[Bond]

I am curious about why the forum was reorganized. Were there any particular reasons that prompted the changes? Is viewership down? Were there complaints from certain quarters? What's the inside story? :)

[Hobbit]

I think you may have found the answer out already, Bond. There's no big conspiracy though: it's something the staff have talked (and talked and talked) about for a while now, and THIS THREAD (http://www.sffworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20650) and other comments made us feel that both the staff and some of the members were ready for a change.

RobB explained it more HERE (http://www.sffworld.com/forums/announcement.php?f=6&a=33).

Mark / Hobbit

[Evil Agent]

Ick...

Gotta say I'm really NOT a fan of seeing Fantasy merged with Horror.

Besides seeing a bunch of horror threads I'm not interested in, I don't even understand the connection between the two genres.

<scratches head>

[ChrisW]

Cause vampires and stuff are not real and mb fantasy?

[Rob B]

There is an overlap between Horror and Fantasy and we thought bringing the two forums together would sort of bridge that.

[Evil Agent]

I don't know... it seems to me that this forum is, above all, a fantasy forum. Sure there are other genres being discussed here, but fantasy is clearly the most popular section. So why merge the most popular topic with one of the least popular?

It seems to me like a misguided and unnecessary attempt at downsizing, simplifying, or organizing. But the way the forum was organized before was, in my opinion, perfect. Now it feels like a jumbled mess and takes WAY longer to scan through threads looking for topics I want to discuss.

Anyways, perhaps there IS some overlap between Fantasy and Horror... but I don't think there's nearly enough overlap to warrant merging the two. Have you ever seen Fantasy and Horror merged anywhere else? I have not. In my opinion, Fantasy is merged with Sci Fi if anything. Just go to any book store, video store, etc., and you will see Sci Fi/Fantasy sections. So if we're gonna do some merging, it seems to me that a Sci Fi/Fantasy merge makes a lot more sense. Although I still prefer the original layout.

[Rob B]

I don't know... it seems to me that this forum is, above all, a fantasy forum. Sure there are other genres being discussed here, but fantasy is clearly the most popular section. So why merge the most popular topic with one of the least popular?Yes Fantasy does get the most traffic, but in many ways, everything is a subset of Fantasy. Merging the horror with fantasy will hopefully get more discussion going on about horror stuff.

It seems to me like a misguided and unnecessary attempt at downsizing, simplifying, or organizing. But the way the forum was organized before was, in my opinion, perfect. Now it feels like a jumbled mess and takes WAY longer to scan through threads looking for topics I want to discuss.
Misguided? As I said in one of the other threads, we deliberated for quite a long time about reorganizing things based on what people say about these forums and how it is for us to moderate them. Bringing the author forums into the main fantasy forum was one of the major things we saw as a response to what was perceived as negative aspect of the previous forum iteration.

Anyways, perhaps there IS some overlap between Fantasy and Horror... but I don't think there's nearly enough overlap to warrant merging the two. Have you ever seen Fantasy and Horror merged anywhere else? I have not. In my opinion, Fantasy is merged with Sci Fi if anything. Just go to any book store, video store, etc., and you will see Sci Fi/Fantasy sections. So if we're gonna do some merging, it seems to me that a Sci Fi/Fantasy merge makes a lot more sense. Although I still prefer the original layout.
If anything, we are different in that we have/had separate forums for Science Fiction / Fantasy / Horror. Some old horror threads are getting posts because of the reorganization.

[Randy M.]

I don't know... it seems to me that this forum is, above all, a fantasy forum. Sure there are other genres being discussed here, but fantasy is clearly the most popular section. So why merge the most popular topic with one of the least popular?

It seems to me like a misguided and unnecessary attempt at downsizing, simplifying, or organizing. But the way the forum was organized before was, in my opinion, perfect. Now it feels like a jumbled mess and takes WAY longer to scan through threads looking for topics I want to discuss.

Anyways, perhaps there IS some overlap between Fantasy and Horror... but I don't think there's nearly enough overlap to warrant merging the two. Have you ever seen Fantasy and Horror merged anywhere else? I have not. In my opinion, Fantasy is merged with Sci Fi if anything. Just go to any book store, video store, etc., and you will see Sci Fi/Fantasy sections. So if we're gonna do some merging, it seems to me that a Sci Fi/Fantasy merge makes a lot more sense. Although I still prefer the original layout.


Horror/Fantasy writers (off the top of my head):
Arthur Machen
William Hope Hodgeson
H.P. Lovecraft
Clark Ashton Smith
Robert E. Howard
Fritz Leiber (look to him for some of the earliest urban fantasy/horror, namely Conjure Wife)
Karl Edward Wagner (most all Sword & Sorcery straddles the borderland between fantasy and horror)
Tanith Lee
Robert Holdstock
Jonathan Carroll
Graham Joyce
Brian MacNaughton
Tim Lebbon

Essentially, the first fantasy pulps were also horror pulps: Weird Tales and Unknown, were maybe the best.

Both fantasy and horror often deal with mythological creatures: vampires and elves, werewolves and unicorns, etc. Where fantasy is an attempt to make the impossible seem normal and real, horror is an incursion of the impossible into consensus reality.

If you were to look at anthologies and magazines up to about the 1980s, you'd find that horror and fantasy mixed as often or moreso than sf/horror. Currently, one of the longest running series of year's best fantasy is The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror currently edited by Kelly Link/Gavin Grant and Ellen Datlow.

Randy M.

[Monty Mike]

Well, for whatever it's worth, I'm all for the new layout. The times are a-changin'. :D

[Evil Agent]

I'm sure it's probably a little too early to tell, but...

Is it just me, or have there been pretty much ZERO author-related postings since the elimination of the subforums? I check "new posts" almost daily, and I haven't seen anything about Martin, Erikson, Jordan, etc. I think this is an effect of eliminating the forums. People can't be bothered to search for old threads, and don't want to start new ones.

Also, when checking new posts, this site looks even MORE like an Alison Croggon forum than it used to, since she's the only author name seems to have postings. It's great that Croggon fans are posting so much, but their posts used to be balanced out by other postings in the other author forums as well. Now, all I see is Croggon, Croggon, and more Croggon.