Mirai Gaia

Member posts were never a big part of my Danny Choo experience, but I could see why people miss them. However, couldn't these people just start posting over at Otaku.fm? Anywhichway, I adore the new design, it's great to see you always keeping the site fresh.

I like the new layout, it feels futuristic in a way. For some strange reason I have been having trouble logging into Figure.fm. I always get this weird link:
http://www.ops.ietf.org/lists/namedroppers/namedroppers.199x/msg03040.html

i love the new layout, but kind of miss the member posts. Sure, there are a lot of "junk" posts, but mostly could be absolved by thin slicing through the title. this helps me determine whether i would skip reading it or click on it

well i like seeing everyone's different perspectives on things you may not have known about, or something you may have never heard about, but if you hadn't accidentally seen it you may have never know you loved it.

the only member posts i really paid attention to were the ones about figure releases that you dont cover(i would never have know about the fully transformable shurouga)

I miss the members posts and actually really enjoyed them. The members posts were part of the reason why I kept coming back a few times a day... I can try to adjust though.

Really nice updates...

Well, to be perfectly honest I liked DC before the move to Mirai Gaia as it was simplistic and stylish. While I do appreciate the changes and upgrades (Puchi refresh being the best - Good job and thanks (>^^)>) I feel that the new design is actually a step back. Uploading news to figure.fm and have it show up on DC takes too long and having to log onto figure.fm just to post is rather annoying. Plus I can't go back to all my old comments and old news items which I rather very much enjoyed.

While readers ranted about the quality of member news, I'm sure many of us still appreciated the fact members posted material that was of interest to them so as to interest us. I can also relate to the feelings of members who think that some news posted are...less noteworthy than others. But then again, that's not my decision to say whether someone should or should not post something they themselves feel is important or interesting.

Was that not the point of changing the 'Member News' to 'Member Stuff'? DC is a place where members can freely enjoy their hobby and share their own interests with others. To restrict that or do otherwise...well, that notion just sounds conceited and elitist...unless it's a problem with software and coding then that's understandable (>^^)>

I don't like to judge what member's post based on it's supposed "quality" since quality is subjective and can only be determined in hindsight. If I find a news item interesting, I'll read it. I find it very interesting I'll post on it. If it doesn't tickle my fancy, I'll skip it.

Do I have to be some high-profile blogger to make a decent quality post? Do I have to pick some controversial topic to get things going or make it so broad that everyone can relate to it and will post a few words or just a sentence? Or do I have to be the first to jump on the newest latest event or figure in production? Is it really about Comment count that determines quality? I thought it was about expression and just posting what you think is interesting and finding others who share the same feeling.

Ever since the change I've been less and less inclined to visit DC. I really like reading about your daily adventures and the likes but for the most part I always looked forward to what fellow DC members...no, what fellow otaku and anime fans from across the world were doing or were looking at. Without that...DC just isn't the same to me.

Its difficult and probably down right impossible to satisfy everybody. The member post section was fun at times but it comes down to what is convenient for you. Unfortunately, I'm not really good at suggesting ideas for managing websites ><

Danny, how are you defining “popular” posts? # of views and/or comments?

Well, whatever works for you I guess. To be honest, I only read news about things that I'm interested in like figures, anime, and Japan (maybe otaku as well). Pretty much skip on anything else since I don't relate to them...yet.

I don't post quality stuff, but I think the number of posts on figure.fm (compared to DC.com) is way too much to handle, for me anyways.

But what exactly constitutes a "popular post"?

I only read the members post, if they have anything to do with new anime/movies or figures - otherwise not so much. I like that new chat addition. On the bottom of the page there's the box saying you'll change the theme later - not sure if there was a post to what it'll look like, am curious though. ^^.

Really liking the new layout, everything is so easy to navigate and find the things that you want. I'll admit it will probably take a little getting used to not seeing the member post section, but for me, I was more interested in the news articles anyway. I guess if enough people ask for it, and it can actually be done, the member post section can come back.

I read member posts when they're something of interest to me. Plus you can't catch all the awesome news, Danny, and I thought that was the point of letting members post...? Plus I like

You can't possibly please everyone, but since most of the member content contributes to your site in a good way, I think you should leave it. You could add some more rules and hire some mods to delete content that is inappropriate if it helps please the picky people. :|

in my short time of having posting privileges to the member news section I had actually quite enjoyed participating in various discussions.

but, well, this is your call ultimately: you have to do what is in line with the ethos of DC.com and Figure.fm. and if that means chopping out the non-figure member news, then so be it.

I usually only read the member posts that looked interesting to me. I kinda prefer to have it the old way we had it. But what do you mean by "popular" posts? As you know not everyone on DC is into the same things so something that could be interesting to someone could be the opposite for another.

I feel that what is considered a quality post all depends on the reader. If the title interests you, click it, if not, don't. Nobody can post something that everyone likes or thinks is quality. Comment count does not determine quality either. I've had H-doujin topics with just a few comments yet the doujin in there have been downloaded over 5000 times each.

I know the current layout and design is not final so I won't comment on that. I think out of all the options this one is the best:

"There will be two category trees. One tree is "figure" and underneath that will be Dollfie, Gundam etc.
The other tree will be "non-figure" and will have 2D Girls, Anime, Japan etc. The top page will display everything under the figure tree in one column and everything else in the non-figure tree in another column.
Figure.fm would be where all your content is uploaded and will still show up on the top page of dannychoo.com."

