125K hits: What now?

[sensei]

I put a similar post up on my RS blog, occasioned by my finally kicking a stubborn virus I got into last week (partly by overdoing it to get my update all uploaded), visiting my gallery, and realizing the the counter had clicked over 125,000 sometime during the last weeks.

It's been 124,000 for some time now, and I'd had vague notions of having some kind of special event when it went over. But with the end of semester coming fast and too much work, scholarly and domestic, I'm going to be lucky to get my annual "Year in Review" constructed.

Still, the event has made me stop and wonder: what now? Sadly, my "Quirky Tour" has been on hiatus for much of the year. That was at times a useful way to refocus my attention on parts of my gallery that haven't gotten the attention they've deserved (I thought), but I'm finding myself just a little at sea now. Some of this is the loss of the chatter that used to be part of my gallery updates, when they were part of a larger turmoil. So now I'm not sure who is actually looking at my gallery, or why.

(Well, I can see from "Popular Items" that the CCS collection continues to get disproportionate visits: 41 of my top 50 are CCS, with Inuyasha, Mushishi, PowerPuff Girls Z, Tonde Buurin, Saiyuki, Tenshi ni Narumon and the Rayearth OVA accounting for the rest. But is anyone coming to see some of the series that I've devoted attention to lately, such as classic series like The Sea Prince and the Fire Child or important CGI series like Rozen Maiden or AnH?)

So I am puzzling ... maybe a pleasant puzzle, for I'd hate to have crappy cels/sketches instead, with 1250 hits on them. But I puzzle (in a dark December way) ... isn't there something I could be doing to communicate with this audience? Blogs? Other kinds of features?

What now?

[Jadeduo]

First of all congratulations on 125,000 hit milestone! Quite an accomplishment! It also goes to show the care and creativity that goes into your collection!

The forum is very quiet, and it is very very sad! I think our push to get more people in has helped a bit, but I also think that a lot of the newbies have been lurking trying to decide to join the conversation or not. I think we have to keep doing our best to draw people out with events! And such lovely updates from you and our more senior collectors still lurking about!

It's okay to be at sea! Just don't give up on us! ^_^

I have some ideas that have been rattling around in my head that I myself have not had the time nor brains for!

1) Guest curator, have someone over to curate a wing of their favorite pieces and why into your gallery. Could be fun or could just be a neat post on beta too

2) A small dictionary of common terms in Japanese characters that you have seen on Dougas/Gengas that could help other curators immensely I just started something small as a beginning, but I have no idea how accurate it is. IE some oft new gengas from Loveless have a stamp on the top marking it I believe as a correction from the animation director, whether it is the chief animation director or the episode director I have clue!

3) I know it is almost impossible to get all the curators of the Yue/Touya sequence in the same room, but wouldn't it be amazing if we could get them all in the same wing as a guest feature on someone's gallery? With notes from their owners? What if we did am incomplete animation?

4) OMG HELP ME RUN THE SKETCH CONTEST IN THE NEW YEAR!

5) There is a Facebook page for beta no one has touched it in years! We should do something with it!

6) Get out and go to an anime convention! Do a panel on cel collecting, it is exhausting and reinvigorating at the same time! I have done two panels in the last 3 months, I have one scheduled this month! Getting out and talking about cels and the animation process is awesome! Also you get to show off your lovelies!

*hugs Sensei*

Now go forth and be awesome like we know you are!

Jadeduo

[sensei]

Thanks, JD, for your encouragement. Some of these might be worth working on in small groups. The "guest curator" reminds me of a feature Turner Classic Movies does every so often: turning the programming over to some well-known actor or director for one night. Which 3-4 movies does this person choose and why? It's an interesting alternative, and might have interesting results if the guest curator does not collect the same series as the host. (What goes on in a collector's eye and brain when he/she knows nothing about the plot or characters, but just "knows" this particular image is a special one?)

I wish I could read more Japanese. A lot of what I can tell about a sketch comes from seeing it in relation to others -- determining if a correction is pre-genga or post-genga, for instance. Again, perhaps some group could work together to "read" a sketch set. I'm always intrigued when I see a long note, though the ones I've gotten translated often are dealing with fussy details of animation. "I know Kagome and the others are supposed to be in the background behind Inuyasha here, but I left them out."

