Yet I joined at an amazingly ironic time: just before Phil Hendrie "officially retired" from radio. After he went off the air, the site seemed to serve no purpose other than the occasional podcast that Hendrie would do. Then SFJ and Mr. Hendrie had a falling out, and the site became a haven of bashing the man that they devoted their site to. In fact, they put in a code in which you actually could not have the words "Phil Hendrie" on their forum.
Over a year later, Phil Hendrie came back to the air, but pursued a political format instead of his satirical guests. SFJ had a field day because, honestly, the show wasn't very good. But cracks were forming in the facade of the site.
Soon they had a forum topic devoted entirely to "old" Phil Hendrie bits, were the members could reminisce about what once was. Eventually, Mr. Hendrie did go back to his old ways, but his retirement had taken a vast toll on SFJ.
Their readership now is very low, with their Alexa ranking at 5,181,834. Looking through one of their occasionally replied to topics, a tight bond has formed between the people who weathered the storm and still use the site. But if you find someone who hasn't been on the site very long, or an old member checking in after a long time period, insults fly their way.
Without a more inclusive membership, without a new campaign to drive up readership, and without reconciliation with Phil Hendrie, the site may have, and may be, dead, never again to rise like a Phoenix. SFJ, I hardly knew you.
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1 comment:
I too was a forum member at SFJ. I haven't visited it in awhile. I do know that Phil denounced the site since he thought they were making fun of Maria when they weren't.
Any chance you could make more Frodo the Puppet cartoons?
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