OK, not really. But I just wanted to let you guys know that I'm not REALLY gone, but as of right now, I'm taking off the next 10 days to do nothing but write Lost. My husband's even taking the kids out of town to their grandparents' for two weekends in a row so I can work weekends straight through from 8am to midnight. Thank goodness I used to play piano and learned the discipline of coming home and practicing for hours while my friends watched Y&R. ;) I will try to blog while I'm gone; I certainly can't leave the blog empty and lifeless for 10 days, especially so soon after the finale! I'm hoping to post a rewatch schedule soon for our official Seasons 1-5 rewatch (I'm thinking of starting the first week of July; I realize that puts us a month after the other rewatch parties -- yes, there now seem to be several, but we're the smartest bunch! -- but it also doesn't start us into season 5 until after the DVDs come out, whereas the other rewatches seem to be starting before). I'll post it soon.
Another thought: There are currently 371 comments on the original post on the finale (!!). A few people have said it's hard to follow the threads, since clearly my comments are a linear board only and not a threaded one. I've been thinking for some time of switching from a blog format to a website one. My problem: I haven't a clue how to build a website. Blogger brilliantly does everything for me. So I would have to hire someone to make me a website that is run by WordPress or something similar where I could upload things myself to a constructed website.
So my question to you is, what would you want in a website? For me, I'd want a forum where you could all have various threads (and don't worry, I'll still be jumping in on the conversations whether you want me there or not), but also a section where I can continue to post blog-type stuff and you could respond. I don't think I could get my act in gear to actually have this ready in the next month (I remember my work hiring a guy to do our site and I think it took him 8 months to do the website? Does it usually take that long?) but I would LOVE to have our rewatch all posted there all neat and tidy. But I don't think that would happen. What else would you want on there? Video/audio podcasts? Do you think a website is something I should do? Anyone know anyone who does a good job with a rather simple website and could show a neophyte like me how to actually work the thing?
Finally, humanebean commented on my post about the finale parties (I was walking to my car today and thought of the photo of the dead pilot and the sonic fence and started giggling to myself, and then this woman walked by me and I'm sure she thought I was... off...) and said maybe we SHOULD try to plan a finale party somewhere? Who's willing to jump on a plane and fly to a finale party with all of us? As I said in my response, come on, Batcabbage. I know you and Batkitty want to fly 24 hours to go to a Lost party. Who WOULDN'T? Our post-episode discussion could actually be LIVE. And our fingers wouldn't be tired. Who likes to rock the party? I like to rock the party! Let's say, Oahu beach? May 2010? (I'm sure no other Lost fans have thought of THAT yet!) ;)
Anyway, I will try to post here, but right now I have a book that desperately needs to be written. As my publicist said to me the other day, "Hey, check it out, your book is on Amazon! Isn't that weird that they're taking preorders for a book that you haven't written yet?" Thanks, Simon. No pressure there. I'll get you back for that one. ;)
So if I'm gone for a day or so and not commenting, I'm not ignoring you (and knowing me, I'm reading the comments more often than I should and should really TURN OFF MY EMAIL and get back to work, dammit!) I'm just writing.
Be seeing you!
14 comments:
Have a good write, Nik. We shall all still be here, speculating, analysing, over-analysing, and having fun. And yes, Batkitty and I would love to come to a finale party in Oahu! If we have the money come May next year, that is. :) The 24 hr flight would be fine, I'll make a 'best of Lost' dvd, we'll watch that and reminisce.
I sense you are about to become a woman possessed...if you aren't there already! LOL
The thread does get hard to follow when there are so many posts, and plus I always find that the mega experts (and you know who you are!) will along with your comprehensive posts of course Nik, make it difficult for simpletons like me to come up with anything half worthy of posting (We are not worthy we are not worthy! LOL) A threaded post would be great to see what topics have been covered.
But on the plus side, I'm glad you have so many more fans now and hope it builds up until the series finale...oh what are you going to do after May 2010? Is there life for Nikki after Lost??? (meanwhile Nikki's husband is happy to finally have his wife back!) :)
Have fun with the writing Nik, see you soon hopefully!
I've never been a fan of threaded forums (don't know why really) but I'm willing to give it a shot if it's preferred by most!
Have a good writing session.
