Dream Big

[anon]

I'd love to make some general series sites, but seeing as how much trouble I already have with character and relationship shrines, I'm not sure how I would even tackle those, haha.

I've ran some general series sites before and I usually organize it by:

Series: Episode/manga chapter guide
Infobase (if the series is short this can be combined with series): detail about the setting the show is set in, along with supplementary non-canon info set apart from the main series like lyrics, discographies, radio shows, live shows, stage shows
Characters: you get the idea
Multimedia: you get the idea
Fan Station: you get the idea
Website: about the website and linking and stuff

The key thing is to focus on the series as a whole. It might be tempting to go through every character's backstory and analyze every single aspect of them but it might be too wordy and too much work; it'd be better to create a separate site for the character if you want to do stuff like this. Of course these are just my suggestions and you can do whatever you want with your site; just find what works best for you!

[Elysa]

@Mikari: Yay for more HxH fans, they seem to be pretty rare, haha~

@Joe: Thanks so much for the tips & pointers, Joe! I think they'll definitely come in handy, and yeah, I guess the biggest thing to keep in mind is not to want to make it too large right away -- I could always expand it later on, bit by bit, or like you said, create separate shrines for them :>

[Eden]

I was going to make an all purpose series site for Higurashi, but realized I loved the characters a lot more and how they wrap the series up together, so I ended up having a project of each character has his/her own shrine and be a part of a hub with info about the series on that. So big and intimidating. >_<

[dubiousdisc]

Eden: I don't know, this sounds like a cool and actually manageable idea! You can keep that as a work in progress and work on each character whenever you want, and each site in itself would be completed in a reasonable time, no?

/wants to make two projects that are hubs with one-pagers

[Aku]

In a perfect world I would have time PERIOD to work on shrines, lulz, right now doing any shrine work is a dream for me. XD In all honesty, my desires right now are mostly to revamp my Ranka shrine (I'd like to revisit some thoughts now that the Macross F series has come full circle) and continue to grow the garden of nonsense that is Gintoki.

Subject-wise, I'm still really itching to work on this relationship shrine (with a friend of mine! :3) but we're both so busy with real life right now that even ideating for it is impossible, haha.

Moreso than the actual subjects though, I'm really interested in reinterpreting the idea of a shrine. I want to experiment and see how collaboration, or artwork, or less traditional approaches can create a different kind of shrine. I've said this a lot of times here at Amassment, but I find shrine-making to be really masturbatory and wonder how it can keep that "personal" quality we all know and love while still being open to a community/change, rather than becoming "finished & stagnant", or non-evolving. I think recently I've kinda fallen out of love with shrining, and I realize it's because I'm kinda tired of making something that while fun and personal, is really wall-of-text-y and totally not going in any direction which the rest of the internet is moving.

Mind you, I have no real ideas about any of this, I'm just theorizing... but I wish I had the time to experiment with it. XD

[Eden]

I've really thought about that as well... I want to do more than just wall-of-text and it become static... not sure how to approach this. I might have an idea (a slight one), but I'm not sure how to tackle it yet. Also, your use of masturbate with shrines... hilarious! XD masturbatory... hahahaha. is that a word? yes it is. spellcheck says so.

[Aku]

I've really thought about that as well... I want to do more than just wall-of-text and it become static... not sure how to approach this. I might have an idea (a slight one), but I'm not sure how to tackle it yet. Also, your use of masturbate with shrines... hilarious! XD masturbatory... hahahaha. is that a word? yes it is. spellcheck says so.

I'm really interested in the idea of a community, so I think in that sense it almost has to be approached experimentally with something more popular... AKA no matter how great my idea was, it probably would not go very far using JoJo's Bizarre Adventure as my content. XD But maybe you'd be surprised! I feel like Tumblr has such an interesting way of bringing together even the nichest of fandoms.

I JUST WANT SHRINES TO BE LESS MASTURBATORY AND MORE LIKE A FUN ORGY OK. (That awkward moment Aku gets a stern warning for not keeping it PG-13.)

[dubiousdisc]

Oh no Aku, that's taboo, you can't say that here. You shouldn't really use words such as "stern". Where do you think you are?!

