This post has nothing to do with fripSide news or releases. I would like to ask visitors and fellow fans something!!!
Do you want a community where you can share fripSide everything??
I’ve been thinking about this a long, long time.
February will mark 10 years since fripSide was established and their first song, Love to sing. That’s a really long time!
In these 10 years, there has not been a community for fripSide in English. Nothing I’ve seen so far I would call a community. The deal with the LJ comm: long story short, LiveJournal is not my ideal place anymore.
I’m looking for something where we can all post about fripSide. It’s not just me, it’s not just news updates. It’d be a place where we share our favorite songs, our favorite videos, gifs, icons, scans, amvs, remixes, you name it. A place we can actually have discussions. Whether it’s just 5, 100, or 1000 of us.
I’d love if everybody could answer the survey I created. Comments are appreciated, too. Name and email are not required to leave a comment on my blog! The more answers I get, the more I can gauge interest in this.
Remember, the community would include EVERYTHING fripSide!!
I’ll be closing the poll on Jan 22.
If you did not vote for whatever reason, please do.
→→ Poll for Interest in a Community ←←
Please answer, it’s very quick and only a couple of questions =)
Can’t embed because WordPress doesn’t like code that’s not HTML.
PS: If you have friends who love fripSide, please point them over here =)
I do not have Facebook, but if anyone would like to post this over there… I’d like this to reach as many people as possible ^^
Interesting stuff, also your blog is a fripSide blog so I don’t get why you shouldn’t place it here. Do you perhaps know that exact date fripSide released their first song, or it that not really known?
My thoughts:
I think many more people would visit and (especially) do any actions like commenting and making posts if it’s possible to log in with WordPress, Twitter, Facebook, and maybe some other widely used things, and a account creating on the website itself also must be possible. But I think those options are sufficient though, just like on your blog. But then it’s not clear who would post what where, so some simple blog where everything who has login in can posts wouldn’t be sufficient for this, at least that’s what I think.
The other possibility is some people who make some kind of official (news) posts, and guests (logging in as mentioned) can make comments. You could add another function where everyone can post his or hers own little messages, things or whatever related to fripSide, again using the same kind of login using the already mentioned methods. I think that also that function needs some way of categorizing, just like the other posts.
The functions could be integrated in a forum, the main posts should be on some kind of blog and the posts made by others should be put into forum posts or something like that.
But I actually prefer something different. Since WordPress has lots of options and possibilities and I have some experience with it too, I think it is the best option, also I could help out too. Livejournal seems to have to little functions and that’s also the case with Blogger.
Of course everything related to fripSide has to be in it, with a good way of categorizing needed of course, tagging with album names could be a bit helpful too (maybe using taxonomies for that in the case of WP?). DystopiaGround is too less related I think though, in that case we should not go any further than nao at DystopiaGround. A little thing mentioned about it here and there shouldn’t be problem though.
If it would include a forum, a little section for other J-pop artists would be fitting I guess, if it’s not a forum then possibly there could be a small separate section where it’s possible to put some of the stuff not concerning fripSide. It should work the same way as the guests can make entries in the fripSide section, for clarity. And maybe, just maybe, a little section to talk about the anime and games where the songs are used in, if it’s not forum than it could be added in the same way as for the other J-pop artists.
When I have time on my hands I would love to help out, if I’m able to do it. News posting is not really difficult, moderating is not very bad either. My graphic skills are okay I guess but there are lots and lots of people out there that do much better on the job, for some basic graphics skills I could always help out a bit. I don’t have much experience in coding, I know some HTML and CSS and have some experience in editing some PHP’s, but that’s not sufficient enough for PHP if I’m right.
I really wrote a lot, hopefully it’s helpful in some way.
First, thanks for a huge response!! I read it all and you made some great points. Thank you for your opinion~ My reply is between two separate comments, haha ^^;
This one is just for Love to sing.
fripSide’s old official site listed only the months. HOWEVER, I got curious and went on the Wayback machine to find the answer. The upload date I found was Sept 24, 2002. A couple others that were created earlier in the year were also uploaded on this date. So I guess the dates on the site were not upload dates but rather the time when the song came into existence. But that still places Love to sing as fripSide’s very first song then.