I have to admit that I find myself reading less and less member posts these days, partly because they feel like repeats and also, I have zero interest in a lot of what it posted, like the dollfie stuff.

Having said that, what I do find interesting often sparks a good bit of conversation between members.
Out of all the above, I think I like the idea of figure.fm being for figures and DC.com being for the rest, perhaps with a unified feed somewhere. But I had no idea that there was a system in place where only members with popular posts would be put on the front page. Having said that, I haven't uploaded stuff for a little while... Should change soon tho.

ずいぶん使い易くなりましたね。
最近はちょくちょく訪問してますｗ

Not sure what to say on this matter.

I like how raz put things. I enjoyed the member news when I had time to read it, and when I was posting frequently most of my time spent was in the members news section. I do agree however it should be a little more difficult to post news on the site, as there was an amount of rubbish here and there even though it was easily skippable.

I think I could get used to a system of non-member news hosted on figure.fm and showing on DC, along with the figure stuff.

The importance of the member news though to me would be subjective to the successs of the live blog section, if that takes off it would be great, and those people really hankering for some member news will just have to go to figure.fm if they want it fast. So many possibilities, maybe a poll could show us the importance the member news has to the general visitor.

Well I actually like the member's post at DC.com. Granted, some post are not interesting enough, but that's just for me, another member might find that same post actually interesting. What also cool is, some member asked for advice by posting them in the members post, now, doesn't it gives the feeling like all DC members are part of one big family? Giving advice, asking for help . . .
Members post is what uniting this site Danny, please don't take it away . . .

i think the "Feed Fusion" idea is a good one, it could be set up so we can type our blog address in a "Feed Fusion" spot on our account. ^_^ not only would we get people from DC viewing our post's we could also make a successful blog. o_o

but its okay ^_^ things change, with or without members news its not like I'm going to die.

For me the DC site brought the slice of life in Japan, which interested me greatly, was and is still the number one reason I frequent here. And the member items I grew to enjoy very much as it had a plethora of things for me to explore. Even the posts that didn't generate many hits I would look through, but that's me. And really I had no idea there were complaints such as those you've mentioned here, why I failed to notice this, I don't know. But, going between the two other sites I see your puzzlement, although I haven't frequented Otaku perhaps as much as I should have: gomenasai orz.
I do see a lot of little things that have been introduced, and has indeed polished things up quite nicely. And also the major ones too. But a dramatic change will always take some getting used to. Just like when I first came here and everyone pretty much thought things were smooth, I still had to get used to the map and options.
I guess if I were to tweak it I would include 2 member stuff blocks perhaps, One for Otaku for the blogger/site folks, One for Figure/non blogger/site folks. But I know they are dotted across both places.*thinks* Yes, something kind of like that, there's enough room on the front page?
Maybe one more, where I could go to both places without having to logon again, but I'm sure you've maybe thought of this already? But if it could be done I think it would close the seems tighter. I don't know how that works, the last time I did any programming was on an AppleIIe. =^~^=
Other then that I am getting the feel of the road so far and see how it goes, as it's still early. *got logged off* lol

I really do like the new layout for the site! It seems to make it easier for me to find posts that I haven't read before rather then having to go through everything.

I never really did pay attention to the member posts 'cept for when they where on figure releases and such. Plus like what other members have commented it seems to me that most of the member posts sound repetitive.

すごいです。
いつもサイト作りの参考にしていますが、
ぜひこの技術も勉強させてもらいます。

thanks!

I dunno much, but my workplace's proxy somehow prevents me from viewing the current site properly ( including figure.fm )when using firefox. While IE6.0 does allow me to view the sites, they will appear somewhat broken( i think it has to do with that stupid IE6.0's Allow HTTP1.1 through proxies option, which Firefox doesn't have :X).

I'll probably try to install a fresh copy of FF on the same terminal which i put in IE8.0 LOL.

P.S. - Firefox also has problems with facebook too, so i'm guessing my workplace's proxy is the main headache.

When I first started frequenting your site, it was for the Figure news. I ended up reading more Member News, but that mostly only extended to Classifieds or Otaku. I didn't read much else, but I would frequent whatever articles were under the "Being Read Now" or whatever the feature was called. I sort of miss the Member News/Stuff, though, since like others have mentioned, it would occasionally sprout some news I've never heard about but was interested in.

I also agree that what is quality for a post is subjective. Usually if the Subject Title or the Preview Image did not interest me, I would merely skip it. Repeat posts are naturally to be expected on a large community, but what if what is actually being shown/written/etc. is different? Because that is usually the case. It might be a repeat post for you, but it might be a whole new post to somebody else. You have to admit most people don't actually use the search function if there is one.

Hmmm.......

I don't wanna sound like the bad guy but in a way the removal of member posting solved the issue
to some who were being bothered by members who promoted their blogs on Dannychoo.com and did nothing
else on the site. Well, after they posted 50 comments and were eligible to do so of course. This week
i caught one member promoting his blog in the puchi blurbs and not just once but twice within about 2 minutes.

I think, and i don't wanna sound like an a-hole, but members who were registered since maybe 2007 at least
should be able to upload member posts. It seems like only newbies are posting 50 comments as fast as they can
so they can begin to promote their blogs on Dannychoo.com

I am a person that the second i see that i ignore your member upload. It's a way of forcing people to read
something they don't wanna read.

We are already able to post a link to our blogs in our profiles so why beg people to visit other peoples blogs?