Silliness aside, I do agree 100% with what you two are saying...the thing is that, in a way I do prefer making shrines that are mostly static once they're done. I'll be honest - I love making shrines, but I hate to feel like I have an obligation to update them and so on. Besides, I want to be able to work on a bunch of different things, and if I have to update each and every project every few weeks or so, it becomes less of a fun hobby and more of a chore. I don't know, I feel like my project about that Isaac Clarke figure photographed hugging stuff was very fun and very different than everything else I've done with character dedications, but after a few months I ran out of things to photograph...I used queued content, which was really nice as it allowed me to work on this project all at the same time and then forget about it for weeks as the site continued to publish the pictures without my involvement, but still - you can't beat a dead horse...

Aku, I feel like there is more in your head than what you're letting out, or is it just my impression? Do you have ideas as to what these experimental projects could be like?
Also - last I checked Jojo's Bizarre Adventure had quite a fandom! Or maybe it's just that I know plenty of people who are into it? Or maybe it's just that I'm too used to being into a few things that don't have a fandom at all?

[anon]

I've really thought about that as well... I want to do more than just wall-of-text and it become static... not sure how to approach this. I might have an idea (a slight one), but I'm not sure how to tackle it yet. Also, your use of masturbate with shrines... hilarious! XD masturbatory... hahahaha. is that a word? yes it is. spellcheck says so.

I'm really interested in the idea of a community, so I think in that sense it almost has to be approached experimentally with something more popular... AKA no matter how great my idea was, it probably would not go very far using JoJo's Bizarre Adventure as my content. XD But maybe you'd be surprised! I feel like Tumblr has such an interesting way of bringing together even the nichest of fandoms.

I JUST WANT SHRINES TO BE LESS MASTURBATORY AND MORE LIKE A FUN ORGY OK. (That awkward moment Aku gets a stern warning for not keeping it PG-13.)

In the good ol' days people used to keep in contact with fans of related subjects through forums and community-related clubs that were attached to the website itself. Seems like it only works for general series sites (because it's expansive and covers not just the characters but the franchise in general) but that's only if you're lucky and have visitors who would regularly come.

I used to run forums when I owned a general series site but damn those things take a lot of energy out of you. I mean, if there aren't many members you have to try to think of incentives to get them to join. And then there's the issue of being a good moderator and pushing others to follow your image otherwise the reputation of your site in association to the forum it's affiliated with will go down the drain.

[Aku]

in a way I do prefer making shrines that are mostly static once they're done. I'll be honest - I love making shrines, but I hate to feel like I have an obligation to update them and so on. Besides, I want to be able to work on a bunch of different things, and if I have to update each and every project every few weeks or so, it becomes less of a fun hobby and more of a chore.

Aku, I feel like there is more in your head than what you're letting out, or is it just my impression? Do you have ideas as to what these experimental projects could be like?

I DON'T KNOW WHO I THINK I AM GETTING AWAY WITH USING WORDS LIKE STERN!!

Word, I hear you! To be honest, there are shrines I've made that I'm preeeeetty sure I'm never gonna touch again, and sometimes when I do think about what I'm gonna do with Gintoki when the series starts up again (since I'm quite behind in the manga now, trollolol) I kinda groan to myself. I do though, feel like it's unfortunate that these things kind of live and then stagnate... I just don't have a solution haha. I guess in the end, regardless of what you produce, it's just one of those labor of love things. As for me having ~secret ideas~, I'm not entirely sure at all! I think I do have some ideas bouncing around that are not really fleshed out, but I'm not sure I have anything in my back pocket that is any more progressive than what's already out there. XD

And I do think that there is a sizable Jojo fandom! (Tumblr definitely says so!) But within the fanlisting and shrining community, I would say it's a small, small fandom world LOL. ;o; Doesn't mean that any shrine or whatever that is made couldn't branch outside that world, though.

I used to run forums when I owned a general series site but damn those things take a lot of energy out of you. I mean, if there aren't many members you have to try to think of incentives to get them to join. And then there's the issue of being a good moderator and pushing others to follow your image otherwise the reputation of your site in association to the forum it's affiliated with will go down the drain.

Yes, I have also been in that boat! I used to run a popular fansite to a band that also had a forum attached to it, and while it was cool being THE go-to place, even with a crew it ain't easy sailing that kind of ship. I think you're right though--in terms of community building, it helps to have a bigger area of focus.


JUST DREAMIN BIG HERE GUYS~~~*~*