It’s time we had the “Talk.”
No, not THAT talk.
The inevitable has materialized quickly. Six weeks passes hastily when you’re counting down episodes. And now we all stand at the precipice of hell staring down at the reality of our lives void of Game of Thrones. Yes, we will persevere. Yes, we will move on to other forms of entertainment that enhance our existence. Will there ever be another cultural phenom that has brought us together like this? A man doesn’t know.
But the real question is… what the hell are we going to do with this website?!
We built the Wall. You made it a community.
Let’s be up front here… without you, our loyal readers, we’re not even having this conversation. Our labor of love that we threw out on the interwebs in 2014 caught fire. And we didn’t even know if it would catch a cold.
But at the time, we literally had nothing to lose. If it took off, great. If not, we were out a couple hundred hours building and coding the joint, decorating it with some fancy buttons, making it user and spoiler friendly (the spoiler coding almost killed me), making contacts, lining up potential contributors, and trying to cost-effectively get the ship sailing.
We didn’t know if it would work. We didn’t know if anyone would Take the Black with us.
What we did know was that corporate media was jumping on board the Game of Thrones Loot Train in astonishing numbers. They saw revenue. And we recognized a need in protecting a fandom.
You don’t need me to tell you how much hate and vitriol there is on the internet. If you get online, it’s almost unavoidable now. In creating the Wall, we sought to protect at least one sacred place where you could come and discuss and exchange ideas free from judgement, or trolls, or bullshit regardless of your age, race, gender, orientation, or any other discriminating factor. Our oath has been the same all along:
We shall wear no crowns and win no glory. We shall live and die at our posts. We are the sword in the advertising darkness. We are the watchers on the wall. We are the shield that guards the realms of women and men of the fandom. We pledge our life and honor to the Night’s Watch, for this night and all the nights to come.
Game of Thrones may be coming to an end. But the ideals on which the foundation of this Wall were built still stand.
Watchers on the Wall panel at Con of Thrones 2018, with Oz of Thrones, Patrick Sponaugle, Bex, Vanessa Cole, Petra Halbur, JoeMagician, Sam Wallace, David Rosenblatt, Luka Nieto, and Sue the Fury.
And we can continue, whether that be covering the prequel, or the release of a book (insert joke here), or possibly even other programming we all share an interest in. Whether or not we can is up to you.
Here is how you can help. And before I even suggest this, let me make one thing abundantly clear: we never built this website in the interest of money and we’re not proposing these ideas for the sake of profits. Anyone that tells you otherwise doesn’t know what the hell they are talking about.
This is about keeping WotW up and running. You lovely people have been nice enough to crash our server on multiple occasions and our expenses are not necessarily extensive, but Sue and I don’t have the luxury of disposable income to keep it going at a loss. We also made a vow to never inundate you with clickbait and video ads, a decision that costs us hundreds of dollars if not more per month. If the Wall stays up, we will uphold that vow until our last day.
So here we go:
Many of you are already make monthly donations and WE THANK YOU! Your donations have made a huge difference in making sure our little corner of the internet survives.
If half of our other readers pledged the cost of one drink at Starkbucks™ per month, we would be able to keep the Wall maintained and provide much more for our writers, the fandom, and for you, the reader.
Here’s what you can do:
- Pick an option below and click the “subscribe” button or go to our Support the Wall page, find the “subscribe” button and pick an option. Anything is appreciated.
- If you’d like to make a one-time donation, use the subscribe button to proceed and then “Cancel” after the first donation.
- Visit the official Watchers on the Wall Store, pick up some swag and represent your community!
- Bookmark WotW and check in daily! We’ll keep the content coming. It’s just a click, and every little bit helps.
- If you use an ad-blocker, greenlight us. Again, every little bit helps and if you ever see any intrusive ads, let us know and we will take care of it.
- Encourage your friends and fellow fans to do the same and to support and join our community.
The post Looking Forward, Game of Thrones Finale: The Future of Watchers on the Wall appeared first on Watchers on the Wall.
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