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Tuesday, November 6, 2007

THE COMMUNITY

Earlier on her radio show on BreeFM KTS talked to an old fan about the good old days. After issuing her second video challenge (see below), attention moved to the subject of the community. There was a time when the community congregated solely on the Lonelygirl15 web site. In todays world the community has grown in many productive directions such as LG15 Today, BreeFM, the Anchor Cove web site, multiple IRC chat rooms, stickcam, Bebo, MySpace, YouTube and Facebook etc each serving its own constituency. This provides a wonderful "open framework" for the community. However KTS pointed out that it might not best serve the business needs of the Creators.

Over the years there have been many ideas on how the Lonelygirl15 web site could be improved. We have seen changes but the outgrowth of these satellite projects point to the fact that the Creators have not fully met the needs of fans. So what now? There is a strong argument to be made for the concept of satellites that serve specific needs of the community. On the other hand there may be some that feel everything should be returned to the "mothership", so that the Creators can best fund the show.

This blog was set up as a community project and serving the needs of that community should be its prime directive.

What do you think? Leave a comment below and let us know which direction you think best serves the needs of the community.

23 comments:

  1. At the moment it is almost impossible for me to use comments on LG15.com on my computer because the page can take as long as 4 minutes to load. As a long time commenter this breaks my heart.

    I use an old Mac G4 processor and a mediums speed internet so this might be part of the problem. I do not however have this problem anywhere else.

    I do use LGPedia a lot and that is really well done but i enter it thru a direct link to avoid the slow performance of the LG15 site.

    I think the first move should be to get the current site working properly on multiple platforms.

    ReplyDelete
  2. ModelMotion : "I think the first move should be to get the current site working properly on multiple platforms."

    This is true, one of the keys to reaching as wide an audience as possible is to be accessible to most anyone.

    LG15Today has introduced me to a wide variety of ARG's, ARIS's, Cool Videos, Great People, and all around awesome entertainment. It's been a launchpad for many independent series, a tool for puzzle solving and spreading information on a large scale, and has helped bring the community as a whole together. I think it's perfect just the way it is. ^_^

    ReplyDelete
  3. I agree with both modelmotion and greggallows. I stopped using the site after the overhaul with the installation of the new forum. It has been nothing but a frustration since the day it came online.

    Certainly, there are more issues that need to be addressed regarding meeting the needs of the community, all though I fear this may be too little too late.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love this community, and it's safe to say that if it wasn't for the inception of lonelygirl15, a lot of us wouldn't know each other.

    We have so many different outlets from various chat rooms, to various series to BreeFM, to various websites because we care so much about the community, and we don't see that kind of care coming from the C's..so we take it upon ourselves to start up new things just to help it flourish.

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  5. I think it's a testiment to the strength of the community and to our love of and belief in The Creators vision that we have branched off to sites outside LG15.com when we feel the main site isn't suiting our needs. It's us saying, "hey, we still want to be a part of this and we can adapt and survive if you can't do give us everything we need right now".

    We're kind of like college students moving away from home for the fist time...we still love our parents implicitly but we're grown up enough to start taking care of ourselves and know that the ones who made us are only human and therefore infalliable sometimes.

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  6. This site is amazing because it deals with everything-kate modern, lg15, redearth, news about the ARGs, and even videos from the watchers(us). I don't think any site the Creators come up with can do that, because not all of the material put on here is theirs, and they would have to have other people pointing out when a new vid is out. They'd need their own modelmotion! We still watch the videos, and we probably know what's going on better than what's over at LG 15, so I think it's just fine the way it is. Who knows how many people might have actually lost interest in the series without these other outlets to keep them busy and thinking? And communicating!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I used to log into LG15.com every day but found the new style website completely un-GF friendly (I'm not exactly computer literate!) so I only go to LG15Today and Bebo now (and occasionaly BreeFM IRC when I'm up late/early..darn timezones!)

    Speaking as one of the contributers who was here almost at the beginning of this blog I love the way LG15Today has grown. There is much more coverage of all things Breeniverse related than anywhere else on the net. I promote it constantly and even though I dont do the transcripts anymore (I felt it much better to post a link to the amazing LGpedia instead as they go into much more detail than I ever could) I still like to post things here regularly.

    I can see the pros and cons of "returning to the mothership" while it would be awesome if LG15Today was linked directly to LG15.com would this take away the sense of freedom that is here? We can write about anything we want and people can say what they like, (which is why I started blogging on here in the first place as I felt LG15.com, although a great community, was too controlled)

    Jenni Powell has it right (as usual)"We're kind of like college students moving away from home for the fist time...we still love our parents implicitly but we're grown up enough to start taking care of ourselves and know that the ones who made us are only human and therefore infalliable sometimes."

