Greetings, fellow Star Wars fans. My name is Keith Kappel, co-founder of http://www.fandomcomics.com a Star Wars Fan Comic site. I have been a member of the Star Wars fan community online for the past eleven years in various sub-cultures of the community, and felt it would be fun and informative to take a look at our community head to toe, and see what is going on. This blog isn't going to focus so much on fandom in general, but on fan activity that occurs and exists online.

The first step in examining such a vast community is to break it down. Fans typically take an interest in one or several aspects of Star Wars Fandom. For ease of examination, I have broken down all of the various communities in an easy to categorize tree. Before addressing current
events, lets first take a look at the various branches of the Fandom Tree and define each sub-culture of our community. Star Wars Fandom would seem to break down into four primary categories; Film Fans, EU Fans, Gamers and Collectors. Each of these primary categories breaks down much further.

Star Wars Fandom
A.) Movie Fans: Movie fans are primarly focused on the six films themselves. These include people who do film marathons, basic film media sites, people who wait in long lines to see a Star Wars film, etc. I would hope that all of us are Movie fans to some extent.

1.) Costumers: The costumers are those people who love the films so much that they spend time dressed as a Star Wars character. Perhaps they are only in costume for halloween or costume parties, or perhaps they are only in costume when going to see a star wars film. Some, however, are in costume all the time.

a.) Fan Costumes: These are the costuming fans that take the time to actually create their own custom Star Wars costume. The most recognized organization in this category would be the 501st Stormtrooper Legion.

b.) Fan Droids: There is also a subculture of those that build their own R2 units, or other droids, with various capabilities. I believe Don Bies' class on droid-building at Celebration II provided this sub-community with a large flux of activity.

2.) Fan Films: TFN and AtomFilms.com both have extensive collections of Star Wars fan films from the humorous to the dramatic and action packed. This is a large community that even caught the attention of George Lucas himself, who now hosts an annual contest for the Star Wars Fan Film awards.

3.) Trivia Fans: These are the fans that have a great interest in the behind the scenes of the production of the films. These are the fans who take an interest in flipped film frames, film continuity errors, stormtroopers banging their heads on things, and the wilhelm scream.


B.) EU Fans: These are the fans who have an interest in the story of Star Wars beyond the films. These are the fans who watch the cartoons and blend other non-film sources into their perception of the entire canonical star wars experience.

1.) Novel Fans: These are the fans that read the officially licensed Star Wars novels.

a.) Fan Fiction: Some fans are not content to merely read novels written by others, and instead want to write their own story set in a galaxy far, far away.

2.) Comic Book Fans: These are the fans of the Marvel Comics run and/or the Dark Horse Comics run.

a.) Fan Comics: Some fans create their own comic books set in a galaxy far, far away.

b.) Fan Art: Many fans choose to showcase their artistic skill by posting fan art online. This would include tatoos.

3.) Reference Book Fans: Some fans enjoy reading the many referenec books produced by DK books, or the Essential Guide series among others.

a.) Fan References: Many fans, most notably Curtis Saxon, create their own reference sites, providing fans online with unique data sources to answer questions they may be wondering about the Star Wars galaxy and its inhabitants.

b.) Wiki/Wookieepedians: Technically still just a fan reference, Wiki/wookieepedia has grown so large as to warrant its own sub-category.


C.) Gamers: This broad category is probably the largest behind fans of the films themselves. This encompasses people who enjoy experiencing the Star Wars galaxy from a more interactive point of view.

1.) Video Gamers: Video gamers are those that play Star Wars games on the many, many platforms they have been made available for.

2.) D6 RPG Gamers: There is still a community of those who play the West End Games D6 Star Wars RPG game, and those who create custom fan material for the system.

3.) D20 RPG Gamers: There is also a large community of D20 gamers that play the Wizards of the Coast D20 Star Wars RPG Game and create fan material while awaiting the new Saga Edition.

4.) Miniature Gamers: Wizards of the Coast also has a large following for its miniatures combat game, and there are those that create custom mini figures.

5.) Decipher CCG Gamers: There are still those with large Decipher CCG game collections that occasionally play the game and create custom CCG cards.

6.) Wizards TCG Gamers: Wizards of the Coast still has a following for its TCG game, as well as those that create custom TCG cards.

7.) Board Gamers: Star Wars has released numerous adaptations of popular board games such as monopoly, stratego, risk, chess, and more.

8.) Free-form Rpers: these are people who play free-form text based RPs like forum RPs, Sims, or other online RP communities.


