Alright guys, I understand a bunch of you are seeing the newest member and wondering if hell has frozen over.

It has.

But this wouldn't be the first time that's happened to us. This time however we're not getting screwed over. Recently I began speaking with the owner of AO, Dragon Ball, concerning a number of issues.

Again, this is not a hostile takeover/invasion/War declaration. Though we would totally win the war, 12/17: nevar forget.

Basically DB's got a genuine interest in turning AO around, he's been acknowledging a lot of the problems that the forums been having lately, many of which you guys have been bashing here to everyone's great amusement. Now it's time to bring all of these issues up with DB himself. And at AO-X, there is no interference from inept shut-in's like Scatsu. There are changes that he wants to make but needs to be sure that they're gonna impact AO in a positive way.

Just remember the one rule of AO-X: You don't talk about AO-X. Be as candid and truthful with DB here as you need to be. Bring up issues with the forum and staff. And for the love of God people don't leak this out on to the AO forums. Because I swear if we get newbies in here I'm just gonna watch Spike have his way with them and the casualty rate will be damn high, no this isn't an incentive to tell people now so you can watch the show.

And to reassure everyone, just because we're giving DB a bit of the old schoolers wisdom doesn't mean that AO-X is going anywhere at anytime. Think of it as passing on a few tips to a younger brother about how things worked right when we were around. Most of you bastards still post there anyway so it only benefit you in the end.

I'm sure narrator's going to have alot to say about AO. lol

But yea, this is a good idea. In the end, AO was our home and the place we derived from. The least we can do is give out our wisdom on improving AO. Now, if we can all just put down the Xbox360 and the loli websites to post. lol

Yep, I couldn't agree with you more Raven. A round of applause must be given to Raven as well for entrusting me with access to this site. You can clap for him now or maybe save ur claps til later... hahaha :wacko:

What AO is not about

AO is not about a 1 man team trying to boost his ego. It's also not about spam, junk posts and nonsense by members. It's about a community of cool members wanting to chat and build friendship. I don't enjoy having to supervise children all the time and listen to their squabbles.

AO is not for me and not for LK to boost our egos. It is for the whole community to enjoy.

So where to from here?

I did mention in the staff forum at AO that there will be a staff shakeup in March. That is now inevitable.

Personally I only see the need for 2 admins. Myself and 1 other person. Reason for a 2nd admin is in case something would happen to me or I go on holidays.

I also need at least 1 graphics artist on staff. LK is pretty good with this type of thing, so the graphics artist must know a bit about skins, optimized images and ideally implementing skins in vBulletin. Heaps of threads about this. But I do like the current skin and would only need new banners shown at the top. So really not a big job.

As for staff members

The current number is 14. Don't think more is needed. The current staff are:

• Dragon Ball (Site Owner and Operator)
• Sinistra
• Trunks
• frr_Vegeta
• LenMiyata
• Hassun
• Miroku4444
• kedar
• Soldat of life
• Dancy_SaZ
• Pyoro-Pyoro
• silverskater145
• Kasai
• SasuraiHell

Who should go, come and stay? Just remember I'm not the type that wants hardline staff to members. I prefer staff like Silver.

Other Issues

• Clans are now closed due to popular demand by staff. Am thinking of a new idea with this and will announce my ideas when more concrete.
• A tutorial / article system with professionally written articles for members to then comment and help others out with.
• that's about it for now... (that was too easy)

Thanks for listening and see u around. Hope this post is not too long winded.

Cheers.

That was my only gripe, the clan area. It diminished the amount of posts in the other (main)sections of the forum, and it was a wise decision to take it away.

As for suggestions, well, I'll have to see some other comments first before I make quick judgments.

