Thoughts on Sherlockian blogs and social media

There have been websites that revolved around Sherlock Holmes since the Web came into being but it is getting harder to find the focused ones.

The Web was only really taking off as a public tool around the mid 1990s. So when forums started springing up around Sherlock Holmes they were very much dealing with the past. They revolved around the Canon and shows whose initial broadcasts had taken place months or years previously. To the best of my knowledge, for example, there was nothing even approaching live commentary about the Granada Holmes series.

These sites carried on with the occasional trips into the present. The BBC's new(ish) version of Hound with Richard Roxburgh and The Case of the Silk Stocking with Rupert Everett got some Web coverage but, again, this was usually post-broadcast (even if only by a few minutes) as the tools that would enable live-commentary didn't exist. This remained the case up until relatively recently.

This meant that opinions tended to be less impulsive and slightly more considered as people had the time to compose their thoughts. There was neither the need or desire for the immediacy that we often see expressed through (and perhaps because of) modern social media.
This rather than this
The immediacy that we appear to crave now is what has led to us being insatiable for news no matter how tenuous. We are much more likely to see sites and their users go off on tangets now than we used to be. We run out of relevant (by which I mean Sherlockian) information so quickly that we increasingly consume stuff that is more peripheral e.g. what cast members are up to in other, completely unconnected, shows.

Now if this lights your candle then you are probably unconcerned but for those who prefer their Sherlockian "fix" to be an unadulterated one it can be frustrating when a site you followed for that very reason starts running off at a tangent. Some sites need to do this of course. For them it can be about market share. If they stop updating their site when nothing is going on there is a danger of their audience moving on. To combat this they ensure that they update constantly with the result that what they put out is increasingly less connected to the world of Sherlock Holmes. Benedict Cumberbatch is followed into Star Trek and The Hobbit, Martin Freeman into The Hobbit and Fargo, Robert Downey Jr into The Avengers/Iron Man and so on.
It's Benedict so it is Sherlockian.....it is!!

There is, however, no easy way back from this. If you start out as a Sherlockian site and then deviate it becomes hard for you to revert. It could be your decision to deviate that brings in readers who actually don't care for Sherlock Holmes. These users could then be lost if the site does not maintain its broader outlook. Most sites measure their success (and are measured) by their hits so the natural temptation is to preserve that hit count (possibly for advertising revenue or perhaps simply popularity).

What I am seeking with this post is recommendations for Sherlockian sites (show based, Canon based) that have stuck to the subject. For the benefit of those of us who can go the odd week without something new to digest I will then compile a list and add it to my links page.

Off you go.



Written by Alistair Duncan
Buy my books here

Comments

  1. This one is show based, dear Alistair, and I don't really k now how relevant it is having only frequented it very shortly pre S3:

    http://sherlock.boardhost.com/index.php

    Otherwise I only know of private blogs the majority of which you probably know.

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    Replies
    1. Try me. I'm bound to have missed some of them :-)

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  2. This link is to a Facebook page called "Sherlock Quotes" that I follow. The only post quotes, photos, & funny internet memes from BBC's Sherlock (there are like 3 different Sherlock Quotes pages on Facebook but this one is by far the best):
    https://m.facebook.com/mysherlockquotes?refid=46&sld=eyJzZWFyY2hfc2lkIjoiNWI5MDA3ODJjMDY1YmRlZjQ1M2NkZjFjMjFhNGQ5YzUiLCJxdWVyeSI6IlNoZXJsb2NrIFF1b3RlcyIsInNlYXJjaF90eXBlIjoiU2VhcmNoIiwic2VxdWVuY2VfaWQiOjI0MTA2NjAyMSwicGFnZV9udW1iZXIiOjEsImZpbHRlcl90eXBlIjoiU2VhcmNoIiwiZW50X2lkIjo3MDI2NjkxMDY0NDAzNDMsInBvc2l0aW9uIjowLCJyZXN1bHRfdHlwZSI6NjV9

    (Sorry that link is so long...don't know what happened there...)

    And I'm sure you'll post a link to Sherlockology.com :)

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  3. I saw you were a little shocked at the lack of websites on ACD, the original stories, & the Granada series, so did a little internet searching & found these:

    There this website on the life and works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. They have facts, games, and a fun little gift shop all focusing on Doyle & his work:
    http://www.siracd.com/

    This is a facebook page for the granada series only. They post youtube video links (most recently a rare outtake from The Disappearance of Lady Carfax), when the granada series is coming on the telly in the UK, etc:
    https://m.facebook.com/SherlockHolmesGranada?_rdr

    You may already know of these but hopes it helps. :)

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  4. I would like to recommend a site with lots of interesting articles on ACD, Sherlock Holmes, the Granada series, Sidney Paget, the modern adaptations, Sherlock actors and many more:

    http://www.sherlockian-sherlock.com

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  5. This site appears to be related to a course taught at the University of Arkansas. I just found it today.
    http://sherlock.thelong19th.com/category/downloads/

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  6. Thanks for the links so far. Let's see if we can get a few more before I amend my links page.

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  7. Hi,

    You know, after a long time I've actually read a post somewhere that's said EXACTLY what I think about Sherlock Holmes and Sherlock Holmes sites.

    I absolutely feel this need to go to a site that doesn't talk about meetups or the latest movie or TV shows bloopers - but talks about pure Holmesian stuff - especially the books and the stories.

    I am myself working on a Sherlock Holmes site that's primarily aimed at exploring everything there is about the original Holmes stories - trivia, the locations where each incident happened in the stories, awesome moments from each story, my ratings for each story etc.

    My site is: SherlockHolmes-Fan.com

    It's still a work in progress (but I am excited!).

    Here's a list of some other nice sites I have come across:

    Sherlockian.net - Info about each story, links providing more info and everything Sherlockian

    sshf.com - Amazing facts about when each story was first published in what magazine.

    sherlockpeoria.com - Fun filled site providing some titbits about the stories, there's also a wonderful downloadable database with lots of cool Sherlock Holmes stats.

    http://dickens.stanford.edu/sherlockholmes/readings.html - Trivia and information related to a limited number of Sherlock Holmes stories - but the information is extensive.

    http://www.redbirdstudio.com/CrimeScenes/Introduction.html - Crime scene sketches from many Sherlock Holmes stories

    http://www.evo.org/sherlock/ - The Sherlock Holmes Atlas - contains descriptions of every freaking place mentioned in the Holmes stories.

    http://www.diogenes-club.com/ - Old site with information about each Sherlock Holmes story. There are also some rare pictures.

    So well, that's it for now!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for your links and your site is coming along well.

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