Eh the way I see it is that back in the old days, theO and myO, when I logged on it was like coming into a good friends house, plopping next to some of your friends and start playing video games, now it's like every time I log on it seems like I am going into an uncomfortable boardroom meeting and I can't wait to get out.
I think it just lost it's comfort.

I always thought that the original members were the ones that got everything going and such. I guess I was wrong (according to some people that have commented)

The cupcake game is hard!
D:

@:

Ummm . . . I was only kidding about the whole idiots thing. I'm not used to writing serious comments so I tried to throw in some comic relief ^^;

Gomen nasai if you took it the wrong way. One of my closest friends left as well and I don't think of her as an idiot (just a little airheaded sometimes ;P)

~Colleen the Great~X_X

I hope your negotiation with the Cupcake boss goes well...and I agree with indifference about getting others to return...

@nEcRo64x:

I want to thank you for taking an intelligent look into the situation and not referring to me or other avid myO members as "whiners" or "idiots." I do understand what you're saying and agree. MyO was a huge part of my life as well as many others...we don't look as myO as "just a site" it holds a special place to us and it's sad that it's being left behind. I am very thankful that Adam at least linked back to myO again on Worlds so at least he's showing that at least HE still cares about it.

I understand that he needs to change the site...I just think there are better ways he could have done it that were less drastic and dramatic but I hear what you're saying and totally respect it since you showed true respect to me and others who wish myO had been left the way it was.

I suppose everyone thinks they understands us and are pyschic and know how we feel. It's the people who didn't find that special something in myO that don't care what happens to it so I know that they can't understand. They can go on and give they psychiatric terms and summaries on us but people still don't get it and refuse too. They just look at us as whiners and have their minds set on that.

And yes, this site is free...so it Deviant Art, so is Live Journal, so is mySpace, so is MiniTokyo, so is Anime Papers, so it virtually every blogging/art sharing site out there. But what if Tom from mySpace did to that site what happened on here. Would or would not people freak out and get upset? Me being a non mySpace avid user wouldn't give a darn but for those who had spent years loving that site and had made and earned all kinds of friend/love relationships? You'd be there would be outrage and people complaining while those people who weren't a major part of it would be going around saying, "what are you complaining about? It's just a site! Stop complaining and except the changes!" Yes, I do believe Adam when he says it would be a nightmare to change myO...but i think it would have been a nightmare well spent on and it would have kept people happy.

This is a battle that no side can win. One side says we aren't excepting the changes since they think they know all...we ARE trying to accept the changes but when you take one of the key reasons people came to this site and totally change it, it's hard to accept. And those people can go on and on saying that we're just stubborn and whining and idiots...as many people have referred to us...amazing people can do that when I know a certain someone who was banned for saying something like that even though it was just people reading it wrong. Although it's hard to read people calling other members "idiots" without misinterpreting it.

And it's true...I know who my true friends are on this site...I consider Adam one of them and as his true friend when he asks for an opinion, I am honest about it since he is very intelligent and actually wants to hear people's true opinions or else he would not ask them. I know I would want the same in return if I asked what people thought on a subject and I don't want it sugar coated.

You know, summing up the debate here, relative to I’m for myO vs I’m for theO… it’s so easy and would cut down on these speeches that people put forth…

For myOtaku:

- People don’t understand how it is our home
- We are what made this place special
- To get rid of it is to discard us as if we don’t count
- This is how you truly make friends through a system like myO

I’m sure you get the idea, the basic premises is the same, it’s what we liked about this place and removing or god forbid changing it is why we will leave.

For theOtaku:

- Things change you need to accept that
- Get over it and grow up
- You’re not giving the new features a chance
- The older system is obsolete, Adam has said so

Again I’m sure you get the idea, same principle only in the opposite direction. Change is part of life and people just refuse to see it.

Both sides are trashing the other so taking the how dare you, or you don’t understand approach just makes you look like an idiot, period.

