Monday, April 16, 2007

Evolution I spend a lot of time on this blog discussing things that I am working on for this network and usually I'm pretty vague. This is always for good reason - projects have a way of changing as they near completion and either things are added or taken away depending on programming and financial constraints. I thought I'd take a moment to go into some more specifics though. After so many vague comments I think it's easy to form the impression that nothing is happening at all! So it can also work against you to be too vague at times. I won't go into specifics about theOtaku.com because I think it's really Adam's thing to reveal/announce and I wouldn't want to jump in ahead of him unless he was happy with that. Instead, I thought I'd talk a bit about the new OtakuBoards. I should preface this by saying that programming work has not yet begun - there are a couple of things that need to happen before we can start working on a development mule (including the creation of a new database on the server, which only Adam can do at this point). There will be a couple of major differences with the new site that everyone will notice right away (apart from the new visual style). First, OB will be designed with a 1024x768 resolution in mind (along with theOtaku). Second, the site will be far more content driven than ever before - yes, it will still be mostly about the forums, but it will also become a hub for content in and of itself. A central new element with OB Evolution (as the new site is code-named) is display panels (I'm using this term instead of "widgets" or "gadgets", haha). These panels/channels will come in a variety of flavours and they will provide instant contact with a variety of content, both inside and outside OtakuBoards. We'll have an OB Network panel, for instance, which will link to all of OB's sub-sites (and there will be more than Otakupedia by the time we're done, too). And, significantly, there will also be an official Podcast panel that will broadcast both internal and external podcasts (although initially I expect the vast majority of content will come from outside OtakuBoards and probably outside the network itself). This particular area I'm very excited about, because I would like to see the establishment of an actual OB podcast at some stage in the future. Anyone who has the capability/interest to do this should probably start thinking about it! We will also have ways to feature important/interesting threads and more. The forums themselves will also receive a much-needed visual upgrade (and simplification). OB Evolution will, I think, be the biggest upgrade we've ever done. My hope is that it will allow OB to make the transition from being "just a forum" to a true community location. And of course, it'll have a look that throws it into the 21st century rather than being stuck with the remnants of a two year old design (although I think OB is still quite a bit more modern-looking than many other vBs I've seen out there - with the exception of the Geisha skin, which looks awful and is poorly implemented). Hal: Well yeah, that's why I never said "visual artists". I just said "artists" (meaning all forms of art from visual to written to anything else). But yes, it's a worthy investment for artist without doubt! Mental/creative blocks are very difficult for me. Luckily I've been able to work on new designs for theOtaku.com and OB without being too hindered by this problem lately. Darren: Ohh, right! Sorry, haha. My mistake. That's still a sweet gift - I'm sure your mother loves it! It's great that she makes a nice dinner too; there's nothing better than a great home-cooked meal. Mixed bouquet of roses sounds great. ~_^

