Series fansites

Talk with others about anything shrine-related, be it presentation, content or something else.
Larissa
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Series fansites

Post by Larissa »

I find myself wanting to make more sites to series versus characters and relationships, which is what I've focused on in the past. The thing is, I'm finding it tricky to figure out what kind of content I want to put in said series fansites.

These days, I feel like wikias have replaced fansites as the go-to source for information for most fans. If you want basic information about a series, the easiest place to go is to the wikia, because even if some information is inaccurate, chances are you'll find what you're looking for. And I mean, it makes sense -- it's a lot easier for a fandom at large to run the one-stop-shop for info on their series than it is for one fan, and to keep it updated.

But I still want to make fansites, so here's my question. What kind of content do you look for in series fansites? What makes them stand out from wikias these days? As a visitor to a series fansite, what do you want to see?

(As a side note, I have nothing against wikis/wikias. I use the FF wikia on a near-daily basis and I think it's awesome there's a resource like it out there. That kind of website is way beyond the scope of what a single fansite can accomplish; you need lots of people working on it and editing and factchecking and constantly adding to it. I just find it difficult to figure out how to "compete" with wikias, if you will, when they comprise the information that fansites used to be known for.)
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Mikari
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Re: Series fansites

Post by Mikari »

I find that series sites used to be more common in the past. I miss them, though I can see how they are challenging to make.

Most wikis include basic summaries for episodes, but they tend to be a bit disconnected. Something that could make a fansite stand out would be to have a discussion about episodes that doesn't feel episodic and highlights the development of the characters and plot at a more detailed level that's more than a list of events. Interpretations about the plot and what each character represents are good too. A section about reading between the lines, theories and what ifs would be interesting as well.
Aku
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Re: Series fansites

Post by Aku »

I feel your pain... :sob: a lot of basic information that used to be available on series shrines in the past is really easy to access on a wiki page.

Honestly I think the biggest pull for me is the same as it is in any shrine: deep analysis, theory, and speculation from the owner. I would still include some basic information for context, but I'd focus on digging into the themes of the series. It'd be kind of like writing a good book report... you don't just retell what happened in the book, you analyze the author's points and try to relay to the reader what the book meant to you.

The nice thing about series shrines is you could also potentially pick apart a number of the more interesting characters/relationships as well, rather than just one. I know that when I was making my Ranka shrine and theorizing about things, I ended up coming up with A LOT I could've said about Sheryl... I'm sure we all do it, as characters in a good series are usually well interconnected. With a series shrine you could really capitalize on that. I also don't think there's any need to cover EVERYTHING if it doesn't contribute to your thesis--gotta pick your battles or you end up with unneeded information to tell your story. I think that's why we shy away from series shrines sometimes: we think we need to cover every little thing when really you could create a "thesis" of sorts and build around that.

I would think about all the things that make character shrines, or relationship shrines great, and remember that in a series shrine you can work from both macro and micro perspective. Utilize that for sure!
Larissa
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Re: Series fansites

Post by Larissa »

Oh man, you guys both brought up a ton of awesome points - thank you! I've been trying to write sitemaps for a couple of series fansites I've got in the works but run into the issue of "what do I write about" and I'm already getting new ideas just from your posts. Thank you both! :heart:
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Crystal
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Re: Series fansites

Post by Crystal »

Having done a series shrine myself (and even a huge fansite back in the day) it can be pretty tough figuring out what to write about and what visitors may like to see. Pretty much it boils down too what are you willing to write about. Using my Ocarina of Time shrine as an example I wrote about the story of the game and talked about both the game and manga versions and even the characters, music, and location. I also added some extra stuff to express my opinions on things and it seems to have worked so far. I know it isn't gonna work for every shrine out there but it is still something.
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Todd
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Re: Series fansites

Post by Todd »

I wish there was a favorite or like button for Aku's reply. I agree with everything she said. It's about analysis these days. That's what people go to fan sites for today - for discussion.

Mikari and Crystal brought up great ideas as well.

I think series fan sites in general are a little harder than shrines because you have more to cover. That's what's always stopped me; the project just looked enormous.
LadyDB
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Re: Series fansites

Post by LadyDB »

@ Larissa -- First of all, I can totally relate to you. I also use wikias very often, but it never pulls me away from a shrine. I believe the information on shrines typically 100% because I know the shrine maker really cared and put a lot into it. Meanwhile, with wikias, I'll typically double check the information.

