James

[quote name='Generic NPC #3'] The thing the original really had going for it was the style and that wouldn't really translate well to live action to begin with.[/quote] [font=franklin gothic medium]I think that's the key point here. I wasn't even particularly a fan of the original series, but the visual style was pretty original. Translating such an outlandish style to live-action is incredibly difficult, as the trailer suggests. Basically I'm expecting something very standard-fare here. Wooden dialogue, the occasionally cool action sequence and that's about it. There are a few visual flourishes in the trailer that look interesting, but I don't think it will be as stylized and visually powerful as it could have been. So far the only thing that's really exciting me about the movie is the posters. Some of them are incredibly cool. Unfortunately the trailer is a bit boring by comparison.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]I know what you're saying, but I think you are talking about a seperate issue. Broad sexual orientation (in terms of gender) is a very significant and fairly easily-understandable thing. But you're talking about specific sexual practices and stuff, which is slightly irrelevant. I do expect people to basically know what straight/bi/gay means...but I don't expect people to be in on all the latest terms for specific sexual acts or tastes, lol. Anyway, I agree with your last line. I think that's what it's fundamentally all about. [/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]I think the main reason people don't use so many terms to describe people is that they aren't necessary. Remember, we're only talking about people's sexual orientation as far as gender is concerned. We are not talking about the specifics of their sex lives, lol.[/font]

[quote name='Hug Monster][COLOR=Purple']Well, the thing that has me is that when it comes to girls I am sexually attracted but not with guys i.e. I can't see myself having secks with a guy. But I have fallen in love with people of both seckses.[/COLOR][/quote] [font=franklin gothic medium]I think you will find that a lot of bisexual people aren't 50/50 equally. They are usually interested in one more than the other. I can think if several people I've known in my life who have been more interested in women, but have still had a relationship with a man at some stage. Honestly, that just makes them bisexual - regardless of which they ultimately prefer, they still like both. lol I would say two things about this subject. First of all, it's possible that you're simply bisexual - if you have an attraction to both at all, then there's at least a bit of that there. Secondly, I'd also tell you that if you're a teenager, you will probably go through these feelings before you settle on one set feeling. It's usually the process of puberty that helps to determine what someone's sexuality is - usually when you're past it you pretty much have a stronger/more settled idea of what your sexuality is. Until then, I really wouldn't worry about it at all. At the end of the day it doesn't matter. If you meet someone and fall in love (whether they are male or female), that's all that matters. ^_^[/font]

[QUOTE=RiflesAtRecess][font=trebuchet ms]Well, I like Hevn's idea. If they miss the Name Change day, too bad, it's a privilege. And the day would be announced well in advance anyways so they can plan for it. However, none of this matters to me, I'm sure if I changed my name someone would go hang him/herself or something.[/font][/QUOTE] [font=franklin gothic medium]There won't be a "name change day". In reality I don't think that would work at all. I can't really expect people to show up on a specific day in the year to change their name, lol. Rather, it will probably be a situation where you can change your name at any time. However, once you've changed it, you won't be able to change it again for another few months. Something like that strikes an ideal balance between allowing people to change names and avoiding confusion for everyone else.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]Of course. And as I've mentioned a few times now, notification will be far more prominent than it is now. No need to worry. ^_^[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]Yep, this is something that we will be handling on the new site. Basically, I'm intending to have ratings hard-wired into the site itself. You physically won't be able to post an RPG without a rating. And you won't type it in yourself (therefore we won't have to worry about typos); it will be selected from a list. There will also be brief ratings descriptions within the post editing page itself...so people won't even need to visit the sticky thread to understand ratings and stuff.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]Yeah, something like that is more the type of thing I'm leaning towards. Fewer opportunities to do it, but a system that is much easier to deal with from the members' perspective (and which removes a lot of useless busywork for Admins). I think people should be able to change names, but as with anything, there are difficulties associated with that. But it's like anything else on OtakuBoards - people are free to make RPGs, but we require ratings and a certain level of quality. So with anything we do, there is always an emphasis on ensuring that it's done in a sensible way. Name changing will be no different really.[/font]

