Forum / Why Is Fictionaut Still Beta?

Henry Standing Bear
Dec 16, 12:02pm

Me thinks the fact that Fictionaut is still in beta (a term I'm not entirely sure I understand) may be part of the reason there has been little growth.

Now, I'm not trying to get anybody's hackles up, just saying.

Am I right in saying beta essentially means something like a testing phase? If so, I think the stats are probably in, since this site has been up now some six or seven years. At this point, I'm a bit unclear in general. I can't figure out what the site owner's goals are, not that I'm entitled to such knowledge, but still.

There are a fairly good number of ads here, I notice. That means revenue is coming in. Probably not a lot, but some. Was there a larger plan in the beginning and then things leveled off and the site now exists for the few hundred or so people who made it in before invites became some kind of idle mystery? That and maybe to function as an online billboard for businesses to sale to consumers?

I hope not.

Now, there's going to be some who will maybe question why I care. I don't visit here as much as I once did, I read less, I post my own work even less than that, but for whatever reason (and I believe seeing the site's potential sitting stagnant to be one at least) I do care.

At the end of the day the owner or owners will do what they will, and that's okay. I'm just one member who is asking a few questions. I don't even need them answered, to be honest. More than anything, I hope others here will begin to ask the same questions. Questions like: Is this an exclusive, ongoing, self-managed writing club? If so, that's great. However, if it was meant to be more (and I believe it could be, or at least could have been) then why aren't steps being taken to make that possible? As a member since 2009, I'm just looking for a little clarity and hoping to urge others to do the same.

James Lloyd Davis
Dec 16, 12:36pm

Long time lover of Fictionaut, I've left and returned many times, but recently began to lose interest altogether. It's a great concept and a fine venue for writers, especially with its focused membership, but if no one is going to keep the place running and functions are allowed to degrade, why bother?

Henry Standing Bear
Dec 16, 01:57pm

I feel what you're saying, James. I posted this short post to Facebook as well and Fauth said he had a lot to say about it, but that he wouldn't be able to get to it until after the weekend. So maybe he has some kind of answer?

I realize some folks here rather like the invite only situation, saying it keeps down riffraff, and that's maybe a valid point, but I can't help but think it would have wider spread interest if it weren't. When I posted to FB I felt the need to explain what Fictionaut was because most of my friends there don't really know anything about it. It just seems needless and sad for that to be the case.

Mathew Paust
Dec 18, 05:22pm

I like the screening device. As an alumnus of the free-for-all scrum of Open Salon (before Salon stopped all new memberships) I've seen more than my share of trolls and spam clogging up the works. For me, Fictionaut is fine this way.

David Ackley
Dec 18, 08:35pm

I think when we had a version of this thread some months ago, there was agreement that fixing the invitation function would provide the new blood which would help revive the site. It was fixed and then it broke again(pardon the technospeak) so little has been gained except for the welcome few who made it in under the wire. Meanwhile there has been more attrition( though some welcome returnees like John Riley.)I would hate to see Fictionaut fade away, but you have to worry when the fixes don't take and it's deja vu all over again.

Mathew Paust
Dec 19, 05:08pm

Didn't know the invitation function was broken. Shouldn't be that hard to fix.

Robert Vaughan
Dec 19, 10:45pm

I'd mentioned this to Jurgen over a month ago (via Facebook) and he said he'd let the other fellow know. Still the invites are not working. Bummer!

Letitia Coyne
Dec 20, 12:17pm

I'll just leave this here; from the last year only.

http://fictionaut.com/forums/general/threads/2892

http://fictionaut.com/forums/general/threads/2942

http://fictionaut.com/forums/general/threads/3029

http://fictionaut.com/forums/general/threads/3126

http://fictionaut.com/forums/general/threads/3099

http://fictionaut.com/forums/general/threads/3131

http://fictionaut.com/forums/general/threads/3098

http://fictionaut.com/forums/general/threads/3136

http://fictionaut.com/forums/general/threads/3164

http://fictionaut.com/forums/general/threads/3251

http://fictionaut.com/forums/general/threads/3253

http://fictionaut.com/forums/general/threads/3261

http://fictionaut.com/forums/general/threads/3282

Lxx

Sam Rasnake
Dec 20, 01:11pm

Thanks, Letitia.

Sandy Ebner
Dec 20, 07:00pm

Yes, Letitia, this speaks volumes. No disrespect to Jurgen, but if a company anywhere in the world was run this way the entire IT department would have been fired long ago.

Did I just say that out loud?

Ann Bogle
Dec 20, 08:04pm

Letitia, that is some relevant and certainly somewhat time-consuming research. Thank you!

I feel the site is less pulsing with energy—the energy of writers eager to share and eager to participate as readers.

Recently, I have unaccountably begun to write notes on Facebook that involve a clearer style than the rather cryptic style I had pursued in writing prose poetry on Fictionaut.

