Creation's survey results

Creation posted an update to the survey results a two weeks ago that showed that the majority of those who voted supported keeping the conventions going.

Correction, it was a resounding "yes" to keeping the conventions going.

The results should not come as a surprise to anyone who's a fan, but I think people might be reading more into this than is really necessary.

Some have called Creation's behavior on this matter "unprofessional." I disagree.

Unprofessional means a lot things but putting a poll up on your website asking fans (when they know damn well what the answer will be) means that they lack business sense.

For example, Creation failed to take into account several factors leading to a smaller attendance at the conventions. The first being the economy. Since 2009, the U.S. and world economy has been on a steady downturn. With a nearly 9% unemployment during that time and rising fuel costs, this has pushed people's budgets to the max and many have cut out vacations.

Creation's lack of realization is not unprofessional. It's just not paying attention to Econ 101 when people's pocketbooks are smaller, they don't go out and spend money.

Secondly, we are talking about a soon to be 17 year-old show in which the fandom has slowly started to turn to other things. Even people I know that were loyal fans are not as loyal as the once were, even just two or three years ago. Why? On one level, there's an easy answer: people get disinterested. The other answer revolves around personal choice as a result of the growing division within the fandom itself. The same old fights break out and this drives the older fans batty. (Myself included.) Another part of that is the hatred of the finale reached a point over the summer where some people are just growing tired of people complaining about the same thing over and over again. At some point, people are going to have to give it a rest and move on with their lives.

Thirdly, the Xena fandom was never a united fandom to begin with because too many fans identified as one of the many subgroups and not recognizing that they were fans of the show. The emphasis to label one's own fandom complicates the unity because of the attachment one gets as a result.

This is not to say the fandom is dying. In fact, it continues to grow in part because of SPARTACUS. People are finding the show and then learning about Rob and Lucy as a result. They are checking out their other products. Universal's decision to re-release the series onto DVD annually has made it even more possible to capture new fans. The Xena Movie Campaign is even helping with growing the fandom by getting the campaign into the news in some markets. These are all good things.

Do I hope there are more conventions? Yes. Because I want to go back!