Monday, July 31, 2006

Follow-Up Letter
A really weird side debate has arisen over whether the term 'art' applies to essay writing. This really doesn't have to do with the site's direction at all. In this context I obviously mean art to be visual art.

Anyone who thinks I don't appreciate writers obviously doesn't know me...

It's like saying James doesn't appreciate video game designers, or Gail doesn't appreciate panda photographers. I'm a writer myself. (And, I might add, the person who pioneered the integration/idea of an articles site.)

I greatly value the work of our article writers...Bell, SomeGuy, Katana, etc. You're all great members of our community; from comments to blogs to news commentary to OB. Articles are just a small part of your value. I'd be really saddened if any of you chose to leave because of this.

Down the line we'll have projects that will need strong writers and if you do stick around I'd be happy to give you special preference for them (look at the great job Sarah/Kei/and Gail do, for example).

I really don't want to lose our writers, I think you're a strong part of our community.

Yes, Sarah can do a great job moderating the articles site. Yes, it won't 'kill' us to keep it around even as we shift focus to art. But we don't want to just 'survive', we want to constantly imrpove/streamline/build new features/and grow. And for that, we have to focus. We're not a niche fansite; I have to make decisions on a very high/holistic level.

A long time ago, I turned a gaming site with YEARS of gaming coverage and history into an anime site. You can imagine how many visitors and staff were in an uproar about that. Then I turned an anime site with literally thousands of pages of hand-written content into a user-generated portal.

...And look what happened...

I see a similar need for a strategic realignment. I really hope you stay with us and trust me. Because you're going to see something really slick come out of all of this.

And those of you who like storytelling; just wait until you see the FAN MANGA section we have planned. I hope to see a lot of artist/writer collaboration there.

QUESTION: Writers--Given this stance, please respond with what I can do to make this transition less painful for you. You have my service--Please, no complaints in this thread though, only constructive ideas.
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