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If anyone's even seen our site for five seconds, they know what we're about. Freedom of speech within an all-purpose forum (with reasonable rules). And I still 100% believe in that, make no mistake, but I've been working on filling out our Official Internet Forums List, and something that I've been slowly discovering while doing so is actually one of the key reasons why it may be so hard to sell new people on Sanctuary. Or at least, why it's so hard to sell new people on Sanctuary when there's little established communities here.
Let's say you want to start up a forum about traveling because you just really love it and it's your passion. And naturally, you're going to have some traveling friends as well. You get your hardware together, you get your software together, you get your traveling friends together, and you launch! When new people come to your site, it's very easy for them to grasp what your forum is all about. Traveling. "Do you like to travel too? Then join us! Talk about traveling with us like-minded people!" It's an easy sell to the right people. Now, let's come back to Sanctuary. We also have a traveling sub-forum as well called Round Trip!
... Which barely anyone's posted in. Where's the community of travelers? Well, it's not there yet. Ok, so why should someone who loves traveling sign up for an account here? Oh sure, they may still like our articles. They may love our vision of a free-speech forum. They may love the software we use. But when it comes down to it, specifically, to the actual COMMUNITIES here... We are sorely lacking in any area that isn't games and tech. Perhaps movies too. Maybe Spurious Generalities? But other forums already have a general chat area. Whoop-dee-doo.
Hm... So how did TOTSE get so damn popular in its time? Well, if we recall our history, TOTSE started out back in the ye olden days of the internet back to the ancient BBS days. TOTSE at the time was dedicated to hosting text files with a forum on the side. It was basically the Wikipedia of its age, but with a different much more chaotic take on it than the much more sterilized semi-professional approach that Wikipedia took for better and for worse. As the internet grew more and more mature, TOTSE was able to grow with it as it already had a fully established place in the internet community as a whole. At least until it very abruptly ended on January 17th, 2009.
Unfortunately, Sanctuary has absolutely no such advantage now. Wikipedia and many other informational sites have already been made. YouTube has also pretty much taken over the informational market as well. BUT if we were any other kind of specialist forum like the other forums out there, I think there still truly would be a place for us, but, coming back to the title of this topic, we are trying to be everything to everyone, and we sadly just do not have the existing communities to back that up. We have everything else! But not that. So we're a site that has everything to offer, and at the same time compared to others, not much to offer at all.
I don't want to sell Sanctuary too short though. In a way, we actually are a specialist forum as well, specifically for edgy or taboo or obscure topics. In fact, of all the topics that Sanctuary serves, I think we do the best of all the forums I've seen when going into those kinds of subjects due to multiple factors including not just the ease at which such things can be talked about, but talked about intelligently. I like the culture that has been fostered and it's one of the things I'm proud of when it comes to us. Many of you are not afraid to call me out when you think I'm spouting nonsense, and the points you bring up often give me pause and make me think twice. I love that and actually wish it happened more often... But I digress.
Anyway, that's all I have to say. Just something for all of us to think about.
Let's say you want to start up a forum about traveling because you just really love it and it's your passion. And naturally, you're going to have some traveling friends as well. You get your hardware together, you get your software together, you get your traveling friends together, and you launch! When new people come to your site, it's very easy for them to grasp what your forum is all about. Traveling. "Do you like to travel too? Then join us! Talk about traveling with us like-minded people!" It's an easy sell to the right people. Now, let's come back to Sanctuary. We also have a traveling sub-forum as well called Round Trip!
... Which barely anyone's posted in. Where's the community of travelers? Well, it's not there yet. Ok, so why should someone who loves traveling sign up for an account here? Oh sure, they may still like our articles. They may love our vision of a free-speech forum. They may love the software we use. But when it comes down to it, specifically, to the actual COMMUNITIES here... We are sorely lacking in any area that isn't games and tech. Perhaps movies too. Maybe Spurious Generalities? But other forums already have a general chat area. Whoop-dee-doo.
Hm... So how did TOTSE get so damn popular in its time? Well, if we recall our history, TOTSE started out back in the ye olden days of the internet back to the ancient BBS days. TOTSE at the time was dedicated to hosting text files with a forum on the side. It was basically the Wikipedia of its age, but with a different much more chaotic take on it than the much more sterilized semi-professional approach that Wikipedia took for better and for worse. As the internet grew more and more mature, TOTSE was able to grow with it as it already had a fully established place in the internet community as a whole. At least until it very abruptly ended on January 17th, 2009.
Unfortunately, Sanctuary has absolutely no such advantage now. Wikipedia and many other informational sites have already been made. YouTube has also pretty much taken over the informational market as well. BUT if we were any other kind of specialist forum like the other forums out there, I think there still truly would be a place for us, but, coming back to the title of this topic, we are trying to be everything to everyone, and we sadly just do not have the existing communities to back that up. We have everything else! But not that. So we're a site that has everything to offer, and at the same time compared to others, not much to offer at all.
I don't want to sell Sanctuary too short though. In a way, we actually are a specialist forum as well, specifically for edgy or taboo or obscure topics. In fact, of all the topics that Sanctuary serves, I think we do the best of all the forums I've seen when going into those kinds of subjects due to multiple factors including not just the ease at which such things can be talked about, but talked about intelligently. I like the culture that has been fostered and it's one of the things I'm proud of when it comes to us. Many of you are not afraid to call me out when you think I'm spouting nonsense, and the points you bring up often give me pause and make me think twice. I love that and actually wish it happened more often... But I digress.
Anyway, that's all I have to say. Just something for all of us to think about.
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