I didn’t know about that website, I took a view at the fripSide website of 2004, never seen it since I didn’t even know about fripSide’s existence way back then. Anyway, I don’t exactly get what you’re talking about, was (were?) the first fripSide song(s) first released on the internet?
Also I’m re-listening the whole nao anthology at the moment, at the moment listening to binary digit and since I haven’t listened to it many times (some songs maybe only two or three times and it was quite some while ago) I almost don’t recognize even the melody of some songs, ouch. I have listened the first three albums regularly, split tears also some times, but almost never listened to binary digit for some reason.
I’ll read and reply on everything below of here tomorrow. Sleep is hitsuyou.
Here’s a mini history on how fripSide distributed their music.
Sat and nao teamed up in 2002. fripSide uploaded songs to muzie which is a site for musicians to upload their music. They posted songs as they finished them. Then, in 2003, they released their first CD through mail order. You gave them money and your address, they sent you your copy. This album included songs from muzie. They continued uploading songs to muzie and selling CDs this way until 2006. In 2006, they scored a contract with Visual Arts and released a CD for the first time in a store! This was the doujin copy of the very best of fripSide 2002-2006. It was sold only in Toranoana comic store and only 2000 copies were printed. The album sold out in 2 weeks. Visual Arts reprinted it again in December with a slightly altered tracklist and new cover. That is the version for sale now.
After 2006, they stopped uploading music to muzie and deleted all previous songs. You can still find full versions of ‘a little christmas time’ feat. reset, velocity, and vanity destroyer feat. vin-PRAD.
PS: the lack of binarydigit in your life upsets me. that is my favorite fripSide album
That’s interesting!
I didn’t know about that website and that there were songs that weren’t released on CD’s, I’m listening to a little christmas time on that website at the moment, it sounds really different.
I thought split tears was your favorite, but I agree that binary digit is very good indeed.
Next part! I think I wrote a book, but there’s a lot of detail.
Here is my main goal with a community: everybody can participate whether they are just commenting or posting about some awesome AMV they made.
I don’t think making news updates should be restricted to one person or a group of people. Posts would not just include news. I can see people posting their covers, their icons, their AMVs, remixes, etc if they had a place to share them. Then members could also open discussion posts about anything. Favorite song, what you thought of the Railgun PVs, why is Nanjolno laying on wires on infinite synthesis cover. A community where only a select few are allowed to post would limit this kind of interaction. I don’t want anyone to feel left out.
Changing this blog into a community format would be difficult as it is now.
-Having used WP for awhile now and being very familiar with LiveJournal, WP’s system is not ideal for this. Only those with permissions are allowed to make new posts. I don’t want posting to be a privilege for a select few, but a right for all members.
-I could transfer over to a self-hosted WP and either mod it to act like a blog community or I could attach a forum to it. This costs money I simply do not have (money is the biggest obstacle for me)
-I could move sites once again from WP to a different service. I don’t want to do this.
-I’d rather it have a new name. I don’t want people to see ‘style:fripSide’ and think that I’m the only one allowed to ever post anything. Of course, it could always be like ‘ at style:fripSide’ if I attached it here.
I want to keep style:fripSide here. WordPress’s features are so perfect for it. WordPress just isn’t the best place IMO to host a community. Integrating this blog into a community though is something I’d be interested in discussing further! I just don’t know how to do it…
Anyway, the list above is not even taking into account that WP customization is extremely limited and I could find better options much cheaper elsewhere. fripSide and fans deserve a pretty site (which is why I am so thankful Kagura worked with what WP gives its users and made the blog look fantastic!!! My thanks forever♥ It’s so beautiful!!!!).
When it comes to customization and journal format, I prefer LiveJournal or Dreamwidth (DW is basically LiveJournal but I’ll get to the differences a bit later)
-LJ already lets me do more with CSS and layouts for free than WP ever would with its $30 CSS upgrade.
-$20 a year or $2 every month gets the community a lot more options.
