unforum

[zbeeblebrox]

[META] I'm worried the mythos is being stretched too...thin

[Lumine]

As a member of the creators myself I understand the frustration, but what you said is little compared to my possible thoughts. What will happen once the big three are over? That's a more important question..

[azureillusions]

Personally, I assume that with the eventual ending of the big three, all second or third generation vlogs will get more attention from the people who followed the main three and had no time for any others. Teaching us how to make something viral is actually a pretty great idea – I at least am not that well versed, and it would help us to find more prey for Slenderman expand the whole mythos.

[Carnahan]

Yes, unfortunately, this is something that has been said for quite some time now. I find this to be especially true with the written formats ("Oh, another blog.")

Regardless of the production value and how talented the creators are (and I say this in response to recent trends and series I've seen myself) I am always almost... disappointed when I see a new series start up, full of potential and whatnot, because I know that they will, too, suffer from this "thinness" you speak of.

Who knows. At least they're making something, I suppose. (I guess I just want someone to haymaker the market and start a new viral trend, i.e., no slondors.)

[KrisTrauma]

I understand what you mean...what bothers me is when EVERYONE (and I mean everyone) says things like "Oh, when Marble Hornets is gone I hope something good comes along the way"...the thing is, people, it already has! There are hundreds of good series out there with less than 50 subscribers (like my own series). I love to give the little guys a try! Just go around this board and select a few names that seem interesting, and start watching!

[zbeeblebrox]

I imagine there is some unknown threshold level of innovation that, if a slender series reached it, would make it go viral without the creator adding any extra effort to spreading the word. That's pretty much a given. No one needs the Big "Three" (for varying definitions of 'three') to end in order to make that happen. It's just a matter of time, effort and talent.

But it's not reliable. We know it's not reliable. There are some jaw droppingly amazing things on Youtube; hidden gems that make Hollywood blockbusters look like the products of first year film students. Yet they wallow in obscurity. So while an article like this might sound like it's making a good point, we know relying solely on "Hard work, patience, and perseverance" is no way to truly go about spreading the word. Hell, it's not even relevant to the question!

That's the problem. When you go around the internet looking for help on this stuff, all you get are trite suggestions about the content. "Oh, add babies and puppies if you want to make it viral" But look: we already have the content! No one here needs lectures on content! What we need are techniques. The nuts and bolts.

For example, one cool thing I noticed the creators of SAPH did was set up a Facebook page for the club that their characters are part of. Unfortunately, they relied entirely on their viewers to "like" the page, meaning there was no way to acquire the necessary 25 "likes" before it could be made into a custom page with an easy-to-share URL (there are more than 25 fans now of course, but their series is also fifteen videos in). There are five actors involved in SAPH. Had they each come up with a list of a mere five names (twenty names each would be more realistic, but this is just to make a point) - people they knew who were willing to press that like button - they could've had a custom URL for their page before the Introduction video was even done. It's a little thing, but it could go a long way. Getting fans to share "Facebook.com/SAPH" is lightyears easier than getting them to share "http://www.facebook.com/pages/SAPH/152103588235254?sk=wall" <-- which is letter-for-letter, the unclickable address they show at the end of many of their videos.

Anyway, that's just one minor thing I noticed. It doesn't really count, since it's entirely specific to that one case, where there's a Facebook thing and a quirk of Facebook that needs to be wrestled with. It's not a guideline anyone can use in a general sense.

That's probably what we're looking for. A set of generalized guidelines.

[THmanslayr]

One time I was bored and I searched "yay" on YouTube. My results included a my little pony video (whose name is unimportant) which was tagged with the word yay and had 300k views. Ranked underneath it was a video entitled "yay" which had 7m views. Not sure how much that helps, but it's food for thought.

[zbeeblebrox]

There you have it folks. Everyone tag their videos with "yay" and watch the view roll in!

[The Uqbarite]

Another problem, which has been touched on, is that when a series is already quite advanced it's more difficult to get people into it, so you're relying on it taking off at a fairly early stage. Not everyone has the patience (or time) to archive-binge.