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  8. I'd like to write down my thoughts because maybe they won't be as confusing or sound like insane ramblings from a dumb person...

    My ideas were that the creators really need to hunker down and figure out their web site and what they want from it. Then do it. Right now is the PERFECT time to do it because we are in a BIG LULL with the story. A lot of the fans are bored, and it looks like the characters are even getting bored and frustrated. Once all that occurs, and everything is fixed upgraded and compatible, it would be time to try and gather the whole community back to one central focus: lg15.com .
    Once they are able to do that, they then will be able to examine our community and pull our VERY useful demographics that they are able to take to potential sponsors and say: "This is our community. This is how many hits we get an hour. This is how many times your product will be viewed in on hour. This is your demographic market. Compairing that to ours, it is a match."
    THIS is what companies WANT to hear. Not..."We get *so much* hits a day, this many being unique." Companies DON'T want it to be that vague. They want specific research done. And the only way the creators can really successfully achieve that is by gathering us all up in one coral (maybe two if you include Youtube) and survey us. They wouldn't even have to ask us questions...just track who logs in, when by our accounts. Each account has an age and location section....fill it out.

    ReplyDelete
  9. But first things first:

    I'm going to repeat what Mike said:
    We are not seeing the same passion for the community from the creators. We are seeing a passion for promotion and a passion of getting money. Unfortunately for them, when they direct people to the lonelygirl15 web site you have 1 of three things happen:

    1) They are confused...
    2) The site DOESN'T work
    3) They laugh at it because it's a joke.

    ReplyDelete
  10. unfortunately for the creators...

    the one really successful way to get theior promotion and money right is ...by fixing the web site and enhancing our community.

    I'm sick of hearing them say "We're trying..."
    Because they've been saying that for a LONG time, and there has been very little change. AND the changes they HAVE made has spilt this community apart to the point where they can't even accurately say how many people watch this show, who are these people and when they watch it.

    ...

    Ok I'm done clogging up comments

    ReplyDelete
  11. Had it not been for the LGPedia and this site, after initally watching the lonelygirl 15 videos for the first time up till the present i would probably not have watched any new videos or discoved other args and understood the plot so well.

    The LG15 site when i started trying to watch and figure out what was goin on in the early videos, was no use what so ever, the creators need to step up.

    ReplyDelete
  12. eek, this is long ....

    I think the current state of the breeniverse is a natural reaction to actions of the creators going way back to the earliest days.

    As a member of the first lg15 splinter group (Anchor Cove), I've thought about these issues a lot. When anchor cove was founded, "Bukanator" (aka the creators, the person who claimed to create lonelygirl15.com, since the creators were not public yet) created a new phpBB forum (the same one which was again upgraded this past summer), and asked us all to come back. But it was too late already, many of us were tired with the poor moderation of the official board. Some did go back (and Terryfic even became admin of the phorum for awhile), some didn't. But I believe we felt it made sense for fans to have the option of non-official website, to be free to speak our minds, and keep in touch with our part of the community, as many of us had been around since before the outing and didn't view the show the same way as new fans initially did (especially once cassiemania took over).

    If we were given a strong case for why "returning to the mothership" would help the finances of the Creators, I'd be up for discussing it, but I don't think they have the ability to accomodate all of what lg15 has spawned. the "open framework" that mm notes has led to a unique and robust lg15 social network web across multiple sites. The original vision (or at least Sept 2006 vision) of the Creators for lg15.com included social networking featurs revolving around lonelygirl15, but its never happened. In fact, its gone in reverse with a less user-friendly forum, no chat, and next to no textual communication from show characters.

    I think if/when the official site adds more features, it will help grow more new dedicated community members at the mothership, and maybe draw back some of us who shy away.

    At bottom, I think the Creators would benefit overall from interacting more with the community. KM has been continually improving on that front (perhaps their placement within a social networking site makes that much easier). Both Glenn and Jeromy are much better at this, and they are reaping the rewards.

    As I said the other night to Apo on BreeFM, I think lg15 has to be in trouble. The view counts are way down, and that can't be good for whatever financial arrangments they have. This vibrant community which revolves around lg15 is not going to survive if lg15 turns out the light. Like some people get hooked on bingo, or quilting, or hunting, or bookclubs, or myspace, or facebook, or onling gaming, or Second Life, or blogs, or youtube, etc., we got hooked on lg15. Its just "what we do." So if we have the power to save lg15 for the sake of the community, we should. But we can't do it alone.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Milowent speaks sense. :)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Milowent speaks very much sense, as always. :)

    I will say that BK, Cher, and Sparky do amazing jobs with moderating the site/forums and zoey's lgpedia skills are unsurpassed. The problem is that they appear to be working alone without much support or recognition for their hard work (for example, zoey is in desperate need of help with the LGpedia. The community bands together to assist when we can, but most of us have a lot on our plates as is. Maybe if she got more promotion more people would be aware of the problem and help.)