My version:

- I don’t have a clue if myO is obsolete or not, therefore I trust that Adam is telling the truth when he says that upgrading myO would have been a nightmare.
- I don’t pay for a damn thing here so though I’ll voice my opinion, I’ll accept the changes he deems necessary for the site.
- I don’t care whether or not it’s myO or theO… I care about those who I call friend here and that includes Adam.

Final words… no matter what you do Adam, someone will be unhappy so do what you see as feasible and possible for improving the site and bringing back members who have left. Personally, I think the revival of things like the news and the quizzes is a good start. I’m not going to tell you to revive myO because one: I don’t really use it and two: I really don’t know if that’s feasible or not so I trust in your judgment as to what’s best. Losing a feature or two doesn’t change who my friends are, it never has and it never will.

~Crystia

Un! I agree with Elves... I keep feeling that TheOtaku just really wants to keep up with competitors.. =o=' and doesn't care about its population and everyone who has been here for YEARS, since the beginning of the website's creation! We've lost many beloved members D: even LordSesshomaru! .... who I was surprised by ._. but I guess I understand why he left.. because there was chances of people leaving D: because they felt something new was going to happen that was going to disrupt the site's "family" relationship... I was very optimistic about the new upgrade of the site.. but.. you know, I always used to feel very comfortable coming on theOtaku and myOtaku...

Now.. it's just kind of depressing D: I keep hearing people are going to leave everyday and go on DeviantArt or some other blog site and it's just sad... It's very sad because I made all of my great friends on theO/myO I have today. If you log into myOtaku, it's deserted ;___; and that just makes me even more depressed-- because I remember back in like, 2005-2006-- I'd go on MyOtaku and see more than 25 members update! It was a very surprising sight to see! and now... there's no one on that list! D: Maybe a few people.. but it's like 1-2 people. Or some nights, none at all.

To some people, it might mean the art, or the news, or the quizzes and wallpapers, and other media... but to me, I came on here thinking I was going to end up with some nice friends who were into the same things as me... It was actually the first ever website I made an account on.. because I never knew anything of the Internet xD; back in December of 2004-- and I was just a middle-school girl into InuYasha as a big fanatic. ._. but you know what? I'm glad I got on this website, because I've met people who ARE like me, and I think of them as my family/real friends.

So... Don't get rid of myO if you have that in plan! ;^; ... and that person who left the comment about the people leaving are idiots... obviously, they truly don't understand a different person's opinion,..... one who's been here for a very long time such as me, elves, and other people, who really make up the true members~ =O

I'm so not getting involved in this argument. I have no clue what's going on anyway. -_-' But if there use to be news and more quizzes on the front page then I agree that restoring those features would probably help to get those people back.

I really like the bootleg newsreporter world and taking silly quizzes is fun. ^_^ So that would help in my opinion.

-Sabrina

I can't believe someone got away with calling the Otaku members who left idiots. Those were my friends and many others that that person is dissing. The very people who made the Otaku what it was. People have said to get rid of myO all together...and this is the way to bring those original members who left back? That will have the opposite effect as well as making Otaku loose even more of it's members. But since people seem to be saying to forget about them and focus on getting new people then by all means, get rid of myO and forget about all those who made Otaku special and gave it life.

Hmmm... maybe I'll give the cupcake game a try. Maybe not. >_> I do want to know what the deal is... Beth just laughs when I ask her about it. XP

Now as for getting members to return... you're going in the wrong direction a bit there. It's more about keeping the members you have and attracting new ones to the site. After all (picks on SabrinaM) there are a lot of new members who have joined after the change who don't have this silly notion that you should magically revive myOtaku.

I agree with what Aaryanna spoiler tagged, and you yourself said it when explaining why pm's are here instead of at myO "myOtaku's "core" is on ancient, obsolete code that was written years ago. It would be like installing a modern engine inside an old car."

People don't want to see that, they want to hold onto the hope that you'll change your mind and put things back the way they were. And those who see it that way are not going to return. So trying to woo them back is counter productive in my opinion.

