So.

Sluggy has gotten Unwieldy, as comics that run for eighteen years are wont to do. This is pretty awesome, but it does mean that a lot of us who once were around have drifted and lost track of what's going on. So, there's lots of different ways to solve it, but I'm gonna go with the simplest/stupidest:

Let's start over entirely!

Let's go back to day one, chapter one, page one. Let's go back to the good old days of spamming satan! And then let's read through the entire archive at a [s]breakneck[/s]reasonable pace together, so that by the time Pete is wrapping up, we know what's being wrapped.

My suggestion is to do a chapter a week. That'll break the archive down into a little more than a year's worth of reading, which I feel is the right length to commit to this project. While I recognize some chapters are (much) longer than others, we can either go ahead and commit to big weeks, or break those up more as they occur. Ideally (hey mods?) I'll* start up a thread for each chapter/week so we can chat about it and pretend it is *totally new and shocking*, which eventually, it actually will be.

While this project is aimed at those who've left and want to get back in, it's open to anyone, even if they're completely caught up on the comic. All I'll ask is no spoilers for the days ahead, at least not in our threads.

The first week will start with March 2-8, in which we will read Chapter 1: Is It Not Nifty?. Feel free to use this thread to commit (or not), to call to arms, or to give me suggestions on how to make this project better.

Happy Sluggying.

~Sor
MOOP!

*Or someone, because let's face it, I certainly have non-internet weeks scheduled in the next year.

EDITED TO ADD: If it makes things easier to keep track of, I have created a google calendar to show you what week you're on. I do not understand the weirdness of GCal, but it seems if you go to "add a friend's calendar" under "other calendars" on the sidebar, and paste in this unwieldy mess: [email protected] you will have it!

Woo! I'm in! I'm caught up, but I'm game for a trawl anyway.

I'm always up for a trip down Sluggy Memory Lane, I can't wait until Oceans Unmoving, I think that was my favorite story arc of all!

You know I'm in. Lets Rock this Casbah.

I meant what I said , and I said what I meant.* In other words, I'm in. Even though, much like AT, I am caught up with the comic.

*Apologies to Dr. Seuss

I'm in. I want in on this. I'm so in I've moved several steps into the thread and banged my shins on the coffee table. Kinda surprised there's a coffee table at all in here, actually.

Anyway, I'm up for a cooperative archive trawl.

Consider me inappropriately using the coffee table without a coaster.

It occurs to me that for anyone who isn't up to date that, due to the nature of SRC, just the titles of certain threads may act as spoilers. (Thankfully, I only see one at the moment and it's not that huge.) I don't see anyway around this problem though. I can't decide if the slow pace helps or hurts us though.

Also I really hope there are others who aren't up to date who decide to join us (Inspy?) because I think the fresh perspectives once we get into the "new" stuff would be interesting.

And finally, Steave, huh?

I'm all for it! There's so much comic here, it's worth diving through it again. Some of these chapters I haven't looked at in literally 15 years. That's like twelve decades in IRL time. I also happen to know a few people who fell behind ages ago and stopped reading due to the archive size. Maybe I can persuade them to join!

Maybe it would be a good idea to coordinate through Skype or some other kind of instant messaging service? That way anyone who hasn't kept up with the strip in a while won't be unintentionally spoiled when coming to SRC to keep up to date with everyone else.

That's actually a really good idea. Kind of like Sluggy Book Club! But that would require a bit more investment of time which may not work for everyone. And it would have the downside of directing traffic, which this forum desperately needs, elsewhere.

I agree that primary SRC should happen here. That said, it would probably be a good idea to have a Skype/IM system in place should anyone want to drift off topic or engage in private conversation without cluttering their PM box. It would also allow for far faster communication then starting a new thread. If a new thread does get made, the IM transcripts can easily be posted in it to keep everyone up to speed.

Sorcy! Awesome idea.
I will try to be in :)

I agree that Skype/IM would not be as useful for the main conversation, if only because it involves _committment_ --the forum can be accessed by anyone, at whatever time they want. I suspect coordinating between however many of us are in to find a single weekly time that works would be aauauauuuuauuugugg difficult.

I suspect, without knowing all that much about it, that rather than an IM chatroom, we might want an IRC channel to chat about other stuff. Something about easier to maintain and have people get into. I hear there's even already a sluggy based IRC thing, maybe we can take over a little bit of that.

Personally, I'm not too worried about spoilers from SRC titles, but I generally just don't care much about spoilers. If other people have a problem with it, we should work something out there.

~Sor
MOOP!

One thing I want to do this time around is document every strip that hints at that-one-thing-that-we-know-about-Oasis-now-but-that-I-won't-talk-about-here-because-spoilers.