[quote name='Stuart][FONT=Trebuchet MS']Then that may leave some people with regrets after using up their three times, and they end up getting stuck with a name they'd really like to have changed. [/FONT][/quote] [font=franklin gothic medium]That's just bad luck. The truth is, no matter what we do, we can't satisfy everyone. Those who are fine with the current system don't have to deal with the constant PM requests and the monotonous work of changing many names all the time (when they could be doing something far more useful). The fact is, there are a lot of places that don't even let you change your name at all. Being able to change it a few times a year is a good balance. It's enough that you can change it if you want, but it's restricted enough so that you really are forced to think about choosing something you like. We already allow people to change names, so people are used to having that ability here. I won't simply get rid of it; so that's the first thing to bear in mind. However, it's not ideal to have Administrators changing names manually, particularly as the site grows and more people request it. Some people on here have changed their name many times in a year, but there haven't been very many complaints. If we introduce a more controlled automated system, you'd have [i]less[/i] frequent name changing but far more flexibility at the same time. It's the best type of system for OtakuBoards, given our history and given that people are used to having that ability - rather than taking it away, I'd simply want to put it under tighter and more reasonable control.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]That's why we'd have a much more visible way to see someone's previous username. I mean, even if they changed their name once a month, you'd still have an entire month to see the previous name. In any case, I'm really just using that as an example to demonstrate what could probably be done. I suspect that in the end I'd probably settle on a happy medium. Maybe three times a year or something like that.[/font]

[QUOTE=Dagger]I imagine time-based restrictions could probably be implemented, though. If anything, they would be more accurate than what I do now (which is glance back through my PMs to see if the person in question had another name change recently, heh). ~Dagger~[/QUOTE] [font=franklin gothic medium]Precisely. I do [i]not[/i] want to maintain the current system, where people have to request it from Administrators, who do it manually. That just isn't good for a whole variety of reasons. Members will be able to change their own name, but of course, there will be restrictions. I don't know what those will be, but I have a few ideas (for example, you may be able to change your name only once per month or only a handful of times in one year). Obviously if people were changing their name daily, the purpose of listing their old name would be defeated...which is why we wouldn't allow name changing "at will". There would be sensible controls in place.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]I think two things are really critical here. One, we need to make it so that people can change their own usernames. The less time my two Administrators spend on tasks like that, the more time they will have to deal with significant site issues. Two, it needs to be absolutely clear what a person's previous name was, to avoid any confusion. Although we do include it in the profile, that is clearly not good enough. It needs to be visible on the postbit or somewhere more prominent. I suspect, however, that we may do something like this for the next OtakuBoards site. I am sure we can do something to improve the situation on V7, but right now our resources are stretched incredibly thin. I am saying that a lot lately, but it's very difficult to allocate resources to OB when we have so many other important projects in development. I mostly wanted to reply to let you know that I totally understand your concerns and it's something I've been thinking about for a while now. ^_^[/font]

