Number 500?
FROM THE SUPER-SECRET UNDERGROUND BUNKER
WORLD HEADQUARTERS
Ol’ Harry Mudd wasn’t happy to see Number 500, but we sure are!
[Go look it up. I’ll wait…]
November was another record-setting month for us, on a number of levels. Most notably, we surpassed 6,000 views this month. Now, in the grand scheme of things (and compared to some other sites), that may not sound like a lot. It’s certainly not 100,000 per day like some sites. But it’s a process, and our traffic has been steadily climbing every month for a year.
Early in 2009, the Sci Fi Channel announced its decision to change its name to Syfy, with the new slogan “Imagine Greater”. This promptly drew ridicule, frustration, and consternation from the general population of the sf community, and many’s the comment I read and heard, decrying the decision as yet further proof that the network was moving away from the core audience that had contributed to its success for 17 years.
Now, we’ve since seen that’s not quite the cas,e as Syfy has continued to produce those *ahem* wonderful Saturday Night movies, and has invested in shows like “Eureka”, “Caprica”, “Warehouse 13”, “Alphas”, “Being Human”, “Sanctuary” and “Stargate: Universe”. And even though some of those shows didn’t have a long shelf life, Syfy continues to put together some decent programming that counters the wrestling… just enough. And their strategy seems to be working, as they’ve had ratings gains across the board all year.
But many folks have gotten tired and frustrated. And a lot of them were talking about a “pure science fiction” channel. Like Sci Fi Channel used to be in the early days. And I thought to myself, “Here’s an opportunity.”
I started SciFi4Me.com in March 2009, and the 1.0 iteration limped along with help from a few folks, but mostly just me trying to make a go of it and doing my best to keep things updated on a regular basis. After several twists and turns and the loss of a hosting server, I had to re-think things, and I’m so glad I’ve been able to get my head around this WordPress thing. SciFi4Me.com 2.0 has been running rings around the old site.
As I stated in the anniversary message, it has a lot to do with the many volunteers who have helped get this thing going since 2009. So, I want to take a moment – as November closes out – to thank them:
Molly Montgomery, Debbie Bell, Jessica Bohl, Annaleigh Josephs, Danielle Dodson, Brynne Copping, Maia Ades, Liz Nelson, Jessi Arntz, Kylie Kaye, Jo Ades, Christopher Oliver, Kevin Bingham, Kevin Dilmore, Toby Tolbert, Tim Rowe, Timothy Harvey, Dustin Adair, Curtis Smith, Louie Pearlman, Andy Schneeflock, Chris Jensen, Justin Fah, Al Hunt, James Hunt, Nick Burtner, Milo Daub, Chris Hager, Garret Ades, Mike Ducey, Dwen Doggett, E. J. Irish, Daniel Handley, Tom Sharp, David Parsons, Jason Cauveren…
… and Mrs. Hunt, my wife Toi, who keeps putting up with this while we sit and watch “Once Upon a Time” each week.
[I hope I didn’t miss anyone…]
One of the goals I’ve had from the start is to have a site that provides a portal to all things sf/f – news, reviews, recaps, interviews, previews, events, original fiction, classic literature, and at some point, even movies and TV shows. Think Hulu + io9 + MTV News + your local library, and you get an idea of what I had in mind. And we’re partially there. In the old site, we had a few public domain movies (such as the original Dawn of the Dead and Nosferatu), and in this version of the site, the library is still around. The movie theater is closed at the moment, but eventually I hope for it to make a grand re-entry.
In the meantime, we continue to work toward a bigger and better SciFi4Me.com. Coming up in 2012: a new show focused on the comic book industry, continued recaps of the current shows, plus recaps of “Being Human” and “Lost Girl”, more movie and book reviews, more interviews, convention coverage, and a few surprises. In the meantime, thank you for visiting. Don’t forget to connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
Share us with your friends. Inflict us on your enemies.
JPH
