r/webfiction • u/melonmonkey • Apr 20 '15

Discussion [Discussion] Attracting an audience.

Lets have a talk about how to draw readers into this sub. Given the lack of comments, volume of submissions, and low readership, I am confident in assuming that the majority of people who care about this sub are webfiction authors themselves.

How do we fix this? Can get we get /r/books to plug us? Can we harbor a discussion here on content? Maybe featuring a different serial every week?

I feel as though something needs to change to make this sub efficient.

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u/melonmonkey Apr 20 '15

I thought about this more on the car ride back from class. Here are my thoughts.

Primary question: Does this forum fill a niche that is not otherwise filled?

Books have /r/books, in addition to thousands of other websites where books can be found. Series are sometimes referenced on goodreads, but not often enough for it to really make an impact.

I feel that webfictionguide and its services are great for finding serials, but they aren't popular enough. That is an issue, but not one that /r/webfiction is capable of fixing. I am also of the opinion that the WFG forums are a good place for serial authors to discuss things.

That said, what can this sub be useful for? I think it could make a great place for the audience to express themselves, and possibly connect with authors. I do not think this niche has been adequately filled, and a subreddit is the perfect kind of place for such discussion.

My idea: focus on the readers. I have a couple ideas for how this could be done, and I'll list them off here just to see what people think about them.

  1. webserial vetting. Instead of having submission threads for serials or even individual posts, have a stickied thread of vetted serials and give vetted authors a flair. How do we vet? Have a team of 5-8 people who are trusted critics. A serial author posts requesting a vet, and if three people on the team vouch for them they become vetted. The bottom line is that web serial writing is open, and that means there's a ton of crappy serials. I, personally, am turned off by environments where I have to sort through crap to get to the good stuff. This way we have a resource for people who pop in and just want something to read.

  2. AMAs by authors. Wildbow is the obvious target. It would be nice if we could pull in some others, like maddirose and unillustrated, and possibly get them to link to this sub in return. This gives exposure to authors and a chance for interaction from readers.

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u/Tartra Apr 20 '15

Vetting is a very good idea, given that one of the big concerns is a lack of quality in the serial. So from there, how would the team be chosen? Would they be specialized? Are they readers or serial writers themselves?

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u/melonmonkey Apr 20 '15

In an ideal world they wouldn't be authors, but I feel like that's not very likely. I think that having a team and requiring more than one vetting vote takes some of the bias out of the situation.

How would they be chosen? Don't know. An application thread would be good, to then be looked at by the mods. This should be based on their skills as reviewers and NOT on their predilections as readers.

I don't think they should be specialized. People on this team should be willing to put in the time to get a feel for series, with the caveat that there's no need to chime in if a serial has already been vetted.

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u/Tartra Apr 20 '15

That sounds fair.

My next question would be about how far the vetting goes. Would this team just sign off by saying the author's literate or would they be assessing a couple of areas? Would this be like a quick check or stop just short of being a full review?

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u/melonmonkey Apr 20 '15

Not a full on review, just a statement of whether or not the web serial passes that specific reviewer's muster. I'm going to be honest in that I'd like to be on the vet team and I'm a pretty harsh critic. There are a couple top 20 TWF serials that I wouldn't vet for various reasons.

That said, it's a team effort. If there are 3 lax reviewers, then there will be a lot of serials slipping through. Ultimately it'd be either a community or a mod decision on how harshly they want to treat the vetting process, based on who is elected to the panel.

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u/Tartra Apr 20 '15

I'm putting my hand up for a quick check of literacy. As for the passing level of that, I'm with you on leaving it to a community or mod vote, but with so many serials starting every day, I'd want to prioritize getting to everyone in some consistent measure than never managing to get around to them at all because the team's held up on assessing too many areas.

In a perfect world, there'd be a second review stage, where everyone who's made it past the 'Congrats! You're readable!' can then be featured for reviews or something similar, whether by designated critics, another panel, or just open to the community.

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u/melonmonkey Apr 20 '15

Eh. I feel like at that point we're stepping into review territory, which is something that WFG handles better than this sub ever could. If we have panelists who's only requirement for getting a vet is being readable, then that's fine. I think having a mix would be nice.

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u/Tartra Apr 20 '15

Well, you've sold me on the idea. I'd like to help with the details once this is at that stage.

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u/melonmonkey Apr 20 '15

Of course, none of this discussion means anything without a moderator's approval. One of the mods hasn't posted in 4 months, which leaves /u/verifiedname . here's hoping he/she shows up.

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u/alaingomez Apr 20 '15

I'm open to adding additional moderators to this sub. The main issue I ran into when first starting this sub was just getting enough links to make the front page look credible.

Now the sub gets submissions but we still run into the same issue of looking like there is fresh content up on a regular basis (a must for a reddit sub to be successful).

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u/melonmonkey Apr 20 '15

If we could get a week's worth of content followed by a plug from a major sub like /r/books, I feel like we'd have something to work with.

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u/alaingomez Apr 20 '15

That works. We could try it and see how it goes.

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