Animation Source Forums

Balto never really got a jump-start when the animated film came out in December 1995 as we've establish through the years. The film got VERY LITTLE fame! Two lesser-than-interesting sequels (I dare say) made the franchise more "kid-friendly" and less fun of none-kid audiences. Then NOTHING. Balto's time was over and it still had a very little audience.

Then, this site was born and made for people that loved Balto and other animated classics. People of all ages could come here to express their love and care for Balto! But is this site really "surviving"? Is this balto site gaining users or losing users? I've dealt with this place for a little more than a year now and it seems as though the fame here is growing less and less!


Now, I want YOU to decide. Is this site growing fame in Balto's name, staying at the same level it has always supposedly been at or is it just going to keep losing more and more fame until it all just "Crashes and Burns" a.k.a. turns into a ghost site like myspace?

Hidden text : click to show

^yaya, I know it's a run-on sentence. Sue me!

This site has little to no impact on the Balto fandom. If that's what you meant.

But honestly, this site is losing its meaning as a fansite. The site is breaking at its seams with sparkle mutts, fursonas, and many other things. Things that have no place on a fan site. Basically, this site has turned into a miniature version Deviant art. I know what you're thinking, tell them to take it to another site. I'm afraid it isn't that easy. A lot of the members here are highly sensitive, and if you tell them to take their stuff elsewhere, or any other sort of comment that isn't sugar coated, you'll never hear the end of it.

The only fans we do have is usually a younger audience around the age of ten, and those kids are usually (not all) in their annoying Balto/wolfaboo phase of their life. There are ALWAYS those freakn' annoying comments that are along the lines of "i love u balto!!!!!"

This site, like all sites, will die out one day. And to be honest with you, this site is very close to that. Most of the older members have lost interest in Balto, or have moved on with their lives. So now we're stuck with annoying little kids and artists.

How about simply fixing it instead of throwing out the attitude? Hmm? Wouldn't that make, ooooh, I don't know, sense?

As to the Balto fandom and this site, Mighty is absolutely correct in her assessment. Animation Source has drifted inexorably away from its intended purpose ever since the loosening and relaxing of the rules, and the development of contradictory ones (or, at least, contradictory enforcement policies, or lack thereof). Balto Source, as one example, stopped being about the animated Balto movies, really, A LONG TIME AGO. When steet caved in to pressure to allow non Balto-related material on that source (and, by extension, the same thing on the other sources), it brought to the site a whole bevvy of teenagers and young adults who have absolutely no interest whatsoever in either the movies or the real serum run story. And it was a very stupid move.

But really, why stop analyzing it there? Many members who were here when it was JUST Balto Source expressed their concerns the moment steet proposed the idea of adding Lion King Source. They all felt it would take the focus away from the Balto movies (and this was when the Balto movies were still fresh in everyone's minds...for better and for worse). And when he started down that classic "slippery slope", it was inevitable that he'd toss that proverbial can of grease out in front of him as he slid down that hill, by adding more and more sources. The focus on the Balto movies started to die there. And there was no going back.

Add to that the lack of dedication to the properties by Universal Studios, simply because they were not profitable enough to them. And then the end of Amblimation shortly after the release of the first Balto movie...and Steven Spielberg's obvious disinterest in the movie afterwards. All of this together with what I mentioned above, and what Mighty mentioned in her post, spelled doom for the Balto fandom here on Animation Source.

Yes, there is still a shadow of that fandom left here, and I still do what I can to promote the true history behind the first movie (even though I have not posted much in the last year due to constantly dealing with bratty drama and conflicts with one or two staffers here and there, and then one person who had come to this site specifically to contradict and harass me with regard to anything I posted pertaining to the true story...her posts and account history demonstrated that conclusively...for which she was FINALLY permabanned. She had been a heckler on my own website as well, and a friend of an even worse heckler and egomaniac who caused a lot of problems on the forum of my website. Someone who is otherwise well-versed on the serum run by and large, which makes what he did a terrible shame). But the way things have gone on this site over the years, the fandom was HURT rather than helped. Specifically through decisions made by the webmaster, and the relaxing and/or elimination of rules that were in place to protect the fandom and this site.

Animation Source has probably done as much to harm the Balto fandom, since those developments, as has the reticence of Universal Studios and Steven Spielberg.

So there it is...

Hidden text : click to show

-nods- Pretty much everything that Mighty and JC said. In short: We're gaining plenty of new members, but very few of them are joining to appreciate Balto. They may like the movie, but they only join to post their non-related hoo-ha, not to appreciate the movie the site was made for. -shrug-


Balto feels very offended. >.>

"Hoo-ha". XD I like it!

Actually YOU, Nattikat, given one of your very recent pieces of art posted on Balto Source, are adequately suited to comment on this. ROFL Of course, you know which one I mean (and I still love the hell out of this one ):

http://www.animationsource.org/balto/en/view_fanart/Nattikat8_Balto_Discovers_BaltoSource/321.html&numart=2377&display=18

So just throue the non related hoo-ha out just saying i'm not telling any one to do it or just rederct them to DA.

^ Like I said, it isn't that simple. Read my post.

I know Mighty i read it just putn my two cents out there is all.

Unfortunately, as I said, suggesting them to move their stuff of this site just doesn't work. It is like pulling teeth. I realize this is just an opinion, I'm just telling you how it is.

Hay i know that y'all tryed and i'ed tip my engineers cap to yu if i could see you.


If only there was some to make Wedmaster Steet renstate the no sparkle rule that would fix at lest one problem and if the artist has a problem wit it he can it take to FA ro DA.

I would suggest that you work on your grammar, you're hard to understand.

Yes, I agree, replacing that rule, among others, would be a great idea. But Steet won't ever bother. He's too lazy, and he's never around anymore. On top of that, I really don't think he cares either.

I try.


I f thats the case why hasnt any one tryed to over throue him as WedMaster and put somels in?

Overthrow? I think that is a bit much there. Anyway, Steet is stubborn as a mule and doesn't trust anyone. It has been tried before.

Just sayn i didnt mean it

I think more people liked it than before, but it's not getting more and more popular