When I was fresh out of high school, I decided I wanted to go into a computer-related field. I had always loved computers and was a self-proclaimed computer nerd. In college, I received an associates degree in IT Computer Applications with a certificate in Web Page Design. Ever since then, I have been designing websites or blogs because I love the act of creating things.

 

In early 2011, a friend introduced me to the world of the television series Supernatural. Using Netflix, I quickly devoured all of the seasons up to the live one (which I had recorded on my DVR). I got caught up just in time to watch the season six finale air live. By May, I was enraptured by the show. Because of my love for this television show, I met other like-minded fans on Twitter. I had the idea to launch a fan website devoted to the fans and community of Supernatural. After much deliberation, the Supernatural Fandom (www.supernatural-fandom.com) website was launched on July 9, 2011. Since then, it has grown to be so much more than I ever expected. I have had to hire volunteer staff for the site and its social media accounts on several occasions. In May of 2016, I decided to take the website down completely. I could no longer afford to operate the website, nor did I have the time to keep it properly updated. Our Facebook page, Facebook group, and Twitter accounts for the website are still active. Today, our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/SupernaturalFandom) has grown to almost 26,000 likes, our Facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/supernaturalfandom/) has grown to just over 53,000 members, and our Twitter account (https://twitter.com/SPN_Fandom) has just over 41,000 followers. It is much more than I ever imagined!

 

Did you catch it? I said “our” numerous times when talking about the following of the site. That’s because the site has always been about community - a place for the fans of Supernatural to get together. Throughout the creation and life of the site, I wanted every fan to feel wanted and like they were a part of the community. Recently, I have been missing the website aspect of running the fandom pages. We had weekly chats during the live east coast airing of the new episodes. We had an event called the Ultimate Fan Competition where fans were quizzed on the show and the person with the most answers correct in the shortest time won a lot of cool prizes. We had events like Supernatural Secret Santa and our own, much smaller version of a scavenger hunt like GISHWHES. We once held a contest when it was time for a redesign of the site. We had about half a dozen people submit banners and the fandom voted on their favorite. The banner with the highest number of votes won and was displayed on the site for a really long time. I miss creating and supporting these fun events for the awesome fans of Supernatural. We also supported the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

 

I have met and made several lifelong friends because of the show. Some were invited to my wedding in 2016. I visited one recently when I was on vacation in her area. Just a few weeks ago, I attended the wedding of another of them. I miss having the type of website which can bring people together in such a way. I want to create the community and events the page used to have by bringing it back. This is where I need your help.

 

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