[QUOTE=Corey][size=1]Bravo. I was going to say the exact thing.[/size][/QUOTE] [font=franklin gothic medium]While I don't know how an entire nationality of people can be considered a pet peeve, I'm glad that you at least expressed your view using more than one word. I pretty much agree with what some have said here in terms of some basic things, like rudeness (rude use of mobile phones is very frustrating in particular). I remember being in a lecture last year where two girls in the back row were talking and giggling between themselves. They had to be asked [i]twice[/i] to quiet down by the lecturer. I just found that to be incredibly rude and insulting. The fees at that school cost a fortune and here they are, chatting about who they think is hot or something stupid like that. If they didn't want to be in the lecture, they shouldn't have turned up at all, rather than turning up and wasting everyone else's time. That annoyed me. Another pet peeve would have to be overreactions to minor inconveniences. I really hate it when someone abuses a storeperson for something that is clearly beyond that person's control. For example, if a store is out of stock on a product or something, it's ridiculous to stand there and insult the person who is serving you - it has nothing to do with them and it's not their fault. More importantly, abusing people won't help the situation, it'll only make things worse. I really, really dislike it when people get abusive and nasty over that type of thing. Life is too short to have heart attacks over getting meal delivered a little late or something like that.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]I think I just don't view it as question and answer, so to speak...I view it as a fluid back-and-forth. The only time I really dislike the point-by-point responses is when they fail to be point-by-point. By that I mean, people respond to things that may not contain a relevant point, which probably confuses the thread. But I'd rather that someone respond to my general points, as opposed to simply writing a couple of sentences in response to my overall post. I think the problem is more misinterpretation or irrelevant comments, versus point-by-point responses. But then again, it does come down to the individual. I've seen some point-by-point responses that have only served to further confuse the discussion. But then again, I guess that's unavoidable in general no matter what you do. I do agree about what is considered a fight, particularly. Sometimes when people simply disagree, it gets taken very seriously. But on other sites (including higher quality forums), people seem to be able to have far more "serious" debates without it necessarily degenerating into name-calling. Maybe it's just an age thing, I don't know. Anyway, just a few further thoughts. ~_^[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]I think that whenever people disagree about anything, they will either do so in a courteous way or they will get into low-blows. The latter usually happens because people either get upset about something or they feel that they are losing a debate, lol. Either way, it all comes down to basic immaturity or lack of courtesy. I may disagree with someone and even attack their arguments, but I'm not going to stand there and level really personal comments at those people. That's something which, even on a forum, really tends to lower my regard for the people who do it. And in general it's just not necessary. One thing that does annoy me, though, is that sometimes people are far too touchy about what is and isn't an argument. If someone is quoting comments and having a debate, that in and of itself doesn't warrant a thread closure. Are we so sensitive that we can't actually seriously debate a topic? Of course personal insults and wildly off-topic stuff wouldn't be welcome, but I think people often mis-represent a legitimate debate as an "argument", implying that it shouldn't be happening. I mean, some people really knock the idea of quoting the points of someone's argument. But what's better? Quoting specific points and responding to them, or quoting an entire post and vaguely responding in an imprecise way? Or worse yet, not even addressing someone's post at all? If I am taking the time to respond to someone's specific points, I think they should view that as a mark of respect - afterall, I wouldn't waste my time doing that unless I really wanted to have a discussion. But instead I think that tends to be viewed as an "attack" or something...which is pretty short-sighted and unwarranted, in my view.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]Aw, I was kind of hoping for something a bit more substantial than that...lol. Oh well. I don't know if I'd really call myself a fan of Aphex Twin as such. I really respect Richard D. James but personally, it can be difficult for me to enjoy a lot of the stuff he produces. No matter which way you look at it, it would have to be said that he's always been an experimental artist - he's certainly had commercial success with a few key tracks, but in general he doesn't seem to have been trying to attract any kind of mainstream appeal. The two tracks that most come to mind are probably Come to Daddy and Windowlicker. Windowlicker is by far my favourite Aphex Twin track and the video clip is possibly one of the coolest music videos ever produced. Come to Daddy is worthwhile and the video is great, but I think it's a bit more difficult to get into than Windowlicker, mostly because it's a little more hardcore in its approach (and I don't use that word to describe a genre here, I use it simply to illustrate that Come to Daddy is more abrasive than Windowlicker). Anyway, I only own one Aphex Twin album: Druqs. There are a couple of tracks on there that I do like quite a bit, but I'm not remembering the names at the moment. Most of the album is very experimental though - you get a lot of tracks that are one minute of soft piano, or thirty seconds of a baby crying, or a minute of him beating a fence with a metal pole. Although I think the album tends to push the boundaries of "what is music" - which is a worthwhile exercise - I wouldn't really listen to it for pure enjoyment. For me it's mostly a curiosity, with some tracks included that do have great potential.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]Oh, you don't need to worry. I removed your post because I wanted to take the chapter in a different course. I think it was too difficult to continue in terms of the direction it was going. I felt that the **** Switch chapter needed to go and be replaced with something else. In terms of Hanzo and such, Shy expressed interest in posting as that character. So if he's willing to, I don't see why that'd be an issue - the original member doesn't seem to be around anymore and Shy has some strong ideas about what to do with Hattori Hanzo in this RPG. So for now, I am happy to keep the RPG running on only a few people. As I mentioned, I've kept your last post on my computer so that it can be used in the future. I definitely don't want to throw away your effort in that post, so something will be done with it. At the moment I'm simply thinking about starting a replacement chapter, unrelated to the **** Switch chapter. So I hope that will go up soon and we can get the ball rolling again. ^_^[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]I would love to tell you more about it, but it's very hard to get into specifics when the service isn't due to be released for a little while yet. I would hate to confirm something, only to have it change at the last minute. I can say, though, that the lack of ads will be a tiny tiny part of it. It'll be a [i]major[/i] new service, going above and beyond anything we've ever done before. So it will be well worth the small expense.[/font]

