Suggested Fansites (Re: Ideas for fansites I don't have the time to do, but would love to see)

Alright, there are a lot of star wars fan sites out there, ranging from the amazing to the horrible, and from the informative to the rediculous. I personally have a site that does star wars fan comic books and fan D20 material, as well as some short fiction, though the comics are what we try to showcase. Anyway, I just notice that there seem to be a lot of people out there who want to have a star wars fan site, but don't really have any focus for it. I mean, there are probably over 5,000 star wars fan sites that just have a few of the webmaster's fave star wars images and maybe some sound files. While that is all well and good, there are a lot of sites that SHOULD be out there, that arent. So if you are interested in making a star wars fan site, maybe just browse this thread for ideas before making another generic star wars media site (not that there is anything wrong with that).

1.) Obscure character focus sites. I think these are always fun. Granted, they don't do much that your more standard media fan site does already, but they have a unique slant and focus. Some sites that come to mind are the one for the Ice Cream Man, Porkins, and Wedge. However, there would seem to be plenty of popular obscure characters without their own tribute site. Setting up one of these sites is fairly simple, and whats best is that it helps the rest of us out a bit, in that it expands the library of images available on a google image search. These are fairly low maintenance sites once they are set up. I am shocked there arent a ton of these for all of the background characters.

2.) Technical Commentaries. Obviously there IS a site called the star wars technical commentaries, but I dont believe it updates at all anymore. I am surprised someone else didnt pick up the reigns and continue the work that site started. Similarly, there arent really any sites that go into star wars technology and science. The technical commentaries site tried to explain star wars phenomena in real world terms, but there hasnt been a site that examined the galaxy scientifically on its own scientific terms. Either type of site would be welcome. Obviously to make this site work well youd need to know quite a bit about science or engineering or whatever like curtis saxton did, but hey, there has GOT to be a science brain out there who is a hardcore star wars fan.

3.) Mapping sites. Obviously www.nav-computer.com is the best galactic map site on the web. No question. But there isnt really a site that deals with a lot of maps of various planets. I would love to have a site like this that takes what we see in the essential guide to planets and moons and turns that into a map of alderaan. Or a deck by deck map of an imperial star destroyer by combining the technical manual, cross sections, and WEG RPG material. I mean, an Imperial Star Destroyer site with a map like this, images of the interior and exterior, maybe a list of all the named ISDs and their captains, that would be an amazing site in of itself. I am SHOCKED there isnt a site like that out there already. Obviously you need a bit of artistic/photoshop talent to pull off a site like this, plus quite a bit of reference material, but still, seems like there should be at least 1-2 more mapping sites out there.

4.) Holonet News. They don't do the holonet news anymore in the insider or online, so I am surprised someone hasnt cloned the site and created their own holonet news/Imperial holovision. Its like a new twist on a fan fic site/fake news site. Where are my daily show/colbert report fans? Again, shocked this isnt already done.

5.) CGI animated or traditional animated adaptations. Granted, this isnt something anyone can do, itd take a team of people. But how awesome would it be to have an animated adaptation of the thrawn trilogy, or some of the clone wars novels or even comics. There are quite a few animated features in the fan films section of TFN, Im surprised none of those groups thought to adapt their fave star wars novel or comic or even video game. H

 

Note: Here's a thread you might wish to read. It's at the top of this forum as a sticky.

 

That thread is for suggesting things to do with the fan site FORUM. I am suggesting things to do as fan sites themselves. Not sure this thread would incorporate into that one very nicely.

 

This is good stuff - thanks for posting all these ideas! Makes me want to go create a bunch of sites.

 

Check mine out. Make sure to check out the Expanded Universe board and the Star Wars Vault board.

http://rebelslair.proboards83.com/index.cgi

 

Hrm, well I checked out your site, and I have to say, this is exactly the kind of thing I am talking about. You spent a lot of time setting up a forums that, in all liklihood, won't ever catch on. I mean, if a forum site is what you want to make, thats great. I wish you all the luck in the world, but this thread is designed specifically to give guys like you inspiration to create a site that actually contributes something new to the community, instead of duplicating efforts. There are tons of EU forums out there already, and TFN, YouTube and the official site tend to cover any star wars video that one might wish to download online.

The bottom line is that beyond YOU, your site provides absolutely nothing to the star wars fan community that they cant get somewhere else already. I mean, I am all for having a forum ON your site, but making the forum the focus of the site wont usually yield much in the way of positive results. I'm not trying to troll or flame you or whatever, just provide some sobering criticism. If people want to talk about the EU, there are forums on the official site, TFN, Dark Horse Comics, and LucasArts, as well as a dozen other locations.