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Tuesday, April 10, 2007

The 9th Things are going very well in the Otaku camp. I have not seen this much buzzing in the background for a long time. First, theOtaku.com's new design is getting frighteningly close to completion. Launch dates are another issue because certain things may need to change or be edited during implementation. Still, the design is now coming together in a very solid way - I think it will be the design that will allow for dramatic new expansions in the future. At this stage there isn't too much I can say because so much can change. I am also not really in a position to show a sample for those who were interested. I can say one thing though - theOtaku.com will finally be evolving to a base 1024x768 resolution. OtakuBoards will follow suit shortly after. This will mark a significant design change network-wide and it will allow us to really push the boundaries of what we were doing before. Also, one other thing: Artrepreneurship (which I always have to type slowly for fear of making a typo). I have read the beta cover-to-cover and in my humble opinion, this publication is better than Art of Otaku. Better, but different. In many ways I think Artrepreneurship is going to be the kind of thing you will keep with you for years if you buy it. It is, in all honesty, one of the most specific and helpful resources I've ever seen for those who have an interest in producing art of any kind. If I had to summarize it I would say simply this: Artrepreneurship is what you get if you were to bottle Adam's years of education, experience and imagination. It is really like a single product that encompasses all of Adam's professional successes and failures and it is specifically tailored for the people who are going to get the most out of it. For my part, it's been not only an interesting read, but also a resource I too will keep with me for a long time. I suspect I will end up referring back to it for great quotes and some fantastic little pearls of wisdom, at the very least! CosmicSailor: The beauty about online work is that much of it comes down to time and energy rather than money. Time can be a factor (particularly if you have a busy day job), but energy and imagination probably play the greatest roles in my experience. The worst thing for me when it comes to online work is very simply when I get those awful mental blocks where I just can't be creative. Such blocks are awful for writers, artists and business people alike. SunfallE: Existing data should remain unaffected - our database and its integrity is of utmost importance to me. ^_^ Still unsure about the blog idea. Maybe something else would be good...we'll see. Easter is on Sunday for everyone. But don't forget time zone differences. ~_^ Alex: Times don't change when it comes to that stuff, but I think that's a good thing. I like that members and staff can get together and discuss these types of ideas. I partially agree with what you're saying, but I think in practice we have to be careful. Many RPG creators do not like "OOC" conversations in their Inn threads. Also, we'd need to effectively differentiate between a "sign-up" thread and a general RPG discussion thread. I can see some confusion there if we just throw the two together. So while I do see a lot of merit in merging them, I also think that the idea hasn't been comprehensively thought through by those who are in favour of it. In any case, I haven't had much time to look at that proposal lately due to other online stuff I've been working on. For now I'm happy with the changes that have been made and I'm always willing to revisit ideas - this is definitely not a closed issue as far as I'm concerned. Kei-chan: Yeah somehow it does seem fitting, doesn't it? I guess we'll see. The main thing is I like that many members can comment here...but I suppose I could allow open comments on the other page without needing an account. Something to think about anyway. And yes, I'm sure this event will be a success! I'm confident in White - I think he's feeling the pressure of all the publicity! emily24: Who? White? Yeah, he is. ~_^ Darren: Haha, yep, I kind of like the idea behind it. I think it would make for some funny scenarios! I can imagine all our Otakuites hitting the town and freaking out the local populace...they'd probably think something odd is going down. ~_^ You get flowers from your mum at Easter? That's a sweet gift. I bought roses/chocolates and an easter bunny for my partner...and I bought boxes of chocolates for my co-workers as well! It was a fun easter. ^_^

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Wednesday, April 4, 2007

Big Events So OtakuBoards is about to host its first ever anime-centric event. Seems a little weird to have taken so long, doesn't it? But I am happy to see the positive response coming from the community. I just hope that the technical problems we've had with emails won't continue to cause issues for new members, but we'll see how it goes. Many new things have been happening behind the scenes lately, not just in terms of events and theOtaku's new design. I've reached a decision related to the next version of OtakuBoards that will make it much easier to develop (and which should, hopefully, give us more options in terms of skins and stuff). It's kind of a weight off my shoulders, compared to the previous plan (which was more complex and which would use much of OB's existing code). The idea now is to largely start fresh with totally new code - I think we can probably do this more effectively and more quickly than the other way. Other than that I've been thinking about blog options. I am not sure whether to maintain a blog here at myOtaku or whether to build a custom blog at OtakuBoards (it'd be something like OtakuBoards.com/james or whatever). I would sort of like to expand the scope of what I can do at the blog and utilising third party software might be a good option. Any thoughts? Oh, and happy easter everyone! I got bombarded with chocolates at work today which was nice, although I think it will take a long time to eat 'em all. ~_^ Solo: I thought it was interesting that PS3 sales dropped 82% in the second week (rather than having a nearly month-long consistent launch sell-through. This is no real indicator of a longterm trend but it's interesting nonetheless. Sony are producing consoles at a loss, Nintendo aren't. The two are like apples and oranges though, they are very different. snow fox: Ah so you were a visitor at World of Color? Interesting. You must be one of the few who are still left! I am really looking forward to seeing your contributions to theOtaku.com's redesign. And I would love to have your help with the new OB too! You're my favourite myO artist. ^_^ Nehzriah: If you want to log in under Nehzriah, just send a PM to me at myO and we will try to sort your account out. That way you don't lose any of your posts and stuff. indifference: Thanks for the kind words. I really like a clean and organized design, but this comes from a history of developing layouts that are useable...sometimes I like detailed and very visual designs. Just depends on the site. Hal: Yep, I think that knowing the past is important for future developments. I have been around for a very long time as an administrator/site director so I have seen thousands of members come and go and I've been deeply involved in helping to build the network. Still, I always think we can do more. We are only ever limited by physical resources, unfortunately. SunfallE: Thanks much! Seven years is kind of amazing...I feel like I've been here a decade (I suppose I almost have - it'll be weird if I'm still around after 10 years). Charles' work on Otakupedia is brilliant and I'm so thrilled that he accepted the Curator job. It's really the unfolding of a dream I've had for the site for a while. master hiko: I might provide a tiny sample before it launches just to whet your appetite. We'll see. I'm glad you're in support of Otakupedia - I think it's such an important project for the network. I hope to see more submissions from members! I would really like to see articles about theOtaku.com and its history too. Hopefully some longstanding members would like to contribute to that. Aaryanna: Even two years is still a very long time on the Internet. In this environment web creators literally have a matter of seconds to catch people's attention - and keeping it is the hard part! So keeping it for a matter of years is pretty remarkable. I felt sad when Charles left too, I would hate to see him leave for good. I'm really so happy that he's back in a position he's enjoying. You have a good week too!

