into his personal files.

 

Now The Wheel of Time Companion sheds light on some of the most intriguing aspects of the world, including biographies and motivations of many characters that never made it into the books, but helped bring Jordan’s world to life.

 

Included in the volume in an A-to-Z format are:

 

An entry for each named character

An inclusive dictionary of the Old Tongue

New maps of the Last Battle

New portraits of many characters

Histories and customs of the nations of the world

The strength level of many channelers

Descriptions of the flora and fauna unique to the world

And much more!

Edited July 4, 2015 by Ryrin

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

Ryrin's middle name is Valiant Effort, a yup.

[Occams whiskey bottle]

I suppose if they ever get release a RPG game, movie, or tv series that would spark enough interest to get other people to go out and purchase the books, and that would revive the forums.

[Ryrin]

What other areas of the site are flourishing? I'd love to visit them!

If you wish, here is the link to join the White Tower and Warders.

 

http://www.dragonmount.com/forums/topic/60639-wtwarders-101-all-please-read-especially-new-returning-members/page-40

 

In most of the groups, you can't see all of the forums till you join. The Band is lots of fun too.. Look at the top of each forum and it will tell you a bit about what goes on there and how to join if you want.

 

Have you pre ordered the encyclopedia form Amazon? I need to do that. :)

[Daruya]

Ryrin does like to greet new people and encourage them and for that I applaud her!  Thanks, Ryrin!  That said, since the series is done the forums have fallen off. However, new WoT readers find DM relatively regularly so while we don't have the influx we used to when books were still being published, we do still have the occasional new member.  And the social groups are doing pretty well. Granted, the numbers aren't as great as they used to be but a number of us have been here for a number of years and have no intention of going anywhere.  

 

I really do appreciate what we still have here and it's always fun and exciting when new members find us.  

 

As for making if flourish?  One way is to recruit more WoT readers!  

[Ryrin]

I came to the WoT in 2010, I think. There will be a whole new generation of readers and they are finding their way here, not in the numbers I imagine, when the books were first being published.

 

I remember being really thrilled that I was led to the books and enjoy seeing new members join in. I hardly have time to keep up with the stuff going on here.

 

:)

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

Ok, I've just re watched the first three universal Frankenstein movies and young Frankenstein and I think I have an idea.

 

We'll need an abnormal brain and some tesla coils.

[Sabio]

Sadly its the nature of the beast, no new books means sooner or later people will just run out of stuff to bring up. 

 

There was talk of a WOT movie, not sure but my guess would be a trilogy.  I am not sure if it was serious talk, ended with RJ's death, or if anything is planned.

Edited July 14, 2015 by Sabio

[dicetosser1]

the Orgs    yes im an oldtimer leave it alone!   are doing pretty well. Yes they arnt the highest we have ever seen but we recently had a bit of a swell.

 

And they are FUN!

 

Sabio im Dice btw and ive been here since 02  thats what this place is like  you join and eventually you will get buried at the foot of DRAGONMOUNT.

 

Im a member of the Band of the Red Hand  http://www.dragonmount.com/forums/forum/21-the-band-of-the-red-hand-social-group/    you like Cavalry and Knights? perhaps you are misguided and like Infantry? Or perhaps your weird and twisted and like Archery?? Come visit us cause those are our Regiments. Im a Sarmation Knight of the Cavalry and my Warhorse is Bunyan.

 

 

Or maybe your a spammer??  Like chaos and channeling? Like the DO?? Or are you a doomed Light sider?  Try the Black Tower!  Im an Ashaman there. http://www.dragonmount.com/forums/forum/23-the-black-tower-social-group/

 

Are you studious and like to read and discuss? You could be an Ogier  http://www.dragonmount.com/forums/forum/25-ogier-social-group/

 

Do you howl at the moon while playing and drinking Tequila? Cause the Wolfkin do!  Im an elder there   (ive been there longer then everybody i think) http://www.dragonmount.com/forums/forum/44-wolfkin-social-group/

 

 

Come by see whats on the slab and tell em Dice sent you.

 

 

As you can see I dont think the Forum is dead. If you find yourself a home or two you probably wont either.

[mb]

Forums are a dying breed in general

based on what?

[Shad_]

 

Forums are a dying breed in general

based on what?

 

 

Empiricism?

 

How many thriving medium-scale forum and chat based communities can you think of off hand?  Ask yourself this question ~15 years ago.  Consider how many more people have internet access today.  Younger people don't typically seek out this sort of online social environment.  It's just not the norm anymore.

[szilard]

I love this series. I grew up with it. I started reading when I was 11 years old. I finally found this forum this year, and quite honestly it is dying, if not already dead. Surely there are many like me who have a passion that burns brighter than the flame of tar valon for this series, so how do we bring the forum back? I want it to flourish just as the asoiaf forum does.

 

A few things.

 

0. One has to contribute. You cannot expect from anyone to produce content, you have to be that person. Start new topics, bump up old threads, spread the word (hey, this forum is awesome!) etc. Maybe veterans should step aside, and new readers can speculate on their own theories. The golden age (1998-2002, 1998-2005) will never come back. Ever. But. Take a look at HP! 7 slim books, but the hard core does not give up, they are very active. We should follow them.

