Divided into sections for easy reading!

1) My first gut reaction to the thread was that the list should be put 
down, like Old Yeller, assuming it was Old Yeller who gets put down and 
not some other dog. I hate those sad animal films. Or maybe pushed into 
giant gears. Yeah.

2) On reflection, clearly some people still value the thing, and since 
eliminating it doesn't really benefit anyone except the moderators...

3) That said, yes, it's dying. I can tell you why and I doubt it can be 
fixed, but hey, go nuts trying.

4) In the old days, the list was large, and prospered. Yes, in this 
glorious heydey, dinosaurs roamed the list (but I don't know if John Biles 
is subbed anymore) and wrote reams of Ranma fanfic. This was well and 
proper, since back then that's what people wanted. Supply and demand. It 
worked rather well. In fact it worked so well that anyone subbed to the 
list got upwards of 300 posts a day in their inbox. This was tolerable 
when it consisted of fanfics and criticism thereof. It was less tolerable 
when it was random babble. It is difficult I suspect for those who weren't 
around then to get just how aggravating the volume of traffic was.

5) I know better than most, because I was the very first FFML moderator. 
It was possibly the least enjoyable postion I ever had, and I only took 
the job under the condition that I could remain anonymous and crush all 
dissent with an iron fist (I believe the list owner at the time's reaction 
was "FINALLY"). My strategy was basically to get people to believe the mod 
was a cranky psychotic who would tempban at the drop of a hat, thus 
keeping people from breaking the rules, thus meaning I wouldn't have to 
actually tempban people.

After a while I decided this wasn't viable for the long term, and also 
that I hated the job, and finally that there should be more than one 
person to avoid actual (as opposed to staged) tyranny. So I recruited Gary 
Kleppe and Alan Harnum, stayed on a bit, then retired.

I can't tell you how amazed I am that Gary's still here.

6) That was then and this is now. I still fully endorse the practice of 
tempbanning for personal attacks. I do think off-topic remarks should be 
given more latitude. We cracked down on that because the sheer volume was 
getting unworkable. Sheer volume has not been an FFML problem for a while 
now. Frankly, the list could use more of the general banter that it used 
to have; it made people a bit tighter and more ready to comment.

7) That's not really going to fix anything, though. The main problem is 
that the list has been stuck in the Ranma Fanfic rut for over a decade. 
This was a good spot to be in back in 1996. It's 2006. There is no new 
blood for Ranma. Most of the ideas have been done. Most of the ideas have 
been done 30 times. A list focusing on Ranma fanfic will dwindle and die, 
as indeed the FFML is in the process of doing.

8) But the list isn't just for Ranma! No, but that's what get's posted 
here. But I can post my Zyuyokami 5 fanfic here, and that'll help! No, 
most people have never heard of it, and thus won't read it. Catch 22: the 
list is largely made up of Ranma holdouts, and there's isn't at present 
much of a market here for other series.

9) Then we should diversify and add Harry Potter! Well, this poses two 
problems. If this fails to attract readers, you're back where you started. 
If it DOES, and the list takes off, you have the problem of the old days, 
only worse. The nature of the list, in which every comment is sent to 
everyone's inbox whether they want it or not, limits the effective size of 
the posting population of the list. If Harry Potter fandom ever got onto 
the list in meaningful numbers, frankly I think the thing would collapse. 
That fandom is so much langer than anime was in 1996, and the number of 
people on the net is so much greater... Not to mention the fact that the 
list would basically become, well, a HP list.

This is one of the key reasons ffnet was so successful. You can pick and 
choose. If you only want to read Trigun fanfics, everything else on the 
site isn't delivered to your mailbox.

10) A more 'friendly' review style won't help and isn't particularly 
good. C&C should be polite but pointed. It hurts to have your baby worked 
over by the steak knives of the critic, but welcome to the world of 
writing for a public.

11) I don't think advertising will help much either. This list has been 
around for a long time. It used to hold the dominant position in the anime 
fanfic world. It lost it. Until you fix the reason why it lost it, letting 
people know it's around won't help.

12) Okay, smart guy, so what can be done? Well, there's always giant 
gears... right. I'd suggest the mods ease off a bit on off-topic posts. 
I'd suggest people C&C more (this is a suggestion brought up every year 
and never results in sustained C&C, because a group will never change 
behavior without a carrot or stick.)

But really, I hate to say it, don't think any of that'll work. The list 
isn't dying, at core, because of policy or even really because of 
competition. It's dying because the thing it was founded on has gone 
stagnant, and the old writers and commentators aren't being replaced with 
new ones when they leave or stop writing.

-Mike Loader
(who?)

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