I'm not the only one disturbed by this either. I suggest some of you look at Mimi's blog and her rants of
said members who promote blogs in this site.

Or just prohibit the promotion of member blogs. I know that newbies for blogs want a lot of readers but with that
comes a lot of work. Danny has a lot of readers and comments because of his years of work around here.

I don't get desperate for not having many readers. My blog is just there for when i have nothing else to do online
and feel i should share something with strangers online.

Really glad on the changes but Danny the pucchi blurbs seems to crash after 4 mins or so when the Refesh every 5 secs is ticked.

On the members post missing. Well apparently having them in MIA unleashed lots of trolls in DC.com and good thing that figure.fm is only slightly affected by it and those can be viewed if anyone was around when DC.com shifted to a Figure.FM layout.

Interesting topics on the top page is ok for me. I mean, it may be a back read to some but as long as it's something that was really the talk of the town then reading it is a good idea. On positioning them, I prefer them to be on Figure.fm but on a seperate grid. As for posting, i think having a three months status plus 50 comments (no spam) should allow a member to post but let's limit it to 3 topics per person/member a day.

But overall this idea is a thumbs up for me:

"we could open posts up on DC but I'm not keen on keeping the unpopular posts so would have a system like figure.fm where only folks who post quality stuff can have their posts go to the top page. -Danny"

The old members' stuff is fine as it is, no need to change it.. Sure there are times where the quality of posts would go down but that's only natural in a growing community. I think a user should have at least 100 or 150 comments before he/she can post a topic of his own.

And for the people complaining that some of the posts is not good enough.. Is it that hard to click the close button? I mean come on.. If you don't like the post the close it immediately.

I think it's not a good idea to limit the members' post to figures/plamo/dolfies, since not each and everyone of us has a 'figure' to share

I think you should do whatever you think it's right fro the community and never mind the trolls ^^ ... i have not yet seen any member post that not even 1 could hate or dislike... what i mean is that everyone likes different things so if you don't like a member post just ignore it read the ones you like people! ^^

Well at first I was reading a lot of member posts...but some where along the line I just stuck to the Danny news...not so much that it isn't interesting, but just lack of time to get to everything...

The new layout is pretty awesome love the grid effect and that fact you can do multiple things without having to refresh the page. I do feel however that the puchi blurbs is kinda...like an add-on? Since it's at the bottom of the page it doesn't feel apart of the website ?? ( I hope that makes sense). With members news, sure there's been controversy about postings (I've had a few) and some of it was just garbage, but as armistice said you could tell if you were going to read it just by reading the title and since the DC community is so close there is little to no flaming. and we had some cool posts going on Chibi miku I'm sure everyone remembers and a lot of cool little polls and information about things that interested different groups on DC. I learnt most of my news about what was happening in Japan, or around Japan via Members news. Anyway Love the new layout Danny ^_^ Viva La Danny~

I like how already theres a restriction on posting if your account is under 3 months old, I say keep it like that.
I love the figure.fm now. Love it lots.
I wasn't a huge fan of member news as well after figure.fm was upped. I agree there was some really lame posts, and should some how be filtered out. How about a voting system, out of 5 stars, like what youtube has? and maybe after a week or so, if the Post has under 3 stars after awhile it can be filtered out?
Though my idea sounds really really hard to actually pull off.

Well, I was a bit shocked by the change, but I can say that I like the new look, very streamline.

As for the member posts, I'm kind of torn on the issue. While there are clearly some member posts that are of poor quality, but I still read them anyway. I enjoy reading what my fellow members are into.
However, some changes can be made. The rules for member news should be more stringent. Increasing the number of required comments would be a start. Say increase it to 100 comments or more. Also, there should be a time requirement. Members who have been registered for a couple of months should be able to post member news.

To be honest, I was never really post member news, mostly because I feared the quality of my post would be substandard.

I really want the member posts back, I always looked forward to some stuff from the regulars or to figure reviews and the like. I got into several shows and what not because of a comrade's post. It was also the reason I made checking dc.com a daily habit.

I also will go along with the idea of: "If you don't like it, skip it" for members stuff.

Hmmm, lots of changes since I was here back in o7, I actually like the last design,
(Not to critcize you danny) I am not really found of the new design, cause it feels very spaced out.

And i thought we can go along fine with members putting up stuff, which not many people would have cared to comment.

There goes the post stuff, and forget.

Let's go with the flow of putting up exceptional stuff by exceptional people or don't even bother posting anything at all.

I'm sure we can do something else like lurkmoar via comments and be yes-men.

Yeah sure, there were a lot of "not so good" members posts, I think I probably posted a few as well! To be honest I think a lot of the "bad posts" are because people are just inexperienced. I guess not everyone has been blogging. There were some members posts that I liked though, so it would be sad to see it dropped completely.

Danny I guess you could introduce a Members Post "flag" system, that reports the really rubbish posts, and then those users get an email and a "strike", 3 strikes you get terminated, or they are just banned from posting for 12 months etc, but can still comment. I think a flag system would work.

I'd like to see otakufm return, I found a lot of interesting blogs through it. Anyways, easy for us to say this stuff when you have to do the work.

> Figures on figure.fm, non figures on DC
I support this. And also add the a feature to promote interesting posts.

I miss the member posts. More often than not, the posts do provide some interesting detail, and serve to kill time between Danny's articles. So I'm for keeping that section.