Members: 56,368

Well, there's your problem right there.
Seriously, it's going to be one hell of a task to try and conform 56,000+ members and keep them in line. Even when I left before the 12/17 takedown, there were maybe what, 10,000 members? I don't even know if it was that many. Granted, many of those members probably aren't active. But that's part of the reason all of us left. It went from being an exclusive club to something just any idiot with a computer could join. I think that in order for you to get any sort of hold on your commuinty, you'll need some strict rules and a lot of bans to weed out the crap. And possibly more staff. I don't see how 14 staff members can possibly keep track of it all. A ggod thing to start with would be to to what Raven did here...kick out all non-active members. Post a warning that they have so many days to make their presence known, then ban them, or whatever Raven did. That wil give you a better idea with the knid of numbers you're dealing with.

A problem I've seen with the staff is that you're all not on the same page, you've got half of the staff arguing over the drama there and the other half trying to moderate the forums. Any kind of dissent is going to screw things up.

In the older days of AO the staff was all on the same page, we could tell right away who were going to make productive members and who was going to cause problems and promptly squash them before it became an issue. Running a good forum means that not everyone will be happy. That even applies here. When AO-X opened up we had a staff with me, narrator, hassun, and KenX, Gig and ewdi were admins as well. There came a point when narrator started to abuse things and have a bit too much fun with his ability to edit anyone's posts. Before this became a big problem I just de-admined him. And I took everyone else off staff while I was at it. Problem was solved, and narrator came to his senses after he realized how many people he had been pissing off.

if everyone's not on the same page, everything crumbles, people complain and even in the best forum you can make you'll have problems. You need to state the goals and methods, and tell anyone who's not gonna follow them 100% to leave right there. It's good to have different opinions but without a solid foundation nothing will work.

Most of them were one-time lurkers who registered so they could look at/leech the gallery without having to deal with spdude's ads.



As far as a staff shake-up goes, I suggest you pick your 2nd admin and then work out some rough details of what you're going to do with AO. From there you can pick who stays and who goes as moderators. I just wish I could get the honor of pulling the plug on LK.

Beyond that, I'm happy to see that you want to return AO to it's rightful place as one of the coolest spots for anime fans and regular folk to hang out.

We already know about Raven and his battles with the clap.

Ippon for Zui Quan.

Isn't Trunks somewhat good with graphics? Or Eriadd?

As someone has already stated, those 56,000 are all one-time registers. The 14 staff that we have now do a pretty good job and can cover the forums on any given day. In fact, I'd say that AO activity has dropped.

The problem is that most of the staff conflict is simply Sinistra vs the rest. If you take out Sinistra, I don't know that the staff would fight much.

Sinistra usually has a few bitchy loyalists though. They would have to been uprooted and dealt with if they start shit.

if Kasai wasn't such a liar I wouldn't have to deal with that. :cm:

It has to be dealt with in one swipe.

Im glad that AO has an owner that feels the way you do.

Im usually one to lurk and just watch how things pan out, but I have one comment. You said you didn't like hard staff, but one of the things that made AO a great place for all of us was the hard yet diverse staff. All the staff were firm in the same way, but each had their own personality to bring to the table. I guess what Im saying is that it was the people that made AO what it was. And its going to be the people that are invovled that make the new AO what its going to be. So while you may not like a hard staff, I don't think its such a bad idea to have a few people like Spike or Veg to make people think twice about posting something stupid.

Well, out of the 14 staff, the ones that could be seen as loyalists are:

Miroku and Dancy Saz

The ones that I am not sure where they stand at this point in time are:

kedar and soldat

The ones that are rogues and are indifferent to either loyalty are:

LenMiyata and SasuraiHell (although I don't think Sasurai likes Sinistra right now because of some certain blame put on him and Kasai regarding the Gallery which I won't get into right now)

And then you have the rest of the staff:

Myself, Hassun, Kasai, Trunks, Vegeta, and pyoro


Either way, most of the friction occurs between the last group and Sinistra. Everyone else to my knowledge gets along with each other.

