Scrolling annoys me. Is it possible to make it into like a dropdown menu (with the category names), where when you mouse over each section, a whole list appears to the right of it? And then, you can just scroll down from there.

Or even better, a search bar at the top.

I think it's agreed. Multiple drop down menus, plus optional title completing searches.

I'm with snow fox on the search bar feature, though the other ideas are good as well. I would take a bit of fancy JavaScript but you could have your proposed box or even the current drop down automatically filter based on what's typed in the search box. I feel like this would give the most versatility as well as be the easiest to navigate since you could narrow down even the most unwieldy lists to just a relevant entry or two.

Wow! I'm glad you're bringing this up. I have to agree with The Mask's idea. Would it be possible to have main categories (Anime, Movies, etc.) and then have another drop down box or something to show the subcategories? I don't know how to describe it, but it would be like a tier-system.

Main categories (Anime, Movies, etc.)
--> Say, choose Anime
--> Choose "A" section (This could be a scroll box)
--> Choose Akira

Here's an idea inspired from eBay listings and Yahoo! Answers.

Why not create one optgroup drop-down list similar to the one you presented, but limit it only to the primary categories (Anime/Manga, Video Games, etc.). Once you select an option in this drop-down list, a separate drop-down list beside it would be populated with subcategories.

And to solve the issues pertaining to Original and Crossovers, like in the Anime/Manga category, the second drop-down list would have "Anime/Manga Titles", "Original Anime/Manga", and "Crossover Anime/Manga". If they click on "Anime/Manga Titles", a third drop-down list would be populated with all the categories involving anime/manga titles.

Example:

Drop-down 1 - Anime/Manga
Drop-down 2 - Anime/Manga Titles
Drop-down 3 - Naruto

This screenshot from eBay can help explain things better.

Admittedly, it might become complicated for new users, but you may want to look into this.

To perhaps modify the list separation idea a bit, what about collapsing the different sections into each header? Doing that would give you something like:

~Anime/Manga
~Video Games
~TV

12 Oz. Mouse
Aeon Flux
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
American Dad
Andromeda
.
.
.
Whose Line Is It Anyway
Winnie the Pooh
X-Files
X-Men: Evolution

~Movies
~Books/Comics
~Music

...which might make the selection process slightly easier.

Either that, or you could alter the Category selection pane to something like how the Portfolio currently splits windows for Art/Cards/Walls/etc., provided the submission page doesn't need to reload each time. This might cut down on the sheer number of submission categories cluttering the one scroll box.

Something else to think about is that scroll boxes and drop-down selection panes on sites geared towards, say, applications or enrollment usually have the ability to jump to selections based on typed letters. For instance, when selecting a state, one might press U, and Utah would be immediately highlighted in the selected drop-down.

Oh, thank goodness! I was thinking about sending you a message asking about the Category List. It really does annoy me, the way it functions now. The addition of being able to jump to whatever letter you want is definitely a huge, necessary improvement.

I agree with others - that it would be nice to have "Original anime/manga" and "personal fanart" (those types of categories) preceding any of the other list items, as they're used quite frequently and they don't really belong mixed in with the other categories, at the end of the day.

I've gotten so used the Google's search and instant suggestions that I really would like to see a search bar where I could start typing, and it would auto suggest the full title / category.

My favorite series category system is that of Minitokyo's. You type in the title, and the rest of the title appears/is suggested - this makes everything so wonderfully easy. ----> example

Something like that, I think, might work well here.

@:

yeah. I think each thing should be it's own list. I dunno how other sites do it, I don't go to many other sites cause the people are really rude to me. ;.;

@bellpickle:

yeah, i think that would be nice. It's done nicely now, but that would make it even more organized I think

@XkeyofdestinyX:

I second this. The list itself is just too crowded. Separation of categories + the list style on this post would be perfect for me. Like, maybe you could click a button for the list to appear?

It is long, but I personally think it's ogranized well and looks great to. Could you seperate the bars, where instead of one long one we have five things to chose out of like lets say its like this

:anime: :video games:
A A
b B
c C
d D
e E
and so forth and so forth.

Does this make sense?

I'm happy to see all the new things you've been doing to the site, like when you load up someones wallpaper, you can either click a link to just there portfolio or to the rest of the walls, instead of having to go to the rest of there walls to get to the portfolio.