Your site has a disturbing lack of something approaching a unique angle or slant to carve out a niche visitorship. My advice would be to pick a much more specific theme and reevaluate what your goals are with a star wars fan site, and then put together a semi-realistic plan and execute. I believe that in order to have a successful star wars fan site, you need to offer your visitors something that they either can't get anywhere else at all, or get all in one location, or get in as user friendly a fashion. Forum sites are at a particular disadvantage in that their success is typically measured in member activity/member count and post quality. I hope my comments are taken in the constructive spirit they are being offered. I was really hoping to click on your link and see something totally new and unique.

 

^ That wasn't very nice. lol

I'm just doing it for fun. I don't want to give my life to it.

 

Understandable, and I am sorry. But did you read the first post in this thread before posting on it? The thread specifically is about creating alternatives to just making another forum site or media download site, and you posted a link to another forum site. If I just said "nice job" it would have gone against everything I had just said three posts up.

 

Alrighty, then. I was only suggesting a thread, and going by a thread in Comms which gave me that impression. I guess you weren't that poster after all.

 

This is what I really appreciate about this thread - it's nice to see efforts to make a positive difference in fan-created sites from a constructive standpoint. Keep up the good work.

 

5.) CGI animated or traditional animated adaptations. Granted, this isnt something anyone can do, itd take a team of people. But how awesome would it be to have an animated adaptation of the thrawn trilogy, or some of the clone wars novels or even comics. There are quite a few animated features in the fan films section of TFN, Im surprised none of those groups thought to adapt their fave star wars novel or comic or even video game. Honestly? If someone played through lets say, KOTOR, or Republic Commando and recorded it, and edited it down so it was more like just watching one long cut scene, I'd watch that. Not sure of the legality of that, but itd be fairly easy to do, and entertaining for people who dont have the time to play through a game but want the story of it.


Firstly, look in the fanfilms forum. Kaydon_sentry is already nearing completion of his video version of KOTOR.

Secondly; I like this. I always wanted to see the Thrawn trilogy, Dark Empire Saga or Shadows of the empire in video formats or even CG. Heck, even a cartoon (NOT in the style of cartoon networks' clone wars though) would set me off. I was thinking of writing a screenplay for Shadows, but as I have NO resources whatsoever to pull off a stunt like that, I decided to leave it be.
This post of yours, however, might spawn some movies like this.

Thanks, Nar!

 

Well, let me just say that we have our first person actually making a site because of this thread. I cloned this post over at sw.com on my blog to reach out to more fans. ARCTrooper46 has decided to make a Baron Papanoida tribute site as a result, so congrats to him!

Make sure to check his site out here:

http://www.geocities.com/soysauce357/

Sometime next week he says the basic site should be up!

Good luck trooper!

 

In an extension of the ideas presented in this thread, I wrote this enourmous blog about the state of star wars fandom online at the official star wars site's blogs. Give it a look through and leave a comment!

http://blogs.starwars.com/KeithKappel/11

I present a few fairly radical ideas, but I am curious what everyone thinks.

 

I have a few sites dedicated to some EU characters -- as well as a "holozine" a couple of my friends and I put together that takes place during the Legacy era. They're all a lot of fun to keep up with. I really like the idea behind this thread too -- I'd love to see more sites like the ones you listed. Great idea! ^_^

 

battlegroupllc.com forums has star wars technical thread. They are attempting to create a standard for people to use when making games movies or fiction. Whats being done is registerd users at the forum can contribute there ideas to this project. Then a delegate from other sites such of this can be appointed. When a enough data is gathered a site will be errected detialing the information. Where there are unresloved disputes the delegates will vote on wich direction to take.

An example kind of a given sure but just to make thisng clear.

TIE Fighter shields. They are in the TI Fighter PC games but nowhere else. So theyd be out of the final commentary. again just a quick and easy example.

 

My site has a lot of the things you mentioned. Give it a spin. It is called Galactic Voyage. Enjoy!

 

www.sequel-trilogy.net

I can honestly say that I have never seen anyone other than myself put so much effort into creating an Alternative Star Wars Saga, let alone an Expanded Universe and backstory for it.

 

Well, this didnt have quite nearly the impact I had hoped it would.

 

Are you referring to the thread or a website? If you mean the thread, then I agree. This board needs to be advertised better to attract more members over here.

 

The thread. Your site is a neat infinities fan fiction site. Stuff designed to be infinities isnt my particular cup of tea, but I can still respect it for what it is. The site layout itself is very slick. Im just one of those continuity freaks that would rather read something that fits in with existing continuity instead of replacing it, but thats certainly not for everyone either. I will say this, its not a forum site, so it immediately gets a huge thumbs up in my book lol.

 

While I can't speak for others here, your persistence and "community spirit" in this forum has encouraged me quite a bit over the past few months. Now I don't have any new sites to show off right now, but I've kept several in the works that I would have set down indefinitely if not for the way you presented your ideas and encouragement in this thread. So I guess for me I see it as a success - kudos to you for sticking with it and doing a great job with your site as well!