Now if you want to keep those you have and attract new members, you need to diversify the front page because right now, it's missing the news and the quizzes. Two features that people really enjoyed. It need more than a focus that is almost all art. It went in the right direction by adding fan words... it just needs more and the news and quizzes are just the thing for that.

And who knows... you just might attract back a few of those members you lost in the process.

-Darren

Also, I agree with Aaryanna's spoiler text about myO. There were a lot of positive things about myO, but it seems like an extension of theO that we don't need. But it might bring people back, since that's a reason that some members left.

[9.tailed]

How to get 'em back?

We should advertise theOtaku. on a bunch of anime sites we should have ads about us, the many changes we've made, etc.
Some how, when someone googles anything anime, have theOtaku.com first or on the first page. It already is with some stuff.

[9.tailed]

"How do we get members who've left to return?"
Well to be honest, I don't think many members who've left are going to return no matter what you do.
A lot of em have gone over to DA (myself included) because 1 piece of art (or something else) per 24 hours, is rather agrrivating. At first I thought I could deal with it, but now...I don't even upload art to TheO. Over at DA you can upload as many as you want, no questions asked.
The only thing I would stay here on TheO for would be MyO, if you completely revived it anyways. It was fun, true I'm not an html expert but being able to customize it was amazing. On the WORLDS we can just put a picture as our background, we can't change the posts at all. And one picture in the introduction? Nonsense!!
Also I get aggrivated by TheO a lot, it never seems to accept the pictures I want to upload, and then what do you know- they're there!! But sometimes they're not.
Not only that but I loved the news page on the old TheO, I could open a window for TheO, scroll down and glimpse at the news articles, read one that might interest me, and then move on to the art. There I'd look at the featured art, and sometimes wander through the recent art. But now I can't do any of that, automatically I see just bits of text from the news, and they look just like the fan words next to them. And when I look at the art, I just see it all in order of popularity, and when I check to see the most recent, I can only see the first page of it because it switches to most popular after that.

Put simply, there's too many glitches, too many things were changed, and now too many can't be changed.

The only reason I can here to TheO today was that I curious to see if you fixed any of it. Nothing more and nothing less.

And I'm sorry this is so huge and if I have tons of typos (I'm sure there are quite a few).

Oh yeah hope the negotiations go smooth. Good luck implementing the who's online now feature. How to bring people back? Well some of them probably won't ever come back but some suggestions would be to make otaku feel a bit different you know like it has more personality. I also agree with Aaryanna on news and quizzes. The news was fun and the quizzes... it's the reason I joined theO in the first place. Good luck Adam.

Good luck with the negotiation. I played the game. It was challenging but fun.

I've been wondering how to get the old otaku's back myself. I don't really know how to contact them over the internet or drag them into a site they don't go to anymore. If I come up with something, I'll let you know.

I don't think the question should be 'How do we get old members to come back?' but more 'How do we keep the new members we have from leaving?'

Once someone leaves it's really hard to get them back. They've usually just moved on to another site with different things to offer. I've site-jumped myself in the past but something about theOtaku keeps me here. It's not possible to please everyone.

Plus if they've left they're probably a real idiot. We don't want idiots roaming our awesome site now do we? ;P

~Colleen the Great~X_X

I want to know what the deal with the cupcakes is actually. Instead of playing the game... Why are they here?!? :p

Now as for regaining members... I have one thing to say to that... "Good things come to those who wait." So for those of us who are patient enough to wait and see where you go, there's no need to worry. And yes I know that waiting is useless if you won't be gaining back what you want, that's not the main point I'm trying to make here.

Anyway, for some that loss of what they liked is something that won't change (since html won't be coming back) and since you won't be moving things back to how they were, I imagine they won't be returning.

Don't read this next part if you're easily offended:

This is why it would have been better in my opinion to simply move everything over and shut down myOtaku. To head off the constant gripe that you should over exert yourself and attempt to bring an old obsolete system up to date instead of moving on. Companies quit making older models for a reason. Because customers don't understand that financially it's not possible to spend 30 hours on one feature when a new system can offer the same feature in a better format with only say an hour or two of work. It's easy for them to think it should be possible to simple alter the older one since they don't understand why it's not feasible.

