Organizing attention for the KS drive

[bjornthedwarf]

Update: I'm adding links and moving them between the three categories (ran, contacted, not-contacted) as people chime in, so hopefully this should be relatively up-to-date at least once or twice a day through the duration of the drive. I've given credit, when known, to who contacted/posted.

So I thought that as we move towards the $500,000 mark, it could be a good idea to try and organize some more attention for the drive. There's been some work on this in the main thread, but figured I would start another thread, so this doesn't get lost in there and/or clog up the other discussions.

I think there are a lot more news sites/blogs/forums that would be interested in this, we just need to get the word out.

So far, we've got coverage from:

Comics Alliance (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/01/31/order-of-the-stick-kickstarter/) - They also ran the first official interview (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/02/07/rich-burlew-kickstarter-order-stocl/)with the Giant about it!
BoingBoing (http://boingboing.net/2012/02/01/order-of-the-stick-dd-webcomi.html) - Courtesy of me
The Beat (http://www.comicsbeat.com/2012/02/01/kate-beaton-announces-shes-taking-some-time-off-from-her-webcomics/)
netzwel.de (http://www.netzwelt.de/news/90641-kickstarter-rekord-strichmaennchen-comic-sammelt-ueber-400-000-us-dollar.html) (German blog, no clue what it says)
BoardGameGeek forums (http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/757128/comic-reprint-on-kickstarter)
Reddit - Been submitted at least a half dozen (http://www.reddit.com/r/comics/search?q=order+of+the+stick) times - Won't hurt to do it again when we break $500K
RPGGeek (http://www.rpggeek.com/blogpost/7474/order-of-the-kick) - Courtesy of YohanLeafheart
MinMaxBoards (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=3127.0) - Courtesy of HeadlessMermaid
Co-Optimus (http://www.co-optimus.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=14128) - Co-op themed gaming site, courtesy of me
Fleen (http://www.fleen.com/) - Webcomics blog, has actually mentioned (http://www.fleen.com/archives/2012/02/02/maybe-time-to-break-out-the-log-scale/)it twice (http://www.fleen.com/archives/2012/02/01/happy-hourly-comics-day-yall/)
Forbidden Planet (http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/2012/kickstarter-the-order-of-the-stick-and-a-total-that-keeps-on-growing/) - Found by keldorn
EN World (http://www.enworld.org/forum/news/317938-order-stick-kickstarter-shatters-records-about-top-500k.html) - Found by keldorn
AV Club (http://www.avclub.com/articles/double-fine-productions-raises-1-million-for-new-g,69162/) - Brief side mention in article about Double Fine drive
Big Screen (http://www.big-screen.de/deutsch/pages/news/hardware-software/2012_02_09_8379_tim-schaefer-sammelt-geld-fuer-ein-neues-adventure.php) - Another German site, also another brief mention in relationship to Double Fine
TL-DR (http://tl-dr.co/frontpage/2012/2/12/sunday-comics-editorial-a-kick-in-the-stick.html) - Too Long, Didn't Read - Found by Porthos
Publisher's Weekly (http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/book-news/comics/article/50602-kickstarter-raises-600k-for-web-comic-but--ashes--is-threatened.html) - Wow, no really, wow. Maybe not the right target audience, but that's awesome. - Found by Porthos
e-book-news (http://www.e-book-news.de/order-of-the-stick-comic-reprint-projekt-erzielt-auf-kickstarter-650-000-dollar/) - Another German site

Submitted, but no response so far:

Slashdot (http://slashdot.org/)- I submitted a post, but it wasn't accepted
Dubiuous Quality (http://dubiousquality.blogspot.com/) - Geek Culture/Personal blog that has a fair readership. I emailed Bill Harris about the drive, as I've seen him mention OotS before, but haven't received a response, or seen a mention.
Wired - GeekDad (http://www.wired.com/geekdad/) - I dropped an email to the writer who usually covers comics there on Feb. 4th.
Locus Magazine (http://www.locusmag.com/) - Courtesy of keldorn
Ansible (http://news.ansible.co.uk/) - Courtesy of keldorn
io9 (http://io9.com/) - Courtesy of MaximKat

Places to try - I'm not personally familiar with all these, but seemed like logical places to try and drop an email or post:

Penny Arcade forums (http://forums.penny-arcade.com/) - Lots of D&D fans and general comic fans

Comic Geek Speak (http://www.comicgeekspeak.com) - Podcast covering comics

Webcomic Overlook (http://webcomicoverlook.com/) - Active webcomics blog

Official D&D forums (http://community.wizards.com/go/forum/viewcategory/75882/Dungeons_38_Dragons) - There is a Dark Sun focused forum, could be worth dropping a link in there about the DimSun parody.

