The Future of CanonWars
Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2014 2:52 pm
So originally, I was going to use CanonWars as a place to house topics on other interests of mine (politics, religion, et cetera), but that never materialized, in part due to the old security concerns ... I blog elsewhere for that.
So, it has basically just been a repository for Star Trek and Star Wars canon policy discussions. In that regard, it was historically successful, to wit:
1. The Information
It delightfully housed the Star Wars canon writings and research, but that's all been ganked now by Wikipedia, with nary an attribution. The same is true of the Star Trek canon information.
Thus, to a large degree, the unique research that I brought to the attention of the world . . . digging up old quotes, locating old remembered snippets, covering new quotes . . . has indeed gone into the world and taken root.
2. Popularity
At one time, CanonWars was the #1 Google hit for Star Trek canon ... now it's on page two somewhere. I don't remember if it was #1 for Star Wars canon, but I'm sure it was up there . . . now I don't see it anywhere (though that's largely because of all the new Disney stuff that's been happening lately).
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So at the moment, it's safe to say that CanonWars is dead. Regarding Star Wars canon, after what EU-philes are calling "the Disneycaust", the need for a canon argument repository seems more than a little minimized. As for Star Trek, other than a big page I have yet to complete regarding the JJ-verse canonicity, there's not much going on there, either.
The way I see it, I have two options.
1. Go Big
Set up a fully-fledged open wiki and perhaps a forum and allow folks to come there to discuss and debate canon policies for a zillion franchises, with my Trek and Wars articles as start points (or just ganking back from Wikipedia as appropriate).
This would have the effect of broadening the focus and thus the appeal and google-ability, but frankly sounds like more than a bit of work and isn't something I'm terribly interested in doing . . . I care rather little for most sci-fi universes.
Besides which, anyone can set up a free wiki to do the same thing, but none have . . . that either means it's a great idea or a crap one. I presume the latter, because other than the domain name having some old street cred, what's so special about a big site about canon policies? It might service the Spacebattles crowd and might even get some minor academic attention, but I don't know of that being a place that would actually draw interest and repeat visits and such, even with a forum.
That said, in my recent perusings of Spacebattles I saw people talking about Andromeda's canon policy, and when I went googling I found nothing substantial. I don't know if this is also the case for things like WH40K (did I even get that right?) and similar.
This idea would also require community involvement, and unlike certain folks who thrive on personality cults, I generally have no interest in such things.
Despite all the negatives, though, this idea is not without appeal.
2. Go Home
This is the "pull the plug" option. All that would be needed is to take the pages and put them on ST-v-SW.Net or NoLettersHome.Info as appropriate, set up redirects (moved permamently), and then let the domain eventually expire, with the hope that anyone searching for something where they find a link to my site knows how to use the Wayback Machine or something.
The appeal here is that it involves the least work.
Thoughts?
So, it has basically just been a repository for Star Trek and Star Wars canon policy discussions. In that regard, it was historically successful, to wit:
1. The Information
It delightfully housed the Star Wars canon writings and research, but that's all been ganked now by Wikipedia, with nary an attribution. The same is true of the Star Trek canon information.
Thus, to a large degree, the unique research that I brought to the attention of the world . . . digging up old quotes, locating old remembered snippets, covering new quotes . . . has indeed gone into the world and taken root.
2. Popularity
At one time, CanonWars was the #1 Google hit for Star Trek canon ... now it's on page two somewhere. I don't remember if it was #1 for Star Wars canon, but I'm sure it was up there . . . now I don't see it anywhere (though that's largely because of all the new Disney stuff that's been happening lately).
---------
So at the moment, it's safe to say that CanonWars is dead. Regarding Star Wars canon, after what EU-philes are calling "the Disneycaust", the need for a canon argument repository seems more than a little minimized. As for Star Trek, other than a big page I have yet to complete regarding the JJ-verse canonicity, there's not much going on there, either.
The way I see it, I have two options.
1. Go Big
Set up a fully-fledged open wiki and perhaps a forum and allow folks to come there to discuss and debate canon policies for a zillion franchises, with my Trek and Wars articles as start points (or just ganking back from Wikipedia as appropriate).
This would have the effect of broadening the focus and thus the appeal and google-ability, but frankly sounds like more than a bit of work and isn't something I'm terribly interested in doing . . . I care rather little for most sci-fi universes.
Besides which, anyone can set up a free wiki to do the same thing, but none have . . . that either means it's a great idea or a crap one. I presume the latter, because other than the domain name having some old street cred, what's so special about a big site about canon policies? It might service the Spacebattles crowd and might even get some minor academic attention, but I don't know of that being a place that would actually draw interest and repeat visits and such, even with a forum.
That said, in my recent perusings of Spacebattles I saw people talking about Andromeda's canon policy, and when I went googling I found nothing substantial. I don't know if this is also the case for things like WH40K (did I even get that right?) and similar.
This idea would also require community involvement, and unlike certain folks who thrive on personality cults, I generally have no interest in such things.
Despite all the negatives, though, this idea is not without appeal.
2. Go Home
This is the "pull the plug" option. All that would be needed is to take the pages and put them on ST-v-SW.Net or NoLettersHome.Info as appropriate, set up redirects (moved permamently), and then let the domain eventually expire, with the hope that anyone searching for something where they find a link to my site knows how to use the Wayback Machine or something.
The appeal here is that it involves the least work.
Thoughts?