-LJ also allows OpenID and other social networking sites log-in. Making a LiveJournal account is incredibly easy
-anon posting could be an option, but posting anonymously doesn’t really build community
But LiveJournal has been making some pretty horrible changes lately that are making interacting with the site difficult. I can’t even read comments on posts there anymore because it gives me a headache to look at. Plus, the ads are an issue if the account is not paid for. They have the most annoying ads ever!
Dreamwidth is just like LiveJournal except:
-it’s a little bit more expensive per year, but same features as LJ
-there are no ads whether you have a paid account or not (a huge, huge plus)
-cannot use FB or Twitter, but OpenID is an option. Can easily use a LJ account there and currently DW has open account creation on DW
-when open account creation ends, it will be more difficult to make a DW account because an existing DW member will have to give you an invite code. OpenID accounts still can interact with the site just fine
The downsides to a journal format:
-once a post becomes ‘old’, discussion moves away from that post. People won’t know more comments were made on an entry because no one visits it anymore
-there is no ‘NEW POST’ indicator, so a member could potentially overlook a post
-the tag system can easily become cumbersome
I feel these problems are somewhat remedied by choosing a forum.
Forums have their major downsides as well:
-free hosting with many options and customization is virtually impossible to find without ads
-too many sections (just like too many tags) can leave members confused where to post
-I would never allow anon posting on a forum
However, I think forums allow for more personality. Members have avatars and signatures, and there are more opportunities for members to talk to each other and make new friends! But journals allow you to use whatever icon you feel. Talking about other things besides fripSide could be done through a weekly post that’s for random anything.
——-
Categorizing by tags is not a problem, as long as one person is in charge of them. The more concise and less tags there are, the more they are used correctly.
This is why I asked about nao. I know some fans are still lamenting over her departure and/or may want to keep up with her career. If and how she is covered will depend on how many people say they’d like to see updates.
For a forum, I agree that there should be a general music section, an anime/game/Vn section, and possibly a general section for anything else. Anything beyond that is too much. I would even go as far as to say that a general section includes other music and games. There are forums out there to discuss those things in great detail already, that is why.
I hope all of this made sense. It’s very wordy >_<
I totally lost overview of my post, but I hope you get it.
I understand what you mean, you want everyone to participate. Actually I meant that only news posts were restricted to a group and that all other posts could be made by everyone.
Instead of having a little ‘elite’ posting the news it could also be done so that there is a category for news (and just the official news) and that appears as the main section on the main page while everyone can make news posts. And yes, I am biased since I like news at the front page which is pretty logical in my opinion. A separate section(s) on the same front page could have all other updates listed or put there some other way (I’ll call it updates from now instead of having the write every time “AMV’s, songs, remixes, etc.”).
I wasn’t thinking about turning your blog into a community but rather putting all your great information about albums and fripSide, lyrics, interviews, etc. in it, because I believe basic information and things like that could make the community grow much faster.
And I’m also biased on WordPress since I like it, do you perhaps think I was talking about WordPress.COM? I’m not, I was only talking about WordPress(.org), with installing it on a private host.
A question, your blog is hosted via WP.COM, right? Do you pay a certain amount of money for either domain names or other things?
Then that should be compared that to what money private host would cost. I know a hosting (it’s a Dutch one, but since the Dutch internet network is so fast it shouldn’t be slower for at least Americans I assume) that has 3GB storage with 60GB data traffic per month AND a domain name for only €30 a year, that’s about $38 a year. That’s pretty cheap I think. I’m planning on hosting my own blog on that hosting since wordpress.com has too many restrictions for me. I wouldn’t mind helping out a little bit with the money if it’s that less.
If WordPress can be installed on a private hosting then, since self-hosted WP doesn’t have any restrictions really anything could be added, including the possibility for facebook and twitter accounts (and other social networks) to log in and make posts. Of course they would have only access to posting posts, and there’s an option for posts to not be posted unless they have one good record that was confirmed by an admin. (I just tried that with an offline test install of wordpress using EasyPHP, not the logging in with fb and tw. plugin)
I agree that it should have a new name.
