James

[color=royalblue]Even if it is possible to have such a feature on OtakuBoards, there is no way you're going to see us use it. Have you checked our old rules lately? You'll find that we don't support the provision of URLs for illegal materials. Clearly, a direct connect environment would allow for easy sharing for everything from ROMs to any other copyrighted materials. So, the answer would have to be no...in accordance with our rules. [/color]

[color=royalblue]Yeah...I know some people like darker designs, but what you mentioned is kind of why I always produce fairly bright skins. I like to use colour. To me, it seems like a waste when colour isn't used. I think it provides a very distinctive look, even if you don't like bright colour. I also think it's welcoming and friendly looking...rather than dark and cold looking.[/color]

[color=royalblue]Solo, you obviously aren't viewing the new skin. Go into your profile and click "edit options". Under Skins, you'll be able to select Industrial Otaku.[/color]

[[color=royalblue]Valen, wow...I'm surprised you liked v4's skin. lol I thought everyone hated it. O_O As I mentioned earlier, this skin is really the alternative for people who dislike the current skin. I'm not sure how the third skin will turn out; I suspect it will be a combination of both in terms of layout.[/color]

[color=royalblue]I'm inclined to agree with wrist cutter. The people in Fight Club, who lived in this way, were essentially "neo hippies". I don't necessarily believe that it is acceptable to be a more materialistic society...but by the same token, I think the message sent by that quote from the movie is still pretty depressing and negative. The only message it seems to send is that once you've lost everything, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. I suppose that's a true statement, but I don't think it's a philosophy that we should all live by necessarily. We might all be very depressed if we felt that our lives were truly so worthless.[/color]

[color=royalblue]Sara, I suspect that Ginny will adore it...and you might too. :D[/color]

[color=royalblue]Shift really wanted to make this skin...and I remember that a few people didn't like the standard Version 6 because of its colour. So this more colourless skin is a great alternative for those people I hope. :) As I mentioned in the announcement, I'm also working on a new skin...it's still fairly bright. lol But it's different to what we have now. Very different. Hehe[/color]

[color=royalblue]Welcome back, Desert Shadow. Nice to see you here again. :) But yeah, Intro threads are strictly off limits. Still, our new rules aren't up...so it's forgiveable. lol Hope you enjoy your stay :)[/color]

[color=royalblue]I'd have to say that my favourite would be Charles Martinet. ;) If only because I know him...and he voices Mario, my favourite game character. lol As far as being a celeb goes...he has a pretty varied career. I guess the biggest things he's been in were Nash Bridges, Nine Months and The Game.[/color]

[color=royalblue]Neopets never interested me, mainly because the pet itself is not dynamic. It's just a static image with HTML-based stats. Wow, interesting. lol If it had some sort of dynamic creature that you could play with or watch grow or something...something more "alive"...that might interest me more.[/color]

[color=royalblue]Gore did have the popular vote. There can be no question of that. The biggest problem for Gore was that he wanted recounts in selective counties in Florida; he should have asked for the entire State to be recounted. If it had (and if the thousands of absentee ballots were included), he would probably have won the election. But it didn't happen. Does it make George Bush an illegitimate President? No, I don't believe so. But that's my opinion. I can understand why Democrats are still bitter -- but I think they should partly blame Al Gore for his sloppy handling of the situation. Regarding voting; yes, in Australia we have mandatory voting. I believe that voting is something everyone should do -- to be respectful to your country...and to be respectful to those who died in support of democracy. I [i]owe[/i] it to those people to vote. I owe it to myself...to my fellow citizens and to my country as a whole. That is why I generally look down on people who say "Eh, can't be bothered voting today". They are taking democracy for granted. Having said that, I think that mandatory voting, to an extent, forces or encourages people to understand the issues. Since you have to vote anyway, you might as well understand the key policy differences between each party. I find that generally speaking, most Australians I've ever met have been pretty aware of political issues both here and abroad. I'm sure that's not soley the result of our voting system (probably a combination of mandatory voting and high education levels), but the fact remains that I think mandatory voting has been a benefit for our country. Given that you are anonymous in terms of who you voted for...and that you can cast a "donkey vote" (marking the boxes 1-6 or whatever in order, without actually creating preferences), I don't think it's even necessarily forcing people to be really aware of politics or anything...even though most people are. Even if our voting was optional, I would still vote every time, for reasons I mentioned above.[/color]

[color=royalblue]Yep, this was huge. These games demonstrate what is possible with the GameCube hardware; and that it is just as capable as PS2/Xbox technology. Furthermore, this is only the beginning. Just wait until you see Namco's new GCN stuff...Konami and then SEGA with more software. GameCube is going to have an amazing 2003/2004...and I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo is already planning developer relationships for its next game machine. Obviously, GameCube is designed to close the lead with PS2 (which it looks like it will do, based on recent information from various developers)...and the next machine will break out early and attempt to get that strong lineup from the start. All I can say is: it's a great time to be a gamer. :) EDIT: And yes...everything IGN revealed was in real-time. Killer 7 is indeed running in real time. :)[/color]

