Monday, November 24, 2003

Otaku Awards: Post 1
It looks like everyone else is writing Otaku History posts these days, so I feel like ths novelty is wearing thin. That is why this post is not about the past of OtakuBoards, it is about the future!

Otaku Awards 2004!

In January the awards will begin, but Charles and I are working hard to make sure that these are the best awards yet.

General Awards

- Overall Member of the Year:
- Male Otaku of the Year:
- Female Otaku of the Year:
- Staff Member of the Year:
- Funniest Member:
- Most Opinionated Otaku:
- Member most likely to be here in two years:
- Best Newbie:
- Best Oldie:
- Most likely to become a Staff Member:
- Favorite Banned Member:

- Most improved Member of the Year:
- Thread of the Year:
- Silliest Thread of the Year:

- Avatar of the Year:
- Signature of the Year:
- Best Location:
- Best Otaku Couple:
- Best looking Otaku:
- Otaku clique of the Year:
- Best MyOtaku:

- Poet Laureate:
- Writer of the Year:
- Original Story of the Year:
- Role-Player of the Year:
- Brawler of the Year (sparring):
- Role-Playing Game of the Year

- Otaku Social member of the year:
- Entertainment Otaku of the Year:

- Otaku of the Year: (Best Anime member overall)
- .hack//SIGN Member of the Year:
- DragonBall Guru:
- Digipeep of the Year:
- Gundam Member of the Year:
- Yu-Gi-Oh Member of the Year:
- Least Disappointing Yu Yu Hakusho Member:

- Gamer of the Year:
- Nintendo "Mario" Award:
- The Sony Award:
- Xbox Gamer of the Year:
- PC Gamer of the Year:

- Best Graphic Designer (Banners, wallpapers, etc.):
- Best "Traditional" Artist (Drawings, paintings, etc.):
- Best Spriter:

- Series Otaku Member of the Year:
- Square/Enix Member of the Year:
- PokéPlaque (Pokemon):
- The Triforce Award (Zelda):

This is just a proposed list of awards, but it gives you a basic idea of what you will be voting on. If you have any ideas of your own, feel free to include them in the comments box, or just PM myself or Charles whenever you get around to it. There are going to be a lot of fun surprises this year, and I want the awards to represent our incredibly cool and diverse membership.
Comments (10) | Permalink

Tuesday, November 18, 2003

Question
Would you rather I post a steady stream of smaller posts (such as the Otaku Triads one) or some larger posts that are few and fairly far between?

Also, what kinds of things from OB would you like me to rant about here?

Comments, please.
Comments (11) | Permalink

Otaku Triads
Good times, good times...

The link above pretty much explains it all. However, some people are too lazy to go through old threads (without them, this wouldn't be a very popular MyOtaku) so here's a basic description:

Sara, Nerdsy and myself joined OtakuBoards on three consecutive days (March 29 - March 31, 2001) and throughout the years we have become great friends. The name of our group was thought up by Nerdsy, who has never failed to make me laugh in all of my time knowing him. Most newer members might not even know who he is, but in Versions 1 and 2 he was probably the most popular member around. At the time he competed with Sephiroth (If you don't know who Sephiroth is then I pity you) for post counts, and to this day he is regarded as "King of the Nerds" on OB.

Hopefully you know who Sara is, and if not, I have no idea what compelled you to visit this site. So yeah, Otaku Triads forever!
Comments (2) | Permalink

Monday, November 17, 2003

My Funny Valentine...
So I met Jenna on Friday night, and it was awesome.

She has been living in California for well over a year and even before she moved here we decided that we would meet some day. But it was difficult for me to get around in my senior year of high school, and she was always too busy to make a trip down to my corner of SoCal. Once I started working at Disneyland the idea of us meeting became much more plausible, but it wasn't until this weekend, the fourth or fifth attempt that things finally came together.

We met on a bridge overlooking the famous Pirates of the Caribbean ride, but it was actually Erik who spotted me before she did. He is an incredibly nice guy, and I'm glad that talking to him wasn't awkward like I thought it would be, heh. Our conversation was really nice, and I'm just sorry that I couldn't hang out with them for very long (I had work right after my scheduled meeting with her.) Oh well, I'll have to hang out with her again some day, probably the next time she comes down to Disneyland. Heh.

So yeah. she is just as beautiful and friendly in real life as she is on the boards, if not moreso. This had to be one of my better experiences in dealing with online people in real life, so it gives me hope to meet even more OB-ers in the future. If I don't get to see at least one of the Otaku Triads before I die, I'll be quite unhappy..
Comments (4) | Permalink

Monday, November 10, 2003

Fun Threads 11/10
OtakuBoards: Enter the Net - Poetry, Fan-Fiction and Literature This is a fun story about what would happen if OB-ers were trapped inside of a virtual world (ala Tron or .hack//SIGN.) Solo does an excellent job on the dialogue, and I'm very excited about the next chapter.

