Does Your Site Suck? - by Tiffany Wood (August 6th, 2000)

It's 1:30 in the morning. I have nobody to role play with, no web graphics to make, and the conversation between me and those on my buddy list seem to be dying. I am far too awake to head to bed, so what do I do? I crack into my e-mail and shift through my site's award applications. May as well get them out of the way. What I end up viewing usually leaves me staring at my monitor in horror. Sites thrown up in 10 minutes, filled with false information. A mixture of dub and japanese information are tossed in my face. The SMOC (Sailor Moon Online Community) has more crappy sites than good. Blunt way of putting it, but it's true. Just what makes the majority of these sites crappy? Let's find out, shall we? 1.) False Information: This absolutely drives me crazy. Is it not common sense to do research about something before you make a site about it? Is it not common sense to go to a reliable source for research? (such an example of a reliable source would be Hitoshi Doi's Site. Very good sailor moon information resource). Is it not common sense to USE your common sense when trying to decide if the information you collect is true? I have seen far too many pages with this sort of information, "Uranus is Harka and Neptune is Michelle. Sailor Uranus is Sailor Neptune's cousan, and live in Japn. They are mean to da scoutz, cuz they try kill hotru. hotru is a goth, and sailor scout of saturn, because her father dr. tom is possessed by mistress 9. she rulz." Umm..ok.....No. Could there be anything more wrong about this paragraph? And yes, I have seen information pretty damn close to this. Maybe not word for word, but very close. Not only are these people extremely clueless as to the aspects of researching true information about the outer senshi, but the spelling and the grammar look like it was typed in 2 minutes (making it look just plain ridiculous), and they mix the dub and original information. Which brings me to my next topic....... 2) Mixing of Dub and Original: Let's face it, the SMOC will always be divided into "dubbies" and "subbies". The dubbies talk about Lita, Amara, and the scouts, whereas the subbies talk about Mako, Haruka, and the senshi. It has always been like that and always will. But one thing gets to me, why must people mix dub information/names/attacks/whatever with Japanese information/names/attacks/whatever? I mean, if you're going to talk about senshi..don't mention scouts!! If you're making a shrine on "Serena"..then don't call her Usagi on the next page! It's so frustrating to see that. It's even more frustrating to see an entire site fixated on the dub series...but then use the japanese names! I use this example becuase you rarely see sites about the original series that use dub names. Sometimes, yes, but mainly it's the other way around. Usually when I see a site like that (and I find very many of them in my award applications email folder), the end result is usually me screaming "FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, PEOPLE, PICK A VERSION AND STICK WITH IT!!! IS IT THAT HARD? IS IT?!" and then ripping my hair out and cursing out this person for applying for one of my awards!!! DAMMIT PEOPLE IT'S DUB OR JAPANESE! DUB OR JAPANESE!!!....heh heh......i'm not insane, really! Bobchan, Danchan, back me up here! .......*crickets*.........*cough* let's move on, shall we? *ahem* 3) Repetitiveness: It's always the same story. You go to a site, visit the rooms about the senshi and find the same content over and over: stats (aka name, favorite food, color, subject, hobby, etc etc), attacks, transformations, family/lovers, and a brief description of his/her personality (aka: Lita loves to fight. She loves to cook and clean. She wants to open a flower shop. Her parents died in a plane crash, and la dee da, the end.). Then you cruise on to their image gallery and see the same old pictures that you seen in every other sailor moon image gallery. Then you cruise on to their midi/downloads section...we have our choice of "my only love", "rainy day man", and every other dub midi ever made, with some japanese songs thrown in there (normally moonlight denstesu, ai no senshi, moon revenge, and many of the other well known songs). Your movie clip choice is normally the henshin and attack of every senshi ever known to man. Quoting my friend Kainchan: "Blah!" Been there, done that. Then you take notice to the site's layout....the same graphics that you find at Sailormoon.Org, Lycentia's Webgraphics Shop, and Goddess Goodies (formerly Lady Wren's Webgraphics). Now, I for one have those graphics on my site too (which are coming down very soon becuase I am redoing my entire site with my OWN graphics and layouts). And I am in no way putting down any of those webgraphics shops' abilities to make and share beautiful graphics. That's what they're for. But it seems hardly anyone is making any attempt lately to even try to be creative and make their own graphics and layouts. It's one thing to find a pretty background and say "oh that's beautiful. That will look perfect in my Usagi shrine". But it's another to have every background, header, banner, button and main page layout from the same graphics shop, and then brag about how unique your site is. ("Welcome to Sailor Sissy Moon Girl's Kewlest site on the web! Please don't steal my graphics! I made them myself! tee hee hee hee!!!") Which brings me to my final rant-er um, topic, number 4! 4) False Credit: What do I mean by this, you ask? I'm talking about what SO many webmasters in the SMOC do. They copy somebody else's HTML/Content/Original Layout, and call it their own. This happens so often, it's unbelieveable. People will actually stoop to stealing somebody else's original layout or HTML, that they worked so hard on, change a few things here and there, and call it their own! This has happened to many great sites such as Belldandy.net, Manga Style, Lycentia's Graphics Shop, and more. It's utterly sickening that people are so concerned with having a popular site that why will sink as low as stealing somebody else's hard work. And what REALLY gets to me is when people bat their eyes innocently and say "oh? I didn't know I wasn't supposed to steal it." when it CLEARLY says on the victim's site not to steal their work (which is not only understandable, but plain common sense as well). Then when you blow their cover from that excuse, they get all defensive "well I DID make it!! it's mine!!" hmm..didn't you just admit to stealing it by saying you didn't know you weren't supposed to take it? -_-* Bakas. Anyway, my point is, a site should be unique, with your own work, your own layouts, your own opinions and content. And too few of those are found in the SMOC. Well this concludes my discussion-*notices bobchan and danchan as they raise their eyebrows* er um...heh.....ok so it's a rant, big deal!! *grumble* I can't help it if some of these sites are horrible! I mean, all it takes is a little pride and hard work to make a website unique and enjoyable! I tell you, young people today, no respect for any hard work!! Why, if I had a dime for every time....*and thus, she walks off into the sunset, guzzling pixi stick after pixi stick, ranting about nothing whatsoever*

