blog好き

Oct 16 2005

Categories: anime, commentary

1 Comment »

I still remember reading Aa! Megami-sama back in 1999, and after the movie arrived, I noticed that the only living website for A!MS was the original Goddess Project. Because there was a void, I decided to start my own, sake, bugs, and angels, to fill that void. Edward started Nekomi Kodai around the same time, and for that one site that died, two took its place. And I’m going to argue that sba and Nekomi Kodai brought more to the table than the original GP. But, time passes, and it’s not that I like A!MS less, just I started branching out and watching other series. Focusing on just one series just felt archaic, and I enjoyed working on my anime blog at the time, Toybox, more than I did sba.

But, it’s not necessarily a bad thing, because other people have taken up the banner, and they’re continuing bringing the A!MS community healthy websites with different viewpoints, and those websites will grow stale one day to be replaced by another… and so forth. It’s a bit sad, but it’s not a bad thing. It’s just the currents, the tides, and the flows of the web. Just like any other hobby like windsailing or stamp collecting, you’re either into it or not.

Using the example of professional basketball. Jordan retired. Did it kill the sport? Did the NBA fold? No, no. He brought in new fans to the sport, and his importance to the sport isn’t measured in points alone but also in the number of new faces and fans he brought in. After he left the game, yes, some left, but a lot of those new faces stayed to witness the players that replaced Jordan, like LBJ and Wade. Whether it’s the NBA or anime blogging, something new will come along and replace the old. Am I sad that Jordan is gone? Yes, because he was a great player, but I’m just as excited to see LBJ and Wade ball. Am I sad that some blogs are closing? Yes, but a regular reading this blog can tell you that my blogroll today looks nothing like my blogroll from two years ago.

The turnover for blogs is just faster and more noticable because they’ll appeal to a larger base audience. Personal blogs come and go even more quickly, but fewer will be noticed since their audiences are smaller. As I stated already, blogs are easier than ever to setup. The current version of WordPress can be up and running in 5 minutes compared to 30 minutes of b2config.php tinkering under b2 alone. And could b2 be easily customized? No, nowhere as easily as WordPress. So blogs come… blogs go. The original point of a blog is to evangelize something: either oneself, a hobby, a cause, a belief, etc. Anime blogs evangelize anime, not the author of the blog. If an anime blog can encourage people to get into anime or further understand it better, that blog has done its job, and the biggest compliment an anime blog can get is, “I started watching that series because of you.” Or “I discovered that series because of you.” Or “I started my own blog because of you.”

Don’t worry though. For every blog that goes away, I’m sure two (or more) will replace it. It’s just up to people who are blogging to keep their blogrolls fresh so the new blogs get a chance to assert themselves. If someone is sad that their favorite anime blog is going away, well, just start one– it’ll be the best going away present and compliment for the old blog.

(Meta: originally started as a comment for Hand of Gory‘s Genshiken-like post but decided to expand a bit since I wasn’t finished drinking my coffee ^^.)