Going Dark on the Web: a Thank You and a New Plan

When the Sci Fi Channel changed its brand to Syfy, I saw an opportunity. Why not try to develop a web site that could eventually be a new type of Sci Fi Channel? A site that delivered news content along with original programming.

And SciFi4Me was born in March 2009.

Now, it’s not exactly worked out that way, of course. The realities of reality being what they are, SciFi4Me has evolved and grown in certain directions based on available resources and opportunities. We’ve had a lot of good ones, but we’ve also had some challenges along the way. It’s to be expected that any new venture has hiccups and detours.

So here we are over eight years later, and I’ll be frank: we’re not where I would have thought we’d be at this point. I figured that we’d have advertisers, a few podcast sponsors… but when 95% of your traffic is from bots, it’s time to re-evaluate.

 

It’s been a pretty incredible experience all around. We’ve been able to do some cool things. We’ve met Jedi, Sith, Captains, superheroes, Hobbits, bounty hunters, aliens, and Doctors. We’ve interviewed so many celebrities, it’s hard to count them all. We’ve met comics creators at the beginning of their careers, and now they’re at Marvel and DC.

Maia shared a stage with Sean Astin. Dustin and Molly toured the set of Teen Wolf. Dave interviewed Lois McMaster Bujold. Tim made David Brin late to his own panel. We’re the first and only site to cover the entire week of Worldcon live. We spent a couple of hours with Alan Dean Foster. The voice of Yoda does our sounders. We have one of the largest listings of conventions anywhere, and we’re the only site with the weather to go along with them.

Mindy stalked George R.R. Martin. Laura’s review is quoted on the official poster for Devil’s Gate. Louie and Andy got to meet Kevin Conroy and Andrea Romano. Jen cosplayed as Debbie’s ThinkGeek monkey in a SciFi4Me shirt. Maria got to interview Aaron Stanford. Sonya got to record a season recap on board a retired US Navy battleship. We were live at the first lightsaber Guinness World Record attempt. We’ve interviewed the Bionic Woman and The Six Million Dollar Man, Buck Rogers and Wilma Deering, Supergirl and Lois Lane, The Man in Black and the Green Arrow.

And I got to sit on the bridge of the starship Enterprise.

 

SciFi4Me and Horror4Me will stand down today, November 1, 2017. We’ll deliver a curated list of links to news from around the Internet (think Drudge Report for genre). Certain shows will continue: Salacious Crumbs, Tribble Bytes, and Zombpocalypse Now. But for the most part, we won’t be generating much of our own original content anymore.

 

I want to thank everyone who made this last as long as it has:

Dustin Adair, Garrett Ades, Maia Ades, Maggie Ades, Jessi Arntz, David Baker, Zachary Barash, Debbie Bell, Raul Bravo-Arizmendi, Nick Burtner, Alex Callahan, John Clark, Brie Clemons, Jordan Claussen, Brynne Copping, Kate Cummings, Milo Daub, Kevin Dilmore, Devin Dodd, Dwen Doggett, Hope Donoghue, Andrea Dover, Jacob Elyachar, Brandon Engel, Kiri Evins, Gena Ford, Maria Foss, Heather French, Dustin Gaito, Lauren Garrison, Ayla Glass, Allyson Gronowitz, Joslin Granados, Dan Green, Chris Hager, Dan Handley, Craig Hart, Tim Harvey, Jeff Hackworth, Krystal Heib, Amanda Hemminsen, Brie Henderson, Matt Hentges, John Holloway, Cassie Hoppas, Jessica Horner, James Hunt, Toi Hunt, Micah Husereaux, Kim Igla, Eric Inlow, Mindy Inlow, Allison Isberg, Chris Jensen, Max Jolly, Rusty Jones, Annaleigh Josephs, Angel Jurd, Kevin Kraft, Peter Krievins, Ann Laabs, Blaise Lapinski, Elle Latham, Michelle Le, Travion Leaphart, Felicia Likiardopolous, Kevin Lim, Marie Lim, Kelly Luck, Dave Margosian, Steven Martinez, Nathan May, Jay McDowell, Rina Mehta, Jace Milam, Molly Montgomery, Rachael Mueller, Laura Nadler, Liz Nelson, Paul Newton, David Parsons, Louie Pearlman, Chris Oliver, Riley Oregard, Lindsey Peavler, John Popham, Willow Polson, Christopher Preyer, Mackenna Riley, Aaron Rodgers, Savannah Rodgers, Sonya Rodriguez, Kathryn Sanders, Dorin Schadel, Caroline Scarbrough, Andy Schneeflock, Kevin Schumm, Sam Sentman, Kammie Settle, Will Settle, Tom Sharp, Casey Shreve, Shea Singleton, Kendal Sinn, Curtis Smith, Cat Spiller, Jennifer Stoeber, Brooke Summerlin, Robert Suske, Angie Fiedler Sutton, Casey Taylor, Toby Tolbert, Thomas Townley, Will Tramp, Alley Ulrich, Leslie Walker, Teresa Wickersham, Erik Williams, Jordan Williams, Sarah Williams, Carolyn Wise, Jennifer Wise.