[QUOTE=Lore][color=3333333]Hm, are they really that hard to see? They look just fine to me. Maybe I should change my screen settings. [/color][/QUOTE] [font=franklin gothic medium]They aren't hard to see, they just lack a little contrast. Although on an LCD screen, I imagine they look significantly lighter than they would on a CRT monitor. However, our existing smileys feature sharper colour contrast, so upping the contrast would probably give them a bolder look. If you were to give them a bit more definition, I'd be happy to add them. In fact, I'm thinking your job should be "official smiley creator" or something. ~_^[/font]

[quote name='kuroinuyoukai']Will this premium service be affordable? I am a student and like any student-I'm broke.[/quote] [font=franklin gothic medium]Very affordable. I can't reveal the price we are looking at yet, but I can safely tell you that it will be very close to being free.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]Yes, when the Premium service goes live, subscribers will not see ads on any area of the network - including theOtaku, myO, OB and any future sites we produce.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]reach is not talking about OB RPGs, he's talking about other online RPGs. First you have to define what you're talking about. Are you talking about RPGs on OtakuBoards (ie: interactive stories with multiple players)? Or are you talking about something else? All RPG discussion should remain in Arena Underground, by the way. Please check out the sticky thread here for more info on OB RPGs.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]While I understand how the ad may be annoying, I think it's worth bearing in mind a few things. Firstly, those ads are what keep the network running. They provide the revenue that goes directly into our expenses, such as hosting and server maintenance. In order to operate a network of this size, we have four dedicated servers and believe me, that doesn't come cheaply. Secondly, consider just what we are doing with ads on the network. There are zero ads on OtakuBoards and the ads on myOtaku are extremely minimal - we don't use massive banner ads and we don't apply pop-ups to any pages. Most of our ads are text-based. Compared to other commercial sites - and considering that we are offering a free service to you - we really ask for very little. Having a small ad at the top of the page is a minor inconvenience to you, but it's what allows us to keep doing what we do. If we wanted to really make some money on this network we could throw in pop-ups, bigger ads, or even multiple ads per page. But we don't. We try to keep everything as non-instrusive as possible. So, while I understand the concern, I do hope that you understand the position we are in. We are always trying to cut down ads and make them smaller, or eliminate them altogether. But we [i]do[/i] require some level of basic advertising in order to keep the network running. Disabling ads is not only undesirable in general, but it's also not a very nice gesture, considering that we're providing something for free (and considering that we are not earning incomes from the network itself). [b]Edit:[/b] What Sara said.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]Ah geeze, the sign-ups end just as my holiday is ending. >_>; I guess I can wait until next year? ^_^;[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]These smilies are brilliant, Sara. Perhaps I should actually hold a competition to decide who should design our new smilies. These ones just need a little more contrast between light and dark, but otherwise they are awesome.[/font]