TheShinje

Damn, I keep missing these mini revivals like ships in the night. Anyway, I often get nostalgic and look back at my time on OB very fondly, so every now and again I have to come back and at least browse the forum and dig up some old posts I had a blast with, to read how I wrote back then and remind myself of the colourful cast of characters that were once part of my daily life. OB was what Facebook is to me now, only with the added bonus of not being tied to my real identity and a persona, based on my passions in anime and video gaming. It's hard to believe that from my signup date to today is just over half my life knowing OtakuBoards is/was a thing. Not bad for signing up on a whim because I searched for Dragonball Z pictures. I found this in an archive about a year ago and I can't believe I burned through 4 names in one year. O_O;

I couldn't believe it, after so many iterations of OtakuBoards, I thought for sure the attachment in the original thread was gone, and the original files, because I was so bad at backing things up then, were long gone. Then I saw it, in my attached files, still there. A movie I made about OtakuBoards life set to a parody of Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you, the daftly titled Moderator and Otaku: The Short Side of TheOtaku. Back in the day It had little fanfare and was watched by about 5 people. I think this was due to the need to zip the file in an attachment as there was no YouTube or anything like it back in the day and image hosting websites had their limits. You did have to jump through a couple of hoops and then have a flash player installed on your pc to watch it, after all. Besides being a parody of Master and Commander, the film references several notable events and the crazy characters of OtakuBoards at the time and was heavily influenced by Dragon Warrior's Daily Comic series. The cop-out ending was hastily thrown together simply because I got bored with the project as the frames piled up and Flash became less stable on me, computers of the time, eh. I thought this might be interesting to some as a throwback very much of it's time and it certainly did bring back a few good memories. ?

I don't keep up with OB very often, I check back from time to time and to hear of Desbreko's passing is heartbreaking. I knew he was going through treatment, I thought that he'd make it. Like everyone here I have very fond memories of his presence here. Cancer sucks. RIP Des.

I really enjoyed FQFG2, once I knew what it was, what was going on and why half the board members were running around like terrorists! I'll never forget my one and only excuse to go running around the board dressed as Kuja and splashing size 3 crimson Century Gothic font everywhere. ;) I hope Flash still has the awesome CTU crest he made for the other side. PLAYER NAME: Quentin Szyslack FAVORITE OB RPG CHARACTER NAME: The one played by Dragon Warrior... The cool one.CHARACTER'S AGE: 19 and three quartersCHARACTER'S ELEMENT OF POWER: NeonPLAYER'S OB FORUM OF POWER: NoooooooooooooospherePLAYER MONTH AND DAY OF BIRTH: 03/11CHARACTER'S IDOL:Billy IdolWHAT IS THE WORST DECISION YOUR CHARACTER EVER MADE?Signing up for Final Quest for Glory 3

Gee, I almost forgot about my Jeremiah phase, and there it is immortalized as my entry. Actually, I can't even remember half the names I have allegedly gone by here, haha! Still, I got an entry when the likes of ZF Foredaddy, Juuthena and Mnemolth didn't... It makes me feel somewhat more important that I actually am. ^^

It may have been a weird cognitive connection to our upcoming reunion day, but when I heard of Bowie's passing, one of my first thoughts was with Tony, who gave me my appreciation for all things Bowie. It struck me that the last single released while he was alive was titled Lazarus. Tony's gaming website was called Orange Lazarus, I believe. It's somehow fitting and I wonder at what he might think of this uncanny connection.

Leh's summary of his history summary just gave me a thought, does the Otakupedia still exist in some form? It might be a valuable resource to help us keep a track of who everyone is and who they may have turned into. ^.^

Who's getting Fallout 4 when the title drops in a few days? From what I've seen it looks really good, but the dog is giving me Fable 2 nightmares! I'm sure the dog is way better implemented in this than that, though. I'm down for the whole experience but I can safely say that I'm looking forward to exploring the map the most. Fallout 3's map was pretty impressive for a vast nuclear wasteland.

It's a shame that version never saw the light of day because that design is certifiably badass.

I'm keen as Colonel Mustard, in the kitchen, with the knives, preparing the cake.

