Stillborn Serial

Somewhere, right now, a person is discovering Fan Fiction, Web Comics, role-playing Fora, or what-have-you and thinking, "Hey, this looks easy! I can write! I can make drawings/pixel art/sprites! I'll do one of these!". They then work on the first chapter/first strip/first motions to get in on the game, sign up with an account for a free service, post said original work, and then promptly forget about it. These are Orphaned Series and Dead Fic taken to an extreme. Sometimes the author found that it wasn't so easy after all and dropped the idea when it turned out to be more work than they expected. Many were just made on a whim and promptly forgotten once the momentary urge wore off.

A Stillborn Serial stings a lot less than an Orphaned Series or Dead Fic does, if only because they don't gather much of a following to begin with. But it's a special kind of sad feeling to come across what looks like the start of a great serial, only to find out that it's only got the 1-3 pages that were initially posted, and has been left that way long enough to be sure it's not going to ever get anything more.

Stillborn Serials have a negative effect on free hosting services such as Fanfiction.net, Comic Genesis, and such. The majority of the entries on any open service are quickly abandoned, resulting in both clogging the lists full of dead entries and consuming otherwise good names in the process.

Compare Dead Fic, One-Episode Wonder.