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Friday, March 30, 2007

Future Shock Progress on theOtaku.com continues at a lightning pace! I am pleased with what has been achieved so far. Most of all, I'm very eager to produce something that will really allow the site to grow in new and exciting ways. Implementation will be the tough part, but hopefully everything will go well. Adam is supporting me 100%, which is a great feeling. I also realized today, 2007 will essentially mark my seventh year as part of this network. My very first involvement began in early 2000. Isn't that incredible? In all this time, I have known so many people and seen so much change - it is truly amazing to be part of an online community for so long. This is especially true when you are involved in helping to build that community. This line of thinking also led me to a broader idea...that of history. When I think about the amount of contributions I've seen on various levels and the relationships that have been forged through this network, I realize that for many, theOtaku/OB/myO have been very personal. But at the same time, it can be so easy to erase that history - all you have to do is delete a post or even delete a few folders off a server and the history is gone forever. This is why I felt it was so important to back Charles' briliant Otakupedia concept. If nothing else - even if OtakuBoards were to die tomorrow - I find it so important to preserve our history as much as possible. I kind of feel that those relationships and contributions deserve a permanent home on the Internet, whether or not the site itself continues to run. Anyhoo, nothing too interesting there...just a few random thoughts I've had today. Solo: The thing with PS3 in Europe is, Sony's shipment was very high for that region (including the UK). So although there are still systems left on shelves, the actual sell-through is actually record breaking. And I hate bundles usually. Yuck. SunfallE: I think the new version of theOtaku will be much easier for everyone to use. It will also give the site a much-needed fresh coat of paint! Nehszriah: I should mention that the layout will essentially be the same as our previous version (where we had the big banner and the funny logo). That is to say, the positioning of page elements will be largely the same. However, the site will actually look quite different. The images used will be entirely new and we're streamlining navigation. We're also adding visual icons to a lot of areas and hopefully through these improvements we can make the site a bit easier and more fun to use. Hal: Cool, I will try to remember to call you Hal. I have a lot of names to remember, so please excuse me in advance if I ever forget! Darren: No worries, Darren you shall be then! molletta: Yeah I think we can improve the feel of the site, even just through colour and graphics improvements. But yeah, I don't think he was exercising good customer service. All he achieved was annoying everyone else due to his delaying...and causing me great discomfort listening to his rubbish. Not good at all! Crystia: Eh, I don't think my graphics are of an outstanding quality or anything - far from it. I think my main skill, if anything, is managing projects. Time is always a factor, but I'm focusing 100% of my development time to theOtaku.com right now. Alex: For the first part of your post, I agree. I think they are under a lot of pressure to move systems. The thing that annoys me about it, though, is that this should not be a big problem in Australia. Australia is a very technology-hungry country - PS3's price is actually not a huge issue for most people here. Many Australians buy the latest technology purely to ensure that they're as "up to date" as possible. When you add the fact that PlayStation is as big here as it is in the UK...I can't see Sony having many problems shifting consoles (as evidenced by PS3's record sales numbers in Australia thusfar). The other thing that confused me was that he was going into this spiel before the console launched. I thought that made little sense really (except for the fact that he was also trying to get me to trade things in). I totally agree about Blu-ray. Upscaling is one thing but producing movies in true HD is a long way away I suspect. When you consider that so few movie theatres actually have HD capability at this stage...I just don't see how it will filter down to the consumer market in a very long time. Having said this, I have not seen a Blu-ray movie on an HD set. So I have no basis for comparison with DVD. Even if it were significantly better, though, I still don't feel it justifies the astronomial price tag. Aaryanna: I think we had that tagline a couple of years ago...it would probably have been around 2004 or something. Hot pink, you say? Check.

