Active contributors who have been active during all three editorships are basically just Fred (though he didn't last long in the Frysco era, just like everybody else) and Treesong, who took over the Previews fairly quickly (in fact, the reproducing of Previews comics lists started on alt.fan.furry; they are older than Flayrah) and lasted early last year (and he also still apparently is going to post a yearly Anthrocon con report); during the grim year of 2009, it was basically 10 months of Frysco's FurCon newsletter and Treesong's Previews list until the "cancellation" of Flayrah.
"In the yearly breakdown of story types... how did they change by year, and did more stories = more original content, or more fluffy stuff?"
Well, the first year was the only year where what I judged "furry" news outnumbered both press releases and "animal" news; only recently has furry outstripped animal news (basically, Newsbytes; it has to be a pretty interesting animal story for someone to actually write it up these days). Press releases are also down, though mostly of the "con newsletter" type (did Green Reaper actively discourage them with con-runners, or did that early gun story rub all the cons wrong, not just Anthrocon? If it's the first, Green Reaper will be reporting shortly, I'm sure; if it's the second or something else, I guess we'll all have our own pet theories). People are still pimping their own comics/books/what-have-you, which is mostly fine.
I know everyone complains when Fred posts one of his "is this anthro?" stories (and he is, admittedly, kind of asking for it by, well, asking), but "other" news was fairly common early on; that Dave Thomas story is actually weird for MelSkunk, not in that she didn't post a lot of off the wall stuff (because she totally did), but in that it was one of the few times she felt like apologizing. Astronomy was a common off-topic topic; I think Aureth was an amateur astronomy hobbyist was the explanation. They seemed to disappear during the Frysco era, because, well, everything did. Also, most of the recent "other" stories were videos, so they didn't actually count towards the "other" news total.
Before 2011, reviews were barely heard of (there was a separate page for them at the beginning, but after a smattering at the beginning they never really took off; this is one of the reason I'm against the "review/news" divide. Didn't work then.); I started reviewing movies around that time, and Fred started reviewing books, and now it's a weird front page without a review somewhere. Also, reviews got furrier; movies reviewed before the Green Reaper era included such instant furry classics as Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, A.I. and Shaolin Soccer. Pure opinion pieces have held steady; never a lot, but always some.
I also mentioned that there wasn't a single video before Green Reaper; heck, there wasn't a single picture before. I don't know if the site even allowed for such things before.
More or less stories seemed to have no impact on original content versus "fluff"; in the heady half a thousand days, there were plenty of press releases, cute animal stories, off topic ramblings and "here's a link, kthx bye!" stories, while I've already mentioned that the low points were also pretty much nothing but press releases.
What I'm saying is, obvious bias aside, now is pretty much the golden age.
I don't think it's possible to get reader traffic from before Green Reaper's time; heck, for all I know, even the Google stats aren't saved, so anything older than a month is kaput. I was thinking about listing tags in future updates (don't get too excited for anything soon; this is way over a year old project); sources cited is also a good area to explore.
Oh, and for those of you interested, Higgs Raccoon is at 97 stories; for all I know, he's got three in the queue. Anyway, he'll be in the "hundred club" soon.
"Who has stuck around the longest?"
Active contributors who have been active during all three editorships are basically just Fred (though he didn't last long in the Frysco era, just like everybody else) and Treesong, who took over the Previews fairly quickly (in fact, the reproducing of Previews comics lists started on alt.fan.furry; they are older than Flayrah) and lasted early last year (and he also still apparently is going to post a yearly Anthrocon con report); during the grim year of 2009, it was basically 10 months of Frysco's FurCon newsletter and Treesong's Previews list until the "cancellation" of Flayrah.
"In the yearly breakdown of story types... how did they change by year, and did more stories = more original content, or more fluffy stuff?"
Well, the first year was the only year where what I judged "furry" news outnumbered both press releases and "animal" news; only recently has furry outstripped animal news (basically, Newsbytes; it has to be a pretty interesting animal story for someone to actually write it up these days). Press releases are also down, though mostly of the "con newsletter" type (did Green Reaper actively discourage them with con-runners, or did that early gun story rub all the cons wrong, not just Anthrocon? If it's the first, Green Reaper will be reporting shortly, I'm sure; if it's the second or something else, I guess we'll all have our own pet theories). People are still pimping their own comics/books/what-have-you, which is mostly fine.
I know everyone complains when Fred posts one of his "is this anthro?" stories (and he is, admittedly, kind of asking for it by, well, asking), but "other" news was fairly common early on; that Dave Thomas story is actually weird for MelSkunk, not in that she didn't post a lot of off the wall stuff (because she totally did), but in that it was one of the few times she felt like apologizing. Astronomy was a common off-topic topic; I think Aureth was an amateur astronomy hobbyist was the explanation. They seemed to disappear during the Frysco era, because, well, everything did. Also, most of the recent "other" stories were videos, so they didn't actually count towards the "other" news total.
Before 2011, reviews were barely heard of (there was a separate page for them at the beginning, but after a smattering at the beginning they never really took off; this is one of the reason I'm against the "review/news" divide. Didn't work then.); I started reviewing movies around that time, and Fred started reviewing books, and now it's a weird front page without a review somewhere. Also, reviews got furrier; movies reviewed before the Green Reaper era included such instant furry classics as Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, A.I. and Shaolin Soccer. Pure opinion pieces have held steady; never a lot, but always some.
I also mentioned that there wasn't a single video before Green Reaper; heck, there wasn't a single picture before. I don't know if the site even allowed for such things before.
More or less stories seemed to have no impact on original content versus "fluff"; in the heady half a thousand days, there were plenty of press releases, cute animal stories, off topic ramblings and "here's a link, kthx bye!" stories, while I've already mentioned that the low points were also pretty much nothing but press releases.
What I'm saying is, obvious bias aside, now is pretty much the golden age.
I don't think it's possible to get reader traffic from before Green Reaper's time; heck, for all I know, even the Google stats aren't saved, so anything older than a month is kaput. I was thinking about listing tags in future updates (don't get too excited for anything soon; this is way over a year old project); sources cited is also a good area to explore.
Oh, and for those of you interested, Higgs Raccoon is at 97 stories; for all I know, he's got three in the queue. Anyway, he'll be in the "hundred club" soon.