If the amount of rubbish post do bother you, I agree with undyingSoldier above about having a "flag" system.

Also, I would like to see the Classified Section retained, as it is useful in some way, and I for one intend to use it to sell some of my stuff, as it's easier to find like-minded buyers here than on eBay.

I really miss the members post. Although some posts were meh, I enjoyed reading them. It would really suck to have members post completely wiped out.
BTW I really like the new layout. It looks ALOT better. (^^)

I want the old feature back... Used to be able to ask questions, read comments and hear about other members issues and was my main way of communicating. I feel VERY lost without it.

Please bring it back. I love all member posts and have yet to see a non-high quality one.

It's true that there was a lot of rubbish member posts, but on the other hand there was a lot of good posts about interesting things like trips to Japan and otaku pilgrimages, interesting news about various releases of various things, then there were Vocaloid rankings and other posts with good Vocaloid songs (it's hard to find good vocaloid songs without vocaloid rankings or recommendations, that's why I liked when it was here), and other interesting posts. I will miss member posts, if they don't return.

It is good now how most member articles are now being kept to figure.fm. For the figure.fm proposal of having two trees, figures and non-figures, although the division of the two on the top page still seems out of place. The top page should remain the same with the latest column as it is and display the latest news from either tree.

Don't know if it's just me, but even though I am looking specifically for certain posts, there are other things while looking for them that peak my interest and cause me to click through. I know this may not be everyone but, that's why there would also be sections to enter that only have the specific categories that a user is looking for.

As for Otaku.fm despite the name, I see it as more of a location for things that are general Japan, rather than having anime specific articles which can be kept to figure.fm, so things such as interesting news articles from Japanese newspapers or television or documents of peoples experiences in Japan. Of course that isn't limiting the site to NO ANIME but less concentrated than what I see on figure.fm.

Anyway, keep Dannychoo.com to what it was originally intended for, Danny's blogging. But keep members posts from the branches of Mirai Gaia, still visible on the top DC page as they are now with the small side panels. I'm enjoying the experience and layout of both DannyChoo.com and Figure.fm. Keep up the good work and we'll see how it all pans out. ^^

Is anybody else finding (or to be exact not finding..) that a lot of the "A Week in Tokyo" articles are missing??

The thing about the members post was it gave DC members a chance to be a contributer to DC. As for the people complaining, not everyone could give awesome blogging post. But, as for fellow comrades, we should support each other.. .

I usually browse and click the member news that had to do with technology/gaming/anime review/ trip blog.

Seeing other people's desktops and rigs is one of the reasons I enjoyed the member articles.

DC.com has gone so far since I've began reading here, I'm looking forward how this site and its counterparts will continue to change and get better.

i'll just wait for your decision and go along with it. i'm a fence sitter.

I kind of like the idea of a different column for figures and non-figures... easier to read that way ^^

in my opinion i say lets retire members' stuffs all together once and for all. ^^;

I would really prefer that the member news section returns in some form. Replacing DC.com member news (which provide a great deal of content in between Danny's posts) with Figure.fm members news seems to slant DC.com heavily towards the figure stuff. Now I know Danny and many other members appreciate figures, but I always appreciated DC.com for its wide-ranging spectrum of posts. It used to be that figure posts were mixed in with the other content, but with this figures-only member news... if I wanted to read figure news, I'd just browse figure.fm instead. In fact, since the update I've found myself visiting DC.com less due to the now fairly static nature of the member news section. By the same principle, I'd rather figure.fm member news remain strictly figures-only, or with a heavy suggestion that non-figure stuff be posted on DC.com.

Sorry I don't have an actual suggestion regarding re-implementing the member news section. Just felt like I had to make this comment as diverse member news really made this site interesting to read daily.

Meh, I liked the old members' news (the good, bad, and indifferent of it). I'm a little biased, though, seeing as how I posted a ton on there, so take my opinion with a grain of salt. ^^;

i miss member news..i like post something good about.

Personally I read the member's posts. Well I read say around 10% of them, which is fine because I assume that other people read another 10% and with enough people around most of the stuff is read.

I like the idea about having a "verified quality" post display. The problem is how to figure out what is quality posts. If you need to have a certain amount of quality posts in the pasts then the system risks ending up like "those people can post and the rest can't because nobody rates their stuff as quality because nobody reads non-quality posts".

Maybe the solution is to give a rating system to posts so users can tell if the post in question is worth reading. Kind of like say comments rating on youtube. It will also be useful for the posters to get that kind of feedback. One could argue that if a person has enough "good posts" the posts will automatically be considered good when posted.

It's actually tricky to figure out a good system. I thought about counting the comments but that wouldn't work. A good post might be one where people will not have to comment (like look at this funny picture and 4 people says it's funny) while bad posts might end up with 10 comments about the post being bad. At the same time some posts really starts debates and the comment count can reach 50 or 100.

I will try to think about a good system. One thing is for sure though: whatever we end up with it needs to be coded in a way which can be changed easily if it turns out that it isn't working.

I think Member news gave something diferent to DC.com ...
Sure Dannys posts are interesting and helpfull, even inspirational in many ways, but just keeping figure stuff?
Well I'm not really here for figures or Dannys posts alone, I enjoyed Member news alot tho I personaly didn't post any but I did comment on them and read them even those that didn't seem that interesting to me.
I sure found out stuff that didn't knew about anything before.