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Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Anime Superstar Does anyone remember when theOtaku.com's tagline was "Anime Superstar?" I came up with that line and I convinced Adam to use it as part of our site's title - theOtaku.com: Anime Superstar. I think the site deserved such a title. We haven't had that title in a long time, even though theOtaku.com has grown in many ways. It's interesting to think about how much the site has changed over the years. The next version of theOtaku.com is going to be really special. I think it is helping to give Adam something to look forward to, especially with the Art of Otaku's delay. For me, it's a chance to set things right. Our current version looks old and tired...and it's very dark. Honestly, it was really never truly "finished". After it launched it needed more revision and it wasn't quite put together properly in the first place. I think this has always been more a time/necessity issue than anything else. With the new version I am very much pushing for everything to be implemented properly and to ensure that we have a more thorough design. There are two major things I can say about this new version. First, no more darkness. The site will use much more white space and more vivid colour. Secondly, it'll be much easier and more pleasant to use. I am really excited to begin working on the new myOtaku elements and things like that - I think it will be very impressive when it's finished. Once theOtaku.com is finished, it'll be back to OB for its new version. That's a big job and Adam has told me that he'll be investigating the possibility of securing extra (possibly even specialist) support. So that will be great. Sarah: One other EB staff member tried a similar thing a while ago and I just cut him off - I was really not in the mood for it. This time, though, I was being far too patient. CosmicSailor: When it comes to PS3, I do think it's just a matter of saying "it's not worth the money for what it is". When either the price comes down or Sony can deliver more compelling reasons to own the console, I'll probably buy it. Nehsriah: Well, my DVD collection is growing (although it is by no means huge) and I'd rather own DVDs than video cassettes. However, I wasn't one of those people buying DVDs in 1997, you know? I don't want to be such an early adopter that I start missing out. DVD will keep me going at least another couple of years I'd say. Solo: Nice to see you, Solo! Hope you are well. ^_^ Yes, I think the UK is very Sony-centric. The UK is a very important market to Sony (Sony recently stated that Europe is their most important market - I think this is at least partially true). Nintendo has never had a good presence in the UK and I think they are still struggling to gain a strong foothold there. At least DS is doing well in all territories regardless. And yes, the sale of religion can be quite annoying. That's probably the most annoying "sale" I can think of. Alex: EB is good for me mostly because it's the nearest gaming store to me. So you know, that sort of makes it easy. And usually I have no issues with them. But lately it's been very annoying - they seem to have been under a lot of pressure to shift PS3s. Hasn't helped them though. I buy online but I usually don't buy games online for some reason. I think there's something about walking into a videogame store that I quite like, although I'm not quite sure what that is. Rachmaninoff/Darren: Would you rather me call you Darren or by your username? I try to use real names for people where possible but sometimes people don't like it. Anyhoo, yeah, it was absolutely crazy. Normally I get into some really good conversations with EB staff - I have to say, I have usually enjoyed shopping at EB. But the last few visits have really been awful to the point where I've questioned whether I want to shop from them ever again. Tonykins: Yeah I get quite annoyed when I get lectured by an EB Games staffer - especially when, by what I say to them, I clearly have an idea of what I'm talking about. I think it was the way he spoke to me that I found annoying...he was argumentative and basically acted as if I had no idea what I was talking about. At the very least he should have respected that I just wasn't interested. And I agree with you about the formats. According to this EB guy, only one or two major studios are left to sign up to Blu-ray. But I basically thought...who cares? That doesn't benefit me now. He was asking me to pay $1,000AUD for potential. And I'm not interested in paying that much for a format that might work out years from now. indie rock child: Yeah, if anything I think this is a lesson to everyone not to be afraid to be nice and blunt to an over-eager salesperson! (Without being nasty, of course).