On this URL (http://i1112.photobucket.com/albums/k495/Ovindel/Anime/Blog%20Images/screenshotdevelopment26-12-2011.jpg) how my own WP blog in development using the Arras theme looks like at the moment, if you’re interested. You can see that many columns can be made with the separate sections on the front page, I think would be great for such a community too, even though I use it for a different purpose (news and reviews separating for example).
About LJ: could you tell me a bit how it works, is it just blog posting or more?
I think forums have more trouble with the discussion moving away, that’s why I opt for a blog, and preferably a wordpress one since many stuff can be added using plugins that will make it exactly work is you want. I’ve had the same experience with building my own blog offline, things I thought were impossible could actually be done with installing some little plugin that is done in a minute. Organizing and everything can be done. Of course certain things can be put on front pages of forums too, but still… ^_^’
New post indicator? What do you mean? If you’re talking about making a way new posts can be easily be viewed, just a little sidebar with new posts can be made, like I have in my blog, even new posts can be divided in categories in separate lists.
Concerning categories and tags: categories will be for ‘news, AMV, cover, lyric, etc.’ and tags will be for ‘fripSide, nao, ALTIMA, split tears, only my railgun, etc.’. Another option are the taxonomies I was talking about, even though I don’t get it working I’m sure it’s possible. A little explanation about taxonomies: basically the same as categories and tags, but then it will change into categories ‘news, AMV, cover, lyric, etc.’; artists ‘fripSide, nao, ALTIMA’; albums ‘split tears, only my railgun, etc.’. So tags will be absent and will be replaced by the artists and albums groups. That is one awesome function in wordpress that is a great advantage of it. And of course those taxonomies can be used to create easy access to certain groups: a little list with all categories, artists and albums will suffice, for the new posts at least. Take a look here: http://codex.wordpress.org/Taxonomies
Agreed, forums allow more personality, but just take a look at http://www.seaslugteam.com/, they have little information about themselves under the posts. And just like on your blog people are able to add a little bit of information on their Gravatar, though it’s too little.
I agree also that there should be a way to get the conversation faster going just like in a forum, when using a blog the reply option should be brought more in the spotlights and maybe some other way to get people easier talking.
Also, you could get some RSS thingy working so that the none-fripside things from your blog get automagically put in some kind of sidebar/list or whatever. I disagree about a weekly post about the non-fripside things, I think while those should be put in a separate sections they still should get updated and added like fripSide posts.
It’s the same with nao, just like other fripSide related people they should just get updated normally or when people feel like updating. It’s not that you don’t do this on your own blog. So just copying or automatically integrating those posts like I said could be an option, but I don’t think that’s the best way.
Also I would like to say that’s it for the better to start relatively small with just the basic things and later expanse slowly if needed, but I’m sure you already thought of that.
Your long posts are quite helpful!
“Actually I meant that only news posts were restricted to a group and that all other posts could be made by everyone.”
I understand now ^^ this would also ensure the same quality in every news post and make sure these posts are tagged correctly.
Are you saying the front page is automatically filtered to show official news, and a list on the side will show all other updates?
In this case, I’d rather the front page automatically show every update with an option on the sidebar to filter to just news, or a widget on the sidebar that only shows the most recent news-only posts. This is how every artist-oriented blog community I’ve been in operates.
“I wasn’t thinking about turning your blog into a community but rather ……”
ahh, got it. that’s a good idea.
“And I’m also biased on WordPress since I like it, do you perhaps think I was talking about WordPress.COM? I’m not, I was only talking about WordPress(.org), with installing it on a private host….(and related text)”
I like WP, too, but I’d need to be familiar with the functions of self-hosted. I’m currently hosted on WP.com and pay $12 a year for the domain-mapping. I considered buying hosting, but $12 a year for mapping was more feasible to me at the time than a year of hosting (I pay for the domain separately). I also couldn’t find something cheap enough that looked reliable. The hosting I’ve used in the past is rather expensive for me now.
