[FFML] A thought on the future of the FFML

[Mythril Moth]

The recent post by Gary Kleppe, and responses to that post, concerning the 
ever-waning post population of the FFML has gotten me thinking.

I believe, and I'm sure many will agree with me, that a large part of the 
reason this community is in the diminished state it's in is because 
interactive technology has outstripped us. Mailing lists as discussion and 
interaction forums are, quite frankly, archaic and inefficient. Writers are 
flocking to Fanfiction.net in droves for this very reason: they're more 
likely to get massive, timely responses, if not necessarily the detailed C&C 
upon which this list was founded, from a web archive with a commenting and 
forum interface than from an e-mail based list.

Most of those remaining here are old-school, having been around since the 
late 90s or so, and few of us are as active now as we have been in the past. 
And that's another part of the equation: the AGE of this list. We were here 
before FF.net existed. We were here before social media existed. We're 
dinosaurs. And it shows in the sharp decline of list traffic. It's not 
likely to get any better.

So we've got three problems: old guard, old list, old tech.

Then we've got the problem that an e-mail based list isn't attracting new 
users because a lot of people don't even want to deal with e-mail anymore. 
iPhones, iPads, and their ilk are encouraging more browser-based, 
app-oriented online behavior, and e-mail is just a thing that's there to be 
there.

This is of course nothing new or shocking to anyone. We all know these are 
the problems we face.

But this is what I've been thinking about:

Do we want to commit ourselves to the preservation of the FFML in its 
original form, and watch it slowly become extinct? Or is there any possible 
room for the notion of evolving the FFML into something more modern? There 
are, of course, some very obvious problems with that concept, but it's a 
thought that needed to be voiced.

I'll leave it to everyone else to discuss this notion, and hopefully this 
will provoke some thoughtful, insightful discussion.  I really think this 
idea has some merit.


==================
Mythril Moth
www.mythrilmoth.net