Jᴀᴄᴜʀᴜᴛᴜ - Tʜᴇ Cᴀsᴛ Oᴜᴛ

Irrelevant, but I'd like to add that editing is incredibly fun when you do it right. My favorite part of the writing process. Incredible that someone can go through the entire process of writing a book and completely disregard arguably the most essential work after preliminary research.

I think they consider this next part of their "process" to be editing, though, no?

They "brainstormed", outlined it, drafted it in about 8 weeks, and now they'll spend a couple months passing the draft back and forth "editing" it (which in the past has evidently included everything from deleting whole chapters to adding completely new ones).

Of course, most of the work will have to be on Brian Herbert's stuff, since KJA's "chaps" are delivered in "polished prose" straight from his facial anus.

He said facial anus...

We don't call him "buttface" for nothing.

Aaaaaaaawwww, eeesa cootsey baybeeeeeeeee! Look at 'em cheeeks! Koochee-koochee-kooooo!

SandChigger wrote:Aaaaaaaawwww, eeesa cootsey baybeeeeeeeee! Look at 'em cheeeks! Koochee-koochee-kooooo!

It was the first image that came up when I typed "buttface." I was looking for that guy who shot himself in the face from the Preacher comic series, but that one was much cuter.

Time for an update??

Sev wrote:Time for an update??

Are there still people posting over there?
It shouldn't even count any more since you can't tell the difference between one of those dumb fucks with a thought or question and someone from here making fun of them.

Facial anus
Fanus ?

Fanus the Faun takes a ditty to edit to Jerkbeka the trash monster

ALright, thanks for the reminder. This was a slower period for us I think, righht around Xmas almost always is if my memory is correct.

Baraka Bryan wrote:Face - Ass
Fass

Fat Fass

Another 4 months have passed.

DN is 56 months old, and Jacurutu is 36 months old. Here are the totals:

DN Total:
Posts: 54031
Members: 1624

Jacurutu total:
Posts: 100044
Members: 423

Here are some averages (rough figures of course, and bear in mind that these are averaged over the ENTIRE life of each site):

DN = 32.16 Posts per Day (down 2.07 from last checkup, down 22.21 since first comp)

Jacurutu = 92.63 Posts per Day (down 4.32 from last, down 2.61 since first comp)

Average posts per member:

DN = 33.27 (down 1.22 since last checkup)
Jacurutu = 236.51 (down 2.74 since last checkup) Again, like I said last time, and the time before, this sounds bad, but this largely due to the new membership we've had. (DN got 76 new members and we got 34. % wise that's a big diff - We had a 9% increase in membership, whereas DN only had a 5%)

Now, remember that since they are so much older than us that their averages are much more stable than ours. SO THE FOLLOWING ARE THE REAL NUMBERS

The last 4 months:

Jacurutu total posts = 6974 (down 29% per month)
Jacurutu total posts per day = 58.12 (down 29%)

DN total posts = 638 (down 53.3% per month (also of interest note that last period they were up 45% per month)
DN total posts per day = 5.32 (down 6.06 posts/53%)

As I guessed, this was a slow period for us. We had decent new membership but posting dropped. We've had 11 X as many posts as them in the last 4 months (last check we had 7 X as many). I think DN is at an all time low for posting, with even fewer posts than last summer. That said, unless I biffed my math again, this period was also one of the lowest in our history. I'm guessing that both DN and Jacurutu suffered the same problem aside from one difference I'll mention below. We both had the holiday season to contend with, and we both had no new Dune books to ramp up posting (though a new book always causes a lot more posting for us than for them, look at their subforums for the last couple books, almost ZERO there really). Here's the difference in situation, last period I said this:

"It'll be interesting to see if this new group of posters at DN can get the others going again (I kinda doubt it, we're talking about maybe 5 people that have caused almost all of those new posts) or if this will dwindle back down to their usual pace in the next third of a year."


They had a period of great growth from their last period last time. I laid my bet that it was a one-period-only increase and I was right. Not only did they not continue to grow, or drop down to their previous low, they fell further. We've got some work do do here though, this place is still vibrant and has a lot of posts and active members, but hopefully over the next year we'll see a massive increase again like we have before.

We're also getting really close to double their entire post count.

Freakzilla wrote:

Let us not forget that a substantial number of "new" members and posts on DN were actually made by not-so-new-members at all ... right Merkin?

A Thing of Eternity wrote:... and we both had no new Dune books to ramp up posting ...

This is a key point. Not only will there be no new McDunes in the calendar years 2010 and 2011, but the movie project went right off the rails, too. Essentially, there's not a lot of Dune news out there for anyone to react to.

Also, not much (that I've seen, anyway) has been happening on the Frank Herbert front. No new editions of Dune lately, no new editions of other FH works, no unearthed FH materials coming to light. Just the usual HLP status quo: the idiot son coming out once a year to check for his shadow and to be reminded by Keith who is really in charge.

TheDukester wrote:there be no new McDunes in the calendar years 2010 and 2011

Not in the US, at least, but remember that Amazon UK is still listing September 15, 2011 for the release of the Twisterhood paperback (still no sign of a hardcover). There's still no Amazon US listing (as of yesterday at least), and DuneNovels has a page giving January 2012.

