I hate doing non-content updates, most of you know that, but today, there's just some stuff I want to say that isn't excatly fit for a editorial just yet and makes more sense to be here than my weblog. I'm sure that most of you here have heard about and have been to the Amazoness Quartet's site, The Worst Sailormoon Pages ever, a site whose purpose was to review bad SM sites to keep people from going to the bad ones, and encourage the webmasters of their site to improve them by giving their thoughts and ideas in their reviews. They also took the time to review sites they thought were good SM sites, and had an annual people's choice awards for the people to nominate and vote for the best SM site in different catergories. They also wrote their own rants, posted up people's rants, and had much more, including a site designed to help people with websites.
I've been a regular site-goer to the AQ for years now, for a long time checking there for updates was part of my daily routine. This past summer, updates there became a bit more sparse, and until a few weeks ago, there wasn't even an update since October. Between then and now, I didn't check the site nearly as often, since everytime there wasn't something new, went there earilier this week, and saw the news. A bit late I know, but school has slowed down a lot of things for me this semester. On Febuary 16th, they made the announcement that they are now a static site, meaning they're done updating (except links and maybe some news) and will stay up as long as they can. They also cancelled the people's choice awards for the year because of a lack of finalists (I was hoping we'd make the finalists this year). This is a site I've looked up to for years, so it hurts a bit to see it stop, even fully understanding excatly why it's stopping.
It's funny, because I at first hated it. See, back before we put together Sailor Moon Uncensored, even back before I made MKBO, the three of us here were invloved with another Sailor Moon site, the Sailor Moon S to English Campaign. I know just mentioning that site brings about a bunch of emotions and memories to the three of us. You might be asking yourself, "But S has been dubbed and even been released uncut, why was there a campaign?" Well, remember, just as we were starting this site, Sailor Moon S began to air, so the campaign was before the initial announcement of the dubs in March 2000. The three of us eventually became high staff members of the site, led by someone else. In December 1999, the campaign made the AQ's worst of the month, as seen here. At least for me, this was the first time I saw the AQ. So because a site I was a big part of got that title, I was a bit pissed off. I know at least I wrote them a letter saying stuff like all that they do is bash sites and that kind of shit, thinking I was all big and all because I was a high staff member of such a good cause and whatever. I had no idea back then that I was so immature and closed minded to a lot of things. I got an e-mail back telling me pretty much what I told you in describing the AQ's site in the beginning of this non-content update. I woke up a bit after that, and soon the AQ because one of my most favorite sites to go to. I don't remember if I had sent them an e-mail to them apologizing for being such an asshole, even though I'm sure they're used to it (hell, they half expected it looking at the beginning of the review), if I didn't apoligize, then I'm going to publically apologize right now. I was an idiot then, and if I can take back writing that mail and the ego I didn't realize I had back then, I would. I'm just glad that through that experience, I found their website.
Wow, I'm starting to get on a roll I really could write an editorial of how so much things have changed from years ago to now. From Sailor Moon, to the Internet, to Sailor Moon sites ON the Internet, so much has changed from when I had first seen Sailor Moon, from when I first finally had access to the Internet for more than 5 hours a month, up to today. Maybe I will write an editorial someday, when I have time to write for myself and not for my classes and get on a rush like just now. Who knows? All I know that along the ride, sites like the AQ, the Sailor Senshi Page, the alt.fan.sailor-moon newsgroup, and so many others, including the SOS (though they are the only negative one), have always been there. Seeing one of the big SM sites go down, the AQ, is quite a shock and saddening to me. One of the sites I grew up with on my time on the Internet is closed. I know I'm gonna miss it, and I'm sure there are many others who will miss it as well. I just hope that it never get's completely taken down, as it's a great archive of SM history for the most part. I could go on and on on what good the AQ has done in all its years, creating such a big impact on SM sites, and probably many anime sites as well. Such a great site, the AQ will never be forgotten.
March 8th, 2003
Dan - Goodbye AQ ;_;
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