Edit:

We already have a hard-ass mod and that is Hassun. But, in all seriousness... We don't need to try and replicate what the old AO had. If we try and pretend as if we're the same mod team as before we will fail hard and look stupid. Everyone has their own modding personality and changing it to copy the style of another will only lead to damnation.

Either way, I think the point DB is trying to make is that you don't need jerks for mods, or mods that will humiliate members for members to "get it." A guy like LenMiyata can show everyone the right way through explaining and the fact that he closely follows the rules; he doesn't need to flame anyone. It worked for old AO, and it partially made it what it was. And yes, it was great. But times change, and so does a community, and it doesn't mean that it couldn't improve or end up being as good as community without the Iron Fist mods. And you can still be a hard-ass, stubborn bloke like Hassun, without overdoing it.

Ok, enough small talk from me.
First of all, welcome Dragon Ball. I'm sure you remember me as one of the AO moderators. Especially the one who has some serious issues with Sinistra and some of the new policies.

Let's cut to the chase, first issue: The new AO staff.

I know you want staff members like Silverskater (don't we all? :rolleyes: ) and I'm sure you know that I'm not a staff member like Silverskater. However, I believe that a little strictness has never harmed anyone.

Let's check the current positions shall we?

Administrators:
Dragon Ball
Sinistra
Trunks
frr_Vegeta

Super Moderators
LenMiyata (Head moderator)
Miroku4444
kedar
Soldat of life
Hassun

Moderators
Dancy_SaZ
Pyoro-Pyoro
silverskater145

Gallery Moderators
Kasai
SasuraiHell



After the change (taking your admin wish into consideration):

Administrators:
Dragon Ball
?

Super Moderators
?

Moderators
?

Gallery Moderators
?


My comments on who we have now and where they are:

Administrators:
Dragon Ball -> Owner, logical position Stay.
Sinistra -> Coder, fails horribly at everything else. Remove.
Trunks -> Veteran member but not active. Move.
frr_Vegeta -> more active than Trunks but that isn't saying much. Move.

Super Moderators
LenMiyata (Head moderator) -> You could put him on the moon and he'd still be there "moderatin' ur threads". Stay.
Miroku4444 -> Displeased me when resorting to sucking up to retain his post. Close to Sinistra? Probably Remove.
kedar -> Said to be VERY close to Sinistra. Remove.
Soldat of life -> Veteran member. Has shown interest in the RPG section. Move.
Hassun -> Said to be a bit strict/harsh sometimes but functions well. Owner of a Zui Qlaus blow-up doll. :domo: Stay.

Moderators
Dancy_SaZ -> Seems to be the same as kedar. Not sure though. Remove?
Pyoro-Pyoro -> Forever at war with Hassun but honest and good at moderating. Stay.
silverskater145 -> Shown great promise in the moderator business, punchbag of AO-X. Promote?

Gallery Moderators
Kasai -> One of the very few who actually cares. A lot. Stay.
SasuraiHell -> Seems to be doing alright, don't know much about this member. Stay.

About the second administrator: That's a though one, Trunks would be good if he was active on AO but he's not. Eriadd is gone too.
I don't know. Is there anyone with admin experience who is willing to do the job?

Graphics artist: Don't know that one either. I only know that Trunks has some experience in this field.

The tutorial/article thing: Can you elaborate on this a bit more?

post needed a minor edit. :P

When you're right, you're right.

The big problem I see with the whole place is it's turning into more of a Anime Pit instead of a professional Anime Forum like it was a couple years ago. Must of that In my opinion is derived from the places where the site trys a bit too hard to have so much crazy and whacky stuff (Shout box, the radio, clans, spam forum, spam forum, spam forum, spam aushduef)

These things I think have taken away from what AnimeOnline really was. It's a big pit of otaku excrement. Not to put that in a completely bad way of course.


Your Staff Line up has a little cluster-f*ck. Not a huge thing, I see 4 maybe 5 problems with it at the start. It'll thin out when you know who your real moderators are and when you get rid of some useless forums.


