Re: I blame JordanCon too. - Edit 1
Before modification by DomA at 27/09/2010 01:10:54 AM
The version I read ended with him writing about how the WoT fan community is now together like never before, apropos of nothing that I could think of.
ΒΈThe main WOT websites (TL, DM, 13D, TV.net) have been collaborating and working together and being friendly like never before (all but here, that is), at least at the owners but also old timers and mods levels (they all seem to post on each others' forums these days). That's probably what Jason was speaking of, that and the fan meetings like JordanCon, and at the signings etc. It's true the online communities are far less insular than 2-3 years ago. It's pretty much JordanCon that started that ball rolling. The site owners all met in person, dine with Harriet etc. DM then invited admins/old timers from every sites (but here, again) to collaborate in its efforts to relaunch the old WOT FAQ, and that too went pretty well. This would have been pretty much inconceivable even 2 years earlier. Mike had been pretty close to Jason years back (sharing interviews etc.), but it had never been reflected at the posters level. Now it does, a little.
Myself and a few TL'ers attended JordanCon 2009. There, I met Jason and Melissa and a bunch of Dragonmount and TarValon fans, along with Sanderson. After that, we were in contact more about JordanCon 2010. Staying in contact likely got me an invite to the WotFAQ...but even the WoTFAQ updates are 90% a Dragonmount endeavor (most of which were written by Luckers recently.) And I believe I'm the only TL'er that is currently involved and not that involved considering I have favored topics and many of them are not a focus of the WoTFAQ. As to the WoTFAQ, I'm sure Jenn would be happy to accept someone from RAFO. It seems like it is more if someone on the list vouched to bring someone else into the discussions, as to how invites go out. If I recall correctly, Linda was invited because someone mentioned her, although I don't recall a ton of participation from Linda on those threads.
Actually, I was invited there and participated until I got really no time for it (which, alas, was pretty early). This came from working at the 13D and being in touch with Jason and Jenn and others DM admins. Nothing much to do with years spent at Wotmania, except they were aware of this background.
It seems I gave you the impression I was complaining about RAFO being left out, but I wasn't.
I was merely trying to explain why IMO I think it was. Your assessment is pretty accurate, I think, and a lot of it has to do with bad timing too, that RAFO got set up as a primarily non WOT site at the same time the WOT sites (and their owners) were rather going into high gear for TGS. When RAFO opened, that left precious time to catch up. The RAFO admins missed most of it - JordanCon 2009, contacts with Tor and between the sites and so on. To answer your question, as far as I know the RAFO owner (and the people who helped him most set up the site) aren't huge WOT fans (some are casual fans, some aren't at all, or not anymore). The WOT MB admins are the big fans. The WOT MB admins of the time before Wotmania closed (Linda, me) were not involved in the transition, as we had gone elsewhere between the time Mike announced he was closing down, and the initiative to create RAFO started. Our new projects were more interesting to us, and extremely demanding in both work on the content and PR time, so we made no effort to be involved further here in any capacity except as occasional posters when the RAFO project surfaced. And yes, it left a kind of vaccuum on the WOT side of things here for a few months until the new MB opened and WOT admins among the old timers were chosen, mostly because no one on the MB stepped up to get involved.
I really couldn't say why the new admins don't get more involved outside the site. A question of interest, time, lack of contacts? I really have no idea.
Personally I had excellent contacts with Jason (and people from TL have always been friendly as well) while active at the 13D, and the reason I didn't get even more involved later in the inter-site stuff and missed getting to JordanCon and all has nothing to do with having been from Wotmania(I wasn't even around here anymore) and definitely nothing to do with feeling left out by anyone or anything. I merely stepped out of it all before it happened (for a much needed short break, which became permanent I realized later), mostly because it was all starting to eat up not only most of my free time, but eating up even my time that wasn't supposed to be free..
By the way - it was great to see Mike's name in the dedication. I'm not sure what the feelings are about Mike and how he ended stuff, but I have fond recollections of Wotmania...such as when we challenged Wotmania in Tor's Online Hunt back in the day.
Well, I liked Mike well enough and have no opinion on the closing down of the site and the only thing I might hold him to account for a bit is that when he got disinterested in the series (years before closing down), but decided to keep the site open, he didn't really ensured Wotmania's place/legacy with his WOT MB admins. Mike didn't want us to speak as Wotmania to Tor (or even help us get ARCs from Tor so we could keep up the tradition of site reviews... MIke still got the ARC for the site, and skipped the review), the other webmasters etc. We could have done it on a personal basis (and I know now it would have been quite easy to do so, a simple matter of taking the initiative to make it happen, as we weren't much known outside the site), but we didn't, and this seems to have perpetuated itself with the new admins and RAFO.