DC2 Survey

Well, it looks like I missed the survey. I tried to click on that link but it says it's closed. Oh well.

Over the next week or so, I'll be posting the results of this year's member survey here, and, where applicable, replying to some of the issues raised.

First of all, a big thanks to the twenty-three members/lurkers who took the time to fill out the survey. We really appreciate it.

Anyway, without further ado, let's start with question one:

1. How did you first learn about the DC2 Universe site?

Here's a summary of the replies:

It's my signature line where I post off-site.

Newsarama... That's the only place, really.

I am curious to see the results of this years poll.



I am also curious to see who was the one person I was responsible for bringing aboard. ;D

And in case you were curious (and who isn't) the DC2 version of the Suicide Squad is the longest running and largest collection of Squad fanfic on the Internet. Who else can make a claim that bold?

I agree and I am proud of it! Of course the Squad wouldn't be as strong as it is today with out the very talented Jay Arcalian stepping in and taking the reins like he has. That is what this place is all about!

Well, before I move on to question 2, I may as well have my say on the results of question 1.

First of all, thanks to any of our members who mention us on other boards or to their friends, since that appears to be our primary source of new members.

Also, if anybody wants a DC2 banner to use in their signature on other boards, you can find a selection at the following thread:

www.dc2universe.net/index.cgi?board=whatsnewatdc2&action=display&thread=1192560500

Sad to see that only one of our respondents managed to find us through google, since it indicates that this site isn't the easiest to find (I tried typing "DC fanfiction" into google and then got bored of scrolling through pages trying to find the DC2 Universe).

Anyway, enough about question one; here's questions 2 and 4 (I've not forgotten about question 3, which will be coming along later; it just makes more sense to group questions 2 & 4):

2. If you've not logged in recently, what's the reason for this?



4. If you've not logged in recently, are there any improvements we can make or is there anything else we can do that might lure you back to the site?

Data Value



Now seems like a good time as any to comment on the answers.

I can understand the people who haven't got time, and while it's nice to see the popularity of the DC3, it's kind of sad that it's at the DC2's expense (and that DC3, at least for one member, appears a more attractive place to write about alternate DC Earths about Elseworlds), although if people prefer to spend their time at the DC3 then that is, of course, their choice, and I don't mean to disparage the DC3 in any way (and it's possible there are some things we could learn from it).

As for the member or lurker who can read the stories without logging in, then they're perfectly obliged to do so. Of course, there are advantages to being logged in (being able to select from a range of board colours; having an ad-free board all of the time; being able to give feedback). Having said that, while I'd love everybody to log in and give their feedback on the art and stories here, I've got nothing at all against any lurkers out there and I hope they're enjoying the stories.

Now onto another of the answers. What isn't clear from the summarised results is that the member who complained about dissatisfaction with site comment also made the comment about improving the grammar. Unfortunately they didn't give any examples of the titles in question so it's hard to know where to begin in addressing that problem. All that I can say is that if you are distracted by grammar or tense shifts in any stories please mention it on the letters page and then maybe something can be done about it. Alternatively, try other titles, since I don't believe this is a particularly widespread phenomena, although if it is please correct me.

As for the Nightwing with the Batman family, there'll definitely be more of that in the near future, although he will still be appearing in Teen Titans. Also, since the person surveyed says they're a Batman family fan, I assume they're already reading the great work Ellen's producing over in the Elseworlds section with Lost in the Facade.

Okay, now we get to some of the more detailed responses. I'll interrupt the responses with italicised comments just to give my feedback. Feel free to post afterwards and totally disagree with me should you so wish.

Question 5. Please tell us of any ways in which you think that we can improve the site.

Long defunct titles removed from "continuity titles". Long defunct means, longer than three months I guess. For instance:The Flash has been without a writer for a long time, and there's an expectation there for a new issue, but it doesn't look like one is coming. Same with Shazam!, Aquaman and The Question, they should have been removed for however long they were defunct or on "hiatus".

Well, the problem with that, apart from the extra effort involved in moving them, is where to move them to. Moving them elsewhere on the home page doesn't seem to have any obvious advantage, since the page will still take as long to load up, and we lose the handy alphabetical arrangement.

On the other hand, moving them into a subboard, as with the Elseworlds titles, makes it harder for new readers to find them. I'd rather a new reader be spoilt for choice rather than leaving the site because they think their favourite characters not there.

One possibility, to help the new titles, be they continuity, one-shots or Elseworlds, to get a better shot of being noticed, would be to have a new this week category at the top. I'd have no problem maintaining that, so if anyone thinks it's a good idea (or a bad one) just holler.

Maybe a way to improve the site would be to add links that navigate one to the various boards like behind the scene, community forum, continuity series and mini series. Just like the Elseworlds and DC3 and DC2 Wiki.

That's eminently doable, although only on a board basis (for categories such as continuity series which are all on the homepage, I'm afraid you'd still have to scroll down.

If anybody has ideas about what links they'd like to see on the top menu please let me know, either here or by PM-ing admin.

I don't know about improving the site, but we definitely need to improve outreach to get more people to visit, read, and leave feedback.

Well, I'd never force anybody to leave feedback, but the more visitors the better, so please feel free to mention us around the message boards. Also, if writers want to post their DC2 stories elsewhere, to possibly get more feedback and also let more people know about the DC2, then I'm more than okay with it.

More accessible to newcomers- updated rules etc on the Title Queue, keeping such fesatures up to date.

