Well it’s been a long time since I wrote an article here that was well worth reading. So I’ll try not to rant to much here but this is a subject I’ve touch on a few times here and there. And as you could guess its about the state of the anime community. Now some of you may be wondering, who cares anymore? Well your right, no one cares anymore. I could go on all day for pages and pages about how bad the anime community is now and how good it was back then. Well I’m not going to do that here. I’m going to do something a bit different this time. First I’m going to start with the old ways of the Anime Community so you have a feel for what I’m talking about here.

The Golden Years of Anime
Before we had web sites like NarutoFan we had a site called Planet Namek. Now today when you ask someone who is the best anime web site. Many will say Naruto Fan, mostly Naruto Fan is to Naruto. If you search the word Naruto you get NarutoFan as the top search. Any webmaster there goal is to get to the top of the search results for their keyword. Back in the day, if you type in Dragonball, Planet Namek came up first. Now I wont go into lot of detail about this time just mainly the main points.

First the goal was who had the best information. If you where able to host media clips and images you did but this came at a cost to you because hosting space was limited and brand-width could cost you lot and for the most part you got very little. This is all back in the dot com bomb so most host didn’t even know what they where doing, after all it was new to them too. So it sounded good to say Unlimited everything for like $5.00 because anyone would buy into that. Back then at least. But soon many discovered that there was no real such thing as unlimited. Many sites got kicked off their host and moved around lot due to this or they closed. Those who where able to get lock into a good host decided to take the fight to information. With the brand-width of most peoples computers back then (dial-up) it was the smart thing to do on their part.

This was discovered really fast and so we had a host of Dragonball Z sites like Dragonball Vortex, Dragonball Unlimited, The Unrivaled Dragonball Source, DBGT Network, DaBlack Goku and Dranet just to name a few. All of these sites use information to become the best around. But as technology grew and open up to more people many start to use high-speed DSL. This allowed many to watch short amounts of video and download loads of images and other multimedia files.

As time went on many discover that while having multimedia cost make them well known but it came at a cost. To many a large cost which put sites like Planet Namek down, the one Dragonball Z site that many even today say was the best ever. Another story for another day.

The New Age
As we start to go faster online, so did web sites. In order to keep going you had to get more media files up. And by means you had to host them at the lowest cost to you. Then an idea was born and what came out of it was donations. Many sites had their information and had their media to showcase and a funny tag line was added to it. “Please donate or we can’t bring you the media” Now any smart person wouldn’t donate, however if they remember Planet Namek and so they donated. Why do I say that? Well became many know that one of the reason that site tanked was due to the high cost of brand-width it used up. So if they had gotten fans to send them money (donations) maybe they still be around. Now that may not have ever been the case, but for the most part it became that those sites ofter us something for free and they are giving me an option to give back it I want. But I can still use the service with out doing it and it wouldn’t change it. Because no one really shut down because of it, at least not when it first started.

Then Dragonball Z was replace by a new anime called Naruto. For years it was named the next big think, it would rule the anime world and take Dragonball Z place. So all our grand Dragonball Z fan sites got replace with Naruto Sites and like Planet Namek was the best, so Naruto got its in the form of NarutoFan. This is where everything went bad.

The Dark Ages
This mostly is a part of the history of the anime community that took place between 2003 and 2004. The time when Dragonball Z fan sites became Anime web sites by either added to them or closing them and reopening as something else. High-speed DSL was getting replace with faster DSL and even Cable start to come into it. Less and less people had slow Internet. You no longer had to buy a computer to get online or even pay for online. Schools had Internet, you could go to the mall or local book store. In the world of the Internet it was slowing down and things where going good. But many things happen that change it.

Webmasters of those past DBZ site where replace with new age ones who grew up watching the former webmasters. At one point they stop caring about their information and start to do reviews and articles. Some did it great others not so great. Media became the center of the world. Just like back in the day webmasters would rip other peoples information to best them, people would rip media and soon some even became so anger that hacking started.

Now hacking has always been around even back in the golden days. But never has hardcore has it has become. Many web sites where killed off in the time of 2004 to 2005 and mostly because one webmaster was anger that another webmaster’s site was better then theirs. Over look at their mistakes and make a better web site they would either hack or hire someone to hack the other site. This result in many good or future good sites getting canned before the sound of the gun went off.

The Blank Mind
Soon the smoke clear and everything would be save, well not so much. We now have today’s anime community where everyone is a follower. I’m going to give some examples of this. At one point over the years anime sites would do everything and anything to top each other, from info to media to layout. A new kind of layout called grudge was born and if you didn’t have a grudge layout well you had a crappy web site. Soon everyone had it and more some.

