Regaining Focus

Yeah, I can see where you're coming from. Things have been getting a lot more shitposty as of late.  I've also noticed the general slowness we've been having for awhile now. I know that I noticed everything was getting slower after the Clock Man search ended. There was still discussions in #lost-media, but not to the extent that it was back in let's say mid November/early Decemberish. I'm looking in the channel now and all that has been said today alone was just one tiny conversation. The only really big lost media talk I've seen recently was the resurgence of discussion around Sesame Street episode 847 and that has been put onto hold due to a lack of any new leads. 

As for the lack of new articles, I feel really guilty about it and have been for awhile now. I've always wanted to make articles for the site and I'm slowly working myself up to do it. I feel guilty because I haven't been able to find anything I want to write about. Hopefully I'll be able to find something I want to write about that'll be worthy enough to warrant an article. 

Really, I just guess that after the finding of Clock Man everyone was just burnt out and things would go back to normal. It's just taking really long for things to go back to normal. 

Sorry if this felt like me rambling on. lol It's just some stuff I had on my mind. 

I'm sorry if I post my own personal opinion here since I don't use the Discord, but as one of the few users who continues to update wiki articles, frequently posts in the forums and less frequently posts in Chattango, the wiki feels like it's frozen in time ever since the Clock Man short was found back in December last year and I have been tired of waiting for the next notice board to come up since so many finds involving lost video games have come up in the past few months. This situation reminds me of the song "Strange Things" from Toy Story in how the finding of the "Clock Man" short had less people caring about the wiki itself (i.e. actively edit it) and more about the Discord server.



The thing is, I intended to do an article back in February, but it was an extremely busy month for me as I had no time to sit down and type an article that month. I felt guilty about that part so I made myself a promise to not miss making a article in March and I did with SimsVille. On some days, I feel that nothing recent is going to happen to the wiki as I instead choose to spend my time watching videos on YouTube to make the time pass by or decide to give up on editing the wiki in favor of playing video games or watch a movie with my family. The wiki itself sometimes just feels so empty except for the few sparks for when a piece of lost media is found and I sometimes rush to edit the page so I can help marking it as "Found", but then it usually just goes back to silence.

That is my feelings I wanted to share about the wiki itself. Though I still enjoy editting the wiki like I did when I first joined the site, I seriously miss the times when there were multiple users helping to edit the wiki's articles and when it was much more active before the new layout of the wiki (don't get me wrong, I liked both the old and new site skins on their own terms) came in place.

It's very sad to see the LMW community as a whole become less active and focused on the wiki. I'm sure none of us are taking people off track intentionally. After Clock Man was found, edits and lost media discussion have become a crawl. I think in order for people to become more encouraged to engage in these edits and discussions, the LMW should invest in a little advertising. There's a chance Anton might not return to do any wiki overhauls, so the remaining budget might be enough to attract as many people as possible.

Clockman was a big thing, so why not hype up another piece of lost media? It can incentivize users to become active again.

We at least need to do something big for the community, whether that's some big search or some sort of community event.

If it's as easy as sending one message then it wouldn't be much of a search.

As we've said before, all the big searches... ones we've conclusively finished like ADWSS, Clockman, Cracks, Electric Piper, and even ones that were huge but hit a dead-end like Doraemon 73... all of them have in common that they weren't forced, they just happened naturally. People gained interest and joined the searches on their own accord. If you want an example of what happens when people "hype up" a search, just take a look at Albanian Spongebob... or any of the threads where nobody responds and the OPs just keep writing "bump" every so often.

You can't force people to be interested in something. If we randomly designated something as the "main" search that wasn't already deserving of that title, people may jump on it at first but they'd likely lose interest pretty quickly. That's why, this whole time, we've just been waiting for it to happen again - and I know it will because it always does. The issue is, people have this mental block at the moment- there aren't any big searches to jump to at the moment, and nobody wants to be the one to start the next search. But really, there's no reason not to. You want something found? Do some research, contact leads, hunt for it on your own until you get as far as you can, and then post your progress in the forums or in the Discord and if people are interested they can help you take it from there.

But the point is, there's nothing stopping anyone from starting the next big search. It really is as simple as just doing it. If the search has potential, people will join. True hype for a search can only come when a large number of people are actually interested in it, not from a certain person telling people they need to be interested in it. When the next big search starts picking up steam, then we can promote it by giving it its own discord channel or something. But not the other way around.

Don't worry! If you're searching and updating the thread with new info, that's great. I'm talking about people who literally ask "Can someone help me find this" and then keep writing the actual word "bump" with nothing else. If you want to start a search, you have to be willing to be a part of it.

I definitely think ToonHeads could be an interesting search. I know one of the admins (Smith) was talking about it earlier.