[color=royalblue]Kids are fine here, as long as they abide by the rules like everyone else. Basically, it doesn't matter how young or old you are...if your post quality is good, then there's no issue. ;)[/color]

[color=royalblue]It doesn't surprise me that Dark_Apocalyps is complaining; he still has a lot to learn about spam. ;) Anyway, I understand the confusion over My Otaku. Not everyone reads the Suggestions/Feedback forum. So that's understandable. When the first page goes up in there, I'll make an announcement; I recommend that everyone read them, so as to keep up to date on the site's news. Anyway, this thread has well and truly run its course. Time to move on. :)[/color]

[color=royalblue]Piro is right. I suspect that originally Intro/Newbie Lounge counted posts...and then didn't. So anyone who had posted earlier has lost some posts. My message is simple: Get over it. Since when are posts important? We need to get away from this "higher posts = better" mentality. During the transition to v6, we were trying to find a better alternative -- we may not have even [i]had[/i] post counts anymore. Unfortunately there was really nothing worthwhile available. But still, I really hope that people take less notice of posts in future. They aren't that important.[/color]

[color=royalblue]I'll leave this here so that others can see it -- but from now on, all "intro threads" should be deleted rather than closed. Once the new rules are up, it'll be pretty clear anyway.[/color]

[color=royalblue]I know your banner is only tongue in cheek, but I don't think it bodes well to insult 80% of newbies. ;) I want everyone with these silly NL banners int heir signatures to remove them. It's over now, let's get on with what's left of our lives. lol[/color]

[color=royalblue]Because Newbie Lounge is gone? Who knows. It's not a matter of infringing on the rules, it's a matter of doing what is technically suitable. lol With no HTML, we can totally control image sizings...and sig sizings. With HTML, we can do neither of these things effectively. So guess which option we go for. :)[/color]

[color=royalblue]Yep...this way, newbies are encouraged to start posting right away. The first places they see are My Otaku and Otaku Lounge -- much better examples of post quality. Oh and...they get to meet OtakuBot when they visit My Otaku. But I'll reveal him later. ^_^[/color]

[color=royalblue]I would wait to pass judgement on My Otaku if I were you. ;) Remember, it's empty afterall. lol But when you see what we include in there...I'm sure you'll find it useful.[/color]

[color=royalblue]Oh we're [i]still[/i] dragging this out? lol Remember, Newbie Lounge isn't exactly anything we've had for a long time. It was introduced with v6. o_O In any case, we've pretty much gone over this again and again...it was removed because it was utterly spammy. It had really become our "spam forum". And that is definitely not good. When My Otaku has some content, I think everyone will find it a far more useful resource. :) [/color]

[color=royalblue]Er, so the Gizmo works for you now? Once again, to anyone having troubles...I really recommend deleting your cookies and opening the site in a new browser window. Always helps me. ^_^ As for the Flash banners...I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do. HTML has been more of a negative aspect than a positive aspect for the boards. And by adding the [center] command, the need for HTML decreases. This also adds higher security to the boards -- it prevents people from using HTML in their signature to cause problems on the site. And of course, it allows us to more adequately control signature image sizes. So definitely, it's a positive for the boards. As mentioned in the announcement...more is on the way (including adding to My Otaku among other things). And I can tell you that aside from that, we are working on a couple of interesting new things for Christmas. So it's certainly a good time to be visiting OtakuBoards. ;)[/color]

[color=royalblue]I'm just saying that sometimes you stretch things a bit far with your "coincidences". And sometimes, rather than discussing an issue at hand you kind of trail off on some political tangent. I'm not saying that it's off topic (because really, it's not)...I'm just saying that it's something I notice in your posts. :)[/color]

[color=royalblue]It's not about telling the truth in your case, gokents. It's about [i]twisting[/i] the truth or making some kind of insinuation. I'm not denying that there are probably some nasty goings-on in the Democratic party (I could probably point to a million examples). But let's not pretend that the same exact thing doesn't happen in the Republican camp.[/color]

[color=royalblue]It's not a matter of believing you Mnemolth (because I have no reason not to), it's a matter of working out exactly what happened. Our software will always automatically list the name of the post editor, regardless of status. This is something that we view as being important. And as mentioned above, we have very clearly defined rules when it comes to Moderators editing posts. The listing (or non listing) of the post editor's name is more likely to be a glitch of some sort, but the selective removal of a paragraph of text is another matter entirely. Having said that, I'm still at a loss to explain exactly what happened. All I can say is that if anyone knows who made the edit (if a Moderator did it), they should report it to me as soon as possible.[/color]