The Year of Otaku - Adventure Arena The RPG is slowly coming to a close, but not without a few people being murdered first. Justin and Tori have gone absolutely mad, but it makes for good reading. My favorite quote of the week is from Tori in the RPG: "No one likes sitting around for three days waiting for someone to tell her if they want a damn poptart or not."

The Quest for Zubeida's Gold - Recruitment Forum Even though I haven't had a chance to speak with her yet, terra is one of my favorite members on OB. Her decision to create an RPG based around cowboys and pirates just shows what a unique and totally cool person she is. This RPG hasn't gotten the quality of sign-ups that I think it deserves *plug* so hopefully including it here will draw some more attention to it. *plug* I'd join myself, if I weren't already being a cowboy character in Kill Adam! So yeah, go sign-up for what promises to be an interesting read.

Mary Magdelene - Otaku Lounge I'm not really sure why I am including this thread here, since it will probably be closed within the next day or so. Religious debates can get a little heated, and all of the interesting ones get closed by a moderator before things get too serious. That's probably a good thing, though, since I wouldn't want to see any of our Otaku Christians start randomly flaming other members.
Comments (2) | Permalink

Tuesday, November 4, 2003

Staff Disputes
With the recent de-modding of a staff member on OtakuBoards, I'm reminded of how the term "moderator" carries a lot of weight with it on a message board. When I first became staff the term almost had divine implications, since we referred to Category Moderators as "Gods." They always seemed like they were on top of things, and most importantly, they gave the impression that they could do no wrong.

Moderators are just members like everyone else. They like to read threads, make fun rpgs, and heaven forbid, actually post when they get enough time to. However, they have added responsibilities and expectations thrust upon them that can make the boards seem very unenjoyable at times. Some become jaded at times and as a result lash out against their fellow members, and their bosses.

These naughty moderators have been directly responsible for some of the most memorable moments in OB history. Anyone who has been here long enough to remember Version 3 knows that it was only created after spammers and disgruntled staff members made our previous forums completely unpostable. Without that little event we would have had a much different version of the boards today, and it seems possible that we'd all be posting on UBB software, ugh.

In many ways infighting among staff can bring out both the good (Version 3) and the bad (battle lines drawn out among members and moderators.) We are nowhere near the large civil wars of OB's early days, but whenever someone is forcibly removed from staff tensions might arise. Even bad members care about OtakuBoards, so it is difficult for people to do what they feel is best for the boards, even if it means letting a good friend have their moderator status revoked. Most moderators choose to resign for themselves, but even those who have been "fired" continue to stick around as active and productive members.

It's really best for everyone on the boards to keep their infighting off of the forums (and related sites) since it tends to hurt morale so much. Nobody wants this place to revert into one of those stupid "Clan Boards" that are so common elsewhere online. The boards have a unique community, with a friendly atmosphere promoted by and between staff members. I hate to see smaller arguments explode into public battles because of something as meaningless as "member status."
Comments (4) | Permalink

Tuesday, October 28, 2003

Remembering AE Boards
This may be surprising to some members, but AE (Anime Explosion) was once on friendly terms with theOtaku and it's staff members. In fact, there was once a time when both sites shared the same basic moderating staff.

There once was a staff member for theOtaku.com named Rick Hunter. He was a talented webmaster, and years before working with Adam he had his own successful anime website, Anime Explosion. Using his wide knowledge of anime and some old fashioned hard work he was able to write detailed summaries on nearly every anime movie you could think of. The problem was that poor Kevin couldn't attract a wide enough audience to financially support his site, so he needed to find a way to drive traffic into AE. Kevin, and Adam (the beloved headmistress of theOtaku) worked out an agreement where Kevin would let Adam use some of his content to create a new Movies section. The theory was that people would be so impressed by Kevin's content that they would demand more, and as a result run over to Anime Explosion.

But this just didn't happen. As much as people were impressed by the content of AE, they just didn't find it to be as user-friendly and fun as other sites (like theOtaku.) The thing is that AE had nearly everything that theOtaku did. That is, it had everything except for a message board. So Mr. Hunter created his own message board with an all-star staff of OB members to run it. Two of our wonderful Gods (Category Mods) helped to launch it, and their popularity drew a LOT of OB-ers.