My main training was in fiction writing, yet I barely undertake it, and when I do, I am reassured to see that I still can write fiction.

Revenue is an issue, yet a real writer will pursue writing even without that, and a real writer will go toward the pulse, as I perceive it.

Nevertheless, as I have typed elsewhere in forum threads, I love and stand by the beauties of this site, its page design, its view counter, its archive, its ability to house our writings, its use in giving a central place for readers to find the works of poets and writers housed in journals online, among its chief benefits. And perhaps most important, the community of writers we first met here.

Letitia Coyne
Dec 21, 01:12am

It actually only took a moment to go back 20 pages and scan each one for a related subject. I remember there were more discussion threads on the subject, but if they started off under another heading I will not have seen them. It is just the same discussion over and over, anyway.

I have this weeks Editors' Eye ready to go into Gary today, and I make the same point you make here, Ann. So much life has gone out of the site; it's become an echo chamber and that is very sad. And writers write. True. And I don't write anymore, so I'm off.

It is ironic that for all the commotion it caused and the hurtful tone of the comments, Matt's words have been a catalyst for you to move into more accessible fiction writing again. That is a very good thing.

And it is good that you are among the brilliant stalwarts who have been here for years and have not given up and gone home as have so many others.

Lxx

Carol Reid
Dec 21, 02:15am

My impression is that Fictionaut was originally put together to provide a forum for writers to get more reads on work published elsewhere on the internet.

Most of us are expected to take charge of our own publicity and marketing now and Fictionaut was a place to say "read me here" or "here's a bit of my work, hope you want more".

Then a sort of stasis took hold. The reality is that few of us get to experience the next level of success.I think of that stasis as a sort of "beta".

Most of us here have other aspects of our writing life- in my case, technical writing to pay the bills, fiction editor at a journal, critiquing friends' work, collaborative projects, as well as my own creative projects. There have been a good number of writers here I'm very glad to have "met" but...I'm not sure what. I'm not sure what I have to give to this place. Hoping for renewed energy with the new year. But I don't think that any more renovation will be done to Fictionaut. This is what we have to work with for the foreseeable future, I think.

Henry Standing Bear
Dec 21, 12:42pm

I believe you're right, Carol. I posted this to FB as well and Fauth was quick to respond, agreeing with me in part and saying he a lot to say about the subject but wouldn't be able to until later on. He asked if I would tag Carson in the post and I didn't have Carson as a friend so I sent a request but haven't heard anything from him. That thread post at FB went pretty much dead after that day, so I think you're right. This is what we have for now. And folks will make that work for them in whatever way they can and that'll be good. But my main reason for posting this thread originally was the advertisements. I just happened one day to notice the ads on here more than usual and it got me started thinking about how much it takes to run this site. My answer, considering it's pretty well just floating along on its own, was that it probably didn't cost that much. Now I'm not sure and could be wrong, but my next thought was, "Man there's seems to be a pretty good number of ads up here and that means at least some money for the owners so what about all that?" So, let me be clear in saying this was my core thought when posting. I second most everyone here in saying something's gone stagnant and that makes me sort of sad, but I'm really just wondering about the ads. At the end of it all, enough people here (such as you Matthew and that's awesome) really just dig the hell out of how it is here presently that whatever money they're getting from the ads is payment enough for giving folks a site they enjoy, no matter what my thoughts are on it, maybe. I'll tell you, though, as a final thought from this end, it feels like the site was started with some degree of excitement and then the owners seemed to have grown bored when the shine wore off and sort of abandoned ship, to a degree. And that's really fine I guess if enough people are into it and cruise control keeps working for them.

James Claffey
Dec 22, 10:56pm

Another space for our cries to go out into and echo back to us. Dying. Dying. Dying. Still trying.

Gary Hardaway
Dec 23, 02:52am

I would like to have the email function working again which provides the notifications I enjoy and, it seems, the ability to invite people to join groups, public and private, and the FN community in general. I don't understand the operations of a website enough to have a full grasp of the technical challenges site maintenance and repair pose. I don't pay anything toward perfecting and sustaining Fictionaut, however, other than my attendance and attention to the work on offer. All I can pay is attention.

However, Fictionaut is of great value to me as a writer, a reader, and a cautiously social creature. If it were to disappear, I would be much poorer.

Jürgen Fauth
Dec 23, 02:05pm

Hey all — Carson and I hear you loud and clear, and the short version is simply a lack of resources. We still love the site and have lots of plans for what should come next, but the truth of the matter is that the lion's share of the ad income is eaten up by server costs and neither one of us has a lot of time to spare at the moment. We're doing what we can to keep Fictionaut running and make improvements.

For those interested in discussing this in more detail and perhaps offering their own suggestions & ideas, I've created a Facebook Group you're very much invited to join: https://www.facebook.com/groups/562814007195304/

Happy holidays!

Gary Hardaway
Dec 23, 05:48pm

Thanks, Jurgen.
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