Anyway, to answer your question, this is my personal opinion. There is a specific charm I find with shrines because of the unique pages they have available to read. For example, I love love love fanfiction. I love going to shrines for my favorite characters or series and reading the fanfiction the shrine maker wrote. I also love the personal avatars they made with love, I love the "trivia" sections the include with little known facts. A wikia will have blocks of texts with information.

A shrine will have text beautifully laid out with key words or phrases italicized, underlined, etc, and the page will be adorned with lovely images relevant to the article.

Anyway, I hope this helps you with your endeavors in shrines. :) In a nutshell, add a musings page I can really fall deep into thought with, or a free avatar I can steal to represent, and I'm loving you and giving you an A+.

<3
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dubiousdisc
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Re: Series fansites

Post by dubiousdisc »

To echo Aku's point, yeah, I would say that it's BECAUSE of the wikis covering all the factual information on everything that a fansite would have to be something else - namely, something more personal than that.

I'd like to talk about what I'm making because I feel like some of the things I'm doing with it are very relevant to this discussion. I would say that what I'm doing with my Quake 3 stuff is eventually turning into a multi-character fansite focusing on the characters and the setting of the whole universe. There are already wikis covering the gameplay-related aspects and summarily covering the basic information about the characters and the world, but that didn't satisfy me and I knew that I had a lot to say about everything, so I decided to do it myself. To avoid the pressure of making a huge site full of placeholders and then having to write for it as a chore and eventually feeling like I'm neglecting a behemoth of a site (been there, done that), I'm tackling the whole thing as a collective just linking to whatever I've made, one character or topic at a time, whenever I feel like working on it. Since I'm focusing on my favorite things, I'm not even touching the ones that I don't care as much for, so there's no chore aspect to it. And because of how I set up the whole thing, I also don't have to feel like I have an incomplete site that I will take a long time to complete.

This whole thing was to share how I'm dealing with a general series fansite with no stress at all, and also to answer a few questions as to what I want from such a site.
I'm personally making what I would like to see in someone else's site: something I haven't seen before, and in particular something with a focus and not just, everything about everything. I don't think this thing has to necessarily be analytic essays or anything specific in particular - just something that has a distinct personality, however that is conveyed.
As to how do you even make a series fansite, in my experience I knew that I had (and still have) a lot to say about a lot of different things. They weren't fleshed out at all until I started writing about them (usually when I start to write I find out that I had a lot more to say than what I expected), but I had rough ideas and I know they were a lot. I also knew that I had continued interest for the subject for six years at that point, so I knew I wasn't jumping into something that I would have lost interest for soon after.

Sorry if all of this is very disjointed and long-winded, I feel like I'm trying to say too many things at the same time. I hope this is at least somewhat coherent and that what I'm trying to say is getting across.
Larissa
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Re: Series fansites

Post by Larissa »

Thanks for all your input, guys -- I really do appreciate it, and it's really gonna help when I sit down to work on series sites. :heart:

@dubiousdisc: Don't worry, I get you. Also I totally forgot this until just now, but didn't I meet you waaaaaaay back in the days when we were both running huge-ass Pokemon fansites?? I totally forgot I even ran that site until just now, holy shit. Where did the years go. (Man, those were a totally different breed of fansite compared to the stuff we do now...)

I like the idea of setting it up in a way that it won't feel incomplete! I struggle with that a lot with series fansites because there's often so much to cover that when you don't have all the things it's like "well I'm never going to finish this." Even worse if it's an ongoing series. I'll keep that in mind with the stuff I'm doing.
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Destinie
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Re: Series fansites

Post by Destinie »

I used to run a fansite/fanlisting for Dinosaur King a couple years ago. Since it was mainly a fanlisting I didn't go in to a whole bunch of detail about EVERYTHING but you could definitely do that with series fansites.

What makes fansites stand out from wikis, for me, is the fact that you can add your personal touch to it in the form of different essays and putting the spotlight on the parts of the series that mean more to you. Like what LadyDB mentioned: having icons or treats you made and what Aku mentioned about writing about what stands out to you. Wikis are great for information but they're so impersonal. I think a shrine is more about putting yourself into it.
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