We are back!

A common phrase posted on many a website. In the E-fed world that means that a fed or resource site is once again open, hoping to capture that spotlight that they once had. Very, very few E-Fed sites have ever gone through a single start-to-end phase and most go through several closings, ownership changes, hiatus'es, regroupings, etc etc. The fed you are in now, if it's more than a year old, has probably been closed or dead at least once in it's existance. But is bringing back the dead really a good thing to be doing? Well, yes and no. Let me explain.

E-Feds are the most common e-wrestling website out there, thus are the most likely to close and have someone try to revive them. Bringing an E-fed back to life is not really a bad thing to do and has been done many times extremely successfully. When someone decides to bring an E-Fed back they are giving players a chance to be part of a place that has history and records from which they can compare themselves. A lot of roleplayers like a Fed that has some sort of history to it, so that they too, can incorporate themselves into it and continue the traditions of past members. Past ownerships, with different rules, different politics and different levels of RP judging are not of any concern to new members for sometimes the "new direction" of the reopening Fed is what people were waiting for. It's obvious the Fed wasn't working when it closed, so now it seems to have been fixed. Even if the Fed was closed while it was still popular due to the owner not having the time, reopening it again under someone else would still be OK. Why? Because each time a Fed opens, whether its for the first time or not, they all start from square one and recruit based on what they can offer the roleplayer. Feds in general offer roleplayers different scenes, places, atmospheres and ever-changing challenges. The sheer variety of choices is what attracts roleplayers to move from Fed to Fed. So in that aspect of things, change is good. Thus, a reopened Fed back from the dead seems like a good thing because Feds change over time anyways to keep the players challenged, why not change completely and come back stronger!

E-fed resource sites or communities are harder to bring back from the dead because they had a more unique atmosphere to them. Each site was known for doing one aprticular thing, and doing it well. Take X-Net for example... it used to be the ultimate resource site to visit. But what attracted people to it was the ratings they posted, for both e-wrestlers as well as E-Feds; that fact alone was what people identifed X-Net. When people thought of X-Net, they thought "ratings". So, when X-Net was sold, closed and an attempt was made to bring it back to life everyone was expecting it to be what it used to be, a place for ratings. But alas, that was not to be. The "new direction" X-net had no ratings and struggled to present an unique identity that would set it apart from the rest of the E-world.

That's the trouble with bringing back resource/ community sites, people will only come back if you give them what they once had. They came to your site for a reason, and if you want them back, you better give them the same reason to stay. Most new owners that try to bring back dead resource sites do not realize that, they try to bring back a "New and inproved" site with a "new direction and attitude". Sorry but that isn't going to cut it. It doesn't matter what the "new direction" is, old account holders of the past site will feel slighted, disappointed and betrayed. They will feel loyal to the old site and not bother with the "New direction" site perferring to preserve the memories of the good old days. The result, is that all the past people who frequented the resource site would not come back, and only a handful of brand-new account holders would be attracted to the "new direction" site. However, instead of moving forward, these "new direction" sites would be plagued with past members posting about how the site is "not the same" and needs to "change back". It's the complaining about the site that keeps new members from joining on a consistant basis and keeps the resource site from ever reaching the lofty heights it once enjoyed.

If you want to bring a resource site back to life, bring it back to it's original state, stablize it, and make sure you have a solid core of members. Then, and only then can you attempt to take it in "new directions" with your core members slowly guiding you along the way.

So if bringing back the dead is something you have been thinking of doing, keep what I' ve said in mind before you place that first shovel in the ground.

Toodles!