Local media in the Giant's area - Left to the discretion of the Giant. I'm only leaving this on the list so people don't suggest it because it's not on the list. Per his request (see below), please don't contact any local media.

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Order_of_the_Stick)- I did edit the KS campaign into the main OotS article, but it was removed by a mod for being too newsy, which is probably fair. I don't think they'll let it be there until the campaign is over. Same thing happened to people editing the Kickstarter entry to add OotS to the top 10.

If you write a forum post or drop an email, please mention it in this thread, so we're not all spamming various places and actually turning them off. Any other ideas on good forums or blogs to try?

[Ancalagon]

Acutally, I think we should go on submitting this to slashdot. OotS bursting this way through the ranks of Kickstarter is surely "News for Nerds, Stuff that matter".

They even ran a freaking story about psycics (!) in the last time, so they really should take this. So, I really think some more submittings there is what should be done.

[bjornthedwarf]

Acutally, I think we should go on submitting this to slashdot. OotS bursting this way through the ranks of Kickstarter is surely "News for Nerds, Stuff that matter".

They even ran a freaking story about psycics (!) in the last time, so they really should take this. So, I really think some more submittings there is what should be done.

I agree that we should try submitting to /. again, I just didn't want to spam multiple attempts from my account there. I think that particularly once it cracks $500K that it may be viewed as a more compelling story. Geeks are rather obsessed with milestones and nice round numbers. Although on /., perhaps 512K would be the better number :smallbiggrin:

[Ancalagon]

Actually, I think it was newsworthy (for ./ that has not have had a very high standard in the last year) when it cracked 100k in the short time that needed.

But as ./ is today, they'd probably take a story about psycics (!) mumbling over something distantly related to physics over any Nerd and Geek theme these days.

[SaintRidley]

Is there anyone with ties to, say, White Wolf? I know, I know, different system, competing company to WotC, etc. But there's probably enough cross polination that they might be interested in running the news should the right person be contacted.

[keldorn]

It's not our job to do this, but I think that this drive will have reached the scale to receive coverage from Rich's local press. It's obviously up to him to decide who he wants to speak to but by the time he gets the back to work on Monday, we'll have passed the magic half a million and a press release to the Phil papers is likely to get some coverage in time for some locals to browse the archive and decide they want it on paper. And once he's been covered once, I'm sure it will make it easier for Rich to gain coverage of future releases as they happen.

From KS's point of view, they may want coverage in various press about their first 500K arts project to keep their own profile visible.

[YohanLeafheart]

I sent to the guys at RPGGeek and they posted about it on their news http://www.rpggeek.com/blogpost/7474/order-of-the-kick .

Disclaimer: I work for RPGGeek and I'm yohanleafheart on those comments

EDIT: Ah, I saw that you posted about the link to the Kickstart area of BGG already. Carry on then :D

[bjornthedwarf]

@keldorn

I think that local media in the Giant's area running something on this would be great, but I do tend to think that's something he should decide, since any good reporter would want to contact him for info about it, and I don't want to be responsible for creating more work for him in that respect.

@YohanLeafheart

I've updated the original list with that link, thanks!

@SaintRidley

I just got done looking at the WW forums, I don't really see any general RPG/discussion type areas, they are all focused on WW products. If there's not a specific area for sharing stuff like this in a forum, I kind of feel like it's spamming to interject it in some random topic. Still, it's a good idea to think outside of the D&D box and look at some other forums who have a place for sharing things like this.

I've also just finished editing the OotS Wikipedia entry to add some basic details of the Kickstarter campaign. I think it deserves to be there in the long run, so might as well get it created now.

[eras10]

I suggest we make funny youtube videos about this, somehow. I had an actual thread on this last week that got zero replies, so I'm glad to see enthusiasm mount! The main kickstarter thread is way, way, way too large.

Rich's permission might be required in the event of any usage whatsoever of his artwork, but it's at least hypothetically possible to make funny youtube videos about this drive without any art at all..

Probably waving around copies of the actual merchandise is legit.

[HeadlessMermaid]

There's also a relevant thread (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=3127.0) at MinMax boards (ex Brilliant Gameologists). Those with an account there can post and, well, spread the enthusiasm.

Myth-Weavers and other RPG forums are also valid targets, if someone wants to try it. :)

[keldorn]

@keldorn

I think that local media in the Giant's area running something on this would be great, but I do tend to think that's something he should decide, since any good reporter would want to contact him for info about it, and I don't want to be responsible for creating more work for him in that respect.


That's why I say it isn't our responsibility. KS are local to the Giant's original stomping ground. They might be able to do the contacting of press in that area for mutual benefit.