D.) Collectors: Collectors are those fans that focus on building a collection of Star Wars memorabilia of some kind. Usually the collections have some kind of focus, but not always. Collections can range from movie posters, advertising campaign memorabilia, authentic props or costumes used on set, or anything else the collector can think of to collect.

1.) Action Figure Collectors: The Kenner/Hasbro toy line is probably the most common thing collected, and probably makes up the largest portion of collectors.

a.) Fan Figures: Some of the toy collectors grow tired of waiting for the release of a desired figure, and make their own! Some even make dioramas to display their figures in.

2.) Autograph Collectors: Some fans collect autographs of those that acted or worked on the various films or EU material. Fans have very different methods for collecting their autographs and displaying them.

3.) Bust/Statue/replica Collectors: There has recently been a HUGE increase in the number of statues, busts, and licensed replicas available for sale to fans. Master Replicas is one of the more popular companies, along with Gentle Giant. Both offer a variety of items, some with very limited production runs.

4.) Trading Card Collectors: Topps has offered a number of trading card collections over the years that several fans have collected tirelessly.

Now that we have further defined the four various categories, lets talk about the community of each one separately, their online presence and activity, as well as show some representative sites of the community, and discuss what they can do to increase their online presence. We will start with film fans.

A.) Movie Fans: Fans of the Star Wars films in general are all over the internet. There are thousands of forums, blogs and chatrooms where people can share their love of the films and debate the meanings of them ad infinitum. There are tens of thousands of Star Wars media sites where individual fans have posted up some of their favorite images of the saga and expressed their love for it. Fans of the films have a huge presence online focused between two major sites; http://www.starwars.com and http://www.theforce.net . There is also a large presence on such places such as http://www.MySpace.com, http://www.LibraryThing.com , and http://www.LiveJournal.com.

1.) Costumers: Costumers have made gigantic strides in the past decade. New licensed costumes are now available for purchase between 500 and 1000 dollars that officially replicate costumes from the films, allowing people to dress up and look better than ever. The Celebration series of Star Wars conventions, as well as Comic-cons and RPG-cons have provided a bigger outlet than ever for those who enjoy getting into Star Wars garb. Celebration II and III even had fan costume contests and shows.

a.) Fan Costumes: A big part of the costuming culture that has made gigantic leaps in the past decade. Fan Costuming's biggest organization, the 501st Stormtrooper Legion, has fans all over the world that do various events, from charity to celebration to film openings. http://www.501st.com is the homebase for fan costumers. However, there are also numerous sites with tutorials for those wishing to make their own star wars costume. http://www.leiasmetalbikini.com is one of the bigger ones, if very focused. http://www.padawansguide.com also has great tutorials for creating a Jedi or Padme costume. http://www.tk409.com is also a great costuming site. A quick search of the net will yield many results for such pages. One thing I would like to see the fan costuming community do more of, is interact with the fan film community. Making a fan film can be extremely expensive, and in the Star Wars setting, costuming can be one of the things that sets a fan film back significantly. Help from the fan costuming community could help us get some much higher quality fan films. http://www.partsofsw.com/ is an amazing site that breaks down what is needed to replicate the making of an official star wars prop or costume. If you have a little bit of craftsmanship, you can make the props the same way they did for the movies.

b.) Fan Droids/props: There is also a small community of people who build star wars droids to work as remote controlled robots, or just for display. http://www.astromech.net as well as http://www.robotbuilders.com/r2/ both have a wealth of information on these communities. It was Don Bies' droid building room at Celebration II that I feel really made this fan community its very own niche. Again, I feel that more interaction with the fan film community would yield better fan films. There are also numerous sites that are dedicated to building your own custom lightsaber, or some other such prop.

2.) Fan Films: Fan Films have exploded in the past decade. Originally we had Troops, a funny Cops parody with Stormtroopers. Now, we have hundreds if not thousands of Star Wars Fan Films. http://www.theforce.net/fanfilms/explore.asp is probably the largest single repository of Star Wars Fan Films. Atom Films also has 130 Star Wars Fan Films. http://www.atomfilms.com . This is a fast growing community what with the availability of home computer technology for effects. While many of the fan films have made great strides in effects and fight choreography, acting and writing seem to be the two things most sorely missing. Greater interaction with the fan costuming community could save on modest budgets, allowing for more experienced actors and/or writers. Animated fan projects have also been becoming more commonplace. This is one of the more exciting communities, and I can't wait to see how fan films look a decade from now.