The neatness, simple and stylish nature of what the site LOOKED like....has gone completly to shit now. This I do not joke about. Who ever has done the graphics for that site (hope it wasn't you DB, if it is then keep reading) has turned it into sort of a Geocities anime fan site sort of. Don't like it at all. It's a Puke of neon colors and anime posters.

Ok, I'll add a few suggestions.

1. RPG section. Needs to be watched for activity, because I'm seeing very low or no activity there. Either scrap it, pump it up, or otherwise.

2. Spellchecker. One of the previous versions of AO(or AO-X) did have a spellchecker, and it was great. It kept people from not looking like they can't read or type and it kept people who actually type good not have headaches when trying to understand what the hell was said by a poster.

3.Strictness. Only Hassun. Why?

4.Inactivity deletion. Find an admin to delete accounts that haven't been active for 6 months or up to a year, and just have him delete them all. It doesn't matter if they lose w/e, they can just re register.
Also, I'm not sure if this was removed or not, but make sure they have a certain post cuont to view the gallery. This helped forum activity a bit.

More things to watch for inactivity...

Japanese culture forum.
Fanfics(might need to be merged with poems)
Trading Post(Not so sure about this one)
Anime Series(Could be merged with Anime)
Avatar Showcase section in gallery(Merge with sig showcase)
Gaming and General Wallpapers(merge)
Member and convention pics(Merge)

Basically Less=More

And the journal system, well, I don't know. It's been debated back and forth for leaving it in the users profile or having an actual journal page.

I only have one suggestion. If things can be back the way things were without the elitistism, then I will not be moderator anymore. I just did it to "cockblock" (term used by Trunks) other loser from getting a spot.

What to say? First off, yes I'm not the most active person on AO. Secondly, I have been a lurker at the start, but am kicking slowly my pace a nod from time to time. Third, I might have been promoted by Katsu, but I am by far not a loyalist towards him for many reasons that DB recieved a few times in his PM box since I felt that posting it in the Black Mesa would get me a LOT of trouble with Katsu.

I am pretty new to moderating in any aspect so about what Hassun wrote as to me needing to be moved, maybe it might be best considering that I am not active enough to generally check the site and fix every problem the moment they appear, though I do try to fix them when I notice something or recieve an e-mail that something has been reported. I am not someone that will quickly jump to conclusions and when I see something downright wrong, I'll usually imitate Len's doing about posting the rule and applying what is needed. Though I have tried to be understanding in the RPG section to warning people of the quality needed to uphold there. If they don't understand soon, I'll probably get a small boost of "Hassun" strictness to get it back together.

I would like to have a clear definition though of moderators and super moderators though, as I know being in these roles is helping out as much as you can when you can, but maybe giving out our hours that we can help out more before hand could be maybe helpfull to organise things out. I read above that AO should be a bit more professional while being a great community, I don't mind helping out as much as I can, but having a clear organisation of everything would probably help me and maybe help everyone out...even if no one seems to be having trouble too much on many occasions, just a suggestion or a start of an idea I have.

My strong points in short are giving out my personal opinions, writing poetry, RPing in quite a few ways and writing posts that can reach 1500 words if need be. I sometimes have small moments when I go and welcome newcomers (I really don't like the Noobie term...but that can't be changed I guess) and other than that...I haven't dwelled enough in GFX to be of use right now...anyone up to teaching me, though you'd better be a good motivator to get me started! I send out a great amount of PM's to stay in touch with people and when I have a problem, I don't let it sit idly by. Though when someone with power like LK, I try not to get under his skin because of his apparent power hunger over people, but I do get in touch with people who can make a difference like DB and other members of staff to see how to get things through. I may not stay up to date with every member of staff, but I'm certain I PMed everyone at least 3 times to get to know them a bit.

