The end of anime fan site?

[Tallgeese3 1]

What happened to the massive online community thier used to be? I remember the days when new sites, forums, topsites, networks, magazines would be started daily. Social media, hosting prices, wikipedia, lack of interest?

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

We all grew up and life got in the way. lol. I remember spending all day on the forums way back when. Now I work 50 hours a week, and balance video games and friends with my free time.

 

Anime is way more mainstream now then it was back then when we were all a niche hardcore fanbase. Internet commerce was barely a thing back when this place first started... your best bet was ordering from a magazine, a toll free number, or getting lucky finding something in the dark corner of a FYE or Suncoast Video store. Funimation, Right Stuf, Crunchy Roll, Hulu, Netflix has given us such ease of access, we can spend more time watching anime, then talking about it, and looking for suggestions on a wise purchase. I think Reddit as a whole has also supplanted traditional forums as the most popular fandom hangout.

[Tallgeese3 1]

I know we all grew up I first started going on fansites on 98 but its like the younger generations never picked up were we left off.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

Pretty much that. As everyone got older we got to busy. Reddit, Facebook, Twitter has the majority of all old forum users now. I don't have nearly the time I used to for my websites either. I used to spend hours each day just on AC. But for me it got to the point that I had nothing new to discuss about anime or games anymore because I didn't have the time to actually watch our play anything while still doing updates on my sites and managing hosting. I scaled back alot. Got rid of hosting years ago and only do occasional updates now.

I do have a rather significant update coming to AC, but I'm still waiting on some bug fixes before I upgrade the core software I'm using.

Forums were huge back in the late 90s and early 2000s but now you can go on reddit and find hundreds of ppl talking about specific animes series. Reddit really did in the forums as far as I'm concerned.

I still want to keep AC going and I have some plans for it but I doubt we'll see any kind of popularity like we used to have back in the day.

[Strider Hiryu 2,704]

We're old, grouchy, and have lives now hence the death of the internet we knew and loved.

 

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, Twitch, etc. have become the dominate reason to be online now-a-days. The internet went from being small groups of nerds/geeks gathering to talk about their favorite video games/anime/etc. on little know forums/sites to being a full blown social experience now with everyone tweeting about what they do during the day, posting new selfies/pictures on Instagram, stalking that crush from high school or connecting with an old friend on Facebook, theorycrafting and running numbers on Game Sub-reddits, etc.

 

The old school communities are dying out pretty much for all the reasons you mentioned. I'd love to see those days come back but considering I'm now 30 and have a full-time job that leaves me exhausted at the end of the day I just don't have the time like I did 16 years ago when I was a Freshmen in High School that just got his first computer. Hell I barely have time to play video games, watch anime, or go out drinking anymore. The internet we helped to bring into the mainstream has evolved into what the new generations want and need. Sadly it's either get with the times or reminisce about the old days on forums like AC that refuse to give up what the internet used to be (and sadly there are only a few of us that still do that. DX, Sledge, myself, and Myk are pretty much the only active members on AC anymore).

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

The best analogy I can think of is gaming magazines.

 

Gamepro, Nintendo Power, EGM, Play, and Official Playstation Magazine... remember those? At one time we flocked to the magazine stand at the grocery store to scan through these because they were our only source of gaming info. What was coming out? When was it coming out? What games out now are actually any good? You could argue that they were the only honest reviews we could get on games compared to what we get now. But nevertheless, the internet and gaming sites put them out of business. You didn't need a subscription anymore to get the same info... these mags actually lived longer than their usefulness with some ending publication just 2-3 years ago. And even though gaming site reviews are bought and paid for these days, reddit and weeding through all the trolls in comment sections can really give you a decent consensus opinion on a game.

 

That's what Social Media has done to forums. I remember when Carmie had me sign up for Facebook way back when.... I was like "Wow, this will never catch on". lol

[Strider Hiryu 2,704]

Pfft, I still haven't signed up for Facebook yet and I get pressured by both my family and friends to do it almost every day. Never saw a good enough reason to make me sign up for it and still don't. The only social media I use is Instagram and Twitter and I honestly don't post photos (use it to follow people and models) and I rarely if ever tweet (he twitter is the best way for me to keep up with my favorite bands, actors, and artists). Then again I am the guy who signed up for the anime equivalent (MAL, Eppy and goku are to blame for this) and the gaming equivalent (Player.me). I also have a LinkedIn profile but that's for a completely different purpose then Facebook will ever be used for (and it's a good way for me to tell potential employers to go look at it, much easier then updating a freaking resume everytime you apply for a new job).

 

God I remember back in the day waiting for my copy of Nintendo Power to come so I could devour all the information in it (which is sad because I've never owned a Nintendo console outside of the various Gameboys and now the DS line) and then go to school the next day to discuss it with my friends. Man those were the days and boy do I miss unpaid for and unbiased reviews and previews of games. What I wouldn't give to go back to those days (then again I do like the fact that I don't have to worry about finding a storage place for every magazine because I never threw them away).

[Myk JL 1,731]

I tried getting back into anime. Kill La Kill tends to grab my interest. Then I remember I'm probably way too old to be staring at underage anime chicks.

I try to move on to different niches such as furry fandom. Outside of putting some tags on some pics & flash I haven't gotten into the furry community yet.

I've gone completely cold turkey on Sports Entertainment & Comics. For Sports Entertainment it was because I was tired of John Cena & Kurt Angle. For Comics it was because I wasn't interested in The New 52 & Marvel Now.

I think that the only thing main stream I do is probably video games. Well, that & the movie theater. But I'm cutting out PG-13 movies as they feel more like an obligation instead of a want.

Edited April 10, 2016 by Myk JL

[Pchan 5,162]

Depends. Social media + chat platforms are where most people talk these days. Forums too. Forums aren't dead. A wider community thrives on forums. But for a close knit place of 10 and under, a Facebook or chat platform seems to work better, however it's totally up to the users too.