(Since some are freaking out - No, EQD is not shutting down anytime soon and the fandom isn't dying. The fandom is changing with the rest of the internet)
With how crazy this season is looking to be, and how quickly it will end with Canada's releases, I figured it's a good a time as any to get this post up.
I'll be honest, EQD doesn't really recover from hiatuses. Every time we get a massive gap between new seasons, we shrink for good. We are looking at a hiatus the size of the season 3-4 one with this schedule, which is a tough pill to swallow here. With a smaller EQD, a lot less people are getting noticed. Content creators are having to resort to clickbaity thumbnails and titles, or praying to the Google and Youtube algorithm gods to get noticed.
On top of that, news this season is becoming more and more cluttered. In past seasons, we've always had stuff to cover between episodes. The trailers, synopsis reveals, and titles spread out throughout a season would keep people coming back. With early episodes, most of those have gone out the window. The massive title and synopsis dumps these last few days means we won't have anything to report on news-wise soon, and each of these specific news posts are lost in the flood. This hurts the fandom creation and convention side we post, as people that would usually benefit from an EQD drawing people in to view their stuff on the side after checking out the episode news, won't have it either.
(Continued reading below)
We don't have the robust subscription system or recommendation backbone of Youtube to keep people interested when off season, and with the way the internet is kind of moving at the moment our app is becoming the dominant party on the site. Unfortunately, it doesn't work nearly as well at keeping things going unless we load it with obnoxious full page ads and popups... stuff I absolutely despise. While the oldschool fandom gets older and shifts pony over to a side thing while dealing with the rigors of adult life, the new blood in the form of younger fans growing into the show are primarily on our app.
Combine that with the new spotty deals from Google's Adsense (The same thing Youtubers are paid from that you've probably heard tons of drama about these last few weeks) and these last few months have been some of the absolute worst in cost-per-click and money per impression earned. Many companies are finding that advertising via Google isn't nearly as useful as it used to be, and since EQD is primarily funded on that system, a drop in Google's dealings means its harder on us.
On top of that, adblockers are pretty much the go-to now. It has always been a challenge, but their adoption is much harder on traditional sites. The only way to counter that is more obnoxious ads for people that aren't blocking, or straight up walls for people visiting with blockers. You've probably seen it a lot around the web now. Of course, both of these are not going to happen ever on EQD. Even just basic Adsense like we have drives me nuts sometimes.
Really the Patreon is probably going to be what keeps us in going. It's not annoying, and it helps make up for everything up above. Without it there is no way I would be able to run this full time, and EQD is well over the full-time job in hours required. They are Multi-taskable hours as a huge computer nerd like me, but it requires constant attention.
Anyway, hopefully that gives you a pretty good idea on what we are dealing with. Again, we need all the help we can get in solving these issues. Any recommendations at all are welcome. Pop em in the comments, or email directly.
Thanks again for continuing to visit us regardless though! EQD wouldn't be anything without it's loyal fans. We've been fandom driven for 6 years, almost 7 now, way longer than I ever thought this site would last. Even if we can't maintain it's 24/7 schedule in a year from now, it's still an amazing fandom-wide accomplishment regardless and something that won't be going away anytime soon.