One thing I agree that is lacking is the Japanese Culture forum, that place should be more active due to all the anime lovers present, but I guess people are too occupied elsewhere to have time to discuss things that I consider interesting, but myself don't have much time to think about because of poetry/RPG's/Work/Studies/etc... I should maybe go there more often to take a look, probably the section I have forgotten of late. I agree that fanfics may not be the most active, but they should remain seperated as they are still two different things. Fanfics should get more recognition as they demand A LOT more work from the author than a poem in many occasions.

About the tutorials DB wrote about, he wants to make certain that people understand every section perfectly and clearly, but mostly I think tutorials will be necessary in the RPG section as it is much more demanding to write a story with many people and posting posts that are much higher in standard than anywhere else on the forum...at least that's what I would like it to be so. It may not be this yet, but with some tweaking and some hammer popping as Hassun puts it, I think it could come out okay or even very well. Many newcomers are coming along interested, there are bound to be good RPers to pop up and show a thing or two in helping out those who haven't an idea in RPing yet. I get from time to time PM's from the newcomers and I take the time to clearly anser their questions so I don't get problems later on...though it takes a while to post a clear answer...Things aren't perfect the first day or first month or at any moment, it's by trying hard and having good applications of an organised and well thought out plan that things get where you want them. I'm certain everyone here knows that.

About the concern of LK/Sinistra and possibly lacking personel to keep a nice skin and graphic wise of AO, the question should be:

Is it worth to have problems and keep LK in any given position or get him out of the picture and try to find someone capable of making AO a neat place to look at starting now? DB, you seem to be very potent in administrating the site so far, though you may not seem to want to take GFX responsibilities since you might not be best suited for it, the site won't stop running if LK isn't there, though I agree that there might have some problems if he leaves, as in any other situation would, major or minor. As long as we all stick together, I think things could ge pretty well, and I'm certain someone on AO is good at GFX enough to get things started again, we just need to look or even maybe ask ;)

I'll stop here, but I'll have more to say in 11 hours...or else I'll have just been on AO from my wake to the moment I go to work...EVIL NIGHTSIFTS!!!! lol.



And Silver, why do you still feel hesitant of my standings?!?!? We chated together and I don't remember saying anything that made me seem a LK lover!!!!!

P.S.: And if someone sees a mistake in my post...I guess my re-read wasn't good enough...*snif*.

P.P.S.: Gawd I don't like pages to expire...lucklily I copied this message or else I would have had to re-write it all....

Christ on a snowplow! Would you stop writing novels for posts! :lol:

Huge post is HUGE!

Well, Soldat. You bring up valid points. I'm sure with your poetry and RPG interests you could do much on AO I and others can't.

About the moving thing, I just thought that supermod isn't really a job you like to do.
You seem to me like someone who wants to put his full interest into a subject, not glance it all on the surface.

I wonder if I'll get an award from Zui again :P

And maybe I do like to concetrate on things, but I'm certain that eventually I might like the thought of helping out around everywhere, just give me the time to get used to everything and all..I'm a slow learner, but when I learn, I do my best.

And about big posts, I just like to write...A LOT :P

Cya all later...I should get out of bed (yes I can be in bed and still do all this) and ready for work.


EDIT: Zui, I still don't know what your character name is on GW!!!!

A lot of comments. Will take me a while to digest it all. Will try and reply soon.

Going to add some of my views.

Ok, so anyone can run a forum, the only hard part is getting members to join, a certain aspect that draws people to the site. AO does not have that right now.

Japanese culture would be better if we actually had people who knew a lot about Japan and have maybe been there. Right now, there's only one person(maybe two) who've actually done that and know things, but they're too busy to post.

Poems and Fanfics(merged) was fine before. It's not that users fanfics aren't getting enough recognition, it's that people on AO(since most are young) have this tl;dr policy with anything over a paragraph long. I don't know what it is, but they can't take the time to sit down and actually read what people have posted. If anything, we should name a section called "User literature" or something, and make poems and fanfics sub sections of it.