That theme is certainly interesting! If blog format ‘wins’, the next biggest obstacle is choosing an appropriate layout. Thanks for showing me this~
About LiveJournal/Dreamwidth:
Basically, people have their own personal accounts. They post their journal entries there, and only the people they allow can see it (privacy levels for each entry can range from totally public to friends only to completely private). Now person-A can make a community for other users of LJ to join. Posting to a community is exactly like posting to the personal journal except you choose that you want the entry to go to the community page instead of your personal journal. You can choose whether community entries are public or can only be seen by members.
Here’s a community I follow. It’s called BakeBakeBake. This is the main journal page. You can see how they organize their sidebar and at the top, there are links to join, a full tag list, archives, and the user info page which gives all information about the community.
And here are settings for communities.
Hope this helps~
I’ll have to go through WP.org’s plug-in page.
New post indicator. When you visit forums, it tells you what threads are new and also what threads have new comments. I haven’t seen that on any blog-service I’ve used.
“Concerning categories and tags”
I used to use a similar system and most comms I’m a member of do similar for tags. Like, “single,” “single: future gazer,” “album,” “album: first odyssey of fripSide,” “drama,” “drama: nameofdrama.” WP’s system of categories vs tags have confused me till now, so I’d have to play around with it more (as you can see, I do post everything in the fripSide category!).
“Agreed, forums allow more personality, but just take a look at….”
Interesting, though that box is totally clunky to me and I’d personally opt for something smaller
As for the rest, I will keep it in mind~
Thank you! ^_^ (I’m improving my English too.)
“I understand now ^^ this would also ensure the same quality in every news post and make sure these posts are tagged correctly.
…”
Exactly.
I think I have to agree with you, since there is not that much of official news all stuff should be put together indeed. That would also be easier to realize.
WordPress
Setting up can be easily done, I can help with that, it’s just filling in some usernames and passwords for the databases. Those databases have to be set up too, but that’s about the same difficulty. Otherwise searching for some video on youtube can do wonders.
For only a little blog that will suffice, but since there aren’t many options in WP.com. That theme I mentioned can also only be used in a self-hosted WP because there is a framework set up around it, and without it, it doesn’t work.
I actually found that hosting after searching a lot on the internet. There are of course the big ones like godaddy (for me the Dutch big ones), but there are some relatively smaller hosting-companies who seem also very reliable. The problem is though that the amount of providers in English is endless and there are not 1000’s of them where I live, so there more chance for me to find one than you finding an English one.
WP-plugins
WP-plugins page is endless, you should really search for what you want and not randomly start looking at it.
Is it just me not understanding you, or is it already on your blog at your sidebar in a list form? Though it doesn’t use those fancy icons used at forums, it does indicate which posts and comments are new. Or do you want some other way of doing it?
LJ/DW
Meh, I’m not really liking livejournal, it doesn’t appeal to me. There are too less functions and the design appeals not to me in the least, at least I wouldn’t join it fast that way. But that is just my opinion.
Categories/tags
Everytime you skip talking about the taxonomies, it clears up any confusion about tags. It can only done at self-hosted WP though. If you’d only use tags it’s not really a problem when having only the names of albums and artists, those aren’t endless amounts of tags.
Personality
Then say what you think it should look like. Just a one-liner describing oneself?
Also, WordPress has much more options concerning statistics and multiple users, if I’m right.
I used to get more detailed statistics from the third-party counter I have before I moved to WordPress. It can’t record the more detailed stats because WP doesn’t allow Javascript ;_;
Stuff like google analytics has more functions indeed, but I was talking about integrated functions, and both blogger and livejournal haven’t detailed statistics integrated and it’s also not possible to add them if I’m right. Forums could include google analytics, I assume.
hmmm now you lost me, haha! Are having detailed statistics important, or are you just a curious person who likes to look at that stuff? I love looking at them myself
It’s too late probably.
I’m just talking about the possibilities, and it doesn’t really matter I think, basic wordpress functions are enough for me.
I meant to say though it isn’t possible to use third-party statistics (like google analytics which is very detailed) on simple blogging solutions, that’s what I expect from them but I’m not really sure. After searching for “google analytics wordpress” it’s possible at least in wordpress apparently at least.
i’m definitely interested participating in an English-based fripSide online community, even though my interest has dwindled significantly since nao’s absence.