For the most part it was the same old same old. We now have super high speed cable so you can download anything at anytime no problem. Thanks to peer-to-peer software and services. Anime web site that we knew died and where replace by Anime Media sites. Nothing more then media. The smart ones just went the media rout and the ones who try have information which they like to call “my fall back” No web site should be like that. A web site is a collection of ever changing data that the control changes to suit his visitors needs. Whatever your goal is you should do what it takes to keep things balance and respect to your fellow webmasters in your field.

The respect is now gone for the most part. We have a number of webmasters who claim to be from the good times coming back trying to take the community back. That’s like saying you want to go back to the 50s. It wont happen, we can only go forward. I use to be the same way. But I learn the more you fight it the more you discover that you where just left behind and will just die out with the rest of the non-believers. There is two sides to everything and yes having full episodes, music and manga can be good for your site, your visitors even the company who owns the rights. Having full episodes of an anime can allow people to watch it to where they maybe can’t pay to buy anyways. But they are able to buy into smaller things. They download music because they can’t pay to buy CDs or they just choose not to. For the most part I don’t blame them. Why would you pay 11.95 for a CD with 12 tracks with one good song on it? People download manga because they want to read the story over watching it. How can that be bad, at least the kids are reading something. Why take that away from them? Are education system is bad as it is, so why not let them download manga. Hell I know many people who later buy the books anyways. If it wasn’t for them reading it, they may not have bought it to bring with. The same thing can be said for any anime series.

Anime 2.0
What do I call this part Anime 2.0? Well because we are in the web 2.0 era. Many will say no we are not. Well maybe not but we are in a new era of the Internet and we have a new age of anime webmaster on our hands. The new one has two sides. They are either the power houses who can open a site and with in weeks have more members then another could get in a life time. The other is so scared of being hacked or not being liked they never reach the level they can and either die out fast or never begin. The new age webmaster is the most lazy of breed. Most webmasters don’t know the difference between a link break and a break for lunch. They don’t do any work for themselves anymore They always have to hire someone to do something for them.

I can’t tell you how many times people have asked me to code them free layouts, make them a member script or make them a board skin. I’ve even had people ask me if I can install them a copy of a forum software and not any one, a paid one illegally. The list goes on and on. I’ve heard a number of reports of the infamous members script used on NarutoFan and countless others to go for anywhere form 3,000 to 5,000 bucks. If I want to I could make one 10 times better with in a few months and just became its better I would charge 20,000 for it. Why don’t I? Because I don’t cheat people and I believe was goes around comes around.

Another trend of the Anime 2.0 site is the use of pro looking layouts. What do I mean? Soft edges, buttons and banners with rounded corners and granite fades of black and white, long to other colors. Even the use of colorful buttons and icons. Sure they look nice. But some times I wonder if I’m looking at a lame ass hosting site or a anime web site. It’s really sad how so many things have changed and been replaced. I myself am an old school guy, not because I think its better but because I was from back in the day.

I’ve had a few new age webmasters blow me off as a noob or a nobody because I don’t follow the whats hot and whats not list of thinking. For example the webmaster of Naruto Central, whats the deal? Who knows. All I know is the owner doesn’t like me for some reason. Maybe it how I run my site, something I said. I’ve seen this lot and not just with me. Many site owners think they are better the the common used because they have a web site and if they have more members then you, then they are better then you. Lot of sites find it that in order to prove they are better they list their status such as how many servers they have, how many members they have, how many post them have, some even go as far to say how many visitors they get. All of which I’m sure has some truth to them and lot of bull shit.

When I go on aim and msn I get into chats with people who always wonder how many members I have or how many visitors I have everyday. Who cares what the number is. If I was running a business selling a product then I worry about it. My only reason for worry about the number of visitors is only so I can at least match what Majin Planet has done before, nothing more. Its more of a personal thing then anything else. It ways it helps me keep going, does that mean I’ll stop once I reach it? Who knows I’m not counting one very reaching the goal. But you know its going to be fun to try.

You wonder what some of these webmasters are thinking. How can you have a web site with a layout that looks like a computer site with all the buttons and soft images and then post like your 10? Now I’m not picking on anyone here. I know I’m not the most perfect of a writer. In fact I take that back, I can spell and I do have good grammar. But on a keyboard its different, point is at least I cap my I’s and end each sentence with a period.

I think for the most part I cover the basic ins and outs of my opinion of the community and the chances its made over the years. Some of them are good and lot are bad. Nothing is perfect but we have to remember that even know you may not like what’s going on or how something is done the best way to change it is to move forward. Who knows maybe your web site will be the next big thing or hell maybe you’ll plant the seeds that lead to the next evolutionary change in the community. Whatever happens know that as long as you do what you believe in nothing can go wrong in the end.