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It's sad to see projects fail.

It's sad to see projects fail. I don't even mean my own, but projects by others I wish had taken off, or at least gained a bit more traction.

There's this website called the Night Mind Index, that, in essence, lists interactive online storytelling projects. YouTube channels, Twitter accounts, Tumblr blogs, you name it. If you're familiar with the term "unfiction", it's precisely that.

I've seen a good chunk of projects listed on the index over the years, and found some I'd never heard of before too. One that falls into the latter category is, or rather was, "The Taruverse".

The index links to a Twitter account, and when I first stumbled upon it, I gave it a follow. Its premise seemed interesting. Back then, it had maybe ten, 15 followers. The creator themselves probably submitted it to the index. I don't mind that at all though.

It's hard to acquire a following online. That applies to all kinds of social media accounts, including ones by people that don't really exist, like here. And because such projects so often depend on interaction, a certain amount of traction is essentially required.

I believe that this was, ultimately, this project's downfall: When I first checked out the Twitter account, I found maybe 50 tweets, some with anything from one to five likes, no retweets, and perhaps three replies overall. Screaming into the void. I doubt that changed much over time.

I wanted to check out the account again today. I thought that maybe it's gotten big since then, but instead I found that the account had been deleted. It's sad, because, again, its premise sounded exactly like my cup of tea, but to be fair, I didn't reply to any of the tweets either.

One of the main aspects of an unfiction project is that it tries to blur the line between fiction and reality, hence the name. Because of that, the creators seldom reveal themselves, making it hard to find potentially similar projects or other things they are working on.

So, although I highly doubt it, if whoever was behind "The Taruverse" happens to read this: Don't give up. Keep on creating. And hey, let me know what you're working on. I'd love to know.

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