Talking about the press, I have now emailed the Locus mag website as they might be interested.

And whilst I'm at, I've contacted Dave Langford of Ansible. Dave used to write an SF/Fantasy review column for White Dwarf when it didn't just cover Games Workshop products. His newsletter/fanzine has its own Thog who collects the worst quotations from genre books.

[bjornthedwarf]

@keldorn

Awesome! Locus and Ansible are both great places to hit! I've updated the contacted list with them. I also dropped a post into the Co-Optimus forums, where I'm a long time member (though not active much anymore). It's a site that focuses on co-operative gaming, seemed that this fit there well enough.

[MaximKat]

I've emailed io9.com. I'm not sure it's up their alley, but they do fantasy webcomics once in a while, so why not?

[keldorn]

Forbidden Planet (http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/2012/kickstarter-the-order-of-the-stick-and-a-total-that-keeps-on-growing/) and enworld (http://www.enworld.org/forum/news/317938-order-stick-kickstarter-shatters-records-about-top-500k.html) now cover the drive.

[The Giant]

Hey guys--

I appreciate the effort to spread the word, but I have to ask that no one contact local Philadelphia media as has been mentioned here. Local media tends to want to show up in person with cameras to one's house, which is something I am really not up for. Let's keep this among the internet folks for the time being. Thanks.

Also, I've done two interviews so far and have a few more requests pending, so those will be linked on the News page when they're live.

[Shale]

It's your call, obviously, but speaking as a former member of the Philadelphia media, I was happy to do interviews by phone if that's what the interviewee is comfortable with. If they have to make do with a stock picture from a convention appearance, or art from the comic, that's their layout guys' problem.

(Print media, of course. If you're talking about Action News or whatnot, yeah, that's a different story.)

[Lysander]

You should contact the avclub (http://www.avclub.com/), they love geeky stuff, comics, and internet news.

They don't usually talk about webcomics much, true, but the success of this kickstarter project might still merit a mention on their newswire at least.

Also it's worth contacting gizmodo, since they'd probably be into a kickstarter success story like this.

[bjornthedwarf]

Hey guys--

I appreciate the effort to spread the word, but I have to ask that no one contact local Philadelphia media as has been mentioned here. Local media tends to want to show up in person with cameras to one's house, which is something I am really not up for. Let's keep this among the internet folks for the time being. Thanks.

Also, I've done two interviews so far and have a few more requests pending, so those will be linked on the News page when they're live.

I've updated the list to make it clear to leave any local media decisions to you. I'm definitely curious to read the interviews you've done for this!

In other news, list has been updated with new links. The AV Club seems like a good idea, but man, it looks like that place has changed a bit since I used to frequent it a few years ago. Or maybe I just have a really poor memory, that's also possible.

Since it's over $500K, seems like a good time to try Slashdot again. I'd rather not use my account to submit the same story twice, so if anyone else has an account, I'd say go ahead and give it a try.

[keldorn]

The first of the interviews has appeared at http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/02/07/rich-burlew-kickstarter-order-stocl/.

[Thrar]

How about popular boards for RPGs, e.g. the Bioware or Bethesda boards?

[Ancalagon]

I'd say: If you already are some member of their communities, open a topic in an appropiate subforum to talk with your fellow forumites.

If you make a new account to talk about that, I think it's very close to borderline advertisment and spam, imo and might even already go over that border. You'll just be "the new guy that advertieses about something".

[bjornthedwarf]

I'd say: If you already are some member of their communities, open a topic in an appropiate subforum to talk with your fellow forumites.

If you make a new account to talk about that, I think it's very close to borderline advertisment and spam, imo and might even already go over that border. You'll just be "the new guy that advertieses about something".

I agree, it's why I haven't personally made any new profiles to post this. I've hit up the forums where I already visit, at least occasionally, but that's it. The last thing I want to do is give people any kind of a negative association with OotS, even because of fan behavior.

Also, when I've emailed people who I haven't previously interacted with, I've just explicitly said I was a fan who wanted to spread the word and didn't have any kind of an association with OotS.

We've picked up a couple of more news stories, though only as a side note to the bigger Double Fine drive, which is apparently having the unexpected benefit of giving a little more exposure to the OotS drive.

