MSPA Forums

In addition to the common artist-artist and reader-reader community interactions observed through the world-wide-web, some webcomics exhibit various forms of artist-reader community, from social media comments to Q&A to incorporation of reader suggestions in the webcomic. Homestuck, the massively popular webcomic of Andrew Hussie, utilized the latter to generate paths in the game-like series. The MSPA Forums acted as a medium through which Homestuck fans could collectively input ideas and opinions regarding the direction of the webcomic [1]. Hussie frequently listened to the readers' ideas until 2010, when he shut down the suggestion box "to ensure maximum efficiency" [2]. The users expressed concern over this shutdown, followed by even greater alarm as the MSPA Forums were put offline for neverending maintenance. The forums had served as a strong connection directly to the creator, and many users apparently felt that that was essential to the nature of the webcomic [3]. In this particular instance, the forums acted as a catalyst for the expansion of the following community before degrading that following through its abrupt closure [4]. The MSPA Forums were ultimately effective as a means of facilitating communication between fellow fans as well as between content creators and consumers. This multitasking is part of what made them as important as they were to the growth and continuation of Homestuck.

1. Dolata, Ulrich, and Jan-Felix Schrape. “Masses, Crowds, Communities, Movements: Collective Action in the Internet Age.” Social Movement Studies 15, no. 1 (January 2016): 1–18.

2. "Thread." Suggestion Boxes Are Locked until Further Notice. Accessed April 12, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20150929215203/http://mspaforums.com/showthread.php?28356.

3. Howard, Christopher S. "The Relationship between Community Building Antecedents and Followers' Perceptions of Community." The Journal of Applied Business and Economics 19, no. 11 (12, 2017): 105-109.

4. Zimmerman, Julie N. and Alissa Meyer. "Building Knowledge, Building Community: Integrating Internet Access to Secondary Data as Part of the Community Development Process." Community Development 36, no. 1 (2005): 93-102.