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Sunday, March 18, 2007

The Hard Sell This last weekend should have been relaxing but I experienced the most frustrating sales pitch of my life. Basically, I went in to EB Games for a browse - I usually do this on a weekend to see what's new and I often end up walking out of the store with something. In this case I walked out with Sonic for Wii (which, by the way, is an odd mix of total disappointment and surprising freshness). I paid for the game but that wasn't the end of it; the guy behind the counter (who was also the store manager) decided to start chatting to me about PS3: EB Guy: Did you know PS3 is coming out in a couple of weeks? Me: Yep. EB Guy: Are you interested in buying one? Me: No. EB Guy: Oh, I've got to tell you, I've seen Blu-ray movies and I'd never go back to regular DVD! Have you got an HD screen? Me: Yes. EB Guy: Oh really? You'd be crazy not to watch movies on Blu-ray, it's going to replace DVD. Me: Er, well, I'm happy with DVD and I don't really watch many movies at the moment anyway. I think it's too early to buy Blu-ray. EB Guy: Oh!! Blu-ray has already won! You can buy it everywhere here, you'd be nuts to pass up the opportunity to see HD movies! And with PS3 you can play your old PlayStation games. Me: I don't really care about Blu-ray at the moment. PAL gamers got screwed with backwards compatibility, didn't we? EB Guy: Actually the games are going to be emulated rather than hardware-driven, which is good for us because they can upscale old games to HD this way. Me: Oh, I see. I didn't know that. In any case, I'm on my fourth PS2; I don't trust Sony's product quality. I will wait a year or so to see how many problems they have. EB Guy: Oh the error rate is down to 2% from 5%! It was only the first batch that had those problems. Me: Nevertheless, I'd rather wait and see. Besides, I don't think $999 is reasonable for a game system. EB Guy: Oh but it's so much more than that! Movies, games, Internet...and you have to expect to pay that much for such advanced technology. Sony are making big losses to sell it for this price! Me: I don't really care how advanced it is; I won't pay a thousand dollars for a PlayStation. It's just not worth that much money. ... So this went on for ages. I think I was standing there for 45 minutes or so. Despite all my comments saying "I don't care", "it's too much money" and "I'm not interested", this guy kept on going! I was getting ready to give back Sonic and ask for a refund, with the comment that I would never shop at that store again. I know that EB staff have to make a sales pitch. Seriously though, a sales pitch that tough (and annoying) is only going to alienate customers. As a result, if I ever do buy a PS3 and games...I won't be buying them from EB Games. In effect, this store manager has just lost a customer - at least for his branch. He wasted that much time and it only had a negative effect (plus several customers were getting angry that he was taking so long). Unbelievable stuff. Have you ever faced a sales pitch that harsh before? And did it turn you off buying a particular product? RaR: You know, I haven't yet played Gears of War on the new TV. For a while I was using my dad's LCD TV but it's not a terribly good model. The only thing that looks good on it are games, but the response time isn't perfect so it's noticeable to me. The TV I just bought is superior (and it really shows). So far I've been playing Lost Planet and Dead Rising most of all (the latter was difficult to play on the older CRT display - the text was too hard to read most of the time). Kei-chan: Heheh, thanks. I guarantee that the new stuff will be cooler than the old stuff. ~_^ SunfallE: I hated setting everything up but now that it's all ready, I feel very relieved! It's all working beautifully. I hope you're doing well, by the way! CosmicSailor: The beauty of the screen I chose is that it has a very fast response time and a great viewing angle - LCD really has come a long way! I was thinking of getting plasma, but honestly I didn't think it was worthwhile. The fragility was another issue. Charles has kindly agreed to run the Otakupedia site, so I'm very very happy! Aaryanna: Yeah it's good to give things a shake-up! That's what I'm all about, with both furniture and web sites! Heheh. Hope you're doing well too and thanks for your PM!