I'd really like to see separate anime forums back, and I seem to beat this drum every time I attempt a return, i'ts just that as I see it, there was a correlation between that and the decline in activity. OB realy was a melting pot of diverse fandoms and each fandom had it's own cozy little place, with a general lounge where you met up with the other ones. I found this place searching for all things  Dragonball, I posted almost exclusively in that forum to begin with and I have no idea if I'd have stuck around for a nonspecific and very general 'Anime' forum.    If you want to try and reboot this forum, then might I suggest at least giving it a try, putting some specific anime forums up and give it a year or so, until the Google spiders have grabbed it and folks looking for all things SwordArt Online have found our specific SwordArt Online forum. ;)   Kudos for offing the PRP. :D

  I'm surprised Tripod is still a thing. :/ A pity Geocities is taking a long dirt nap, there were a lot of really corny and cheesy websites out there, with equally corny and cheesy MIDI background music! Oh the memories! :D Did I just post in the PRP? I think Hell must be a pretty cold place right now, I've given in to the madness.

Well, I keep coming back here to check up on things, sometimes I can have a quick burst of activity but I never end up staying because the forums are so quiet now.  OB has sentimental value for me, as the first online community I ever signed up for, and I'm all for any ideas that'll jolt the senses and give OB a new lease of life. So when I saw this thread adressing the issue,. I knew I had to try and remember my password and contribute a few ideas... For your consideration.   Gear the forums toward fan art. :3 The Otaku community has been focused on fan art for a long time now, while the boards are now more centered around general discussion. I suggest taking a dual-media apporach encouraging the fan art community to both discuss the series and share their art works with the community. You could spin this as a way for artists to get noticed and get a wider audience. OB then benefits from the large fan art base on TheOtaku, streamlining the memembership so their existing TheO account also works here might, already have been done, but if it hasn't, my idea! :tongue:   Kill. The. Padded. Room. Party. >.>   Why? To encourage new threads and discussions on the topics that won't just fade as pages pass and other discussion vie for space. The lounge has not been the same since that thread opened, it's the all-encompassing behemoth that takes in almost all areas of discussion and it leaves no room for other discussions, why start a new thread when you can just PRP it?  It's exactly the same reason I have not discussed much anime series after the one-thread-per-anime thing came into being. Which segues perfectly into my next idea,   Opening separate anime forums again. ^_^ The goal of the move was a good one, cut down on maintenance, but in the end, I think, a lot of the more nuanced discussion about a particular series was lost to a general thread of 'I like it' and 'the latest episode was so cool.' Those examples are paraprhased but that was the general feeling I got. We lost those insane but enjoyably fun conspiracy threads and those threads on a specific topic that woudl spiral into a whole new arena of discussion and take on a new life of it's own, or maybe that was only the Digimon thread about the pink Power Ranger toy. This works well with the idea to incorporate fan art, as each series can then have it's own little hub. The art forum can then be used as a place for all non-specific art works, the graphics worms, the banner requests etc.   Bright large logo and logo competitions O_IO This ties into the fan art focus idea. How about having a big logo at the top like we used to have, with the graphic links and intergrated anime characers? You could hold regular competitions to design them. There were some good logos that came out of those competitions, Syk3's was awesome and who knows? Perhaps something big bright and cheerful would be more inviting to some people as well. :)   These are things I believe can help stimulate the OB community and bring in the new membership base. What are your thoughts?

Cheers Petie, that was a good trip. So... Anyone keen for another? I might just be the push I need to become a regular on the OB again. ;)

Now that John has mentioned the graphic worm, are they stored anywhere? Man, it'd be great to see them again and to wince at my horrible intrusions into them haha! :D

[img]http://images.wikia.com/marvel_dc/images/e/eb/Michael_Keaton_Batman.jpg[/img] Try to bite my head off Ozzy. I'm Batman.

This Easter was the second since my mid teens that I wasn't involved in any way with a youth Easter Camp. It still feels weird not being there, amongst a couple of thousand young people for a camping/music/ God experience. This Easter was less traditional. Caught a screening of the Hunger Games on Good Friday, worked a hellish Saturday and gorged on chocolate Resurrection Sunday, just like my childhood days. I might return tot he Easter Camps next year, I feel less purposeful without them.

