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What fandom forums seem to do really well, and why?


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What fandom forums do really well? Why do you think they do well?

 

To be entirely honest, I can't say I really pay close enough attention to know. But there seem to be a lot of Pokemon forums, and the ones that I do look in on tend to be fairly lively- for a time, anyway. I think part of their success has to do with the nostalgia of the game series for a lot of roleplayers. Many of us are of the age that it was a fairly popular part of our childhood. That, and there is a pretty consistent stream of Pokemon content coming out- new games every couple of years or so. Fandoms tend to kick up around then, so it's almost like the Pokemon fandom is always in swing.

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Supernatural (the show) forums seem to be fairly long-lived. I've seen the same ones around for 2-3 years. I think it's probably because the show is still active and has a really interactive fanbase.

 

As for Marvel forums, they tend to do excellent... for a couple months. There's always a spike in forum creation after one of the big movies (anything Avengery) and they all do really well for a couple months and then die except for maybe one or two where the admins keep them open, usually from stubbornness. There's an uptick of activity in Marvel forums around a movie and then valleys in-between. X-Men forums seem to live and die a bit less by what the movies do. I've seen a lot of those just keep going and going - mostly because purely X-Men forums tend to ignore the movie releases, oddly. 

 

That's the other thing; I think one of the reasons that Marvel/MCU forums are so short-lived (the ones open to comics seem to last far longer on average) is because every time a world-shaking movie comes out (like Winter Soldier, AoU, Civil War), people wanna play in that playground and the forums that get "stuck" in old continuity die.

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@txernest I tooootally for got about Supernatural forums and Marvel forums, but those are great examples! I have definitely noticed both trends you brought up.

 

Another type that seems to stick around for a while are forums based off of The Vampire Diaries. Though I don't know a single thing about the series aside from "it has vampires in it," so I can't really point to a possible reason for their success.

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4 hours ago, Gothams Reckoning said:

Another type that seems to stick around for a while are forums based off of The Vampire Diaries. Though I don't know a single thing about the series aside from "it has vampires in it," so I can't really point to a possible reason for their success.

 

Hot vampires, and if anyone claims either of the main characters it's no big deal since you can just make a random character that uses the same face and call it a doppelganger. ;) 

 

I've noticed that animal RPs either fail right out the gate or have long-lived communities, especially when it comes to dragons or wolves. I reckon it's all about community for these as it's the ones that are started with a bunch of friends that do well and solo-admins that end up failing rather quickly. 

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Harry Potter - Marauder's Era specifically seems to live long as well. As much as I loved the series, not my peapod so I can only guess its loyal fanbase plus very little chance of being stymied by canon storyline.

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3 hours ago, CovertSphinx said:

Harry Potter - Marauder's Era specifically seems to live long as well. As much as I loved the series, not my peapod so I can only guess its loyal fanbase plus very little chance of being stymied by canon storyline.

I forgot about this one too! I did not have an operational brain when I posted this topic, it seems LOL. I think, too, that part of the same thing that applies to Pokemon forums works with Harry Potter as well. Many of us are of an age where we kind of grew up on it. Lots of nostalgia to keep it alive!

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Guest Archaic Cyborg

Harry Potter games, including panfandoms set in HP, seem to last a bit! Then there's... Not much else, really. A lot of superhero games retire early, plus Once Upon a Time, LotR, The Elder Scrolls.

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Pern fandoms seem to last forever.

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9 hours ago, Morrigan said:

Pern fandoms seem to last forever.

Pern boards change like seasons. The fandom has a lot of people, and there's a few boards that are old as dirt, but there's also a handful of individuals that create/drop boards so often it makes it look like there are far more than there are.

 

I was balls deep in the fandom for a while and am now so picky I can't find a board that I can tolerate.

 

Hell, this fandom still has active PbeM groups. 

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It's hard to figure out what fandoms are doing well by numbers as while there are fandoms that do well, they're usually quite saturated.

 

There is a rule of thumb regarding what will or won't be popular though:

 

- An interesting and expansive world to play in.

- Well known usually well established creation.

- Has things that are exciting for characters to do.

- Has a fantastical bent (even Star Trek counts).

 

As far as why a lot of fandoms fail, it has to do with the first three reasons. Either the world doesn't feel open or interesting either by design or the admin doesn't know how to capitalize on it.

 

When something isn't a particularly well known creation you have to market it as "inspired by" and work on it more like it's an original site. If it doesn't hit a lot of the popular established original genres then you're pretty much dead.

 

Some worlds are exciting, but only a few characters are allowed to do cool things in the original piece. This requires retooling, which either the admin doesn't do, doesn't know how to market the changes, or it changes the original piece drastically.
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