Other Editorials

Why Fan Translations Are Still Necessary - by Dan Bednarski (May 16th, 2011) Sailor Moon Re-launch in North America: What I'd Like to See - by Dan Bednarski (January 22nd, 2011) Can we start to put an end to the stupidity? - by Dan Bednarski (September 19th, 2010) Goodbyes Are Always the Hardest - by Robert Wheeler (May 4th, 2005) Goodbye SOS. Good Riddance or Fond Farewell? - by Robert Wheeler (December 16th, 2004) The Trouble With Whiners - by Robert Wheeler (October 10th, 2004) Uncut Sailor Moon: Worth the Wait? - Part 2 - by Dan Bednarski (January 6th, 2004) Uncut Sailor Moon: Worth the Wait? - Part 1 - by Dan Bednarski (September 23rd, 2003) Disliking Vs. Hating - by Robert Wheeler (April 3rd, 2002) The Twelve Dubs of Christmas - by Tiffany Wood (December 23rd, 2001) Optimum Productions? Flagrant False Advertising... - by Robert Wheeler (September 3rd, 2001) The Anime Translation and American Society Problem - by Dan Bednarski (August 6th, 2001) Pioneer's First SMS Release: Heart Collection I - by Dan Bednarski (March 5th, 2001) Annoyance: A Letter to the People - by Tiffany Wood (February 9th, 2001) Cartoon Network - The Hypocrite - by Robert Wheeler (January 14th, 2001) Moonian Rhapsody - by Tiffany Wood (December 25th, 2000) Does Your Site Suck? (Repost) - by Tiffany Wood (October 28th, 2000) The North American Sailor Moon World - by Dan Bednarski (September 26th, 2000) The Trouble With Dubbies - by Robert Wheeler (September 13th, 2000) Sailor Moon Fansubs - by Dan Bednarski (August 13th, 2000) Does Your Site Suck? - by Tiffany Wood (August 6th, 2000)