We announced a big change recently—a renaming from “Tor.com” to “Reactor”—and you very understandably have questions! Now that we’ve had some time to field your questions through email, social, and elsewhere, we’ll explain more about the changeover and see if we can answer some of the more frequently asked questions. In summary: Questions.
Why are you rebranding?
“Tor.com” is a very confusing name. Rebranding distinguishes us from Tor Books, Tordotcom Publishing, and even the TOR browser—3 things that we are not! (Although we started at Tor Books and are owned by the Tor Publishing Group, and Tordotcom Publishing emerged from the site in 2015. It’s complicated.) Our site redesign kicked off in late 2022 and eventually prompted a re-look at our name. The stars aligned around “Reactor”.
Why “Reactor”?
It captures some of what we do: react to genre fiction and related pop culture with articles, essays, etc. Reactors are components in spaceships, which ties in with our beloved mascot, Stubby. Having “tor” in the name is a nice bonus. Don’t forget from whence you came!
Is Stubby the Rocket going away?
No. We love Stubby.
Is coverage of science fiction, fantasy, and speculative fic going away?
Absolutely not! SFF literature is still the heart of what we do, and that’s our priority. We’ll just also be open to related subjects of interest, from nonfic to romantasy, pirates to gardening, and so on. For fifteen years, our site has been a place for fans of SFF to gather and discuss old favorites and find new favorites, and that’s not going to change.
What will happen to old articles and links?
All of our 15+ years (!) of short fiction and articles will be on the new site. Old links will forward you to the new link.
What will happen with the short fiction?
Oh, that’s not going anywhere. We’ve got an entire year’s worth of great new stories coming!
Are you using/going to be using AI?
No, and we don’t intend to. All of our articles, fiction, and art are 100% created by humans. This goes for the content and design of our Beacons links page as well. A Reactor employee is making and updating that. (Why Beacon instead of a Linktree? Lots more formatting options in Beacon. That’s all.)
Why are you creating new social media accounts, instead of renaming the old ones?
Social media isn’t always kind to renaming old accounts. We’re excited about a clean slate. You can check out our new accounts here!
When is the change officially happening?
January 23, 2024. Our Tor.com accounts will remain active until then, and while we’ll leave the old accounts up, we’ll be switching to the new ones moving forward from that date.
Will my Tor.com site account/login transfer over?
Yes.
Will Reactor have an RSS feed(s)?
It’s on the list of things we really want, but we might not get to it on the implementation list until a little bit after the new site launches.
Wait! I have a question about _______!
Want to know more? We’re hosting an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Reddit’s r/Fantasy page on January 18. Come over then!
