Re: longevity:
 
I'm in rather a weird position on this; I happen to run a list on a
popular British comic and its sister titles (2000AD/Judge Dredd: the
Megazine/Crisis/Revolver) which has been at three homes in its history,
from ELM alias to it's present, well-connected, mailserv-FTP site-WWW
page-whole-shebang stage. :)
 
Frankly, as much as it's moved in the year and three months it's been
around, I'm rather suprised *anyone* stayed with it...but no, the
regulars have stayed, new people have come, I'm now at the 100+ mark, and
I've now gotten to the stage that people who *publish* the comics wanna
know more and I've pros on the list. :)  (Boooooooy...I can see a weird
thread there: "How to deal with professionals in your list's topic/official
people that are ON the list?" :)
 
Anyhoo, I've been through a bit of a trial by fire with Thrillpower, so I
know it's not going to die Right Now. :)  I do realize that if Fleetway
(publishers of 2000AD) were to dump comics altogether, I might not have
much of a list anymore (save for nostalgia); however, one factor that's
in my list's favour at the moment is the fact there is almost *no* other
forum on the British comics scene on Internet, either in list or in
newsgroup.
 
Now, as to the longevity...well, I know it will last at least as long as
2000AD remains in print in one form or another. :)  If someone were to
start up, say, rec.arts.comics.euro, I might have some troubles, but not
much...the alternative comics list hasn't had much trouble with Usenet
groups, nor has the mainstream comics list.  (I'm not too worried about
an alt.* group, frankly, as Janet (the UK academic link) doesn't even
carry alt.*.)
 
Of course, I don't know how applicable my situation is, because
Thrillpower serves more of a small niche of the Interenet community (a
previously-unserved one, admittedly, but I'm not getting *too* comfy :)...
I think it pretty much depends on the audience you're serving, frankly.
 
Having blathered on too long already, I am (tm)
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