I'm sorry if you could have used my help with the cel contest. I volunteered early on, but I admit that I got busy in November and didn't keep asking "Should I be doing something?" I'd be happy to do something for the sketch contest in 2015.

The con situation is a sad business. I organized a cel-collecting panel for AnimeNext in June, and then had to pull out when our house was burglarized. The window that the robber broke was still wide open, except for a piece of plywood propped up on the inside, and there was no way that I could go and leave my wife inside alone. My daughter made arrangements to go to Connecticon later on as a consolation prize (I didn't have time to organize anything). But then my wife had a bad spell with heart arrhythmia -- not a lethal kind, happily, but it needs to be treated and then watched for a few weeks. So even that had to be canceled. It's difficult for me even at best, because I have so little of my hearing left, and if I do a panel, I really have to rely on someone to pass on questions or comments from the audience. Just seems like something in the universe just doesn't want me to do this.

In general, I'm just starting to feel a little out in the middle of nowhere any more. I don't regret starting to collect or in general learning about anime, which I really do feel is an art form that people will be spending years learning to appreciate. I just worry that what I'm doing is beginning to be of very little interest to anyone out there. And if there's a way to connect with an audience, that I have the abilities to try, I'd like to do this.

[Jadeduo]

It does sound like a lot of fun, and we should totally do it based on if the guest curator collects something different from the home curator I am totally game as participant this time around NOT organizer lol, I've done 3 organizer events and I am plum tuckered out on organizing!

I'm sorry to hear about you having to cancel the panels! I will be at Otakon 2015 if you are game I can definitely act as secondary support if you can make it, and if you can't make you won't have to cancel! I can run it by then I will have done 4 panels in less than 12 months time! I'm supposed to be doing another this month but the con runner has not gotten back to me!

I didn't mean to exclude anyone from the cel contest organization, but it was like once we'd hammered out the categories everyone disappeared. So I was like I might as well wrangle this one by the horns...

I will continue to work on encouragement for everyone but I worry everyone thinks I'm some sort of scary propaganda artist I just want everyone to get along and join the madness! My sister argued that the lower prices are great for us but it's just disconcerting when no one wants to interact with the community anymore because of past hurt feelings or just not enough time in the hobby! Anywho I will continue cheerleading until you guys tell me to F*** off!

JD

[majinuub]

Congrats on gaining that many visitors to come see your amazing collection.

I personally think your doing a great job garnering interest for unpopular/lesser known series as you tend to point out details, either about said art piece itself or the scene it's from, that will leave visitors intrigued. I've never seen a Tree of Palme(I don't have any plans too either), but your elaborate synopsis for the film and characters do help me relate to why you are interested in it and why you feel artwork from it is something that deserves to be preserved for generations to come(I'm getting deja vu vibes as I write this...).

And yes Beta has been really quiet nowadays. The most recent proof of this is that the latest BWA is up and there's no talks of any kind about it. I'd make one buy it'll be more of a rant than a discussion starter .

[sensei]

Thanks, majinuub, for your good comments on my gallery. Yes, A Tree of Palme is no classic. One wishes Nakamura had been able to do it as a TV series, which might have allowed him to include the background that would have given the plot coherence. But it was planned on the grand "Princess Mononoke" scale, and so the art, if nothing else, is stunning in size and quality.

Any suggestions, though, on what I might be able to do to light a fire? I like the idea of putting together a "guest curator" event, but like other similar activities (like the "open house") I think it would take getting a group of people together who are willing to participate.

[Jadeduo]

I'm in for Guest curator project as a participant! You should start a seperate thread to ask for ideas maybe someone else will have a good idea!

JD

[KinoLRB]

125,000 hits is quite an accomplishment. If nothing else, pat yourself on the back and crack open the nearest bottle of bubbly. You earned it, Sensei! Without your gallery, I would have never discovered the wonderful Dracula: Sovereign of the Damned. And I mean that wholeheartedly! Your gallery gives a sweeping tour of the anime timeline.

I'm also game for the Guest Curator. I think it's a great idea. I'm thankful for your enthusiasm, JD. Keep at it! I hope to do a panel one day.

Sensei, would you ever consider branching out to youtube? Video tutorials? A video tour of your collection?

[majinuub]

Sensei, would you ever consider branching out to youtube? Video tutorials? A video tour of your collection?

That's what I was thinking of as well. Maybe a quick tour for specific series and a full gallery tour for everything.