3.) Podcasters: Star Wars Action News, Star Wars En Direct, and the TFN Star Wars Podcast are easily the three largest online. http://www.swactionnews.com http://www.swendirect.com and http://www.theforce.net . These podcasts are like downloadable radio shows that keep fans up to date on the goings on of the Star Wars fan base. This is a relatively new community, and I would like to see podcasts more representing radio dramas, or more focused podcasts for individual niches of the fan community. Why there aren't podcasts called Rebel Radio or HolonetNews I have no idea, hint-hint.

4.) Trivia Fans: theforce.net runs trivia of all types, there is a Star Wars trivial pursuit game. There have been star wars questions on jeopardy. http://www.Funtrivia.com and http://www.powwows.com both have trivia on them, as well as the ability to host your own trivia events. IMO, there does need to be some kind of ultimate Star Wars trivia competition that takes place online or locally and builds to a final with the top competitors hosted once or twice a year. Something that uses chats or some other timed media, and has multiple categories.

While the presence of general Star Wars film fans online is enormous and well represented, it doesn't have nearly the diverse online presence that the Expanded Universe (or EU) fans have.

B.) EU Fans: The expanded universe fans are everywhere online. This is one of the places where Star Wars fans really shine with hard work and creativity.

1.) Novel Fans: Fans of Star Wars novels have forums on the official site and theforce.net where there are able to discuss plots, continuity errors, spoilers, theories, and characters from the officially licensed novels. Novel fans also have several sites up over the internet featuring odes to their fave characters from the novels. TFN also has a fairly long-term release schedule, letting fans know in advance what books are coming out. The official star wars blogosphere contains dozens of reviews for each star wars novel, allowing fans to see what fellow fans thought before purchasing. Also, fans can get together and compare novel collections and ratings and reviews at http://www.librarything.com

a.) Fan Fiction: Star Wars Fan Fiction is everywhere. TFN has an extensive forum with a ton of fan fiction. Also, http://www.galactic-voyage.com , http://www.livejournal.com , and hundreds of other sites. Fan Fiction is a hard community to break into because there is so much of it being created, and the quality varies all over the spectrum. The Fan Fic community would do well to create a site that focuses on rating and reviewing fan fiction, and then creating a master listing. This would accomplish two things. First, it would allow the authors of fan fiction much-desired constructive criticism so they can improve. Secondly, it would help the community identify some of the better pieces worth reading. This would obviously be a huge job, and would probably require a half a dozen or a dozen "fan fic readers" that are allowed to bestow ratings. A simple 1-10 scale ranking, along with a few paragraphs of summary/constructive criticism would really help this community mature a LOT.

2.) Comic Book Fans: Fans of the Star Wars comic books have a healthy community on TFN and a great community on the darkhorse.com message boards. The DHC staff and creative talent often patrol the board and interact with the fans. This is easily the best-handled officially licensed Star Wars community online. There are also reviews of the comics in the official Star Wars Blogosphere and on the DHC, Starwars.com and TFN forums.

a.) Fan Comics: Star Wars Fan Comics are few and far between. In total there have been something around 35 different Star Wars Fan comics in the history of the internet, the VAST majority of which no longer update. The vast majority are humor comic strips in the tradition of the Sunday newspaper, and not action/adventure/drama comics in the vein of those produced by Dark Horse Comics. Currently, there are four Star Wars Fan comic sites that I know of that still update regularly/semi-regularly. The first would be my own site, http://www.fandomcomics.com we have two comics currently running, with three more in various states of production. All our comics are planned as full length, 22 page, multiple issue stories. The second would be http://www.trashcompactorchronicles.co.uk which is a site that publishes mainly mini comics, where the entire story is under 10 pages in length. Third would be http://www.creaturecantina.com a comic strip focusing on the denizens of the cantina. Very funny. Fourth would be the Young Luke Skywalker Chronicles at http://www.injenn.net/~foximon/Luke/ . Considering how many fan artists and fan fiction writers there are, I am shocked there aren't several more fan comics currently running out there. I have another blog with a complete listing of every star wars fan comic I could find online (past and present), but the current active community is miniscule. This is obviously a community close to my heart, and I would love to see it grow to be as popular as fan fiction or fan costuming.

b.) Fan Art: Star Wars fan art is everywhere. The Fan Art community was dealt a terrible blow when the Star Wars Artist's Guild shut down, but deviantart has thousands of star wars images created by fans. Also, TFN has a very popular fan art gallery and forum. Many artists that are now drawing Star Wars for money started in the fan community such as Joe Corroney. Fan Artists often do private commissions, but I would like to see them reach out more toward the fan comic sites to draw comics, fan RPG sites to do pin-ups, and even the fan film sites to do storyboarding, a step often sorely missing in fan films. There are thousands of talented artists out there with a lot of love for the galaxy far, far away. Random pinups might be great for your portfolio, but we haven't seen an organization like the Star Wars Artists Guild come back to the internet to help make the valuable resource of fan artists available to the rest of the community.