I have to be honest -- I think a bit of a format change would be great, but I don't believe it's really necessary. True, the longer comment threads get difficult to follow (to the degree that I still haven't managed to wade through all the Finale stuff after getting a late start, and I'm reeeeely dedicated), but I don't know enough about web design to give any kind of adequate advice.
Short answer: do what you like, 'cause I'll be there regardless.
Am still trying to assemble my thoughts on the finale but have just been too busy to pull anything together yet. Coming soon, I hope.
Happy writing!
As far as the website is concerned, I say go for whatever you're most comfortable with. The comments as they are get a little jumbled sometimes, but that's the nature of a blog. You ever see Jeff Jensen's LOST columns at EW? By the time I ever get to read them, they're well over 1000 posts at minimum, so I don't even bother posting a reply or reading most of them. It's just too hard to keep up with, and it would still be too hard even if it were threaded.
You could always just disable comments on each post, and then set up a separate for people to talk about the post itself among other things, kind of like XKCD.com does for each webcomic he posts. I think that system works pretty well. You might still have to spring for a little webspace or domain, but you might also be able to find some self-hosted forums that you can pay a membership for to avoid ads. I know I used to have some like that when I played certain online games religiously.
I wish it were possible to make a finale party, but with Jennifer and I both watching the entire series with at least one of our parents, I'm sure that would be a terrible disappointment for them and us. Maybe if we are able to make Slayage next year, we'll be able to chat about it.
Good luck with the book Nikki , can't wait to read it.
As for a threaded forum, I'm easy, though looking at The Fuselage boards,it can be just as difficult to wade through, especially with all the duplicated threads. I think linear boards are much more spontaneous.
no idea how pricey it would turn out to be, but i was looking at this the other day and thought it looked as easy as Blogger but more versatile:
http://www.squarespace.com/
Nikki, if you're hosting a party in SW Ontario I'll definitely attend! (I'm in London, so it's easy for me to say!)
The comments can get cumbersome at times, but so can threads, it doesn't matter much to me, I'll still check the site constantly anyway! (Oh the joys of staring at a computer screen all day at work!)
I just love the idea of a finale party and would love to join it, especially in Hawaii! - but unfortunately I'm a teacher and can't take time off mid term. Oh well :(
I could pretend to be sick *evil laugh*
Also - I quite like the intimate feeling of this site. You feel like you are part of a small band of brothers and sisters (even though loads of people are probably reading this) On the other hand, I agree with asiancolossus, and a threaded forum would make it much easier for the less confident of us to participate.
Either way, I will remain a loyal reader.
p.s I hope you can post the rewatch schedule soon as I will be setting off on my travels at the end of June and need to know which DVDs to take with me!
Personally, I prefer the blog format. Sometimes it's a tad confusing, but I agree with Ali Bags in that this is a more intimate feel - like a family. I know just with the finale I felt like it was a lot to follow the 2-3 different post threads and if there were even more it would be harder to follow everything like I would want to. JMO.
As to a finale party, I think it would be mad fun, but I was wondering if maybe a summer post-series party might be better. That way people who do their own finale thing could still do it and if we did it in Oahu there would probably be less people doing Lost stuff? I don't know - just a thought.
I love the idea of having a LIVE finale party! Now here's hopin I have enough moolah come May 2010 to pay for a flight!
Also, mad props to Nikki for the Flight of the Conchords reference: we like to rock the party!
SonshineMusic: I prefer the blog format. Sometimes it's a tad confusing, but I agree with Ali Bags in that this is a more intimate feel - like a family.
I wouldn't want to lose that feel, but the old Comics/Animation Forum on CompuServe was a similar, if more expansive, experience. Anyone could start a new thread in the appropriate folder (section), and threaded messaging felt like the greatest thing since sliced floppies as conversations branched off, but despite the sometimes-freaky awareness that thousands of people at minimum were probably lurking it was a pretty tight-knit community.
I'm not advocating a change in venue and certainly not extra work for Nikki. The DocArzt site having so many sections and such high volume is probably why I'm here instead of there (or given that Nikki's books drew me to her blog at least the reason why I'm not there also). As long as we keep liberally quoting posts that we're referencing I don't think this interface is a negative, but a different presentation wouldn't necessarily destroy all we hold dear.
So no need to change unless Nikki wants to try, with the support of more tech-oriented folks than I...
Ptu! I spit on you, HTML and your screwy carriage returns! I spit!
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