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Monday, March 12, 2007

Return to theOtaku! It's been a very long time since I worked on stuff for theOtaku.com. But I'm happy to say that I have been working on something cool for theOtaku.com over the last few days. Hopefully you will see the results soon. It is nothing major, but it should give the site some much-needed freshness. I'm very excited to be working on this type of thing again, especially now that I'm really making time for the network again. This has meant that I've had to spend less time on other online projects (such as N-Sider), but I think it's worthwhile. Afterall, this is where my history is and I still think there's plenty to do! Anyway, hopefully you will see the results shortly. I think they will make a small but significant difference to the site. Other than that, there isn't a whole lot to report. I had a long weekend just now which was great, although I spent all of yesterday unpacking and assembling furniture. I'd basically ordered a new bedroom (including new electronics) a few weeks ago and it was all finally delivered. The best part is that I have a shiny new LCD TV, which will be great for the Xbox 360. It's just a shame the Wii looks so awful on it - hopefully component cables will fix that problem somewhat. On this TV you really do notice resolution differences. I've basically relocated my bedroom to the other end of the house and this means much more chance for quietness and solitude (I'm also now nowhere near the street, which is good). The end result should be some very productive Fridays (I now work different hours, so Friday is really the only day where I have some extra time now). Nehsriah: Oh yeah, if the last banner you remember was a Geisha...that's a while ago. Unless, of course, you were using the Geisha skin and you're now using the Liquid skin. The Geisha skin is awful (except for the banner), so I'm eager to have that replaced. CosmicSailor: Thanks for your consideration anyway. I'm sure there will be someone who I feel is right for the job! Kei-chan: You're one of my best staff, Kei. I think that shows with your responsibilities, both on OB and theOtaku.com. You're a very busy staff member so I wouldn't want to spread you too thin! But you were one of the first people I thought of for this task. SunfallE: Thanks for your support, you are also one of our most-valued staff (again, as evidenced by your roles here and on OB). Don't worry about a lack of technical knowledge though; Otakupedia is but one of many things we will be doing at OB in the future. There will be lots of opportunities for involvement. The sticky threads was a great start! Thanks for your kind wishes and I hope you have a good week. ^_^ Kei-chan #2: Oh yeah, I see what you mean. I agree, it does need tidying up. That's what the new Curator will be for! That is, whenever I find him/her. ~_^ I don't think it would be too difficult to edit. We've got software set up to run this site so no coding knowledge is needed really.

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Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Future endeavours. So far I am happy with the way things have been cooking over at OtakuBoards for the last few weeks. First, Otakupedia launched. At the moment it's just waiting for someone to run it. I had earmarked Charles but I am not sure if he is able/wants to do that just at the moment. In his absence, I can probably look at putting someone else at the helm for the time being - is anyone actually interested in running the Otakupedia site? I'm thinking of the title "Otakupedia Curator". It's kinda cute, don't you think? In addition to Otakupedia, several key sticky threads have been updated. This is relatively big news for OB because the site is always sort of underpinned by rules/guidelines that are designed to keep quality standards high. So re-writing these guidelines is a fairly big thing to do. But I'm happy with what's been done so far...everything is easier to read and more understandable, while still underscoring all of the qualities that are important to our network. What I'm now wondering is how we can further expand user participation - OB Network might be a good place to start. I was throwing around ideas in my head today and I think there are some cool possibilities. For one thing, I like the idea of an Otaku Records site that has been suggested (although perhaps records could have a sub-section under Otakupedia). For another...I was thinking about ways to keep people reading and interested. I then considered the possibility of an articles site (much like what theOtaku.com once had - there were reasons why this didn't work well on theOtaku, but there are also reasons why it could work rather well on OB). At this stage I have no plans to produce such a site, but does anyone think something along these lines would be worthwhile? At the very least this might spur other ideas too. For the first time since V7 launched, I think we are starting to move in major new directions. Hopefully this is the start of a very unique trend. Aaryanna: At this stage Adam's indicated that he wants a very specific type of reporting on the main page. OB may still be included in the future, but I don't know what form that will take. And I will give him a hug for you! Hope you had a good week. ^_^ Nehzriah: People change names a lot which often confuses me (I don't know if that happened with you or not though). But I usually have a fair idea of who people are - so again, sorry about that. ^_^; We can email your password to you or we can reset it for you if you wish. Just let me know. Crystia: Agreed, I would love to see more theOtaku-related information at Otakupedia. I'm sure we can organize that! Kei-chan: Well, a new logo is on the way for Otakupedia. I've asked one of the members to produce it and she has kindly accepted. I'm not sure what you mean by the drop-down list though - it's all in alphabetical order and stuff. What other changes would you suggest? And yeah, I think Charles is thinking about things other than the 'net at the moment. But that's cool, there will always be a place for him. CosmicSailor: Cool, will do. The more we can bring the community together, the better! SunfallE: Yeah I do think that would be good - perhaps that could be a part of Otakupedia itself. We'll see. I do like the idea though. Maybe to test it we could do a records-based event first (or do something in Otaku Lounge).

