Winter-Is-Coming.net: We know Thrones

Now that season one of Game of Thrones has aired, Winter-Is-Coming.net has seen its traffic explode (see graph below for evidence) bringing a whole host of new readers. With all these newcomers hanging around, we thought it would be a good time to formally welcome them to the site and share what we have to offer. And for you long-time visitors, we have a tease of some things to look forward to at WiC.net as well…

History
As you can see from the graph above, we’ve been around for a while. I started this site a couple days after HBO announced they were going to film a pilot. It wasn’t until almost a year and a half later we even knew Game of Thrones would go on-air. It could have been a short-lived site, but thankfully HBO picked up the show and we got to enjoy a full season of Thrones goodness. And we are getting (at least) one more!

When the site started it was just me, Winter Is Coming (aka Winter or WiC), posting news and rumors, but once we got the full season pickup I knew I needed some help, so I enlisted two long-time readers and commenters to help me out. They took up the monikers Fire And Blood and Hear Me Roar, and have been invaluable sources of assistance.

News and Rumors
So what kind of stuff can you expect us to report on? Well a lot of season two casting and filming, obviously. We dig deep to find the rumors that other sites may not bring you. And we provide the big news that gets reported on everywhere else (although we like to think we bring it to you faster than anybody else). We also plan to make speculative posts about season two, including the cast, the scripts and which characters may or may not make the cut. And, of course, we will continue to look back at the fantastic first season of Game of Thrones. Look for our first annual WiC.net end-of-season awards coming soon!

Comments
The comments have been the heart and soul of this site for a long time now. The varied and interesting discussion has made the site not just a Thrones news source but a full-fledged fan community. We have a pretty relaxed moderation policy around here and welcome all viewpoints, be they positive or negative. But we do ask that you refrain from personal attacks against other posters.

A few people have asked how to get an avatar that will display with their comments, so here is the deal: You can sign in with Twitter or Facebook and it will use those avatars. Or you can sign up for a Gravatar account, using the same email as you use to comment here, and upload an avatar of your choice. It will then display here alongside your comments.

Spoiler Policy
Let’s talk about spoilers for a minute. Since this show is based on an existing book series, the risk of spoilers is very high. We do our best to keep the new viewers shielded from having the story spoiled from them. You can be sure that the front page of the site will never delve into the events of future books/seasons. This way you can always check the latest news without fear of being spoiled. On certain posts we may discuss specifics of upcoming events, but in these cases we will always warn the reader that spoilers are coming and you will have to click through to read the spoilerific stuff.

In the comments, any spoilers from future books must be blacked out using the “spoiler” tag. This can be applied by highlighting the section of your comment that is a spoiler and clicking the “spoiler” button. Alternately you can surround that section of text with the tags <b> and </b>. We must warn new viewers that although most of our commenters are good with tagging their spoilers, sometimes stuff slips out. We try to keep a close eye for spoiler slip-ups and fix them as soon as possible, but we can’t guarantee that the comments will be completely spoiler-free. So if you haven’t read all the books, be aware that when reading the comments you run the risk of being spoiled. The best way to avoid this is to read the books!

Site Features
In the time we’ve been online our readership has increased steadily but we have tried to keep the site as user-friendly and as simple as possible. The focus of the site is still the posts and the active and on-going discussion within the comments. But we also have other features such as…

Cast Page
The season one cast page contains all the named roles (and some unnamed ones as well) from the first season, as well family trees for some of the major houses. Clicking on each photo will take you to an actor page with a character profile and actor bio, as well as links to their IMDb/Wikipedia page and any posts about that character/actor. The season two cast page is one to keep an eye on, as we will continually update it over the next few months as new roles and actors are announced.

Frequently Asked Questions
This recently revamped page includes frequently asked questions about the show, organized by general questions and season one- and season two-specific questions. This is helpful for our new readers, as it gives you a nice overview of the series and might help you from asking a question that has been answered many times before (“Is the second season going to be longer than 10 episodes?”). It is another one to keep an eye on as we will update it frequently as new info becomes available.

Episode Guide
A page with all the info for each episode from season one, such as writers, directors, run times, synopsis, etc. It also includes links to our recap posts, as well as videos and photos from each episode. With season one in the can, this page will be a nice reference and a good way to relive some of this past season’s episodes. Watch for a season two episode guide, once we get closer to the next season airing.

International Airings
For our international readers, this page is a handy reference to see when and where Game of Thrones will be airing in your home country. We update it regularly as the airing plans for new territories are announced.

The Pointy End Comic
Artist Mike Rosenzweig began providing a series of exclusive Game of Thrones-themed comics entitled The Pointy End during season one. While the season was airing they centered around “deleted scenes” from each episode. He will continue to provide new comics during the break between seasons, although the topic will switch to casting or filming or whatever else Mike can poke fun at. Make sure to check out the latest issue, published today, in which Mike pokes fun as Fire and Blood and his interview style! Hilarious!

Some other pages of interest: Images, Videos, Crew and our Polls Archive.

And, last but not least, some stuff to look forward to…

Site Redesign
We are in the early stages of a site redesign that will hopefully be complete by the time season two airs. We welcome any feedback our readers may have about what they like about the site currently, what they dislike and what features they would like to see added to the new site. Let us know in the comments below or use our contact form to get in touch with us directly.

Site Store
Something that I have wanted to do for a while now, but just haven’t had the time. A WiC.net store with exclusive t-shirts and other merchandise about the site and the series. I have some pretty great t-shirt ideas and hopefully we will get this store up and running in the next few months.

I guess that about covers it. We want to thank all of our readers. Without you this site would not be half as fun to run as it is. So keep visiting and keep discussing and we’ll keep bringing you all the Thrones news and rumors and speculation you can handle!

• Published on 07/08/2011 at 5:41 PM CDT
• Last updated on 10/20/2016 at 6:04 PM CDT