For a while I have been trying to create a comment system that would be useful, display avatars, allow YouTube clips to be posted in-comment as well as the ability to reply to comments. Thankfully that came a bit easy with the Google Friend Connect comment gadget. It allows all of that as well as the ability to sign in via Google, AIM, openID and until any spam rolls in, I'll continue to allow anonymous comments too. Sadly, the old google Blogger comment system that was on the site had to be commented out (haha, get it?) and any previous comments are no longer visible. The old comment system was a bit of a bore and thus not many comments were on there in the first place. I also did the same for anime.fm and charlesgaffney.com. The coding for this comment system, like most of the stuff with google is open-source and internet wide so expect more customizations but at least all comments will be kept here for good on the site....of course unless it's spam.
Many sites have this, the ability to post their feeds with thumbnail photos, but my God is it a pain to find out HOW to do it, even for a programmer, like me. Even more of a trouble is that my blogs are all run from my own server/sites; so, despite this being a "blogger" blog, I get no customization love from Google being that this isn't a .blogspot blog or Wordpress blog -_-
Having thumbnail recent posts and label posts looks far better than the regular text feeds we commonly see with RSS feed aggregation. Thanks to a new reworking on the feed2js by engadgeteer.com's Bryan (who btw is also an anime fan), I was able to finally automate, thumbnailed posts for my blog and their labels. Of course, I'd like to have the code be local to my own site for SEO and security purposes, but this will do for now till I work a deal with them.
Check out some of the areas I've added recent posts to, like the front page (at the bottom), here (check below), and even on sections like anime figures, cosplay and anime music. Now with this, I can bring back old sections of the site like say Final Fantasy VII Tifa's section and have all posts about Tifa show under her gallery of photos automatically. This will then be integraded with the Member's Blog for more exposure to your posts.
Speaking of the member's blog, um, some of you signed up to blog and possibly win Nendoroid Kureha but haven't posted a single post -_- You have to be in it to win it guys, and being in the contest means posting on the Member's Blog .
Thanks again engadgeteer.com and their developer, Bryan for this much needed feature.
In case you all haven't noticed, I installed the Tweetboard application to the bulk of the site (seen as a tab on the left side). If, like me, you use twitter alot, this comes in handy and allows for some more real-time convos here on the site which of course is synced into twitter. Big thanks to the developers of TweetBoard. Chances are, I'll be seeing if I'm allowed to modifiy it a bit more to go with my planned upgrades to the blog and site.
Great news. As of today I've basically completed a part of the blog that I think you all will like. I have created a member driven portion of the blog. In other words, if you get approved, you can create blog posts here on my blog! It's basically a utilization of Blogger's author sign-up function but it should work pretty well.
I actually made it a brand new blog but embedded it here in the site. If you got the email with "Member Rules"..sorry that was an accident; was suppose to go to the member blog ^^;; Still working out the kinks.
So if any one want to help add more anime posts, it can be done ^_^ Check out the rules and how to get involved below. Please note that once I hit about 100 authors, I'll reach my limit. I'm doubtful the site is THAT popular but..always good to warn evryone.
In related news. Due to the very buggy and easily hacked coding of phpBB, the anime forum will have to be taken away Y_Y Nothing but spam went there and now its somehow broken. Forums are very Web 1.0 anyways and unless its a place like gaiaonline...a forum is not so useful in today's online world anymore. So this member's blog will basically be a replacement. The member blog will be shown here on this blog better...just need to fix some design aspects. Anyways...on to the rules and other info:
What's in it for you?
Drive some traffic to your anime/otaku blog: Chuck's Anime Shrine is continuing to gain more and more traffic over time. As of this post, my alexa traffic rank is around 170,000 with 3000+ visitors to the whole site daily and around 1000 unique visitors daily to the blog alone. I'm at work to continue to increase the traffic to the site by adding more features and making this a site worthy of visits from my fellow anime fans.
Chances to participate in future contests: For some time now I've not done contests but when I do I'll be sure to give away anime products from my anime store. Being a part of the member's blog will be another way for you to be noticed and hopefully get you some cool stuff and further promote your own sites ^_^
Rules:
Absolutely no hentai, loli, porn, offensive, extremely religious, or racist material.
Absolutely no links to any sites with the items in rule #1
Anime figures and manga mentions can be posted but no hentai or loli. Cast off figures must be shown in full clothed form and must not be too revealing
Material in the blog posts must be related to: anime, manga, Japan, video games or anything that anime fans would deem interesting.
No spamming. Google and blogger automatically create links on your user name when you post that should bring people to your site the natural way. You can link to your blog if you have more material to show in a related blog post, but NO topics with the blatant crazy advertising of your blog or a non-related blog i.e ("Click here for money tips.", etc). Other members won't care to click and it's distasteful -_-
If possible, try to have one related picture per post that acts as a header to your blog post and reflects the topic shown (kind of how this post is done). This makes the post look nice and will create even more traffic to your post.
Try to keep post titles small and to the point. Smaller titles yield better search results and make your posts look better.
Don't overload a post with pictures. Use services like Flickr, photobucket or your own related blog to host the images...and again no images that have items that are in rule #1...I can't stress that enough -_-
Posts can be short or large but please no posts that are too large.
Any violations will mark an instant removal from the blog and from the Google Friend Connect member list of this site.
We at Chuck's Anime Shrine have the right at any time to remove a blog post and member, so please follow the rules...a link to report a post will also be up on the blog for extra safety.
How to get involved:
Join the growing list of members of Chuck's Anime Shrine by clicking the "join this site" button in the Google Friend Connect part of this page.
Email me asking to be an author for Chuck's Anime Shrine...only after step one is done. I need to make sure you are a legit member.
Be sure to tell me your member name in the Google Friend Connect system and your email must match the given user's email. Again, for the safety of other members and to weed out spammers.
If approved, I will invite you to be an author on the site.
Accept the invitation
From your account on blogger.com, you can now begin posting.
Questions, Concerns:
Email me for any questions about the rules or how to get involved. As the site's popularity continues to grow...some emails might go through the cracks but I'll work as best I can to answer any questions. I set times that I go through my massive inbox of emails and I'm only human so immediate answers might not happen always.
Hey everyone! As you see, there is a new navigation bar at the top of the anime blog. These are all the categories that I'll be putting up here on the blog for you to go through. As of this posting only the Site Updates and Figures section is active but you will see more in the coming days. If there are any cool topics you find and you'd like them here on the blog, let me know at I'll post them. Email me here and send me a link, picture, whatever you feel could go in a post.