If you decide to remove them its not gonna make go away but I'll most likely visit DC.com less, there will always be people hard to satisfy but try finding a way to keep them.
Maybe have a setup were people can thick a tag box for the type of news they want to see, so whoever wants none see none and whoever wants only a few subjects they have the option to do so.

I actually like reading the Member News, despite not commenting much. It was interesting to see people around the world put up stuff rather than just reading Danny's stuff from Japan.

I got most of my anime recommendations from the member posts so I find them useful. I like the 3 strikes idea though and then posting rights are removed. Or there's always self regulation? Give it a rating (5 stars) if after a week it has a 1 star rating it gets removed?

I would actually prefer to have a site dedicated for lifestyles in Japan while maintaining otaku culture-related posts on another site.
Sometimes I find DC.com's RSS feed is clotted up with otaku/figures related post which some might not be interested in.

I sort of miss the member posts but I do get why people complained.
I'm liking the new layout though. =)

And... I think figure.fm should just stay with stuff related to figures... which can extend to Gundam and BJDs. It's just that... the url feels kinda mis-leading when you have non-figure stuffs.

But it's ultimately up to you (as well as others). I'm... horribly indecisive when it comes to these issues. D=

But yes, I am keen on seeing the member posts come back in some sort of way.

I think the update is rather pointless and it doesn't really imprpove anything at all. Why fix something that isn't broken? The member posts were a big thing for me and I think it was a right way to involve the community. It seems silly at best to downplay that part in the new design. Definitely a step back.

That said, I do like the quick posts from Danny.

I find I've been visitin DC less, and Figure.fm more because of the member posts. I mean, it was a good system, one blogger cannot create more content than thousands of other members ^_^;; If some does not interest you, then don't open teh post, simple. The more content there is, the better chance you will find more good posts.

On the other hand it is easier to just keep track of one site instead of 2.

Also I am not fond of a system where only the elite people are allowed to post (however they might be judged). There are a lot of newbies who had fun posts too.

Anyways whatever happens we still have figure.fm ^_^ It's turning into a nice site

Well, you've pretty much got all my ideas up there. Though you could still have the member stuff up with DC.com and employ the same method you're using over at Figure.fm when posting.

...use Otaku.fm which is in serious need of attention... - seems like a good idea.

Alternatively, we could have member news be read in with Feed Fusion just like posts on Otaku.fm but then again that wont be good for folks who don't have blogs. - why not just allow people to post directly on it?

I need to set up a site for a cosplay competition and will open up a non-figure category at figure.fm. There will be two category trees. One tree is "figure" and underneath that will be Dollfie, Gundam etc.
The other tree will be "non-figure" and will have 2D Girls, Anime, Japan etc. The top page will display everything under the figure tree in one column and everything else in the non-figure tree in another column.
Figure.fm would be where all your content is uploaded and will still show up on the top page of dannychoo.com. - wouldn't it defeat the purpose of the site being named figure.fm?

eh sry to say this but, it somehow seems that now all of the member news are figures only, it feels like way back before member news was implemented, when everything was posted by danny himself only. Not that i don't like figures, but this whole anime/figure/j-pop/gundam/2d/otaku stuff has too much stuff. Member news was the thing that made me come and check out what funny stuff that pple posted up.

overall design of the page... well i dun have much of a taste, cuz i would simply get used to the new one. Also, it is difficult get show the avatar of the person who posted a certain news? makes it easier to recognise pple

I'd like to add my voice to those who have already spoken in favor of bringing back member news/stuff. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy Danny's posts, but I spent a lot more time here reading and commenting on member posts. For me, this place has largely been about the community.

I agree with some that putting non-figure stuff in a separate category kind of seems like it defeats the purpose of being called "figure.fm". Otaku.fm could work, though I wonder how that would mesh with its current feed aggregation role (and I never have found the options for Amazon and Google Adsense IDs that are mentioned in the posts about it).

The option I would prefer is to have them brought back to DC.com with the "quality" ones (as Danny put it) percolating up to the top page, but all of them still accessible, if desired. I do think that perhaps a year wait is a bit too stringent, however. I'd say about 3 months or so (6 months max) should be enough for most to start to get the feel of the "lay of the land" as it were.

There's an issue with the profile edit functionality.
I went in to edit my location, since I'm in Japan now and will be for several months, but there is no box for the location, so I can't edit it.

I do miss member posts, very much, and figure FM for some reason doesnt work for me.

member post were pretty cool

I think member news should be brought back, but the quality of member news should be evaluated. A +/- score system seems like the easiest way to do it. One idea I have is to not let the score go above zero so that people can't inflate their posts. Another one is to only allow minuses, where a post gets hidden/deleted if enough people downvote it. Also, quality articles should get highlighted on the front page to set an example.

I enjoyed reading the member posts. The frequency of the uploads of them meant that there was always new news on this site several times a day.

I actually loved the members news because sometimes it has useful info that I'm unable to pick up on myself.

I recently discovered a band called 'Naked Eyes' that I'd love to post something about, but now I can't... ToT

Awww, so they're really gone?
Sure it wasn't all gold, but I enjoyed going through them and never complained bout 'em....

I miss the member posts. Also the posts for classifieds. Since you have hidden member's posts the classifieds are also hidden, I assume, since I cannot find my response to one of them. I was trying to purchase an item and the e-mail did not go through when this changeover happened. So I guess my whole experience with the new site is now tarnished. I understand your reasons but I really prefer the old way.