3.) Reference Book Fans: Reference book fans have had a great decade. The DK series of visual dictionary, cross sections and locations books have been amazing. The new crop of essential guides has also been very well done. Fans of the reference books and the EU material contained with in can discuss it ad nauseum on numerous forums at the official site, TFN, and the galactic senate. While the only reference book planned for the near future is Octobers new essential guide to aliens, I think its safe to say that when the cartoons and TV shows hit, we will be getting a whole new round of these valuable tomes. Also, the official site's databank has been a great resource, and even allows fans to contribute to the databank via their what's the story twice-monthly contest!

a.) Fan References: There is a strong history of fan references online. The biggest, and most well known, is Curtis Saxon's Technical Commentaries. This site was so amazing, it landed Saxon a gig writing the cross-sections books for DK Books. However, there are several other fan references out there that are decidedly less well-known. One of the best is http://www.nav-computer.com , a mapping site that has a fan-made map of the galaxy based on existing official data and some educated guesses. His work is very well documented, and I personally use his map as a first-pass research resource for locational data. The other single biggest reference created by a single fan is Bob Vitas' Unofficial Encyclopedia at http://www.cuswe.org . Bob has continued to update the encyclopedia over the past 12 years or so, and it has evolved into one of the best single places for accurate, well-documented information. http://users.adelphia.net/~kitchens/index2.html is an underrated site with beautiful work, and http://swda.art-of-void.de/weblinks.html is the original star wars ship deck plans website. I just wish hed combine the technical manual, cross sections book, and some of the WEG material to do a deck plan break down of an imperial star destroyer or rebel frigate! Timelines are another common fan resource. http://www.starwarsfanworks.com/timeline/ is one of the more popular all encompassing Star Wars timelines. http://www.Jedinet.com and TFN also have timelines, as well as starwarstimeline.com. Fans of the Clone Wars have http://www.clonewarz.com which has timeline info for the clone wars specifically, as well as more general references on various characters and factions during the clone wars. Timelines are great, but someone needs to find a new way to display and organize them, with some kind of searchable function.

b.) Wiki/Wookieepedians: The guys over at http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Wars_Wiki have really had an amazing year. They are the fastest growing wiki in the world. While the wiki model doesn't necessarily allow for 100% accuracy in the information, it is a great first-pass site for reference. Those of you writing fan fics or making fan art could do worse than to use wiki as your first line of research. There are still a lot of things left unwritten in the wiki though, meaning that sometimes vitas is still the better source. The big thing wiki has over vitas, is the ability for fans to correct errors, and the ability to have images in the articles. More fans with the more diverse EU sources (such as the fact files and older WEG material) need to join this community and fill in some of the info gaps, as well as scan some more images!

Expanded Universe fans obviously have a very strong and varied presence online. The community does have several niches that are nowhere near their potential. This is a community with a lot of untapped room for growth. A lot of these communities don't even have a definitive "community site" that is the main place where all the fans congregate and go to for news about their sub-community.

C.) Gamers: Gamers have thousands of Star Wars related sites, mostly dedicated to video games. There is a strong Star Wars Gaming presence at http://www.lucasarts.com, http://www.starwars.com http://www.wizards.com/starwars and of course TFN. http://www.lucasfiles.com still offers fan-mods to various games as well as official patches.

1.) Video Gamers: PC Gamers have a huge community online for playing multi-player games online as well as trading fan-mods to existing games. http://www.lucasfiles.com has a ton of skins and levels for the Dark Forces/Jedi Knight series of games as well as the X-Wing series of games. There are also hundreds of sites with cheat codes for video games, walk-throughs, and clans for multi-player games. http://www.emperorshammer.org is probably the single biggest fan site for star wars video gaming, their forums are fairly active and the site appears to still be going strong. Star Wars Galaxies, of course, is a game designed for fans to interact online with. There are numerous sites dedicated to this game alone, and finding a star wars gaming clan or squadron to play any of lucasart's games with is typically a snap.