[Porthos]

Pair of new mentions today:

Sunday Comics Editorial: A Kick in the Stick (http://tl-dr.co/frontpage/2012/2/12/sunday-comics-editorial-a-kick-in-the-stick.html) (TL-dr (tl-dr.co))

Very nice write up by Chris Marks, BTW.

and

Kickstarter Raises $600K for Web Comic, but ‘Ashes’ Is Threatened (http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/book-news/comics/article/50602-kickstarter-raises-600k-for-web-comic-but--ashes--is-threatened.html) (Publishers Weekly)

Yes. That Publishers Weekly. :smalleek:

(Name mignt mean a lot to some people, but it means a lot to me. :smalltongue:)

[Dr. Gamera]

Not sure if you broke the link when you posted it, or if that web site broke your lnk after you posted it, but here's the link that works t the moment: http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/book-news/comics/article/50602-kickstarter-raises-600k-for-web-comic-but--ashes--is-threatened.html

[bjornthedwarf]

Pair of new mentions today:

Sunday Comics Editorial: A Kick in the Stick (http://tl-dr.co/frontpage/2012/2/12/sunday-comics-editorial-a-kick-in-the-stick.html) (TL-dr (tl-dr.co))

Very nice write up by Chris Marks, BTW.

and

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/book-news/comics/article/50602-kickstarter-raises-600k-for-web-comic-but--ashes--is-threatened.html]Kickstarter Raises $600K for Web Comic, but ‘Ashes’ Is Threatened (Publishers Weekly)

Yes. That Publishers Weekly. :smalleek:

(Name mignt mean a lot to some people, but it means a lot to me. :smalltongue:)

That's awesome! Definitely got to add that to the list. It makes sense for them to cover it, as crowd-funding gets bigger and bigger, it makes it even more important for industry focused outlets to cover it.

[Porthos]

Not sure if you broke the link when you posted it, or if that web site broke your lnk after you posted it, but here's the link that works t the moment: http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/book-news/comics/article/50602-kickstarter-raises-600k-for-web-comic-but--ashes--is-threatened.html

Misplaced an "=". :smallsigh:

Fixed now. :smallsmile:

[jidasfire]

Hey guys, I just did an interview via podcast with Rich. If you want to listen to it, here it is: http://podcasts.non-productive.com/index.php?id=542

It's a good hour-long interview with a lot of fun information.

[Forbiddenwar]

I proposed this in the main thread, but it got buried:


After I've read a few "I wish I could get the books, but they are out of print" in this very forum :smallfurious:
perhaps we should buy the banner for a day. For great justice?

No one doubts that this forum and the amazing community around it would not be here if it wasn't for the comic. And this would be the easiest way to get the whole forum to know of the kickstarter to support the comic that made this forum possible.


It would reach those who just go to the pony threads and those who play by post. Those in the Halo threads and those in the 5th edition.

[ThePhantasm]

Hey guys, I just did an interview via podcast with Rich. If you want to listen to it, here it is: http://podcasts.non-productive.com/index.php?id=542

It's a good hour-long interview with a lot of fun information.

That was really interesting. Thanks for sharing.

[Porthos]

Hey guys, I just did an interview via podcast with Rich. If you want to listen to it, here it is: http://podcasts.non-productive.com/index.php?id=542

It's a good hour-long interview with a lot of fun information.

If you don't mind, I'm gonna mention this over on the Kickstarter Comment Page so they can get a chance to hear this as well.

Hopefully your bandwidth can take it. :smalltongue:

[jidasfire]

If you don't mind, I'm gonna mention this over on the Kickstarter Comment Page so they can get a chance to hear this as well.

Hopefully your bandwidth can take it. :smalltongue:

Thanks for the support!

Fortunately, we're affiliated with a radio station and it's not just a personal website, so it should be good.

[Porthos]

Thanks for the support!

Fortunately, we're affiliated with a radio station and it's not just a personal website, so it should be good.

Done. Let's see if it gets a few downloads/listens or not. :smallamused:

ETA: Listening to it and I Loved loved loved Rich's comment about Miko. :smallcool::smallbiggrin::smalltongue:

[Porthos]

Digital Spy had a news story about the drive getting ready to hit $1 Mil. (http://www.digitalspy.com/comics/news/a366625/the-order-of-the-stick-kickstarter-nears-usd1m.html)

That's only one of the bigger UK entertainment news hubs of the internet out there (according to Wikipedia, it's the 104th most popular website in the UK, period). :smalleek:

ETA as to not Double Post:

Two articles from Comics Beat:

http://www.comicsbeat.com/2012/02/18/will-order-of-the-stick-hit-1-million-on-kickstarter/ (Feb 18)
and
http://www.comicsbeat.com/2012/02/19/order-of-the-stick-breaks-the-1m-barrier/ (Feb 19)

[Euodiachloris]

Thanks for indirectly pointing me in the direction of this thread, Porthos. :smallsmile:

I'll be catching up on any links here on a regular basis, methinks. :smallbiggrin:

I haven't found anything worthwhile to add, yet, however... give me time, though. I hope to.

Kind of OT (and very tin-hatty), but also, not: wouldn't it be cool if Penny Arcade got into this?