Any budding Otaku has the same problem - keeping track of all the release dates of figures, gundams, eroge, anime, music etc that they are interested in.
Introducing a new acronym for the site - RDC (
Release Date Calendar). Members can now create their own calendar of their favorite anime, eroge, gundam, figure etc releases. You've seen otaku calendars here n there so whats the value proposition for RDC?
- Easily add items to your calendar using provided bookmarklets - items are added to your calendar within a few clicks.
- Subscribe to your own calendar via RSS or the VCal (ical, google calendar etc).
- Filter or subscribe to your calendar by category.
- All members calendar items are aggregated into one view - keep track of otaku releases created by all members easily. Find out about new products/events/series that you would not normally know about.
- Easily add items from the aggregated view to your calendar.
- New eroge category means that you can keep up with major eroge releases.
- Calendar items are comment threadable - communicate with other members about release items.
If you are this type of user then you dont need to read on and can just
go to the RDC top page to see the full release list for 2007 or list by category such as Gundam, anime, eroge etc.
Those who requested more eroge coverage will find it in RDC as I will be adding a load of eroge titles like I have already done.
The problem with keeping a calendar of otaku events/release dates is having to copy/paste urls. All I wanted to do was to click on a bookmarklet while browsing and be taken to a form to fill in my notes and release date. I then wanted to be able to see a list of my events sorted by category or month and show up in my google or iCal calendar. This is everything that RDC allows you to do - read on to learn about all of RDC's features.
Below is a shot of the top page. The page is separated into a few blocks of categories. if you are logged in you will see your latest items at the bottom of the screen. Click on "full list" under "Latest additions" to view releases for the whole year.
Below is a list view - you will see it when you click on "full list" from the RDC top page.
Details are hidden by default - click on the "display options" link to permanently display/hide details. When details are displayed, you can add items to your calendar, post comments and if you are logged in you will see "Edit" next to any items that you posted.
You will notice a new additional feature called "Your Menu" on any two column page. From here you can access your own calendar. Soon you will be able to do more from your menu including reading the latest private messages sent to you by other members.
You can also see the RDC categories in the right column. When you are viewing a users calendar (including yours), the categories will filter that users calendar. When you are on the aggregated calendar view, the categories in the right column will filter the aggregated calendar.
The RDC top page and list page will display items in the following format. Clicking on the date takes you to the detail page for that item. Clicking on the category filters that category. Clicking on the item title will take you to the site for that item.
When you hover over an item, you will see a preview. I have left eroge items that I added in Japanese as I presumed that eroge players will understand a bit of Japanese in order to play. I probably dont need to warn you but most of the eroge previews are NSFW.
Clicking on the date of an item brings you to the detail page where you can see a thread of any conversations going on.
You can manually add events by clicking on "Add event" or use the rather nifty bookmarklets provided below.
Drag this link»
http://www.dannychoo.com/v4/addevent.php?language=eng&url='+encodeURIComponent(location.href)+'&title='+encodeURIComponent(document.title)))" title="RDC!" onclick="window.alert('Drag this link to your bookmarks toolbar, or right-click it and choose Bookmark this link');return false;">RDC! up to your Bookmarks Toolbar. (This bookmarklet opens up the Add Event form in a new tab/window)
Drag this link»
http://www.dannychoo.com/v4/addevent.php?language=eng&url='+encodeURIComponent(location.href)+'&title='+encodeURIComponent(document.title)
" title="RDC!" onclick="window.alert('Drag this link to your bookmarks toolbar, or right-click it and choose Bookmark this link');return false;">RDC! up to your Bookmarks Toolbar. (Add event form opens in same window)
Click on the calendar icon to add the event date.
You will see icons to subscribe to calendars via the Vcal format - this is what iCal will look like after subscribing. You should set this calendar to refresh every hour or so. New items will automatically appear when members add new items.
And this is what
Google Calendar will look like after subscribing. You can set alerts on each item too. Google Calendar seems to have a few bugs importing a calendar so you may need to try the import a second time.
You can keep tabs on your RDC list on your site - the whole list or by category. have a look at the
dannychoo.com server status page for an example. Use the RSS feeds to do this.
The main aggregated views dont filter out duplicate entries. This is because the same url may be used for different events (Haruhi + Haruhi second series will probably share the same url etc).
Another thing about RDC is that being the internet and what it is - you have to associate a URL with an item.
I dont know if Outlook supports the Vcal format but have no plans to implement any - want to be as cross-platform as possible.
Let me know if you have any suggestions or spot any bugs ^^;