Staff members had a bad habit of leaving the site for a variety of reasons, and as a result of this constant rotation there were literally dozens of moderators throughout a period a year-long period. Nearly every notable “oldie” was a moderator of AE Boards, and many more ran over there during OB’s massive downtime last year (That deserves it’s own story.) I got my first job as a Category Anime Mod on AE Boards, and it ended up giving me some much-needed experience. The same could be said for members like Queen Asuka, Syk3 and Crazy White Boy; they received their first chances to be mods and admins from Anime Explosion.

Being active in several different web forums can be difficult, though. When James gave members their chance to be a staff member at OB they dropped their positions at AE. This (along with other things that I will NEVER discuss again) really upset AE’s founder and some bitterness ensued for the months and years to come. He threw out nearly every OB-er out of his site, and attempted to create a new community, rather than trying to build off of an already successful group.

So yeah, that’s a little tibit for newer members who know nothing about the long history of AE Boards. The two sites were very helpful for each other at one point, but over time they drifted apart. Where are AE Boards now? They were shut down forever last week.
Comments (8) | Permalink

Tuesday, October 14, 2003

The Year of the Otaku
Jenna's new rpg is great, and it's amazing to think of how most of the participants have been around since OB version 1 and 2. As I've mentioned before, the place was so different back then, and I miss how small and friendly things used to be (aside from the occasional war.) The mods knew almost every member personally, and it was as if OB had become a surrogate family.

Some of that still carries over into today, but like in real life our large number of members have found it convenient to isolate themselves into small cliques. I guess we (oldies) made the first cliques because of how large the place had become, and now that our clique is shrinking I feel like I'm in the minority again. Argh, I want to be a mainstream member... I miss making new friends and such.

Anyway, 2002 was actually supposed to be the Year of the Otaku, not 2005 like in this rpg. James and Adam had decided to make some drastic improvements to the sites, and in effect changes things to how they are today. OB finally converted to version 4 (and later versions 5 and 6) in that year, while theOtaku got some awesome new anime sections. That sort of radical change was a big step for these sites. I think that members who joined prior to the Year of the Otaku can only really appreciate how much work Adam and James have put into these amazing websites.

2003 is not exactly lacking in major changes to theOtaku's landscape, and big additions like MyOtaku will continue to improve the overall experience for visitors. The year isn't even over yet, and we still have major prospects like OB7 (and other special things) on the horizon. ANd to think it all started with a small message board and anime site.
Comments (9) | Permalink

Saturday, October 4, 2003

Post Counts
Did anyone else notice that the "Top 10 posters" listing got changed to a "Top 20 posters" listing?

This isn't significant in any way, other than the fact that I'm #21. Curse you Laliath Rai! *shakes fist*

But as everyone knows, post counts don't matter. The latest and greatest example of this is Arcadia, who became a moderator of the Adventure Arena with less than 30 posts. Ironically, the day before I was a unhappy that Drix had become a mod with less than 500 posts. It's not that I had any reason to doubt him, but I definitely feel that post counts represent the time and commitment you have put into these boards. The more you post the better members get to know you, and as a result they respect you more in the communinty. Of course, this isn't always the case. Even within the Top 50 posters I can find plenty of examples of members who I have no respect for whatsoever.

The idea has been suggested that we get rid of post counts entirely, and I'm against it. I wouldn't mind having it removed from threads, but not having access to it would be kind of frustrating. It's not like I post with the sole purpose of raising my post count, but it's fun to see where I stand againt other members.

*shrugs* Kind of a slow week, I guess. My fan club was updated, for those of you who are interested.

http://www.slownerveaction.org/shy

Note: I don't run my own fan club; in fact, I'm not even a member. Semjaza needs to be contacted about new memberships and such.
Comments (12) | Permalink

Sunday, September 28, 2003

OtakuBoardsLand!
Drix and I were talking about this a few days ago, and thought that it was a lot of fun.

When Drix becomes president he is going to take over Disneyland, and give it to me. After that happens the place will be converted to the most Otaku-filled place on Earth, OtakuBoardsLand!

What kinds of rides would you want to be based around you? What kinds of rides do you think would be based off of other members? Here are some of our (Drix, Chaos and Myself) ideas...

Raiha's "virtual bordello".. the only X-rated rides in all of otakuland

Queen Asuka's ride would be the World of Plushies, and Plushie versions of OB members would sing some sort of song.

drix d'zanth's would be "an epileptic's nightmare," whatever that means.

Chaos' ride would be "A nuke dropped on your forehead."

And finally, my ride would be a log ride where it goes through all of the anime forums, and then after the drop you are in the Yu Yu Hakusho wasteland. There would be lots of robotic zombies, and real flames (to simulate flaming.)
Comments (11) | Permalink