I prefer the traditional forum format, mostly due to personal convenience, but am aware of its shortcomings ( already mentioned in the comments). i rarely read wordpress, livejournal etc.
i also remain skeptical as to whether enough interest could be garnered in order to keep the forum active and members thriving, so hopefully you’ll get an ample amount of good response from your survey.
“i also remain skeptical as to whether enough interest could be garnered in order to keep the forum active and members thriving,”
That’s exactly what I am thinking about too. It’s really difficult getting people active so making it inviting is important.
Thank you for your response!
I like both formats (personally, I think I prefer forum in this case). Looking at the numbers, I’m really interested to see which one ‘wins’!
fripSide isn’t as active as some artists, so regular activity might be an issue. Though I don’t expect hundreds of people to come rushing at opening day and I certainly don’t expect it to climb to Ayu forum numbers.
However, I’ve also been a part of some forums that had less than 10-15 active people and we had fun. BUT that’s just me and people are different. I’d hate for people not to join because of low activity. Only by participation can it be cured.
We should make some kind of comparison thingy sometime.
I totally agree, I also joined some forum some time with just some people on it and can be fun indeed.
I’d like to add that if you have friends who are into fripSide, please direct them to this post and have them answer as well!
I also don’t have a Facebook account, but if someone could post this over there, that would be awesomely helpful as well ^^
I don’t have any friends who like fripSide.
Also don’t have a FB or whatever account. I’ll post in on my blog then.
Forgot to say, maybe add this to the main post so that more people will share it.
Wow so many comments! lol. Ok for me I am totally for this idea of having a proper form of community but to be honest I have no clue about web design and such but I do love writing and scouring for any official info for fripSide and videos too. Wish to contribute no matter how little I may seem to do laughs.
I do love the idea of maybe having a time to time competition by Ovindel and maybe we can give out prizes such as fripSide goodies if we can get them to foster greater interaction and participation. For now every thing is just moot so I guess we have to wait for your poll results to be out to actually narrow down the options and trim the details.
On a side note, my copy of the game compilation FINALLY arrived and boy I love the songs! Especially Alice and Winter. Surprised that I actually love Winter more then any other song as I though I would have prefer Alice more from previews but Winter pulled me in from the very start! It’s a very nice slow song and this shows fripSide can produce great ballad style songs too! Will be doing a through review maybe tomorrow.
In conclusion, I love the ideas being exchanged here between you guys and I am personally in for any idea as long as it looks professional (maybe clean and simple) and not complicated and confusing as that will deter any one from joining. A messy community will made people think that its a work of rush and will not last. I think it’s ok to pay some costs to make it nice as it will be worth it to have a good place to discuss about fripSide meaningfully and neatly. I personally is willing to help with some of the costs as I would love to see this work!
Good Luck and of course help will always be given if you ask =)!
Aren’t those two AMAZING!?!?!? Alice in Rosso already has 34 plays on my iTunes, haha! More if you add in the iPod.
Looking forward to reading your review!
I’m really glad to see how many people want a community and who are also willing to help out. I just need the survey to reach more people.
Eh… wait, what am I supposed to do suddenly?
You’ve damn got it, I’m so jealous of you two. I got an reply by the way from the guy from CDjapan (his English is very good), and he confirmed it’s indeed exactly the case you told me and said it’s your fault, hengyx. ;D
These are exactly the sort of things we should talk about at some other place than at a post about creating a community.
I agree with you, it should be clean and simple, but I think that it should have some more possibilities (don’t know what where who though) out of the immediate view.
I seriously fail as a fripSide fan, I recognize some songs of split tears actually completely not, even though I’m sure I listened to them a time or ten, but at least not for (possibly more than) the past half year. It sounds refreshing at least from all the other fripSide I’ve been listening for the past time, it’s really different and great. Listening to all albums in a row really makes the improvement of fripSide clear!
So, any more thoughts after reviewing the survey results?