AnimeNet Meet November 19, 2005

AnimeNet is an open-platform anime enthusiast property currently being developed. The purpose of this meet-up is to discuss feature implementation and development, so as to ensure that members will get the features and services that are useful to them. I don't just want feedback from members once the site is launched; I want it before we even finish the features! This is your chance to play an important role in the creation of an ambitious anime portal, as well as get a sneak preview of the site.

There will also be free food & drinks, prizes, and all participants will receive special badges on their profile pages once the site goes live. Prizes will include complete box sets, tote bags, and so on, and will be awarded raffle-style. Everyone will receive raffle tickets as they arrive, and will be rewarded additional ones as they provide comments & feedback!

Here are a few of the things that will be discussed.

- Registration requirements (less is more)
- Social networking
- The friends list
- Content filtering by friends (do you really care what your friends like?)
- Wiki-style content editing
- User contributed content (fan art/fiction, media files)
- Torrents & downloads
- Pay-for-play full episodes
- Lists & collections (e.g. Have/Want/Seen) and their uses
- Privacy & related issues
- Anonymous community contributions
- Goods bartering - does anyone even do this?
- How much do you love your cell phone?
- Anime clubs
- Anything else worth discussing!

The meeting will be postponed if at least 10 people don't sign up. Please bring along anyone you believe will be interested!

The venue is still undecided, but will be in the Los Angeles area, most likely Santa Monica. I will update this event once I know the location is locked down. I'm willing to take suggestions, of course. If I find that a large number of people that want to come are concentrated in a particular area (Valley, OC, etc.), I may relocate the event.

If you have any questions, you can contact me at [email protected], or by phone at 323-309-7729. No heavy-breathing, please.

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MORE INFORMATION ABOUT ANIMENET.COM
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Anet aims to be the a first in the online anime space. It will merge the best of traditional IMDb-style features such as an in-depth anime catalogue, a huge collection of media including images, screenshots, and wallpapers, and the single most comprehensive suite of community tools imaginable, including discussion boards, user groups, messaging, blogs, collaborative filtering, and social networking.

Consider the following user experience:

You search for "naruto" on Google.com, and click on a link that takes you to the AnimeNet Naruto summary page. On this page there's a picture of the Naruto cast, next to which is some basic information on the show such as the number of episodes, genres, and a brief synopsis. Below the synopsis is a table of the characters and their voice actors. Below that is several news headlines, finally followed by a few user reviews.

Near the top of the page is a series of tabs for the show: Summary, Episodes, Gallery, Cast, News, Links, Related, Reviews, Forum.

Episode Guide
Clinking on 'Episodes' takes you to a page with a listing of episodes from the first season. Each episode has the original air date in both Japan & the US, upcoming air dates if it's still on TV, and a summary of what the episode was about. Next to each episode is an "Edit" button.

At the top of the page, above the episodes, is a link to view episodes for all the seasons of the show.

Gallery
Clicking the 'Gallery' tab takes you to a page littered with images. You're immediately presented with a row of images labeled "Most Viewed", followed by a row labeled "Top Rated". Further along you come across the rest of the images, all four hundred of them.

Fortunately you see a filter that allows you to quickly find the pictures you came here for. You can limit what images to show based upon the rating, the number of views, the kind of picture (promotional, magazine scan, fan art, screen capture), and by the tags that other members have assigned it.

So you set the filter to show images with more than the average number of views (a checkbox), and that contain "Sakura". You hit the submit button and the results show up almost immediatly below.

Reviews
Clicking this tab brings you to a page of user & critic reviews, each with it's own score. You can instantly see what both professionals and the fans at large thought of the show.

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You can figure out the rest on your own for the remaining tabs :)

One of the most important features of AnimeNet will be it's Wiki-style approach to contributions. Every member has the ability to suggest edits to everything on the site, from the synopsis, cast & crew, to removing poor quality images in favor of a superior quality image. Of course this brings up the problem of moderating user contributed content, and that's solved through a basic trust system. New members cannot immediately make changes, but can provide new additions for approval, and as you climb the ladder you'll be given broader access with fewer limitations.

As you contribute more and more you'll eventually be granted editorial privileges on a particular title, allowing you to bypass the approval queue and directly edit content! If you contribute enough to multiple titles, you may even be given senior editorial privelages allowing you to make edits to ALL titles!

In short, I really want to make sure that each member is empowered with enough options and variety to customize their experience, and not be tied down to what we, the founders & developers, believe you should be limited to.