In my opinion the current design is a bit dull, without the mascots and the "welcoming page". The layout itself is pretty nice though.
I dind't really read member posts here in dc, but I do like reading them in figure.fm and otaku.fm. It would be really nice if the member posts would be integraded to figure.fm in the form of non-figure posts.
I don't like the idea that only members who have been registered for a certain time, would be able to upload posts. Imo everyone should be able to upload posts.

Well i, still like how the layout of the theme is ^^ but i wish there could be a better layout though lol it is just me though lol i did like the members posts and comments, i did my part too ^^ well i do have an idea maybe we could have a section were we can post topics on what ever from our blogs and if we don't have a blog yet post like how it was before but after you get your blog you could link it to there, idk lol ^^ i still like dannychoo though just have to w8 and see ^^.

Personally I really enjoyed going through and reading the DC Member stuff posts and I do miss seeing them, especially the "classics" like "Weekly Miku", "Weekly Vocaloid", "Moe Monday", convention news, all the 2d/3d hot idol/model stuff, and many, many more.

Is there any way to implement a sort of "rating system" where 6 month-1yr. members can flag member posts and comments as being SPAM and when a post or comment is flagged...let's say 10 times then that post/comment is automatically hidden/deleted? As you may know, this kind of system is largely used and is very helpful in large user-generated content community websites, such as YouTube, Veoh, VReel, StageVu, (and Hulu but that isn't a UGC site).

I did read some of the member news. Some posts I found to be very interesting. I discovered some great youtube musicians, creators of very funny and/or clever CGM, and it was a cool way to see other users desktops, bedrooms, hometowns, etc. The downside to member news, to me, was some posts would be a picture of a 2-d anime girl with a link to someones blog, or maybe a pic of a recently acquired figure that I had seen dozens of much better photos of over the months. I guess I mean to say that the quality or depth of posts varied greatly for me, now that is somewhat subjective, so I'm sure others feel quite differently about it.

hmmm... I love member posts in addition to Danny posts. I am not saying much that has not been said, but the variety from people everywhere is interesting. I do wonder what the outcome of all posts considered "others" will be? I read many member posts and comments, but I am sure many are wondering where their post will fit in. Mine is cooking I post it about once every 2 weeks, it's not that popular but its something different ^^ Will be interesting to see where it lands or if it will still be considered member material. Keep up the good work! Change is good, and there are always things to work out when it occurs.

I read any posts which attract my attention

I really love and enjoy reading members post. There is a lot of information, funny things, experience and knowing about others place etc. Also we can share something thats sometime we doesn't even aware of it. I think you should keep it that way Mr. DC.

I like reading members posts every so often, though what keeps me coming back are your own.

The old Members post...was my news hub...for news i had missed unintentionally...or was completely unaware of...would have preferred it to be back on the site...i don't really mind the quality of the posts...as long as good news are still posted up...Separating the figurine and non-figurine news...i will not consider it a wise idea as well...And the old restrictions for posting...is much more fitting compared to the currently presented one year restrictions...Just my 2 cents worth...

I think it is good to keep all posting capability on figure.fm....otherwise stuff is all over the place. I now use DC to quickly check the latest posts on figure.fm and only head over if I really want to. I like the fact that I can look at one site and know I atleast won't miss a post from the other. With or without a tree layout in the future is fine by me; I sofar don't mind having everything on one pile...I'm an all-round otaku anyways ^^

I do read member post very often, Danny. I know some people will make crappy post (I do that too, and I'm sorry) from time to time. But I think member post should be returned.

Your blog is unique, you let your reader to post stuff, sharing information, and I think this is the heart of your blog.

Personally I find member posts quite an integral part of DC.com.
A place where we get to share what we enjoy, find interesting with a community of a few hundreds/thousands of like minded people. Where else can we do this?

It also helps double/triple the no. of articles to read so Danny doesn't have to write a new article every half a day to keep hungry readers satisfied.

My proposed solution for the "lack of quality posts" would be to add a rating function like the stars on YouTube.
Each post will have a user rating (in terms of Stars, or GREAT!/DREADFUL! option)
Then we sort the daily member posts by user ratings.
The DC front page will only say display the top 10 member news articles.
And the rest will be listed in order on the "More news.." page from GREATEST to DREADFUL.

As to the "blatant advertising of blog" problem.
I propose to ban blog or any form of advertising on puchi blurbs.
And for advertising via news articles, have a minimum post count (XX no.) and registration length (XX months) pre-requisite.
So if someone wants to blatantly advertise something, he/she will have to not only spam XX no. of posts but wait for XX months too.
This should deter most people.

Me personally, I liked to read the members posts on DC. I found myself reading every new member post on a daily basis. Sure, some of them were junk... But the majority of them were actually informative, entertaining, funny, or just something neat. I think member posts allowed for more of a community feeling on DC.

Just my opinion, I'm sure other people think otherwise. Do what you feel is the best solution, Danny. Remember You can't please everyone and there will always be a group of people who complain no matter what you do.

imo the news part should be retained. after all, if its really that bad, no one is forced to read them anyways. and the previous hiding function works well in keeping people that isn't interested in them pleased

I hope the member news section stays on DC.com. I'm not really bothered by the 'quality' issue raised by some members, but I suppose I can understand their concerns. As many comrades have pointed out above, perhaps a better way of organizing/filtering the member content is needed.

I'm curious as to what the Japanese members think.

i actually liked to member posts. they were ways for the hikikomori to touch base with the real world. oh well, back to the basement they go.