 

Thanks to Jim Cavanaugh for giving us a place to shoot Comic Con Carne. You will be sorely missed.

 

Thanks to Bryan Busby for providing our weekly weather forecasts.

Thanks to Micah Dwire and the gang at Superhero Stuff.

Thanks to Zach and Erica at Atomic Cotton. They make cool t-shirts.

Thanks to Steve Davidson and Amazing Stories magazine.

Thanks to Midwest Engraving for working on the mugs and our microphone cubes.

Thanks to Brian Short and the gang at TV25 for helping us with the live event coverage.

Thanks to Planet Comicon (x9), Dallas Comic-Con, San Diego Comic-Con, Dragon*Con, Fan Days, Osfest, Tulsa Comic-Con, Slash ‘N Bash, Wizard World St. Louis, Wizard World Indianapolis, Emerald City Comic-Con, Con X, Free State Comic-Con, Gl!tchCon, Smallville Comic-Con (x4), Fright Night Film Festival, New York Comic-Con, Naka-Kon, Walker Stalker Con, Star Wars Celebration, Tokyo in Tulsa, Cosplacon, Texas Comic Fest, RealmsCon, Fan Expo Dallas, Wizard World Tulsa, CONVergence, Figments & Filaments, SoonerCon, Kansas City Comic Con, RTX, Armageddon Expo, and the World Science Fiction Convention at MidAmeriCon II. I’m sure I’ve missed a few…

 

Thanks especially to Tom Kane for lending his voice to our podcasts and video productions.

 

Thanks to our show guests and those who sat for interviews and panels:

Jason Aaron, Neal Adams, Brad Aiken, Dawn Alden, Quincy J. Allen, Axel Alonso, Stephen Amell, Paul Amos, Kevin J. Anderson, Alina Andrei, Jason Arnett, Daphne Ashbrooke, Shawn Ashmore, James Asmus, Sean Astin, Colin Baker, Troy Baker, Adrienne Barbeau, Terry Beatty, Isaac Bell, Jackie Beucher, Moon Bloodgood, David Boop, Carley Bossmeyer & Brandy Tidwell, David Brin, Michael Brockhoff, Lois McMaster Bujold, Jeremy Bulloch, David John Butler, Erin Cahill, Kerry Callen, Steve Cardenas, Andrew Cartmel, Norman Cates, Thomas K. Carpenter, Roger Cartmel, Adam-Troy Castro, Rob Caswell, Jerry Chevalier, Eric Choi, Ernie Cline, Claire Coffee, Kevin Conroy, C.W. Cooke, Brenda Cooper, Maia & Luna Cooper, Joe Correney, Greg Cox, A.R. Crebs, A.C. Crispin, Denise Crosby, Alexis Cruz, Chris Curtis, Abby Dark Star, David Dastmalchian, Ellen Datlow, Walter Day, John De Lancie, Kevin Dilmore, Colleen Doran, Sarah Douglas, Robin Dunne, David Dyer-Bennet, Chloe Dykstra, Linda Eaves, Ashley Eckstein, Erika Eleniak, Wendy Elliott, Cary Elwes, Giancarlo Esposito, Rhonda Eudaly, Bill Farmer, Jason Faunt, Bill Fawcett, Jeffrey Fellin, Joe Field, Darren Paul Fisher, Leah Fisher, Eric Flint, Phil & Kaja Foglio, Alan Dean Foster, Cassidy Freeman, David Fuentes, Steven Fuller, Mira Furlan, Dora Furlong, Steve Gaalema, Gil Gerard, David Gerrold, Dave Gibbons, Ryan Glitch, Katie George, Daniel Gooden, Derek Guiley and David Schneiderman, Erin Gray, Alex Grecian, David Greenwalt & Jim Kouf, The Guild cast, Joel Gwidt, Jukka Halme, Larry Hama, Alyssa Hamilton, Cully Hamner, James Hampton, Basil & George Harris, Charlaine Harris, Alex Haughey, Matt Hebert, Randy Henderson, Grady Hendrix, Carrie Henn, Elden Hensen, Brian Herbert, Mike Hewlitt, Torri Higginson, Katrina Hill, Laurel Anne Hill, Jeff Hirsch, Kris Holden-Ried, Dennis Hopeless, Thomas Hotka, Huston Huddleston, Alaina Huffman, Adam Hughes, Elizabeth Anne Hull, Manu Intiraymi, David Iskra, Bascomb James, Georges Jeanty, Richard Jeffries, Lisa Jensen, Neil Johnson, Elizabeth Joseph, Tom Kane, Ken Keller, Danny & Heather Kelley, Margot Kidder, Ivery Kirk & Luna Teague, Mike Klimo, Craig Klotz, Walter Koenig, Clare Kramer, Rob Kroese, Joseph Lallo, Susanne Lambdin, Jason Latour, Miracle Laurie, Katrina Law, Trey & Nancy Laymon, Monika Lee, Erin Lei, Jason Lessler, David Levine, Mark Lewis, Ruth Lichtwardt, Anne Lockhart, Jeph Loeb, Daniel Logan, Tabitha Lord, Stan Love, Nick Lowe, Miles Luna, David Alan Mack, Lee Majors, Eileen Markoff, Kyle Marlett, Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein, Cynthia Martin, Ron Marz, Colleen May, Peter Mayhew, Todd McCaffrey, David McCarty, Sylvester McCoy, Eddie McClintock, Jim McCullough, Darryl “DMC” McDaniels, Jack McDevitt, Vonda N. McIntyre, Ben McKenzie, Christopher McKitterick, Kevin Mellon, Mekenna Melvin, Jessica Merizan, Jerry Milani, Jeremy Moehler, Jackie Mollet, William Moore, Ryan Morrow, Kevin Andrew Murphy, Nate Myles, Zack Myles, Elden Nelson, Mike Nelson, Cara Nicole, Brian Nisbet, Tina Noire, Nolan North, Thaddeus Nowak, David Nykl, Dan O’Brien, Amy Okuda, Peadar O’Guilin, Amanda O’Leary, Jay Oliva, Edward James Olmos, John Ordover, Brandon Paith, Zoie Palmer, Dan Parent, Amy Pascale, Kate Paulk, Seth Peck, Carlos Pedraza, Raymond Peña, Brian W. Peterson, Robert Picardo, Mitch Pileggi, Sarah Pinsker, Scott Quick, Tiff Randol, Fabian Rangel Jr., Jacob Reher, Travis Richey, C.C. Rockenbach, Rod Roddenberry, Hector Rodriguez, Andrea Romano, Denny Roth, Bob Rozakis, Katee Sackhoff, R.A. Salvatore, Chris Samnee, Raphael Sbarge, Bobby Scarbrough, Amanda Schull, David Selby, Kerry Shawcross, Tiffany Shepis, Felix Silla, Don Simon, Marina Sirtis, Rachel Skarsten, Dr. Aeon Skoble, Christian Slade, Helen Slater, Jesse “Blaze” Snyder, Lou Sopher, Gustavo Sorola, Wendy Sparrow, Aaron Stanford, Krystle Starr, Clay Staub, Yale Stewart, George Stockner, Kyle Strahm, Mike Substelny, Junko Takeuchi, Amanda Tapping, Femi Taylor, Tim Taylor, Ben Templesmith, Nikol Terrill, Robin Thorsen, Mark Tiedemann, Bruce Timm, James Tolkan, Andrew Trembly, Todd Tucker, Arlene Tur, Meg Turney, Douglas Van Belle, Kitt Van Hassel, Mandela van Peebles, Laura Vandervoort, Pablo Vasquez, Emmanuelle Vaugier, Milo Ventimiglia, Lindsay Wagner, Mark Walters, Dayton Ward, David Weber, Len Wein, Dan Wells, Jae Byrd Wells, Ming-Na Wen, Zach Whedon, Stefan White, Jane Wiedlin & Bill Morrison, Adrienne Wilkinson, Cam Wilkinson, Erica Williams, Jim Wilson, Renee Witterstaetter, Sam Witwer, Tom D. Wright, Noah Wyle, and Marc Zicree.

Thanks to Thomas and Ray for being the long-haul fans.

I really hope that I haven’t left anyone out, although it’s likely I may have. In the many years we’ve been at this, we’ve crossed paths with so many people who have worked for us and with us and helped us get to this point, and I’ll offer this blanket “Thank You” to anyone I may have accidentally left out.

 

And thanks to you. We appreciate all that you’ve done. Please work to make the future better.