Is the Story Hour Forum on Life Support?

Wisdom Penalty · Apr 18, 2005

so...im a poll virgin, but here we go:

the story hour board here at ENW has always been one of my favourites. yet, IMO, the number of very good quality threads has been lessening for some time. now it appears that we're on life support.

a lot of the Big Names* that first attracted me to this corner of ENW have either ended their story hours, or update once per presidential election. not only does this upset readers (like myself), but i think it actually harms the numberless hordes of story hour authors trying to garner a bit of attention.

i know, i know - there are exceptions (one look no further than piratecat). but i claim this is the exception, not the rule.

* by way of example, im referring to piratecat, wulf ratbane, sepulchrave, destan, contact, capellan, old drew id, and jonrog1. these may not be your big names (and they may not be mine, personally), but they are the ones that seem to have/had garnered the most press/page views/posts/reader loyalty.

so there's my chicken dinner. how do you feel? and why?

Lazybones · Apr 19, 2005

I don't have time to read many SHs these days, and some folks have clearly dropped off the map (sep's fans in particular seem to be holding a candlelight vigil outside his darkened window). But I've still found lots of great stories to keep me entertained. I've found a few that I've looked at and said, "meh," but for the most part, almost every thread I've read here has had good elements. If only my work hadn't started blocking ENWorld, I'd still be a frequent reader... as it is, I've started DLing whole threads to my USB drive to sneak in and read when things get slow.

My own SH slides to page 2 every now and then, and I update almost every day. So clearly there's still activity going on here, or at least people bumping threads. I know concepts like "very good quality" are subjective, but it still seems like a pretty vibrant place IMO.

pogre · Apr 19, 2005

I think a couple of authors who update regularly deserve a read judging by your big names list:
Herreman the Wise's Story Hour

Other story hours like mortepierre's, BLACKDIRGE's Metamorphis, and EternalNewbie's Alqarin have not been updated recently, but are well worth a read.

There are others that are fun or interesting, but these are all well written and well worth anyone's time.

A couple of the authors you mention have finished their main story hours. Wulf for instance is done, and given his workload is not likely to pick it up again.

As for Sepulchrave II, well sadly he seems to have just burned out - too high of self-imposed standards I fear. He's still cruises around the boards, but he seems unable to continue posting.

Ankh-Morpork Guard · Apr 19, 2005

Bah, this forum's fine. There are many, many more good stories out there NOT written by the 'big names'. Its kind of sad, though, that some of them have trouble attracting readers because they don't have the right username.

I know my Story Hour's doing just fine. I've got at least 10-15 readers, likely a good amount more who don't comment(from the look of pageviews) and I update (usually) daily.

I honestly think that people shouldn't just go for the 'big name' Story Hours and try some of the other ones...even if they are new and not as long.

Wisdom Penalty · Apr 19, 2005

Ankh-Morpork Guard said:
There are many, many more good stories out there NOT written by the 'big names'. Its kind of sad, though, that some of them have trouble attracting readers because they don't have the right username.

well, i dont deny that. ive read some of the less heralded story hours, some of which pogre mentioned. and i enjoyed them. (and enjoyed pogre's tpk thread, but havent started his new one.)

but remember - those big name story hours (and i already dislike the term i used, but wasnt sure how else to categorize them) didn't get their readers because of their name...they got their readers because they wrote damn good stories.

and THEN they got their name.

that's not 'sad' - that's just the way it is in any free market from story hours to soda pop.

W.P., who remembers a little bit from econ 101

Ankh-Morpork Guard · Apr 19, 2005

Wisdom Penalty said:
but remember - those big name story hours (and i already dislike the term i used, but wasnt sure how else to categorize them) didn't get their readers because of their name...they got their readers because they wrote damn good stories.

and THEN they got their name.

Oh, I know.

I've read all of them, and loved them, too.

Guess I'm still remembering the thread a couple months back with people talking about not reading Story Hours not by the 'big names' or just because they didn't have a certain amount of pages. I think the page thing bugs me the most, as the big reason that the big name Story Hours have so many pages is from comments, not updates.

I know I've only got a few comments here and there, so my 7 pages worth is nearly all updates. And I believe I've actually got MORE written than in Piratecat's SH(as he mentioned reaching 300k words a couple months back, and I've been well beyond that for a while).

I've found that the best thing to do is just randomly click on one you haven't read before and give it a try. I've found very, very few Story Hour's that aren't worth reading.

megamania · Apr 19, 2005

I would like to think reader's like my stuff but who knows. I know I am not as poular as Pcat which sometimes gets to me until I remember WHY I'm doing the 3-4 storyhours that I do. I do it to create. Push comes to shove, it dosen't matter if I have steady readers. I would like to think I do but few reply or comment.

What I have noticed in the pass year is a lot of specific adventures. Clearly Eberron, Darksun or Forgotten Realms. There are fewer 'generic' ones.

If I do have readers that follow my stuff it's because of the odd and sometimes rough sense of humor I use. Most readers I assume are not for this type of dark humor. My storyhours are also more psychological than action. I like to explain / explore what the PCs are thinking and and how they react to it.

Very Stylized thus createing a narrow area of interest. Thus fewer readers.

I currently do 3-4 storyhours. One I update at least once a week. Others can go 6 weeks without an update. I am strongly considering maintaining The Creation Schema and then decide on only ONE storyhour to concentrate on. Quality vs quanity.

But enough about myself-

What "less popular" Storyhours are out there that deserve more attention? Pogre mentioned some. Any others?

Enkhidu · Apr 19, 2005

Is it time for another "Pimp your favorite SH with less than 10K views" thread again?

Destan · Apr 19, 2005

Better.

I think there are more stories of higher quality now than there have been since I first started lurking (about 2 years ago). That may be simply because I've had the time to check out more threads. The first time I ventured into this area, I hit Piratecat's then Sepulchrave's then Wulf's. Then I started to write my own.

Most of those names you list, Wisdom Penalty, are still writing. Capellan, in particular, has kicked it up a notch. (My fave of his was In Hextor's Name, but to each his own.) I don't see how you could ignore stories that are much older than those you list - Old One's tales and Wizardru's Story Hour come to mind. Those two are grand daddies on this forum. You also have diaglo, rel, and barsoom. I like Funeris' Valus thread (I'm biased) and EternalNewbie's tale (I'm not biased). I'd mention more names, but I don't want to leave someone out.

The bottom line: If some of the story hours you mention are no longer being updated, I see that as a good thing. It'll force folks to spread out and check out some of the other yarns. That's already happened to me, and I'm glad it did.

D

Shemeska · Apr 19, 2005

I like to think that I've got an audience and that I can tell an interesting story. I just enjoy writing it for fun and telling it to other folks. The first one seems pretty popular, and that's been updated every week almost without fail, and the second storyhour I just started up seems to have attracted a nice chunk of readers too (though it will only be updating about half as much as the first one).

However I can't really say how I compare to those 'big names' that got listed, or how the environment here was a year or so ago. I just know that I stand little chance of getting Pkitty's # of views.