    ReplyDelete
  15. "I think the Creators would benefit overall from interacting more with the community."
    I think that’s one of the ways LG15 started to lose views. The creators promised this innovative "new art form" with all this character interaction but what they gave people was basically a t.v show broadcasted over the internet with limited character interaction.Not to mention the creators limited interaction with the community that supported them so much.

    I mean with redearth88.we talk to the characters everyday, we influence their decisions. We know J and G they are constantly communicating with us in chat, on their radio show etc. And its not just major announcements either some times its just friendly chatting.I think LG15 started out with the promise of this and then failed to deliver.

    The other thing, like most of you have already pointed out, is the website. I miss the comments, I used to be on there a lot but now I can no longer use it. For some reason when they changed it everything on my account got screwed up and I can't fix it. :(


    That combined with continually slow plot lines has turned me from an obsesive refesher/commentor to just a passive viewer. (Mainly through LG15 today because the official LG15 site is bad for my computer)

    ReplyDelete
  16. i don't think i need to voice my concerns in detail - but keeping lg15today ours (belonging to the fans and viewers) is important. I think that's obvious. <3

    ReplyDelete
  17. (side note to my previous post, I mention BK, Cher, Sparky, and Zoey because they are the only people I have had first hand experience with as far as moderators go. I didn't mean to imply anyone else wasn't doing a good job, IMO you all rock for doing such hard work for absolutely 0 dollars ^_^)

    ReplyDelete
  18. I thought the "prime directive" meant that Star Fleet was not supposed to interfere with the development of less advanced civilizations... so maybe this means we should leave the Creators alone, at least until they invent the wheel.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Hey everyone,

    I just want to write a quick note to let you know what's going on with us. I agree with everything you are saying. I'm happy to say that we are finally able to hire people full time. We are seeking developers to build the functionality that you want and that we also want (I've been DYING to do this stuff for the past year also... trust me, it kills me not to have an amazing website). The truth is that we need to make money to survive and we are currently producing two shows in two countries that both take huge amounts of time and money. Anyway, here's what we are doing:

    1) Talking to modelmotion about moving the community blog to the LG15 site (with all the same functionality and NO CENSORSHIP). In addition to the current content, we are hoping to use this blog to tell you more about the show, provide behind-the-scenes info and pictures, cast interviews, and more.

    2) Installing chat. Someone can email me RIGHT NOW ([email protected]) with info about how to put a FREE and EASY IRC chat application on our site.

    3) Interactivity. We have been really bad about having the characters and crew interact with you. This is CRUCIAL to our show so we will be improving that. It's been really hard with our tiny team, but we are doing a few things to fix that.

    Bottom line. LG15 is my entire existence and the community is the MOST IMPORTANT thing about the show. We hear you and we are working now to make improvements.

    Thanks!

    Miles

    ReplyDelete
  20. I havent read what everyone wrote, but lg15today should remain seperatefrom lg15. however I think we should be linked to from the main site, as should several others of the prominent fan creations. Uts probably a very difficult thing to do for legal reasons. but I said what SHOULD be done.

    ReplyDelete
  21. As a huge redearth88 fan, much more than lg15 now, I don't agree, at all, with putting the blog on the lg15 site.

    This blog does a great job of meeting the needs and wants of the community. It should stay off the lg15 site.

    And despite what you say now, no censorship cannot be promised forever. All it will take is one post that an advertiser won't like, and that post is coming down. It is almost ridiculous to think that putting the blog on the site will result in NO CENSORSHIP. Also, you may not own lg15 forever. Even if you say, as unbelievable as it is, that lg15 will not censor the blog, new ownership later down the line might.

    Also, anything good ever said about lg15 will be viewed through the prism of "of course they are writing good about lg15. They are controlled by lg15 now." Censorship, real or perceived, will grealty hurt the credibility of the blog, and make its point useless. That applies to about anything. Less coverage of other series (redearth88, as well as others) will also be viewed as "well, of course, they are not covering those as much anymore." The day that this blog is put on the lg15 site is the day the credibility of this blog is shot.

    Please create your own blog for the lg15 site. Leave this one alone.

    As far as points 2 and 3, God bless, go forward.

    ReplyDelete
  22. i agree with V9000, #2 and #3 have at it. merging lg15today into an official blog, i'm not sure that is a good idea.

    now, if lg15.com had social networking features that allowed any community members to make unofficial blogs viewable through lg15.com, that would be different, i think. lg15today would still be unofficial, but hosted via lg15.com. and anyone else who wanted to blog could as well.

    these are very quick thoughts.

    ReplyDelete
  23. How about this site stays seperate as it is but LG15.com have a link to it on the front page?

    ReplyDelete




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