Fringe Season Four - A Paradox?

Hypable posted an interview from FEARnet with Anna Torv. She doesn't know much about season four of Fringe, so the interview is about what she'd like to see happen.

I haven't thought about the season three finale for a while, but this interview got me thinking again. Peter linked the two universes and erased himself from existence. Olivia, Walter, their alternate versions, and the rest of the characters have to find a way to patch up the universes and stop fringe events from happening.

But Peter didn't just go away--he made it so he was never born. So then, how did the initial tear in the universes happen if it wasn't Walter kidnapping Peter? Who linked the universes if Peter doesn't exist anymore? I'm most interested in seeing what the characters think of their situation. Do they simply accept that the universe is damaged without knowing the cause? Or did something else happen that had the same consequences?

Is it September yet?

Hypable Potential

When I co-founded Supernatural.tv in 2005, I saw the difference between corporate-run and fan-run sites. Finding news and writing about Supernatural was a joy. The moderators in the forums were as passionate about the show as the visitors to the site. We had better discussions, more activity, and more fun than people were having in the CW's official Supernatural forum. Now BuddyTV owns Supernatural.tv and even though the forums remain fan-run, the community has suffered. We were better as a fan-run site. Running fansites takes a lot of time and effort, so finding ones that are well-run, organized, and updated is rare.

But that's changing with Hypable.

Andrew Sims (of MuggleNet and MuggleCast) started Hypable, a site that covers entertainment news for several shows and fandoms. He noticed that "general entertainment sites do not cover specific fandoms as good as individual fansites do" *, so he wanted to create a fan-run site that would offer great coverage for lots of fandoms.

Right now, Hypable writers cover Harry Potter, Twilight, Hunger Games, Doctor Who, Fringe, Supernatural, True Blood, Dexter, Mad Men, Saturday Night Live, Disney, The Office, X Factor, and more...the list is growing all the time. Registering on Hypable allows you to filter posts by fandom so that the news you see in "My Feed" is what interests you specifically. Columns and podcasts offer fan commentary on news and events. All around, it's a great setup.

The About Us page talks about the power of fans to cover topics that interest them without corporate influence. "Fan-powered" is good. Fan-driven is better.

A core group of writers is necessary for Hypable: fans rely on frequent updates, so Hypable needs a dedicated writing staff. But as a fan of fantasy and sci-fi shows, more than news interests me.

I want a place where I can read news about my favorite shows, but I also want to read theories and commentary by fans. Right now, when I want to see what people thought of the latest episode of Doctor Who, I search tags on Tumblr. It's not ideal, but it works.

I can't help thinking about the diversity of content Hypable could have if they accepted writing from visitors to the site.

The Write for Hypable page states writers must be able to post at least five stories each day. That's the kind of dedication you need for a news site, but I'm sure there are people out there (like me) who would love to write for fan sites but can't dedicate that much time every day.

Why not take submissions? Submissions allow people to make less of a commitment without lessening the quality of writing. Set guidelines for the kind of content you want. For example, episode commentary, theories about what will happen next in your favorite show, and character studies. All you need is a section on the site for non-news content and editors to review submissions. (I'd volunteer.) Post the quality writing and send explanations to writers when their submissions won't be used.

Accepting submissions does two things. First, it's an easy way to build content on the site. Second, submitting articles is a good way to test out potential staff writers. Frequent submitters can see what it's like to write for a fan site, and the Hypable staff has writing samples to review before they take on committed writers.

I don't know if Hypable wants to be strictly a news site. If it does, it's doing fine. But if Hypable wants to be a hub for fandoms, it needs to have more than news. It needs to offer more fan-written content.

Home videos

My dad was watching home videos today, and I realized that my family and my extended family stopped recording home videos when my cousins and I were about ten years old. I understand that most parents want videos of their kids when they're young, so maybe that's why the videos stopped. We grew up.

But with increasingly smaller video cameras and easier ways to share videos, I think it's strange that we don't record home videos anymore (with possible exceptions for family vacations and weddings).

I have only my own experiences to go on, so I'm curious: did your family record home videos, and did the videos stop at some point?