One of the many things that I wish to see improved is MyOtaku; similar to TheOtaku, but not nearly as loved as it should be. For newer users, MyOtaku is a formerly lively, exciting little community of people who regularly posted and chatted about day to day life and anime; however, this community has become nothing more than a distant memory. Sure, there are a few faithful members who still update their page regularly (myself included), but I can’t help but feel cheated as the days continue to drag on and MyOtaku becomes more and more irrelevant.
So, I’ve compiled a list of ideas and concerns that I think would help the overall condition of MyOtaku if they were taken with consideration.
Common bugs, glitches, and confusion--
- There are many times (for me at least) where only lines of codes appear and I can’t see anything else. Which is really annoying when I’m about to make a post.
- The comment system has the tendency of cutting off both long and short comments, very short. Nowadays, I have to make sure that when I write a particularly long comment, to copy the text incase it’s lost.
- In MyOtaku when you take a peek at your guestbook section, none of the user’s icons are visible. While it’s not the biggest issue in the world, it’s something that can be fixed.
- New users can no longer signup for a MyOtaku account, and since many users have either left TheOtaku and MyOtaku completely, or have moved to TheOtaku, this means that the MyOtaku community will only continue to shrink.
Ideas to bring the site back to life--
- A system of keeping in touch with other active MyOtaku users, I believe would be a great idea---this could include grouping people together with common interests in anime, real life, and other categories (for instance, a place to input common interests which could then be used to find other users), this would help to bring the MyOtaku community closer and tightly knitted.
- Another idea would be to put, like in the olden’ days, a leader-board back up, and to put a list of people who’ve recently updated their MyOtaku. It’s a great way to motivate users to put more time into their posts and update on MyOtaku.
- The ability to link your worlds and MyOtaku: in the navigational bar on the classic MyOtaku webpage, there should be the option to link your worlds as well, (similar to what I do on my MyOtaku page) so that would make transition to MyOtaku and TheOtaku even simpler.
- Comment notification on TheOtaku is pretty sweet, it cuts out the task of one having to check if their submissions have any feedback the more tedious way, so MyOtaku should have comment notifications for whenever someone drops a line about one of your posts.
- Improve the overall layout of MyOtaku and MyOtaku homepages! The worlds in TheOtaku are great to use because of their convenience and sleek appearance--- why not give MyOtaku a similar remodeling? However, I would still keep the option of customizing the pages with HTML (this option is great for people who really want to give their site a special feel to it!)
- In addition to the idea of keeping the option of HTML customization, a section (in TheOtaku or MyOtaku) should be created for people to create wonderful layouts and display them---and allow other users to use them (with credit), to make their site spiffy as well. I mean, wasn’t it great back then, to have an aesthetically appealing page that people would admire?
- Playlists are a big part of any webpage, they determine the mood and can diversify any page. However, there is only a small area in the 'Edit Profile' section that allows you to place a midi (which is an acronym for 'Musical Instrument Digital Interface') for your viewers. Instead of this, there should be a place to copy and paste the code/url for a playlist (from sites like Playlist.com), so that users will not have to use their introduction, post, or quiz results area to post them.
These are the ideas that I have thus far on the ‘Revision of MyOtaku’, if you have any suggestions and ideas about this article, feel free to drop a comment.
And remember, no matter what happens, and what revisions are taken or not, myO Still <3's You.