RPG section. Not a big fan of it. It's almost up there with the clan section for deteriorating posts in the main sections. I'm not saying scrap it, I'm just suggesting to keep it on watch and see how/where it goes.

Maybe. I just wish we can convince the guy to stop acting so immature. But we've tried that already, and he hasn't changed. I don't think he ever will. We could just strip the guy of his power, and give him only the power to code, nothing else. We could also get another person to replace LK, but we would have to tell him about the various problems that arise and of course, Lord...whatever his name is, who likes to hack the site from time to time, because that's what his thrill is in life.

To be honest, almost anyone can code a site by learning the basics, but the advanced stuff might be a bit harder for your average joe.

Honestly, remember the big-bang of '04?

This might sound crude and a bit drastic but another one of those could REALLY help AO out this time around instead of hurt it. Think of it like bombing your house for insects.

This Big Bang will only work if you and the rest of the AO-X citizens here go back to AO. Otherwise, it will just be a big bowl of deja vu.

Yeah, I dont agree. The bomb will only create a panic among the kids, and they'll start posting even worse posts just to get back to what they had before.

Good.

Won't bother me....since I'm not there :cm:

One thing that I have noticed is the fact that at ANY given point during the day/night, there will be 400 people on AO. 11-30 members, and 350 something guests. There has to be some way to get more people to register, and stay active in the website.

I think the Gallery should be shut out from people who are not Community Members (50 posts+).

No matter, you can never stop people from being lazy. All they will do is do the minimum, and then go inactive again.

Can we just flush LK now and get on with the healing of AO? March is too far away. The overflow of raw sewage had to be stopped now.

All I give a fuck about anymore is Pyoro deciding to use Dawn for his avatar.

Pyoro finally + 1

:D Can you point me to a place where I can find hi-res walls of her?? Been searching for a while, and please dont point me to google.

postin in an thread with absolutely nothing to do with me.
but i was in AO before everyone of you.
lol i'm old school

I maed.

Back when I was actually a waller. Scanned it straight from one of my issues.

Saved. However I NEED MOAR!!!

That's all for tonight, padawn. narrator is tired.

If we want to attract people, we need to be diverse and offer things that interest the people. So far, as I wrote, there are about 5-6 people per week that are curious of the RPG section, it may not be that big, but if it keeps up and at least 1 person out of 5 are good RPers and stay, I guaranty that the section will be worth while. Also, as I wrote above, I'll be helping ou to make the place more clear and understandable...just need to find the time...

And Narrator, I miss the duality I saw of Narrator/Hassun...If Katsu dissapears, think of going back to AO from time to time? Though I wonder if he'll be leaving or not...that will be up to the whole staff and DB's final decision.

Bed time already....E.V.I.L. nightshift, syonara sun.....oyasumi-nasai all ;)


EDIT:


Here's a little something before sleep take me away....

Friends

Caring and where we always find ourselves,
Looking out for each other no matter what.
Gazing towards the endless sky that opens up,
Granting eternal pardon in dire times.
Regrets and fights may occur,
But pardon and acceptation is always around the corner.
Life acts out unknowingly mong those who live,
Discering its subteleties is what makes things interesting.
Once and a while we need to distance ourselves to see beyond who we are,
Letting everything out wihtout holding back.
Ending a relationship definitively without looking back,
A tear pours out and keeps the dream a reality.

Note: wrote while listening to the music found on LK's profile page....I fell on it while looking at the profile contest thingy. This doesn't mean I consider LK as a friend, I barely even chated with him and he's always half absent each time I tried to get to know him. He's more of a fellow AO member and long term "connaissance" that I can discuss with on rare occasions. He can seem nice at times, but his faults really get to me. Those I consider friends I guess is the spirit that combines those that frequent AO and offers moments that make it worth while for me to stay on AO ;)

Now I'm really really tired so that's that.