| Why We Moved On From "The Otaku Alliance" by Kevin T. Rodriguez | |||||||||
As you may have noticed, as of January 14th, 2006, "Yu-Gi-Oh! Uncensored" has broken away from "The Otaku Alliance" and joined "Anime Cauldron." The move was abrupt, very sudden, and in some cases very strange to some people. For the purpose of the future (in case the OA decides to delete this message someday, which they most likely will) JD posted this message on our old home:
Even though there is nothing wrong with this story, it is, in truth, not the WHOLE story per se, and I think I owe it to everyone to lay down the reasons we left, as well as pay respects where necessary! To start with the story we need to go back into the old Geocities days, where my site was becoming surprisingly popular despite looking like total crap and having spelling error's everywhere. Like Chris Psaros must have, I started getting e-mails from people thanking me for opening their eyes to what YGO! was REALLY like, while at the same time every person was quick to point out that they were frustrated with the way the site would always shut down every five minutes! The fans were getting frustrated with how little time they had to look at the site, and I was getting frustrated because as my site became more popular, I realized that if I was to continue using Geocities hosting, I would be letting my visitors down. I learned some HTML, I started using a spell checker on every update, and I contacted JD of YGO! U 2 and asked him to merge his site with mine (this way there was only one YGO! U out there). After all this was in place, I made an announcement in the updates page asking for help, saying that we needed a new home, and that if someone would be willing to host us we would be grateful. About seven people offered to host us, yet all of them backed out. At one point we even had a new home for three days, before the host lost interest in web hosting, which brought the site back to Geocities (well, a graphics-less Geocities with nothing but the updates and home page up). Several months later, frustrated and worn out, I told GreatSaiyaman777 that if I couldn't find a new host in about a month, then I would shut down the site. This was not a threat mind you, I was just getting burned out on the searching, as the situation was just getting worse. GreatSaiyaman introduced me to Leia and Wedge, who agreed to host us, and we set everything up and everything was, at long last, finished. And for a long time it was great. At the time the site was known as "The Dragon Ball Z Otaku Alliance." What a good site it was. We got some of the most hits during this era. It was the era where it looked like 4Kids was going to get "Naruto," "Dragon Ball GT" and that horrible "theme song" was released to much scorn and protest, and FUNimation lost the rights to "One Piece." And all the while, the DBZOA was protesting the treatment of these series, and with us equally speaking out against the treatment of these shows, we all felt that our relationship was a match made in heaven. Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to last. Slowly but surely, I heard horror stories that the staff of the DBZOA were falling apart. People were fighting with each other, no one (save for GreatSaiyaman, Leia, and SJR) were updating the site, and the site just seemed to go dead. Several months after the updates dried up, the site was retooled and renamed as "The Otaku Alliance," which was supposed to be a bold new step for the site. The staff decided that the DBZ dub was a dead cause. Right now there were shows that were in danger of being snatched up and dubbed horribly, and the OA decided they wanted to help those shows out more then DBZ (which at this point had concluded its run on Cartoon Network). I felt this was great. It was a fantastic goal, and while plans for an "Anti-4Kids Otaku Alliance" failed to get off the ground, I felt this site would be just as good (if not better) then the proposed A4OA (hmm, that doesn't look quite right, but oh well). Well the new site premiered, but few updates came. Once in a blue moon GreatSaiyaman would post an editorial, but otherwise the site was not updating with the promised campaign stuff I heard about. Instead DVD reviews, fan art, and fanfiction seemed to be the only stuff being updated. It was as if no one cared anymore. At one point GreatSaiyaman posted some news that was great: The first series/season of "Yu-Gi-Oh," that has never been subbed by 4Kids, was being fansubbed. This news was posted on the OA main to much acclaim...for five minutes anyway. Apparently the staff at the OA didn't want to "associate" themselves with such a controversial topic as fansubs anymore. This baffled me. The OA had a problem with supporting fansubs? The group that had been very vocal against stuff that the English companies did all the time didn't want to support fansubs? Not even the series that weren't licensed yet? I spoke out against the site, and I got an e-mail warning me to "watch it." I was crushed. The site had been terrible for months now, and this information just proved that what my site stood for and what the OA stood for no longer "clicked," I started getting more e-mails about what me and JD "could or could not" write about, and I was wondering whether or not I should stay associated with them (to some credit though, I do want to eliminate the politics mumbo-jumbo, as all we do is make a good portion of our readers update regardless what stance we take). The decision was made for me when Leia stepped down and gave Illy the site. Illy promised to do several things on the site (including "Naruto" episode comparisons...which is a big waste of time if you ask me), but he didn't do much of anything before passing the site onto SJR. SJR make his first announcement for the site, and in that announcement he asked for people to submit DVD reviews for him to post. At this point only a few of the old staff members remained, and all they ever did for the past couple of years was hang out on the message boards (something I don't really enjoy doing, which is why you never see me on my own message board). The site was officially dead in my eyes, and I had to get out. At this point GreatSaiyaman (the only staff member of the OA to post any meaningful content in the last year) told me he was breaking away from the OA and being hosted by Anime Cauldron, and that they would love to host me too. I took the chance right away. I got a few e-mails from people asking about the move. They wanted to know, why Anime Cauldron? Some people were quick to point out the weird color scheme, how the HTML was questionable, and that they were in fact NOT much of a campaign site! So why this place? Easy: They love anime. Seriously, that's what it all comes down to. They may not be outspoken about much of anything, and they may not be the perfect match we once had with the DBZOA, but it was a fun site, and the webmasters still love anime. I get the feeling that the staff at the OA doesn't really like that much anime anymore, despite what they may say (it's not really all that hard to flip on Cartoon Network and comment on THOSE shows). Both of our sites have something to gain from each other, so I believe that we will make a great team. However I do want to point out that while I may not like the OA much anymore, I will always, ALWAYS, hold a special place for it in my heart! The people there saved my site from going down, and when the relationship was great we had a lot of fun. I never got into too many fights with the staff members themselves, so I can't say whether or not the staff members themselves are problematic (though SJR always rubbed me the wrong way for some reason). All I know is that I saw a great site wither and die with no love and care from a staff that, quite frankly, don't act like they give a damn about what they're doing anymore. In my eyes, the only way that site will get back on it's feet is if the old staff is wiped clean, and a new staff installed. I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon though, so I'm not holding my breath. I wrote this editorial to make one thing clear: The move was NOTHING personal! I may not be friends with a good deal of the staff (and most of that just happens to be because I never really talked to anyone except for Leia, GreatSaiyaman, and Wedge), but the reason we split was just because we no longer agree with their stances on the way anime should be treated, the site updates, and the direction the site is taking. It happens, and while I don't agree with these stances, I do wish the site the best of luck (their honestly going to need all the luck they can get). And that's the reason we split. Hopefully now that we are free from editorial control and are hosted by a site whose ideas we "click" with, we can get back to doing what we love doing in a stress free environment. Welcome to the new age of "Yu-Gi-Oh! Uncensored!" I hope you enjoy your stay. NEXT TIME: Aw, who knows what I'll talk about next time. Just tune in and find out. | |||||||||
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