[url="http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/259/img20120410150917.jpg/"][img]http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/2615/img20120410150917.th.jpg[/img][/url] My friend got me these for my birthday. A cool set of One Piece figurines. I look forward to expanding the collection when Armageddon Expo rolls into town. :)

I'm importing this idea from another forum I frequent. The idea is to take a picture from the manga of a character that has yet to appear in colour, and paint up a prediction of what colour scheme you think that character will end up having. You can do this in programs such as Photoshop, the Gimp or even MS Paint. This thread is for the manga One Piece but it can work with any of the major weekly manga that get adapted into a TV series or get colour spreads from time to time. It can be fun to see how close or how far away you are with predicting a character's colour scheme. Here are a few of the predictions I have made so far: [img]http://img804.imageshack.us/img804/3565/threeeue.jpg[/img] As yet unnamed three-eye girl from Big Mom's crew [img]http://img607.imageshack.us/img607/899/pekoms.jpg[/img] Pekoms from Big Mom's crew [img]http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/1418/punkhazard.jpg[/img] Punk Hazard island colour scheme prediction [img]http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/4450/dragonprediction.jpg[/img] "Punk Hazard Dragon" and Straw Hat clothing

[quote name='James' timestamp='1333789332' post='711324'] [font=palatino linotype]The reason that dedicated anime forums were merged together in the past was because they progressively died - activity in each one began to drop, until even the larger dedicated forums became pretty dead. So at the time it made sense to roll them together, rather than to have a bunch of empty forums sitting around. I do like the idea of having dedicated forums though. It would be truly awesome to see dedicated forums come back (with the activity level that keeps them going, too).[/font] [/quote] I thought Dragonball remained quite popular, but now that you mention it, I do seem to recall a loss of activity there, it is possible that's how such discussions about the hue of Trunk's hair came to be. Yu Yu Hakusho was a hotbed of spam if I recall. Not helping my cause here. =/ I guess the only way to spin it would be rotation. I think that has also been discussed before when it was suggested to bring the separate forums back. You have the top tier anime in their own forums while anything else goes into Anime Central. Coupled witht he relaxation of the one-thread rule this could work. When a series drops off in popularity (like the Fullmetal Alchemist forum) it can be quietly retired and the threads merged into AC. Likewise, should an anime in the AC become popular and see a surge in threads/activity, it can be moved up into a new separate forum (sorry that increases your workload Sangome ^_~) [quote name='Sangome' timestamp='1333789914' post='711326'] [font=trebuchet ms,helvetica,sans-serif][color=#9900cc]We did try to have a dedicated anime forum again a couple of years ago; Fullmetal Alchemist had one and it garnered maybe a handful of threads when Brotherhood rolled around, but otherwise it didn't really do much but sit, and then died shortly thereafter. We also now allow duplicate threads about the same series/topic, too, I guess to garner discussion.[/color][/font] [/quote] Yeah I remember that, I poked my head around the corner to see OB musing over a return to separate forums. I remember campaigning quite strongly for the One Piece forum, knowing I could be a part of the activity there as opposed to FMA. After the forum got picked and it was FMA, I kind of drifted off again. Not much One Piece discussion. See my avatar. It's basically the only series I'm living and breathing, the one with the biggest influence only m own comic making attempts. If a One Piece forum was there, I could invest my time stimulating some discussions around the series, anything else, I cannot make that same commitment of dedication. ~_^ [quote name='Sangome' timestamp='1333789914' post='711326'] [font=trebuchet ms,helvetica,sans-serif][color=#9900CC]I think it all really just boils down to OBs activity as a whole. It finally got a nice nudge with the new software, but the only thread that continues to routinely remain posted in is the "what are you watching/reading thread". Maybe it also has to do with so few series coming out now to generate interesting discussion? I dunno. But I think it's the former, really. I know it's a dead horse at this point, but...yeah.[/color][/font] [font=trebuchet ms,helvetica,sans-serif][color=#9900CC]I feel like I should have more to say since that's actually my district, but it's late, so.[/color][/font] [/quote] I think it's those threads too. They allow for an easy way to announce what you are into without going through the motions to create your own thread for a series/game/book/movie. It's not a lack of franchise material. This year there is Men in Black 3, The Avengers, Hunger Games, the last Twilight film (eew) etc. Big franchises to discuss and that's just White Noise [i]alone[/i]. I guess that the OB member base is content to put these discussion int he 'what are you...' thread rabbit holes (a term I will borrow from The Sims.) It's the same in the Lounge. There is a big old rabbit hole there for random thoughts, Padded Room Party, biggest thread on OB history. Every time I come to lurk it's in the top 4 or 5 slots. Random thoughts, it covers just about anything that could go into the Lounge. No need for any new threads. I'm not entirely convinced that killing off the rabbit hole threads is the simple solution to inactivity though, considering the individual threads have a low reply count and die quickly. Perhaps separate forums for popular anime, in conjunction with culling [i]some[/i] rabbit holes? Would we then encourage more discussion into separate threads/forums, or the opposite? It can be a hard judgement call, that's for sure.