2.) D6 RPG Gamers: The old WEG D6 game is no longer being published (for almost a decade now), but it still has loyal fans. The biggest places for them to speak out are at the http://www.swrpgnetwork.com holonet forums and the TFN forums. There are a few fans that have created original PDF sourcebooks that provide D6 stats for new EU material and the prequel movies. I would like to see more fan sourcebooks documenting new EU material from the comics, novels and video games. There used to be an online Star Wars Adventure Journal, but that project seems to have died several times over. Someone new reinvigorating that idea for D6 or D6 and D20 would be a great boon to the community.

3.) D20 RPG Gamers: Similar to D6, the D20 game has taken a huge hit and official material is no longer produced for it. Again, http://www.swrpgnetwork.com s holonet forums and the TFN forums are the biggest places to go for fan material and support. Wizards of the coast also still supports the game on their site at the WOTC forums. Of course, my own site, www.fandomcomics.com does fan D20 material for the Clone Wars era, and Ghengis Ska has a KOTOR era fan sourcebook, both done in .pdf. The D20 community is waiting for the new Saga edition product due out next year sometime, to see what the next step for this community is. I would like to see more fan sourcebooks documenting new EU material from the comics, novels and video games.

4.) Miniature Gamers: http://www.starwarsminigames.com/ is the biggest minis site made by fans. They have a very busy forum, but obviously the minis game is still very well supported by WOTC on their site, as well as the official site, swrpgnetwork.com and TFN. http://www.swminiatures.com/ is also a big minis site, and has a lot of custom maps and what have you. I would like to see a lot more custom minis, and see custom minis catch up to the custom fan fig people, including custom stat cards.

5.) Decipher CCG Gamers: While entire card-lists can still be viewed at http://www.decipher.com/starwars , the community online for this game is particularly small. http://www.swccgpc.com/ keeps track of all the tournaments and events, but the line of cards is dead.

6.) Wizards TCG Gamers: This TCG is still supported heavily by WOTC, and can be talked about on their forums as well as TFN and the official site. There do not seem to be any major fan sites in this community online, as most of the organization of the community happens on the WOTC forums.

7.) Board Gamers: There are next to no online fan sites relating to board games, though I believe the official site and TFN do have forums for people interested in them. It would be nice to see at least one really comprehensive fan site that posts scans of the rulebooks (some of us lose them), FAQs, and provides some forums for strategies. Fan created board games that are downloadable/printable from online would be amazing. In general, this seems like it would be an exceptionally easy site to create. I am shocked someone hasn't done it already.

8.) Free-form Rpers: Free-Form RPs are all over the internet for star wars. The largest is probably the TFN RP forums, but livejournal.com has a lot of free-form RP. The biggest fan site specifically for free-form RP is probably http://www.swcombine.com . They have been around a long, long time. There are also numerous popular Star Wars MUDs and MUSHs, like http://www.starwarsmush.com and http://www.swmud.com . Simple google searches for either reveal dozens of each.

Star Wars gaming has a rich history over the past 20 years, and only promises to get more exciting as video game systems advance, and fan home computing power increases. I would love to start seeing actual fan video games set in the star wars galaxy, though the software that would make such a thing something a single fan or handful of fans can do is still a ways off. The tabletop, minis, card and board games have uncertain futures. Technology threatens to overwhelm the genres, but I have a feeling they will continue to eke out their niche in the community. Online fan support is what keeps these things alive. I would like to see an unofficial/official gathering place for online gaming, either through the official site or TFN. Something with a tournament structure for competitive online games perhaps?


D.) Collectors: Collecting is huge in the Star Wars fan community. The two biggest collecting websites are http://www.rebelscum.com and http://www.theforce.net. They make sure that fans are notified of exclusives and kept up to date on the release of various collectables. The official site also does a good job of getting this information out, and there are forums at all three sites to discuss collectables. http://www.yakface.com is also a big collecting site and of course, www.ebay.com has a huge listing of star wars collectables. The official site even posts pictures of fans and their collections on the official site as well as in Star Wars Insider!

1.) Action Figure Collectors: By far the largest portion of collectors of star wars memorabilia out there are collecting the toys. The Hasbro official site has a lot of the toys pictured and helps collectors fill out missing gaps. Again, rebelscum.com is one of the big sites in this community.

a.) Fan Figures: People create custom action figures, minis, lego figures, and even 12" figures. http://www.thecustomalliance.com/ , http://www.rebelscum.com, http://www.angelfire.com/scifi/swfigs/home.html is an amazing gallery of one man's huge custom figure library. I would love to see the fan figure people who make EU characters join the wikis and link or insert images of their customs into the wikis, or somewhere else where they are easy to find.

