Aphelion

In his seminal* book "Future Shock", Alvin Toffler predicted that "overchoice" would lead to a sort of paralysis -- with too many options, people would tend to do FEWER things, rather than explore those options.

Apparently, listing a big whack o' "Best of" entries PLUS the consolidated Challenge winners PLUS almost a full complement of new stories, we have stunned our readers into a state of despair and confusion. Either that, or they've been following the U.S. Presidential primaries, and were ALREADY in a state of despair and confusion ... (But that would be due to UNDERchoice!)

ONLY A FEW MORE DAYS BEFORE WE (TRY TO) PUT THE MARCH ISSUE ONLINE! Comment now! Operators are standing by ... er, authors would like to know what you thought about their work.

Robert M.

In his seminal* book "Future Shock", Alvin Toffler predicted that "overchoice" would lead to a sort of paralysis -- with too many options, people would tend to do FEWER things, rather than explore those options.

Apparently, listing a big whack o' "Best of" entries PLUS the consolidated Challenge winners PLUS almost a full complement of new stories, we have stunned our readers into a state of despair and confusion.

Or perhaps it is something completely other. Maybe the double issue and then no issue in January turns away what would become regulars. Maybe late arrivals of issues drive down counts. Maybe regulars, like editors, no longer contribute like they used to (I know I just flat out don't have as much time as I used to). Heck, maybe people don't like me or what I say about stories. *shrug*

My point is that no one really knows. Everything could be down all across the board. Perhaps the only part down is the forum, and hits are just as high everywhere else. (If that is the case, logic would dictate a new strategy be implemented for reaching comments.) I suppose hit counts would speak for that last one, but without hard data from readers/commenters, the apparent problem may remain, or even get worse. (Or, in fairness, maybe it will magically fix itself. It's happened before.)

I believe I'm doing my part to keep up forum involvement with the challenges. We're not getting any more votes than we did before, so I'm not stealing readers away from the 'zine. I suspect the same people vote each month, many of the same who still comment.

GLP, something of a professional at this, did supply a long list of marketing strategies that could be employed to boost the forum & zine. Some of those were implemented to the betterment of the Aphelion "experience" (notably the wonderful redesign), but I don't believe all.

Food for thought. In any case, I suspect just saying "Hey, comment" is unlikely to garner good results.

Nate