Anyway, an easier solution in my opinion would be to bring back the news and the quizzes. The complaint I'm getting is that other than art, there's nothing to keep you here. People like news, they like taking and making silly quizzes. I think the lack of diversity on the front page is what's really hurting us right now.

~*Aaryanna*~

I don't think you can get them back really. I know quite a few of the original Otaku members who have left for good. Yes, Worlds has a lot of cool new features but it's lost some of its originality too. I see this site as a version of Deviant Art now except we get a small portal to have a journal entry rather then having it along the side of our main page like DA does. It's mostly since myO was so focused on getting to know people on a personal basis but now I'm seeing Worlds as a place to gain and only gain popularity. What truly lured me to come to this site was when I joined here, I just wanted a place to upload my new anime artwork but then...oh wow, it has a whole blogging site too where people weren't there to kiss up to you (well, not most anyway) but actually wanted to get to know you as a person! If I want to go somewhere for people to kiss up, I can go to DA and I had read one of the reasons myO was being split from theO because Otaku wasn't about blogging and journaling, it is about artwork. Well, that's fine and dandy...except for the people who saw this site as a true friendship/anime community and where you got your friends to look at your artwork whenever you decided to upload something.

I think Cosmic Sailor worded it perfectly with:
"there's a feeling of being disconnected from the things and people here that were important to them. In simple terms, it's no longer a positive user experience for them to use the site."
And I know I'm now being considered one of the "whiners" but I truly have been trying to be positive about the changes, but it's hard when what you love most about a site has been detached.

I'm so confused about this cupcake thing...I need to do some research on what this cupcake battle has to do with Otaku.

~*Elves

As for how often we're on the site...well, when I go to school, I tend to leave the screen on my backroom page. 8D; There's eight hours right there.

I wish you luck getting people back. I would do something to MyO as well, like you have already started to do with the intregation. Make that place similar to how it was and what they liked so they will be lured back. MyO was less about the art and as such a little more welcoming to some people. Maybe having it back could bring the old traffic back to the site as well, that way you have theO for the artistic otakuites and MyO for those who are here to meet other anime fans!

Will be nice to see the new features though. I was wondering as well. Is there a possibility in the future of having a feature in our portfolios that means we can chose what to display? Like I don't imagine using the FanWords section, but have used the others, so was wondering if there would be a way to hide the Fanwords or move it so it won't be the first thing someone sees should they check out my portfolio? Like so I can showcase what I have done and hide what I might never do?

Wait... you mean we were supposed to actually play that? >_>

Immense powers huh? :p

Getting people to return isn't that simple. In my opinion, if they'd bother to give the place a chance and really see what they can do with the changes instead of whining about what they can't... Some of them would return.

Also, keep fixing glitches, and doing things like having new categories added since that kind of thing is fun. That and you need news and quizzes. I think people miss those features, seriously.

~Crystia

I played the cupcake game, but I couldn't make a game of my own, I get frustrated too easily.

The cupcake thing was amusing at first, now my impatience is getting the better of me and not caring for it too much. It would be nice to see that whole thing wrapped up in the near future.

I'm a night owl myself, usually on from the witching hour till 5AM, any other time I show up on here is when I'm not in my happy place.

"...How do we get members who've left to return?"

That's kind of a loaded question. What I'm hearing from the people I still talk to who left here, some of the reasons they moved on are not necessarily things that can be "fixed" in easy or normal ways. I get the sense that there's a feeling of being disconnected from the things and people here that were important to them. In simple terms, it's no longer a positive user experience for them to use the site. I do think solving the technical issues like the portfolio URL hiccups as well as the Internet Explorer compatibility problems would be a remarkable stride though.

-- One of the things I'll be focusing on is the simple question: How do we get members who've left to return?

Well, hopefully the new feautres and abilities of the site will work to draw people back.

So... we're going to have to coexist with the cupcakes?

How do we get members who've left to return?

Simple. Bribe them with real cupcakes. The shipping will be killer, but it'll be worth it.