Okay, now I know what the most important question is: Was the posting of "The Ending" an effort to wake up and motivate the PVB posters, or simply acknowledge those that have believed for a while that it's finally time to give up on the PVB and move on?

I know that's a loaded question, but it's one I've been thinking about myself. The reason I've been so self-critical about stories I've been wanting to post is, well, look at the replies I got to the last few stories. Now I have to make sure the story is not only good, but spectacular, and is great enough to bring people back to want to read it. That...is a tall order, since I've been struggling to do that when the board was *busy*, now it's more like writing a tale to start over again.

And even if I manage it, that's an uphill battle, because while I can't see what anyone else is writing or not for the PVB when they aren't posting, I get the impression I'm the only one still trying. Many of the others have lost inspiration or given up; Ian himself, he writes for pay now, so the quickly diminishing returns of a small message board hardly anyone will remember in a few years is barely worth the effort. I guess what I'm saying is, I'm not sure if I'm persistent and motivated, or just incredibly stupid, refusing to let this place die.

On a more personal note, this is kind of the only place I post writings to right now. I suppose it depresses me so much to see it go because if it dies, it marks the failure of something I really wanted to do; I never got the chance to write for a larger audience, for profit or otherwise. To me, it doesn't feel like just the death of another message board, it feels more like the end of my so-called writing career. It's like being fired, utterly failing at something I enjoyed. I wish I knew where else to go with it - I don't. If this board is gone, I'll probably go back to writing World Class for my own web site, but there, nobody *ever* read any of it. It will be really depressing.

I do understand that the eventual demise of the PVB is related to the shift toward social networking - topical message boards are dying outright (vendor-owned ones aren't though). Even Comicboards/TVShowboards, I don't think it will last more than a few more years.

The problem is, social networking doesn't really provide a venue for writing, because it's not collaborative at all. It's basically like having your own late-night talk show - you have a spotlight, and you have your audience of "friends" (I put that in quotes because they're probably not *really* friends - they're more like followers). As the "star" of the show, you post things that appeal to your audience because otherwise they leave, and your ratings go down. Mostly that encourages people to post things about what they did today, funny observations, pretty much inane stuff. Writing creatively for the internet, in the era of social networking, is a dying art.

I don't say that because I hate social networking in particular (I do use Twitter on occasion, I just hate Facebook for all the maintenance it requires). I did look at Facebook for posting writings, and Livejournal, etc, but it just doesn't feel like the right place. It feels more like posting stories at my web site, or when I try posting World Class here - that it's not what people want to read, and I'll be disappointed by the result.

So that burning question remains: The day the lights at the PVB go out, where do I go to write?