Comments

Motivation

Personal interest.

What is the site?

This site is a database for all kinds of mistakes made in movies.
But this site is expanding it's horison. It also contains interesting facts, and even movies without mistakes.

The owner doesn't spot all the mistakes himself, he doesn't even check them all. This is the part where participation kicks in! A lot of people around the world regulate this site.

Who ownes the site?

Just one man.

Hi. My name's Jon Sandys, and I live in the UK. Much to the shock of most people who hear it, this is actually my "proper job" - I'm 25, and started this back when I was still at school, in September 1996. We'd just got access to the internet at home, and had some free webspace, so I figured I'd have a go at designing a website. I've always been a big film fan, and had a tendency to look for random bits and pieces, so a website about mistakes in films seemed logical. (movie-mistakes.com)

How does the site, and it's owner, get any money?

Advertisements fill the website. Banners and even an annoying page you have to get throug to get somewhere important.
If you become a member you won't get the ads, but you will have to pay. So that's the second income for the owner. A membership costs $10 a year. But you will get a lot of extra's!

How many people are participating?

This site gets 20,000 - 30,000 visitors a day, generating about 3,500,000 page views a month. It often gets press coverage when a major new film comes out, and this can boost traffic dramatically - traffic's been as high as 100,000 visitors a day in the past around the releases of Spider-Man, Lord of the Rings, The Matrix Reloaded/Revolutions, etc.
And it has a lot of active members!

What literature to use?

Jenkins, H. (2002) Interactice audiences? The ‘collectice intelligence’ of media fans. In: Harries, D (2002) The New Media Book (London: BFI)

Commodity. In: Harries, D (2002) The New Media Book (London: BFI)

And some more books and articles about participation on the web and fan culture. Any suggestions?

How to do?

I will look at some literature, ofcourse.
But i think i also try to get in touch with the owner to ask about his site.
And maybe talk to some participants to find out why they do this.