Couldn't agree more, and it's something I keep meaning to do something about. Yes, the title queue is totally out of date, and the site could be far more accessible to newcomers. I've been thinking of adding a FAQs section to try and bring new readers up to speed, although if anybody else, particularly newcomers, could suggest any other ways then I'd be really interested to hear them.

There may be too many titles.There are several new titles and no one writing someof the older ones.

Yes, there may be. However, I'm loathe to stop new titles coming out, just because writers aren't immediately available for the older ones. Maybe, older titles should me moved elsewhere as someone suggested earlier, but we've not yet come up with a way to do that that's totally satisfactory.

A cleaner base for the stories. The banners can be distracting.
I don;t have alot of time to read all the stories. I would like to print them out all at once and read it as a book.

I'd suggest clicking on the at the top of each issue, which doesn't actually print the issue, but shows it in a nice printable black and white format.

Alternatively, click on the profile button on the menu at the top of the page to view your profile, then select the option to Modify Profile and in the Select Skin section set your skin to Minimal. You can also disable the displaying of avatars, images and signatures there should you so wish. That should give you a fairly minimal banner-free display.

Alternatively, read the answer to the next comment.

It would be VERY helpful to have a link to read ENTIRE runs of a series {if you are just started a book that is many issues in} without having to go back and re-load to a new link.... perhaps downloadable .PDF files of entire runs similar to what the actual DC does with TPB editions of series... DC2 could do in the digital medium....!!!!!!!

The member who suggested this, rowdyrjp, has produced a sample of what he's talking about with a Justice League Vs America collection which can be downloaded by clicking on the following link:

www.box.net/shared/f5r2ceigwk

This is a fairly simple sample, but if any of our writers want to also distribute their stories this way (which will hopefully lead more people to DC2) then please feel free to contact Randy. Also, if any readers would find this useful please let me know and I'll pursue it further.

Avoiding congestion

If you mean website congestion, then that's beyond our control, although there is an upgrade to the site scheduled for the coming month that should hopefully improve things.

Your website is one of my favorite places to go to when I wish to read stories about my favorite comic book heroes and heroines. My only suggestion would be to create a page on your website that would feature stories of a more mature nature for people who are 18 years old or older. These Stories could be rated M for Mature or X for Stories that are rated X and should only be viewed by adults. The Stories could be password protected.So only Adults with the proper password could log onto the Heroes and Heroines Adult Adventures Story Section. These Stories would be just like any other fanfic story,but with more adult themes such as Love and Romance.

Not sure if "Love and Romance" is a euphemism, but this site is provided by Proboards and to do this would risk violating the Proboards Terms of Service and could lead to such boards (or, in an extreme case, all boards) being removed.

I think it's fine the way it is.

Thanks for letting us know.

Put finished/discontinued series in a separate place, similar to how the Esleworlds section is set up.

See the earlier answer, although I could be wrong, so feel free to discuss it here further should you so wish.

It reads like a message board. I don't know why that is but it seems weird.

I again suggest using the button that might improve things. Also, with the forthcoming ProBoards upgrade, a single post should now be large enough to hold most full-sized issues, so an issue can be posted in a single post rather than in many posts alternating in colour, so hopefully that might help matters as well.

And so, we come to the final question (with my comments in italics):

7. If you have any additional comments about the site then please let us know here.

Love the site

Thank you.

You all work hard and should be proud. Thanks for your efforts.

Thanks for thanking us.

Just to re-iterate.... Virtual TPBs style compendiums of series... preferably in a downlaodable .PDF this would allow for entire runs to be downloaded and read at leisure!!!!!!

I mentioned it earlier, so hopefully everybody's downloading your sample even as I type.

I've been trying to find a way to e-mail the authors what I think of their stories but I don't know where to do that.

You can leave feedback either by rating the issue (by clicking on the poll at the top of each issue) or by posting a comment to the associated letters column. Alternatively, if you don't want your comments made public, you can send a Private Message to the writers individually (in case anybody doesn't know, clicking on the "Hey, so-and-so, you have x messages, y are new" type message at the top of the screen will take you to your Private Messages screen when you can read and write messages to other members). If you can't work out their username, you could try looking at the Who's Who thread (which is probably fairly out of date), or just PM admin and I'll tell you their username.

Hope this helps.


That's all, folks, although feel free to now discuss the results at whatever length you wish. Many thanks to everyone who took part.

That was probably .... MY BAD, sorry Idlewilder....

It was tho, just a basic example... NOT a finished product, and I wound up doing it fast and sending it off so people have an idea of what I am talking about.

Especially with proliferation of hand-helds... it seems that a convenient method of reading stories all the way thru would be in collected fashion. As .PDFs Extra graphics and background colours, effects and textures can be added to really make the virtual TPB edition a nice one... heck if authors wanted they could add in a section on notes and a sketchbook to really make it fun!

I have been doing an e-zine in this format for sometime now featuring developing artists and writers, check it out to see what I mean, each issue is in .PDF format and while they started pretty simple, I am really happy with how the e-zine has developed in both presentation and content....

It is called RKYV ONLINE and serves as good example of what these .PDFs can be like, here is a link:

groups.google.ca/group/rkyv?hl=en

It is pretty easy to do as well. Any program {like primo .pdf which is free} will allow you to "print to .pdf" which means that make your complete document and graphic layouts using whatever word processing program or desktop publishing program you like... and then when you choose print, use the drop menu {in print window} to choose .pdf instead of printer! Bingo! you have a .pdf...