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Wednesday, February 28, 2007

On the horizon... Thanks to those who commented about Otakupedia. I am very happy with the site, but there is definitely still plenty to do. Hopefully the new logo should be up fairly shortly, which will round out the look of the site quite a lot. I have put forward various ideas that would link OB with theOtaku a bit more closely - including a weekly OB-related feature. Unfortunately at this stage I have yet to secure support for that. But here's hoping; afterall, it's the members who really want to see that closeness in the community. I know that various members have had some great ideas about how we can link the sites together in interesting ways over the years. From my perspective, it's usually just been a time issue. Time is still a factor, but now I think it's a matter of making sure everything is approved and ensuring that the membership is heard - that's my number one goal. Whether or not the links between theOtaku.com and OtakuBoards increase over time is anyone's guess, but there is still plenty we can do at OB to give back to members. I am very much pushing new event ideas down the pipeline with our new Event Master and I am looking at ways to further improve the site in ways that we might not have previously considered - the new OB Network section, for instance, may not just house Otakupedia in future. I'm sure there are other interesting things we can do with that and I would welcome your ideas! Kei: So what do you think of the Otakupedia site now that it's up? You are welcome to help out with it. At this stage I have Charles earmarked to run the new site and he had agreed...but I haven't seen him around recently. Hopefully I can get into contact with him to arrange an account on the site and so on. I'm sure he'd be happy to have a small staff helping him out. Deb: Thanks for the kind message for my brother. He is very happy with all the support he's received so it's been great. I have spoken to Adam briefly about the idea of creating those special news posts, but I think there is still some further discussion to go on that subject. We'll see how it pans out. But yes, I definitely think it'd be a fun thing for the members - they deserve some recognition! Nehszriah: Which member are you on OB? I don't recognize your myOtaku name. Sorry about that, haha. But certainly, the more who join in with Otakupedia the better! Contributions will remain open for the forseeable future. SunfallE: Cool, thanks for your support. Another member who wants to see posts at theO! I'm glad you like the idea. CosmicSailor: By all means, take your time. Even reading the site can be fun. Otakupedia should occupy you for a while! Even initially, there are quite a few articles up. It's a very fun read!

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Sunday, February 25, 2007

To Otakupedia and Beyond! So I've been informed by my shiny new programmer that the new Otakupedia web site should be up and running sometime this week. For those who don't know, Otakupedia is a very cool idea brought about by Charles. It's attracted quite a bit of support so far, but I felt it was important enough to warrant its own site. The site will be fully-updatable and will have its own backend, which will be great...it'll mean I can hire staff to work on Otakupedia without them having to moderate OtakuBoards itself. Should be fun. It might also be cool to list major Otakupedia updates on theOtaku.com - perhaps we could incorporate elements of theOtaku and myOtaku history in there as well! The potential is huge. I think it would be a good idea to create various mini-sites for OB beyond Otakupedia. This is something you will see reflected in changes to the site's navigation menu shortly. If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them! Other than the developments surrounding Otakupedia, I am very eager to get several other ideas off the ground, including member and thread profiles over at theOtaku.com. This should provide a few fresh elements that will bring the community closer together - it still amazes me that so many theOtaku users are largely unaware of the fascinating history (and plain weirdness) of OtakuBoards. I think it's time to uncover that hidden gem. ^_^ Aaryanna: Thanks much for your kind comments. I hope the members will respond positively to future updates! Kei-chan: Yeah, bingo. OB is such a unique, fun and odd place...it would be nice to share that with the rest of the community. And thanks for your kind message. ^_^ Mimmi-chan: Of course! In exchange for lavishing you with gifts, it would be nice to receive buns on occasion... ~_^ CosmicSailor: No offense taken; the key is just to relax and go with the flow. OB is far from an ultra-serious place, so it's no problem. You only need to post when you are comfortable to do so! Josh: Thanks much. ^_^

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