TheForce.Net
From Wookieepedia, the Star Wars wiki.
TheForce.Net, also known as TFN, is arguably the most popular Star Wars fansite on the Internet. Its popularity is due in large part to its longevity and large staff.
The site began in late 1996 as Texas A&M University's Star Wars Page, founded by roommates Scott Chitwood and Darin Smith. In Chitwood's own words, the site was "a few pictures and tons of text". The site outgrew its environment, however, and in August of '97, TheForce.Net was born. Soon the staff numbered over a dozen loyal Star Wars fans. Eventually Joshua Griffin came onboard as partial owner, and most recently enterepeneur Philip Wise, owner of both the collecting-specific fansite Rebelscum.com and Official Pix, Lucasfilm's official venue for actor autographs, has become co-administrator of the site alongside Griffin. Also worth noting are Anthony Baratta and Michael Spellacy, the site's main technical staff.
Early in TFN's lifetime, the site was the go-to resource for spoiler information on the upcoming prequel films. However, as its profile grew, and as StarWars.com started meeting much of the demand for advance information itself, the site's focus moved away from spoilers considerably and into more standard news reporting. Eventually the amount of incoming news necessitated the addition of new non-movie-specific sections, such as Books, Comics, Video Games, and Roleplaying. News is a part of the content TFN brings to bear.
Contents |
[edit] Features
- Fan Films - the Fan Films section is homebase for countless fan created works of art, including many renowned short films such as TROOPS and Star Dudes. There are also tips and tutorials on creating your own fan films and a very large film and actor database.
- Jedi Council Forums - a testament to the vastness of TFN's readership is its discussion forums, home of - in addition to many other boards - the thousands-strong FanForce organization.
- CUSWE (Completely Unofficial Star Wars Encyclopedia) - one of the longest-running subsections of TFN, Bob Vitas' Unofficial Encyclopedia is just what the name suggests - an exhaustive database of the Star Wars universe, and one of the conceptual progenitors of the Wookieepedia. Note that as of March 2006, the CUSWE is located at its own website, www.cuswe.org.
- Fan Fiction - one of the largest public fanfic archives, complete with a comment system allowing readers to give feedback on their favorite stories.
- Star Wars Technical Commentaries - another section dating back many years, the TCs are written and maintained by professional astrophysicist Curtis Saxton. Attempting to translate the fantastic into the scientific, these articles have been a source of much contention among readers.
- Expanded Universe Roundtable - a series of uncut 3-5 person chat sessions on a variety of topics, Roundtables aim to be the Politically Incorrect of the Star Wars EU scene.
- Ultimate Timeline - one of the most thorough chronological source listings online, complete with every cover image imaginable.
- Timetales - more in-depth than the Ultimate Timeline, Timetales is a chronicle of Star Wars history containing thorough summations of stories both major and minor, and information on how they all fit together. The majority of the site has been undergoing reconstruction for some time.
- The Force-Cast - The official podcast of TheForce.net and Rebelscum.com. The Force-Cast features the latest news, interviews, events and opinions from the Star Wars fan community. This show is for Star Wars fans of all types, from the casual film watcher to the die-hard conventioneer.
[edit] Staff
[edit] Philip Wise
Philip Wise is the majority partner in the site. His other projects include the collecting site Rebelscum.com and Official Pix, Lucasfilm's officially-licensed distributor of cast-autographed photography. He is rumored to have a collection of Star Wars merchandise rivaling Steve Sansweet's.[source?]
[edit] Joshua Griffin
Joshua Griffin is a partner in the site, along with Wise. Griffin was the editor-in-chief of the website for five of his eight years actively contributing to the site, including the release of Episode II and III. He has written many surprising editorials on the subject of Star Wars and literally thousands of news articles on the site. Griffin has been featured in many articles and reports, including The Wall St. Journal, Entertainment Weekly, USA Today and Business 2.0. Offline he is has been involved in youth ministry since 1992 and is on staff at Saddleback Church in Orange County, California.
He is currently the webmaster of pdycommunity.com, simplyyouthministry.com and actively blogs on simplyjosh.com.
[edit] Public image
Several controversies have popped up over the years concerning the site's policies and content. Noteworthy examples are the opinions presented by Dr. Saxton in his aforementioned Technical Commentaries, the role the all-volunteer site plays in the for-profit businesses run by Mr. Wise, and rules barring the inclusion of controversial elements, primarily homosexuality, in fanfiction; homosexuality and bisexuality, in fact, are almost completely barred from the site and message boards, regardless of context. Worthy of repetition, however, is the fact that TFN is managed by a very large number of people who do not generally speak on behalf of each other; the site as a whole has very few completely institutionalized policies.
The site is also heavily influenced by Lucasfilm and its marketing and politics, and rarely breaks rank to offer objective criticism or opinions of the Star Wars franchise and its creators. The forums are also heavily censored, with moderators cracking down on dissenting opinions and any speech that is not 'family friendly.'