I'm thinking of putting in an order for a UK copy. Think of the FUN that could be had with a copy in hand THREE MONTHS before it came out in the States!

Oh, right: been there, done that!

Part of the problem too is that as much as we love Dune, and discussing it - we've talked about most of the original 6 a million times. Every time something new to talk about comes up we generally persue it, but it's tough, we've really seriously discussed a LOT of freaking Dune! We should be spending more time in that Orthodox Dune Conclusion subforum really, it's a great idea, though a fairly frustrating one to discuss (not a negative thing per-say).

Another problem is that we're tired of explaining things over and over, and most of us are pretty set in our ways. Someone shows up here (even if they're OH) and puts forth a new interpretation of the GP (that's the most common one) and they're essentially flamed. It starts off kinda gentle, but that doesn't last long. Not that I think we have anything about the GP incorrect, but it would be nice to see a more respectful discussion with newbs on that front. Not everyone that shows up here has had the benefit of years of Dune discussion and the ideas of those who went before them to build upon. Sometimes the newbs' crackpot ideas even contain seeds of interesting intrigue.

All that said, it does get tiring when someone refuses to see the simple elegance in our explanation of the GP, and the seriously rock solid evidence for it that we have. I just hate to see newbs chased away because of this. I personally had no fucking understanding of the GP at ALL until I joined these forums, then slowly it all came together.

That's really just one example, but sometimes I think we should spend a bit more time discussing new crackpot ideas about all elements of the original series. It would help us better form our own arguements, and conversation spurs more conversation, and I do miss a lot of the great conversation that can be had about Dune!

Serkanner wrote:Let us not forget that a substantial number of "new" members and posts on DN were actually made by not-so-new-members at all ... right Merkin?

Yeah, I can account for at least seven of those new members, and I had the feeling that half of the people I interacted with were also people who had been banned before.

Great job, once again, Thing.

To be honest, I think the entertainment that sockpuppets provide is worth the skew they give to the DN stats. But maybe that's just me.

HBJ

A little more than 6 months have passed, longer than my usual updates, after this I may slow down more. I've also gotten rid of the averages over the entire age of the sites segment, as it doesn't really matter any more and wasn't very meaningful since we didn't have those numbers from back when DN was alive.

DN is 62 months old, and Jacurutu is 42 months old. Here are the totals:

DN Total:
Posts: 54647
Members: 1709

Jacurutu total:
Posts: 109352
Members: 499

----------------------

The last 6 months:

Jacurutu total posts = 9308

Jacurutu total posts per day = 51.71 (down 12%)

DN total posts = 616

DN total posts per day = 3.42 (down 36%)

Jacurutu got 76 new members, a stunning 18% increase (do banned people like spammers get counted?)

DN got 85 new members, 5% increase (also unknown to me if spammers are counted).

We've had 15 X as many posts as them in the last 4 months (last check 11 X as many, time before that was 7 X as many - I believe this is an all time high). DN is (again) at an all time low for posting, which is pretty bad considering that since I started this comparison they've only ever had 1 period of increase, which was followed immediately by a period of decrease that took them to an all time low at the time.

We both had no new Dune books to ramp up posting (though a new book always causes a lot more posting for us than for them, look at their subforums for the last couple books, almost ZERO there really). Same shit I said last time basically,


Just within the last week we have now surpassed double their total post count.



My predictions:

What we see above is pretty standard for both our sites. Our post drop could probably be accounted for by just myself! Over the last year I've been less and less active largely because of real life. Theirs dropped by a whole third, I don't know why that place stays open honestly - they just don't seem to ever actually hit rock bottom, or even slow down!

So what's in the future? My guess is pretty simple, until the next book is released we'll continue slowing down a little, as will they. But here's the difference - when that new book comes out we'll shoot back up like we always do after a release, and they will be lucky to see even a slowdown in their descent (Their "Sisterhood" subforum has 4 bloody posts right now, they don't even care to make predictions! We've had well over 4 HUNDRED posts about the book even just counting the threads that are actually titled to be about it. An even better example is their sub forums for the last 2 books. "Paul" has a meagre 1113 posts, and I can't even remember how long ago that was, and bloody "winds" has only 181?!! That's sad. I'm betting "sisterhood" won't even break a hundred posts within 1 year of the book's release).

There seem to be more tweets made daily with the #Dune & #McDune hashtags than what happens on DN in a month. I'm not going to count them, but I see them come up in my TweetDeck feeds. DN is just as shitty and as dead as they want it. That way they can say it's there without having to do any work; just like how they run the entire Dune property.

I kinda think they keep it running purely because they won't concede defeat to us, and now that nobody posts there it's no work for them (think about how much time Byron must have spent reading and deleting all our posts every day or two, it must have eaten up quite a few hours a week).

If they shut the place down, then not only is Jacurutu the main Dune forum on the internet like it already is, then Jacurutu is the ONLY real Dune forum (in English anyways, I don't make assumptions about what's out there in the world we don't see, I know we're the biggest, I don't know for sure we're the only one that functions though). That is something KJA and the HLP simply could not stand to allow.

(Sorry, a small thing Thing; the total posts for Jacurutu is 109352
the total posts in the last 4 months is 6974 9308

...which is about a 100 times bigger. Typo?)