Then you simply heven't encountered enough people, Huxford. From merely making a casual scan of the 'net over the last couple of days, I'd say the ratio seems closer to 80/10 in FAVOR of readers using the forum to make comic book purchasing decisions. And more than half of the other 10% seem to be more of the snarky uninformed, who weren't really actively engaging with the site to begin with.

I've encountered at least as many people that kick the comic buying habit through the help of Scans Daily as I've encountered people that claim the forum led them to buy more product.

Don't get me wrong - I understand copyright law (as an entertainment lawyer) and am a firm supporter of the owner's right to control the use. But there comes a point when good business sense really could or should play a part in the decision of what to pursue in this arena. And one key part of copyright is that the owner *gets to decide* the use. So Marvel COULD have decided that scans_daily could exist. Perhaps they could have contacted the maintainers (who are just people who enjoy comics, not some evil group trying to scam the industry) to see if an agreement on posting rules could be reached. After all, most LJ comms already have maintainer-enforced rules.

Why was this the wrong reaction for Marvel, in my view?

For one, this does not make Marvel look like a company that understands or works with their fanbase. It makes them look like they had a knee-jerk legal department reaction to any use of copyright without considering what the use was. The comics companies always seem to be saying they want to know what their readers want, because they want to satisfy fans, and, in the end, sell more issues - well, THIS was something their readers wanted. And they didn't consider that.

For another, many used the community to find new comics, decide whether they wanted to read a series, or point others in the direction of a series. I personally greatly expanded my collection after glancing over some Deadpool comic excerpts in the community (to the tune of ALL EIGHT Cable & Deadpool TPBs, and also some Iron Man and Spider-man) and pointed at least 2 others towards Cable & Deadpool (at least one of whom I know is buying up the TPBs now). I never refrained from buying a comic I would otherwise have purchased because of the community - but I DID buy comics I'd never have heard of after seeing them there.

Another great thing was the sense of community - you could ask a question about the continuity, or some trivia, or where to find a storyline in the issues, and people there would know and answer. Everyone was having a good time, enjoying something together. That kind of thing also leads to more comics fans, which equals more books bought. Again: good for Marvel.

And then there's the small, bitter taste left in my mouth when I think of the great amount of effort people put into sharing their favorite comics or explaining why a run was so great, which is all lost now, along with the ability to quickly click and reference something archived there to talk about in a blog post or send to a friend.

It's a big loss to comics discussion and community. What a shame.

I do think without a place to share, I won't be buying as many comics. A big part of the fun is sharing with other fans.

scans_daily was great for minority opinions, especially when it came to things women liked. You always hear about women in refrigerators in superhero comics, but you rarely ever hear about the things that superhero comics did right when it came to women. And not just having strong female characters or sensibly-dressed women with small boobs - but the less obvious stuff. Relationships. Not just romantic relationships, but friendship, platonic, father-son, and families. As a woman, I love that stuff, and so did much of scans_daily (it was a slash community to start, after all).

Like many, I bought stuff due to scans_daily. People showcased stuff they liked and I became interested, especially a lot of older stuff that's only in reprints (or not reprinted). Companies don't really showcase their older stuff - you certainly won't hear Marvel say boo about their older Black Panther stuff, not with Hudlin and his version out there. And DC has many titles that they have no interest in reprinting - and I even asked about a few titles (Chase, 90's Green Arrow) at NYCC, and the editor told me I should just go buy the back issues on the show floor. In a way, scans_daily was good at creating an archive of older stuff, a way for people to catch up on the past so you could better enjoy the present issues.

As for the new stuff posted on scans_daily? Sometimes it seemed like people posted just to get a lot of comments, without really adding anything to the scans they posted. And that's a shame, and that is one of the things that really screwed scans_daily. But there certainly were people who bought new issues based on seeing an excerpt on scans_daily. There were also people who used it to keep up with recent titles without having to buy them, so maybe the two canceled each other out, but more likely those people weren't going to buy the title either way (it's the same principle that people failed to see with Napster - just because I downloaded Nena's 99 Luftballoons for free doesn't mean I would have paid for it if I had to - I would just go without the song instead).

Ultimately, scans_daily let some creators interact with fans, it let female fans find other women with the same interests, and it brought attention to a lot of stuff that would normally go ignored, and mostly, it was just harmless. If you didn't like it, you didn't have to read it. If you did like it, then it's a real shame that it's gone.

Oh, COME now. Bluefall is one of the most literate and articulate people on LJ, and always presented her opinions in a well-thought-out matter. Even when I disagreed with her opinions, which was more than a few times, I was always interested in hearing what she had to say.

As for Foxhack, it's just not S_D without "LAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNDD!"