tMF | The Movie-Fanatic

It's time once again for an update of tMF's Top 3 Twilight Fansites list and we need your help Twilight fans! But before we go any further, here's a backgrounder: It's a fact that there are hundreds of sites related to Twilight - from domains hosted by dedicated servers to sites hosted for free like a lot of what we now have at blogspot.

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I remember the first time tMF posted the Top 3 Twilight Fansite list, we were surprised at the number of fans' reactions. They came in the hundreds and wrote such awesome reviews! Back then, no major movie sites or blogs, except a few including tMF, were interested in covering Stephenie Meyer's books. See one of our earliest article on Twilight (dated October 2007 here). I was even surprised at the 'animosity' shown by what some might call the mainstream media (see example here).

Back to the list, for days we visited many sites and blogs in search of the best. So giving credit where its due, we have...

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The Twilight Lexicon - The author of the book herself, Stephenie Meyer, described the Lexicon as the 'Twilight universe's brightest star'. Comprehensive and up-to-date, the Lexicon boasts of a diverse list of articles that relate directly to the book and the movies, the characters, scenes and situations, historical backgrounds and references, and many others. What makes this site exceptional is that both owners (Lori Joffs and Laura Byrne Cristiano) have direct personal relationship with Ms. Meyer, giving them the insight into areas not even the most resourceful writer or blogger could possibly matched. Says Lori:

The Lexicon’s relationship with Stephenie started from Day One. Starting a website was just a random thought I had. I didn’t actually put it into full gear until I had a thumb's up from Stephenie to do so. She reviewed my fanfiction, which left me more than shocked! When I e-mailed her to say thank you, I also asked how she would feel about a dictionary of sorts being created to help the fans have easier access to the information. She thought it was a great idea and said that she would supply me with information to help fill in any gaps I had. I asked a few hesitant questions, thinking that she would be very reluctant to give out too much information.

Read our interview with the owners of Twilight Lexicon here. tMF is currently doing another interview, this time putting the spotlight on New Moon, and some other 'provocative' Twilight-related topics, stay tuned!

His Golden Eyes - Hip, stylish, innovative and fun, His Golden Eyes caters to the younger set of the Twilight fandom. But what the site has to offer in terms of content and community go beyond mere age categorization - His Golden Eyes has an identity all its own. When it comes to the latest news and scoop, I think this site is one of the first to post the latest. Recently, His Golden Eyes appeared to be inactive, but worry no more, Kimmy and her team are back and the site is more awesome than ever! Says Kimmy on starting His Golden Eyes:

I started this website as a free web site, and after the number of hits started to rise I decided to get a domain name. I am very surprised how successful it has become, thanks to all our fans! When I go to my website, there are sometimes more than 500 people online at once, all eagerly waiting for news.

I'm pretty sure that "500 people online" is much more now than ever.

Twilight Moms - Our previous description still sounds quite appropriate:

With more than 3800 registered users and an average daily post of 1,259, the forum at Twilight Moms is truly a wonderful Twilight community. Someone from tMF joined a number of these Twilight boards, and we have observed that some of them have issues with management and organization, but not this forum. With such diverse topics and with so many members posting almost at the same time, it takes more than willpower and patience to prevail, but we salute the Admins at Twilight Moms for operating a true Twilight community, and they even outscooped some of the other Twilight sites!

Lisa Hansen and her team have updated what was once a fully-integrated bulletin board into a comprehensive site with news, announcements and more. Here's more from Lisa:

After creating TwilightMOMS it was refreshing to have this one tiny part of my life that I was able to control and organize however I wanted. But as it grew it became very obvious that I had to let go and allow people to help me. I'd love to be able to claim that I am solely responsible for making the site what it is today, but the truth is, I have numerous women who donate and volunteer their time and talents toward running the site. They are amazing. Utterly AMAZING! Those amazing women coupled with the structure of the administration and moderators keeps the site running like a well-oiled machine. [ read more ]

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The Second Twilight Fansite Hitlist: A few months have passed, the Twilight frenzy is almost at its peak - it's now only a few weeks before the movie hits theaters. We did another list, this time Twilight sites must have tripled in numbers - the playing field is more complex and competitive but the community atmosphere remains intact. tMF conducted a poll to see what fans have to say, but before that, we already posted the updated list:

(Publisher's Note: I wished that everything we did @tMF has been preserved. Unfortunately, our last site migration/transfer failed to include hundreds of articles and comments. We're still trying to fix things, but I hope adding some sort of backgrounder to this article would make it much more understandable.)

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Bella and Edward - I think the unique personality of the website that stands out for me. It looks and feels like an authentic and witty fangirl is operating the site - from the way the stories and articles were written to the kind of reactions the viewers provides and her reactions afterwards. Of course, Michelle now has a lot of people who help her maintain B&E.

Twilighters.Org: I consider TwilightersdotOrg to be the most tech-savy of all the Twilight fansites, yet the owners and publishers are too young, Geo and Chris! But that's the truth. Site-wise, they have a very clean, polished look that is easy on the eyes, yet filled with so much information that is enjoyable and relaxing to read. Their Image gallery is also one of the most comprehensive. Perhaps one of the best feature they got is their highly-entertaining podcast. You need to watch it yourself of course. Its a great feature, giving their viewers with a more personal form of communication and sense of community.

Twilighters Anonymous - The first thing I noticed about TA is the way they organized their content - the news blog provides more than just news and opinions separately, but a synergy of both - without going overboard (and acting like authoritative rulers in a dark fictional world) and then they ask for reactions and to no surprise, the fans react and thereby completing the circle - if you're looking for what social networking and dynamism is all about, then look no more. Of course, they also have a forum for more extensive discussions, but I was impressed because instead of the duplicity I expected (blog comments versus forum), the discussion has a feeling of continuity.

TA also won the poll when we asked readers on their favorite sites. Here's a TA article for the details.

We also made special mention of Twilight Series Theories, Twilight Source and Twilight Novel Novice, three Twilight-related sites that really impressed me. I was also supposed to launch an interview with Novel Novice's owner, Irene Truitt, and hopefully it will be posted very soon!

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The Playing Field Right Now: I think that the playing field now appears a bit on the 'nasty' side- the papz, the rumour mongers, and the celeb trash bloggers have launched their respective invasions - and carved their own niche', as they say. I'm not even going to mention and describe in details how the big movie sites have started their own Twilight sections - but I would recommend to Twilight fans to look carefully at the extent and variety of the articles being posted by these big sites, because it will add a unique dimension to your Twilight jouirney as well.

tMF is also about to begin our third search for the best Twilight fansites, and would like to ask the help of the fans to narrow down the field and enable us to once again pick the sites that are really making a difference.

Aside from those we've already mentioned, are there some new kids on the block worthy of a mention? Tell us and we'll check them out, find out what makes them special and come up with a new top 3 list!

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