[colephelpsrules]

Wall of Text --TL;DR -- But you should anyway

[punxtr]

Dr. Cairo of compileTruth has made a website to track every series he can get his glassy eyes on here: http://www.slendermanmythos.com/ It's OOG, by the way.

I feel like advertising this site is the best way to put as many vlogs on the map as possible.

As for developing a hook to get viewers, I've always held the notion that if you can add at least one wham element to your series, it will be watched. EMH grew because of its ARG elements, TribeTwelve for its video compositing and effects, MLAndersen0 for its acting, DarkHarvest for its cult aspect and sheer number of actors, et cetera. Find that one thing, push it to new boundaries, make sure you advertise your series here and at Cairo's site, and pray for viewers.

[Another_Creator]

I, personally, am thrilled for each new sub that I get, but I am not in a rush either. The subs will come as they come, but the important thing is that you simply enjoy what you are doing. If the mythos falls apart will you regret your work? I know that I won't. I will proudly leave my series up after its completion, regardless of whatever may happen, so that random passers by may have something to enjoy for a time. In the end that is all I ever hoped to achieve.

[AfterHours]

This has been a fear of mine for a while, as a creator and a participant. I've been following these things for about 2 years now, and it would be such a shame to see them "go", in a sense. Yeah, this community will always be alive, but right now it feels too alive.

Look at the front page, it's about 90% trailheads; which isn't necessarily bad, there's always a chance that they could get big and become one of the second gen's Big Three. However, how many of these stay on the front page long enough to gain recognition? Usually two or three pop up above it, until they just fall down. It's almost like too much is being created, which means your series can't get the exposure you want.

Aside from that, the idea banks will shortly run dry, which means more and more series will eventually have to become a "insert-series-here" knockoff. How many series start off with white over black text, or a video of forest with travel over it? It's enough to be a deterrent for some because it's "just like Marble Hornets", which leaves creators to have to try something different, whether it's a hit or a miss. But, really, how many other ways are there to introduce something and have it seem genuine?

These are the kinds of questions that most creators (and if not most, then I alone) face. You need to have something in your series that is unlike anything in any other series in order to keep people coming back, but aside from that you have to also balance how much can be borrowed and how much can be created.

That's what's wonderful about this mythos - it's constantly being added on to. However, we will inevitably reach a point where blogs or vlogs are mostly borrowed, and that's pretty upsetting.

[Aurastys]

[rant]

The biggest problem with the Slendy Mythos isn't lack of interest - there are more fans of Slender Man vlogs and blogs now than ever, it's the fact that the whole Mythos is becoming over-saturated.

When the whole front page of UF is practically trailheads to cookie-cutter series, it's very hard for new series to gain recognition. The audience gets "diluted" so to speak.

It also probably doesn't help that for every one excellent new series that springs up, there's probably about three or more terrible ones to throw it off-kilter. I always like seeing new series start up, because they're completely full of potential. The problem isn't that the audience isn't there, it's that the audience is busy watching series they already know and have been following for awhile. It's hard for some to give a new series a chance when the past three new series they've watched have been blatant MH or Tribe Twelve ripoffs, etc.

The main thing this Mythos, and community for that matter, needs to survive is more originality in the premise of new series and also just STOP MAKING NEW SERIES. If you really don't know what you're going to do with a series and don't plan on seeing it through to completion, do everyone out there who is trying desperately to gain an audience a favor and just don't make your series. Normally I try to encourage everyone to follow their passion, but for many I feel this isn't their passion and they're just hopping on the bandwagon. Not to say there aren't some excellent new series popping up - they're definitely are.

It's just they've become diamonds in the rough.

[/rant]

[AngryDeepground]

^ I agree partially with the above comment, but here's the problem, not everyone who makes a bad, or cookie cutter series is fully aware of it. In my opinion to ensure the series that deserve to be on here get here, we need to stop Trailheading cookie cutter, or bad series. If we do it we will filter out the bad vlogs, and give way to vlogs that have effort put in. For those of you who say its not fair, it's for the sake of the Mythos, so take it a a challenge to make a good series.