Hi!
I've been trying to figure out what a web based fan club looks like in 2026.
I very nearly went with an 80s BBC + an IRC door + a Discord < - > IRC bridge but no matter how much I talk about it, I can't bring myself to let Discord own my primary communication platform with the majority of our community.
I won't endorse them, even tacitly.
And so now I'm back to exploring how we do this on the open web.
And I don't know! I don't have a good answer.
This is a thread.
In very broad terms, the available Options:
- Forum software
- Fediverse server
- Chat software
- Live streaming video platforms
- Something email based
- An app (that combines so number of the above)
There are specific implementation details about each of these things that vary from software to software that might come with their own benefits or drawbacks, but I'm not going to talk about the specifics right now, I'm just talking about the general.
Each of these comes with problems:
- Forum software
- - Tends to be an attack target for both spammers and botnets
- - Needs a secondary comms channel to notify people that things have happened (which means email, which comes with all the problems of email)
- - Demands our people set up a fresh account, raises barrier to entry.
- Fediverse server
- - Confusing
- - Requires creating new account
- - Also exposes them to the larger fediverse which is fine but not the goal and reinforces point one
- - demanding of resources for moderation, new account creation, and server admin
- - Really really confusing
- Chat software
- - Too many options
- - Most of them have major drawbacks
- - Sets an expectation from our community that we're available in real time.
- - Either have to use a commercial platform (no!) or people have to create a new account (bad!)
- Live streaming video platforms
- - Needs a singanlling channel to let people know we're live
- - Requires dedication to performing certain times of day certain days of week.
- Something email based
- - Google decides who sees our stuff
- - Broadcast only, not conversation
- - No free mailing list providers anymore
- - Probably the best option for today.
- An app (that combines so number of the above)
- - Gotta register with app stores
- - Gotta maintain an app
- - Gotta convince people to install an app
- - Still need some or all of the above to expose within the app.
I should probably just start a newsletter for now, start collecting email addresses and seeing weekly updates, and then move to other methods in the future as we figure out what they are.
But it would be really great to come up with something a little more Flashy to be able to bring to people at upcoming shows.
What are the best platforms like this?
Are you a member of a fanclub style thing somewhere? What works? What doesn't?
A bunch of people I support on patreon or whatever offer discord "servers" for subscribers and I understand why, but that's letting discord own the conversation and I don't want that.
What do you like?
At the moment, I think our best option is probably: A newsletter from @buttondown or similar.
A forum from Discourse.
But I'm willing to explore other options, and also willing to pay for something that provides a more robust experience (whatever that means!) if it's compelling enough.
I just want a place where I can share behind the scenes stuff with people who care about that, and hype up our new stuff, but also stay in touch with the folks who are the most into what we're doing, and give them a chance to influence how things move forward and to get access to exclusives and that kind of thing.
I want to make it feel special.
Yeah, the more I noodle on this, the more I land on Fan Community Website + Forum + Email Newsletter as the only viable path.
You don't need to set up a new account to receive an email. You can log in with one of your existing accounts to access the forum. Logging in to the forum lets you access the fan community website.
I'm really just reinventing patreon, I guess.
@ajroach42 Apparently Ghost (the blogging/newsletter software) is Fediverse-capable these days (https://activitypub.ghost.org/) and I've seen how-tos to hook that up to the big networks via RSS (e.g. https://circleboom.com/blog/automate-blog-sharing/, which is advertising their automation system).
NodeBB would offer more of a forum experience than Ghost, also with tie-ins to Fediverse and RSS (and should therefore also work with such RSS->big network bridging) but it seems to be less suited for email newsletters.
Maybe Ghost for the website + newsletter + POSSE broadcast type of stuff, plus NodeBB for the enthusiasts, where the Ghost posts start a thread per "world wide" post plus forum-only activity?
As someone who generally abhors online marketing, I wanted to thank you for your public musings on this.
For one thing, I had never heard of Discourse. NICE! (Probably will use that for the soon-to-be-released short story collection)...
😎 👍 👍
@ajroach42 I wonder if it's possible to build a funnel, starting from "here's a website with updates" (syndicating to the big platforms POSSE style), where everything just happens to be Fediverse in the background.
That way you could
- reach out to folks where they are (even if it's a lossy channel because who knows what the selection algorithms of the big platforms decide to show or not), ideally with interactions blocked (like YT with comments disabled),
- provide a login-free website to just follow along "unfiltered",
- offer "push" updates for the site via RSS or https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Push_API if people want it,
- with the option for the audience to play a more active role via Fediverse (with an account on your infra or elsewhere).
And every now and then a nudge: "PSA: we're available practically everywhere, but for higher fidelity, come to the website or even join us in the Fediverse."
The Push API gives web applications the ability to receive messages pushed to them from a server, whether or not the web app is in the foreground, or even currently loaded, on a user agent. This lets developers deliver asynchronous notifications and updates to users that opt in, resulting in better engagement with timely new content.
@ajroach42 I have about two decades of Invision Forum administrating experience, which now that I think about it is kinda wild given the trends which have come and gone in that time. I would definitely consider Discourse, especially if they have Oauth connectors (helping with the "another account" aspect).
I don't have a good answer to the spam issue though, it's a definitely a constant fight. We resolved to manual account approval, which definitely has scaling issues (and it's not an ideal experience).
This is a bit of a meandering "I agree with a forum!" reply.
@ddlyh It doesn't solve the "google decides who sees our posts" problem and adds a "moderation becomes a lot more difficult" and a "people don't really know the etiquette of a listserv anymore" problem.
I'm not completely against it, but I think it is unapproachable.
Andrew (Television Executive)
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Patrick Georgi
Mark Harbinger
Stu
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