This is called 'jumping the shark.' Walden Schmidt is the definition of annoying. The character turns up out of nowhere, gets the house, decides to let Alan and Jake stay and there you have it, the new Charlie Harper. He is just not a good replacement. History is repeating itself. I'm old enough to remember this show called Spin City, starring the incomparable Michael J Fox. When Fox had to retire from the show, Charlie Sheen took over, it was never the same. The new character just simply felt, too out of place. Exactly why Walden Schmidt does not work for two and a half men. He is essentially just a depressed man-child with money. As opposed to Charlie Sheen's Charlie character, who was an amoral television jingle writer with money. The character is less believable, taking on a more magical and whimsical tone than his predecessor. He is there simpyl to fillt he void and make the name of the series once again relevant (although it is now the Jake character who is the other man, Walden is the half, the child.) I'll be giving it a miss. There are still 9 great seasons of the show I can watch on DVD. Well, 8 and a half.

It was an awesome film. I haven't read any of the books but I am interested in getting a copy of Catching Fire, because I want to continue the story that I saw last night. I plan to get the series. I love dystopia-future fiction, this series is right up my alley. I love this world they created, where a brutal reality show is used as a deterrent to any of the districts causing another uprising. Keen to see how the Mockingjays become such a potent symbol for the uprising I assume is to come in the next two books. 10/10

Hello OB. It's been a while, but I'm back. If you missed me the first time around, hello. :) I thought I'd kick off my comeback by kicking around the idea of bringing back the separate anime forums that we used to see for individual series. We had a dedicated Dragonball, Digimon, Yu Yu Hakusho and .HACK//whatever-it-was forums. I think it should go back to this to some degree. Not a forum for everything under the sun mind you, but perhaps a dedicated forum for the top 3 or 4 anime? You could have a dedicated Naruto, Bleach and One Piece forum at least. This is why I think this deserves more consideration. Separate forums allow for a deeper level of discussion. With a one thread per anime rule, discussion would naturally gravitate to the latest events in the series. I like the idea of being able to talk about anything in, for example, One Piece. From the theories and speculation on where the story is going, right through to the inevitable silly topic on why Coby's hair is pink. Honestly, it's what I miss about OB. You stick all those discussions into one thread and it can get messy. I came back and saw that most threads are barely getting the number of replies they used to. That Trayvon Martin thread? I can remember when it would have been a topic of fire easily generating 10, 20 even 60 pages of discussion, five replies? Bad example perhaps, the discussion probably went nowhere due to the universal support for Martin and his family. Still, I have seen topics that are one-sided get page after page of replies. I think allowing for more varied discussion on the bigger anime series would allow OB to expand it's base. I have a trickle-down sort of vision where a bigger forum for anime discussion, so to speak, would likewise bring more activity to the Lounge, as those who come here to discuss their favourite series will inevitably desire to discuss off-topic opinions and current events. Can we give it a shot? I think it's worth it,

On the 4th September 2010 we were hit by a massive earthquake 7.1 on the Richter scale. It devastated our town and shook the hell out of us. Then there were literally thousands of aftershocks, the worst on February 22 this year which claimed 183 lives. Our city is wrecked and it will never be the same again, it's been a year from hell. seven thousand plus aftershocks and still going, although they are quieting down now, which is reason to be happier. Not exactly weather related, but you mentioned the Japan earthquake so I thought I'd mention ours to the mix. ;)

[quote name='James' timestamp='1301461224' post='706096'] [font=palatino linotype] Morphy: I agree about the word "meme". No doubt the label being applied to this phenomenon was coined by the very same person who invented LOLcats.[/font] [/quote] I was the person who [b]invented lolcats[/b]. I was the first person in the world to superimpose text onto pictures of cats. I didn't mean for it to take off the way it did, and my originals had no spelling mistakes. ^_~ Using meme however, was not my idea, and I was quite surprised to learn that it had a history before being popularised by trending internet culture. Justin Bieber is my most hated internet meme.