I didn't think that I would miss it until it was gone. While I did not read most of the member news, I could always find things that interest me. The member news always had something new, making this a site I would visit multiple times a day and helping to fill in the times when Danny was slow with posts. I found it interesting to take a peek into other peoples lives and interests.

My opinion on this:
Danny's posts about japanese culture interest me the most but dc.com has transformed from a japan/otaku blog into something more community driven. The members news section is a good example of that.
It seems like the dc.com community has grown to a size where quality of member posts has become an issue. This together with the amount of posts made it hard to keep up and only check out posts that interest you. It is unavoidable as peoples interests differ and more and more posts are made. I haven't had many issues with this but it seems from the replies some do.

One possible solution would be categorization/tagging and a more customizable main page(which becomes more of a personal page). This would allow users to have a main page with stuff they are interested in. It would require a more complex infrastructure but I think its worth the effort/resources. The customization does not promote diversity and exploration as much as a general page for everything, but a widget showing popular/random posts should offer some diversity.
As dc.com is community driven a ranking system would be no problem to implement. For me, a nicovideo-like ranking system would be interesting. It would be best to keep it simple like only allowing users "like"/promote a post. This in combination with a view/comment/like (similar like nicovideos view, comment , mylist system) should make a balanced ranking system. Still the amount of posts might overwhelm quality posts but that is hard to overcome. Limiting the amount of posts an user can make per day might work but that should only be implemented when it really becomes a problem.
Advertising posts, like trolls, should just be ignored maybe even allow users to "unview" a post. Of course mistags should be regulated.

Like the new layout of DC.com but I do miss the Member News. I did more commenting then posting to be honest but I liked that the community was participating. The navigation is a lot cleaner bit makes me a bit confused getting around the site.

Still need to get use to the new platform & layout, been staying in this community for too long, thus need some more time to adapt to the new environment.

Personally I would kindly suggest members who had registered for a period of time & had a moderate amount of popular response (25 comments+) from their previous posts in order to be feature on the Top Page. Will need a trial run before deciding on permanently implement this new listing features.

Moo, sorry been a bit busier than usual so haven't commented much but still at least try to read when I get chance to :3 I am likeing how Figure.fm is evolving and I think having FF as a feed on DC is good ^^ I like that U can still hijack stuff from FF when you like it onto DC :3

The way I saw this place was that dannychoo.com was for Danny, as it has his name as the domain; his updates, his reports, his guests... guesting. The figure.fm stuff was shown on the page aswell, from a different site, which was cool and kept the community feel of the place. That's what I thought.
Maybe I'm reading it wrong but figure.fm, to me, is the community side. The posts on there seem very familiar to what I saw in the Member News when it was still around and that's what I thought it was about.
Then DC.com is the Japan blog side. Where Danny keeps us informed on what's going on. I compare it to any other website you can look at. Usually they have a main website and a forum. DC.com is the website and figure.fm is the forum/community (albiet a much more awesome forum/community). I'm sorry if this is the wrong way to look at it, but it's the way I see it.
The only problem I have with the sites are the separate Puchi blurbs. Having two, one for each site, seems hard for me to follow. I can see they have been inspired by Twitter, and I really like that. I like pressing Load More to load more down the page but if there was a way, like before, you could go and check through past posts through a series of pages, I think that could be good.
If you do a Digg type thing where people 'like' posts I think it'd be nicer to not have how many people 'liked this news item' viewable on the page. The more people like a page the higher it goes up in rankings, there's no need to advertise that 100 people liked this news item even though 35 people have actually commented, not including the poster of the news item. To stop people 'liking' it more than once you can have a person only 'likes' a news item once. He can retract this, but then adding it again will only be adding his first 'like' back again.
Sorry for the long post, that was just some things I thought of whilst I was reading through the comments and also reading through the DC theme post that was posted.

As for BBCode - I was looking through some older posts and found [currency=...]
http://www.dannychoo.com/post/en/22807/Comike.html - in the third sentence
Just in case - you probably have it on the ToDo list already

Have you thought about putting a limit on the amount of member posts allowed per day/week/month ? Perhaps this may make people put more thought, effort and maybe time into their posts??

Changes is good, like the new layout wide n neat but misses the mascot.
Almost getting used to it but don't like logging in twice.

A way to determine popularity is to add a like/dislike feature on top of your view count. Where just viewing the comments would = 1, viewing and liking = 2, viewing and disliking = 0. And also add filtering by multiple tags.
I personally feel that the user posts are what made this a better community than just interacting through comments to your posts.

About the complaining, I'm sure if you gave everyone money, there would be someone to complain about it.

I'm still new as being a member goes (I've been visiting the site for a year or two before I joined), but I did enjoy the member posts. I found out a lot of things I would have never known if it had not been for them (like all the different conventions held around the world).

personally enjoyed the member posts especially because it was sort of a stepping stone for me going from lurker -> active commenter -> occasional member news poster -> blogger. i was subscribed to the feed at one point, but i must admit i stopped following it because of the sheer volume of posts. too much to handle and it was hard to find the choice items to catch up with. in that regard i, for one, enjoyed the listing of "popular" member items and would've liked the promoting interesting stuff to the top page.

going forward... well, unfortunately i'm pretty easy going, and will be happy with whatever so no strong opinions in that regard ^^;;

Wow, Danny! Thanks for introducing me to SliceHost, they are awesome!