2.) Autograph Collectors: http://www.wattographs.com is the big site for this community. They have a great address database that allows you to mail items out to be signed, along with rules for sending things to those people for signing. They also seem to do a lot of charitable work.

3.) Bust/Statue/Replica Collectors: Again, http://www.rebelscum.com and theforce.net as well as the official site are the best sources for news and forums, as well as the official gentlegiant website, and master replicas website. Dark horse comics has the kotobuya statues as well. There are not many fan sites dedicated to this sort of collecting specifically, but it tends to be well covered by the other sites.

4.) Trading Card Collectors: The Topps company produced several trading card sets for the films and EU. http://www.starwarscards.net is pretty much the biggest site for such trading cards. It has forums and checklists, as well as links to ebay and other stores that sell the cards. There is also some support at tfn and the official site.

Collectors are a huge part of the star wars fan base, and it would seem they are a bit under-represented online. Now, I might be wrong, since I am not a huge collector myself, and I am not as familiar with the big collecting fan sites out there. In any case, that is the end of our review of the current state of the various Star Wars fan communities.

There are also a few misc websites that don't easily fall into any single category that are still major sites within the community. http://www.starwarschicks.com is a major fan community that focuses on the woman's perspective. They have fan fic and do charity work as well. http://www.lightsabre.co.uk is a site that does star wars news, video and most importantly, interviews with members of the community and official works. http://www.starwarz.com is also a major fan site that encompasses several aspects of Star Wars Fandom. There are others as well, far too many to list here in one sitting.

What is important to talk about, now that we have defined the thirty different sub-communities and examined their current state of affairs, is what can or should be done to improve our online community, if anything at all.

Personally, I feel that the biggest thing the fan community needs to work on is communication. There are some amazing fan sites out there, and incredible fans doing extraordinary things on their fan sites that very few people will ever see, because they don't know how to promote what they are doing properly. There is a fairly simple way to solve this problem, simple, but not necessarily easy.

There are two websites that basically every Star Wars fan goes to with at least some kind of regularity; www.starwars.com and www.theforce.net . Since TFN is the only fan site of the two, my plan would require the cooperation of TFN, or the creation of a site heavily and often backed by TFN, maybe a www.TFNFans.com or something that follows the same news format as TFN. It would then require someone to assemble one person from each of the thirty communities I have outlined, someone who knows their particular community online very well. Not someone who just has the biggest site in the community, but someone who knows about a good portion of the little guys in their community too. Someone who can say, wow, this guy is doing a great job, and he isn't getting recognized for it because he is on a small angelfire site.

These 30 individuals can then post news on exciting things being done in the fan community that would otherwise go completely unnoticed by the general star wars fandom. This would really help the cream rise to the top, so to speak. Also, it would make life easier for fans to get noticed, as it will be well-known on this new site or TFN who to contact to get your page looked at, and added to some kind of master link-database on the site.

Furthermore, you could have some kind of website awards that let the community moderator pick the 5 or so best sites in their community and let the community vote for which one they feel is the best. An award from a TFN sister site would be something web masters could be proud of. It would reinvigorate our community, and it would instill a larger sense of pride among fans.

A site like this would also help the various communities better talk with each other and interact. Someone with a question about a particular community would now have a go-to guy to ask via email on this site. If you are a writer looking for an artist to collaborate with, it'd be fairly easy to email the fan art representative and ask if anyone is looking to collaborate, or where best to search for one. If someone is doing a fan-film and needs two dozen stormtroopers and some wookiees for a scene, they can talk to the fan costuming rep and find out where best to ask for that. A site like this would really bind the fan community together.

The more I think about it, the more I realize this would work best as a TFN sister site, instead of cluttering up the TFN news with tons of fan activities. Basically, the site should clone TFN, but instead of the official reporting categories that TFN has, it would have the 30 sub-cultures of the Star Wars fan community and be dedicated to mentioning updates to existing sites as well as showcasing new sites in the community. There would also be perhaps a fan site listing by sub-culture, and the awards section. There is a lot more that could be done on such a site, but simply creating one wouldn't be enough. It would need the name recognition of a close relationship with TFN to make it work.

In any case, I am curious what everyone else thinks. Please leave comments if you have any major sites to add that I may have missed, or even an entire community I might not know about.