 

1. The series died with Robert Jordan in 2007. When there is zero new book coming out, and everything has been scrunitized with magnifying glass in the last 21 (www) years ... Maybe a tv series (with lots of sex scenes: eg. start the series with LTT + Ishamael are making love to each other) can make waves big enough to get people interested in the series again. *Joking aside, I do hope that there will be zero sex scenes.*

 

2. Sanderson (and his fanfictions) killed WOT. Totally. (1-1.5 months after amol this board was dead.) The printing number dropped by half! One can fake million 5 star reviews but the real numbers show the truth.

 

He did not say no. He did not say no. (Plus he did not reread the series, he did not read the notes "they are too long", he did not used properly the unfinished book etc. Of course it does not matter in the end, because he is not a writer. Not even a bad one.)

 

There were so many people on this site (and on other sites) who were so disappointed with the last books and especially with the ending that they are do not recommend this series to anyone anymore or they say read the first 3-4-5-6 books only. It used to be at least 8-10 WOT books in the Amazon bestselling epic fantasy section, now there is zero (LOC was #101 few days ago)

 

3. "I want it to flourish just as the asoiaf forum does." The series is being produced (books and tv seasons), the series is amazingly popular (asoiaf has the third of the fantasy book market in the UK!)

 

Plus, I do not want see members with numerous alt accounts, paid contributors etc.

 

Unfortunately, the WOT community had been broken into several fragments in the early days. And we lost so many very good sites (and their amazing content too) ... It could have been better with one main site. Westeros now is facing the other way. (Every bullet has its billet.)

[Paul G]

I was a bit of a latecomer to the books and im definitely a latecomer to this forum.

 

I'm hoping this community isn't dying and is able to maintain the discussion and perhaps grow and expand. Have to say, I'm on a couple of other forums (different interests) and noticed a bit of a decline that I felt was almost tied to the GFC (global financial crises). But recently things seems to have stabilized and grown a bit with a new generation joining the discussions. New readers will certainly help keep the discussion alive but I agree new book tangents would assist to no end.

 

Have to wonder why the estate isn't seemingly interested in allowing commissioned writers to explore the other lands, the time before the breaking, the Artur Hawkwing years etc there are so many tangents to explore, there could be decades of books to come. If the estate isn't interested in making the money they could hand it over the a benevolent society in a similar way the Rolex watch company is setup.

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

The author was adamantly opposed, and until very shortly before his death didn't even want the series finished by another author.

 

The estate is his wife, who respects his wishes.

[JenniferL]

There's a couple things to keep in mind. One, hard core theory discussion is over. We have what answers are available, we can speculate further, but we will never get those answers. (Unless there's something in the Companion that they are keeping under wraps.) Two, the internet and we use it have changed significantly since this site came online in 1998. Back then, web based forums were the sexy new technology killing off Usenet. Now everything is moving over to Facebook, Twitter, etc. I see WoT posts all the time in my FB feed and I only follow one or two of the active groups. There's at least a half dozen. The Wheel of Time sub Reddit is also reasonably active. Three, as others have said, comparing us to Westeros.org is a terrible comparison. WoT and ASOIAF are only superficially similar to each other. The GoT series is one of the most popular shows on TV in years and is a pop culture juggernaut. Even people who haven't read the books know things like "Winter is coming" and who the Starks are. Their forum traffic reflects that. 

 

But the Wheel of Time fandom is perfectly healthy. It's just moved on from here. 

[mb]

 

 

Forums are a dying breed in general

based on what?

 

 

Empiricism?

 

How many thriving medium-scale forum and chat based communities can you think of off hand?  Ask yourself this question ~15 years ago.  Consider how many more people have internet access today.  Younger people don't typically seek out this sort of online social environment.  It's just not the norm anymore.

 

right now; a number based on "The Sims" games, one based on Total Annihilation (pc game), this forum, the one based on "A Song of Ice and Fire", and I imagine other game-based forums.  social media sites might be considered similar.

15 years ago; I think a number of those were around then.

[Jagen Sedai]

Dashnic, would you consider joining the RP side of the forum? We could use the help; I'm always trying to recruit new people for it! :)

Edited August 3, 2015 by Jagen Sedai

[Talmanes]

I've not been here nearly as long as some, but even so I've seen myself become an old timer. Every time I pop in to the Black Tower, which I used to be the head of, I see more new people who have no idea who I am, and plenty of old friends as well. There are always new people whether new readers or just now finding DM. I'll admit that activity may not be what it used to be, but I don't see this forum dying in the foreseeable future. This site for me and many others became so much more than just a forum and so much more than even just being about the Wheel of Time. People come here to talk about WoT and stay because they find lifelong friends, and a place where they can truly feel any home.

I'm not around nearly as much as I was before either, but time and time again I find myself back here and I don't see that changing.

[Jagen Sedai]

I know your name well, Talmanes XD

 

Though, like a Brown, I seem to disappear for years at a time, hehehe