Screw 1&1, I've got a new server now. :D

I personally enjoyed reading members posts, some were a little weird, but others were funny and informative. Other then that I like the new layout. (^_^)Great job Danny & crew.

Danny, it's seems that my profile in the figure.fm and the main site is different..
But it doesn't matter for me, just want to inform you though that maybe someone that will make matter from that..

But overall, I like the figure.fm posts being feed into the main site.

I rarely go to figure.fm because I get it straight from my RSS feed, but I think having a requirement for posts is a bad idea since it could lead to the same type of content. I think being able to block member posts is a good idea. Tough nuggets for the people complaining, but you're never going to please everybody.

I think the new layout is great, easier for me to read on the posts, but yeah even though I'm a relatively new member (but quite a lurker for some months), I really really miss a lot of member's posts, (I admit some of there were almost exactly the same)but common I know some of you miss those saber/haruhi fights, vocaloid ranking, those anime conventions photos, the daily idol and daily dolphin (I only read until the fifth one -_-;), etc... I personally miss them a lot and wanted to read some of the old ones to know a lot of you better, if they can be moved to figure.fm or any other site (otaku.fm, etc.) would be great >.< and maybe not immediately (take your time, we can wait (-_0)b); this is just my personal opinion, just be patient minna!! ^_^

Loving the new LAY-OUT!

I'm a fairly new DC member (less than a year), I basically jointed after Danny adopted Dollfie Dream Saber and Aoi, and a whole bunch of Dollfie Dream owners showed up. I enjoyed the Dollfie Dream related posts on DC a lot and also watched some figure posts. I'm a bit sad all those posts are gone and hope they will be available to watch again.

After the Otacool contest though, I have been spending more time and posting more at figure.fm, because we can add more than 1 picture per post, that is so much better. I did find it hard to keep track with both DC and Figure.fm Dollfie member posts when they were both available at the same time, so I think it's a good thing if member figure and dollfie stuff can be kept in 1 place. I just hope the old posts from DC will be available again under the new system.

I think non-figure category at figure.fm would be a good idea ^^. I do like some of these posts. Feed Fusion like posts on Otaku.fm would not be good because I don't keep a blog. U_U

Regarding quality of posts, maybe you could set some guidelines as to what's a good quality post and what's a bad quality post.

Im kinda glad that the member posts are gone as many of them were irrelevant, silly or unintresting. The main content is, and always has been the reason i come here. Even if this was just a standard wordpress blog with only the main content, i would still visit as often.
Dannychoo.com is first and foremost a blog of danny's life.
I can understand the need to get involved and bring up discussions and share images, photos, links and post questions, but if i wanted to be part of a community or LOLROFL at lolis, pedobears and 4chan memes, i would go join a forum.

Sorry if i sounded like an arsehole there - its been bugging me for a while and im just getting it off my chest :-D

By the way - i run my PC through my old 720p HDTV, so my vertical resolution is only 720 pixels. I find that the top banner is a little too big, and i always have to scroll down to the main content. I understand that you may want to put the sponsors at the top, but the large photo banner is a little unnessesary.

Good work though - the site seems more streamlined now.

At the end of the day, this is Danny's blog. Perhaps member posts can be screened, or even deleted if deemed of poor quality (feedback in this case would be helpful).

Perhaps the simplest way is to limit it to longer term members who have made a certain number of comments. The rationale here is that a longer term contributing member will have a much better feel for what makes a good member post on DC, and will act as their own quality control - though veto powers would still reside with Danny.

"Or (or?) we could have only members who have been registered for more than a year and have already posted a certain number of popular posts to have uploading permissions and feature their posts on the top page."

This.

I really miss the member news. Although there were a lot of dull posts (for me), there were still some which I found very interesting to read. Even if this is Mr. Danny's blog, it is also a community (it started as a simple blog but it then transformed into a community wherein people share their ideas and experiences) so I think it isn't right to remove the member news.

I like reading the member news. Its a nice thing to read up on when there arent any new unread official Danny Choo posts. :D

As for me, it isn't really "productive" to read the member's news trying to separate the wheat from the chaff, the payoff isn't worth the effort. Of course I can depend on hijacks but i wonder is there a better way to promote higher quality news over the rest. I'm leaning towards a digg kind of system, abusers will be executed on sight!

Last pt: DC is not about member news and should never be.

People had a problem with member news? Seriously? I felt more connected to the community because of it.

i loved the member news, it was what made the dc community so great

i guess some people forgot the scenario series by tenrou

"Or (or?) we could have only members who have been registered for more than a year and have already posted a certain number of popular posts to have uploading permissions and feature their posts on the top page."

keep the trolls out :)

The moment I read this post I thought, "Way to go, litokid, way to go. Good job taking a hiatus from DC just as the community decides the direction it wants to take."

The reason I was even on a hiatus, though, was the absence of the Member News. While this blog was definitely originally about Danny - it was what got me hooked when I first got here - over time that's evolved. Danny's news is still pivotal and central and gets far more views and comments, but for the community that's sprung up the Member News is what keeps things going. It's how we get to know each other and keep up with each other.

It does seems like things have reached a kind of solution now though, so perhaps I'm posting this unnecessarily. ^^; As what seems to be one of the few who read every single post on this site, I'm not going to pretend that we don't have rubbish posts. But a lot of it is worth reading if you have the time and a genuine interest in the hobbies and lives of the other members here.