First of all, I'd like to say that for the most part, I enjoyed keeping this site up. It got an insane amount of popularity for such a new site in such a crowded community, which was very thrilling for me, having gone through 2 years of neglect with my other SM related site. I stopped updating because I lost interest. It's incredibly hard to review sites on a regular basis when the sites are all on a topic you aren't particularly fond of (I stopped liking Sailormoon a long time ago), especially when you're having moral dilemmas as to whether or not you even should be reviewing. So, I stopped updating and neglected the site, deciding that if I really did miss it I would return and if I didn't I'd go back and delete the site.

I was about to delete the site when I got an email asking if I'd consider this chick out to be a fellow reviewer on my page. I told her she could take over my page, and viola, so the new Rootbeer Review (or whatever she's calling it now) was born.

Now, on the SM Community. Several issues to those of us in the SM Community are valued as important, or we can't take sides because they confuse us. I found that when I left the SMC the issues became either not-so-important or incredibly clear to me. I just thought that I would share my revelations with you all.

Elitists vs. Newbies: I keep my ground on this one, actually. I always thought it was a stupid debate before and I still think it's a stupid debate now. The only idea for me that changed was that elitists became elite because they made high quality sites. Now I see it more as a mixture of that and luck, but mostly luck. The SM Community is insanely big (or at least it was when I was here a few months ago...I dunno, maybe everyone missed me and left ^^;) and therefore a lot of great sites get overlooked. It's just like writing. I'll take Stephen King as an example. SK let out several books under the pseudonym Richard Bachman to see if they would sell as good as the books under his name, or if his fame was purely chance. He was found out before he let out his fifth book under the pseudonym (Which was Misery, a very good book!!), but the point is that while under Bachman, one of his books sold say 20,000 copies, but as soon as the secret was out, the same book sold 200,000 copies under his real name. So it's really mostly chance, although if you have a bad website there's not even any chance in hell you'll become 'elite'.

Another thing about Elitistness, the SM Community seems a lot to me like Hollywood. A select few webmasters are chosen for the 'looks' of their sites and then worshipped as gods or hated as demons. They're people, for gods sakes. Apatt is no different than the friends you eat lunch with everyday. Doi either. They just happen to have nice websites. In the IYC (I hate to compare, but hell, why not?) The only 'god'-like figure is Chris Rijk, because he translates the mangas we otherwise wouldn't be able to read. For free on top of it, and a hell of a lot better than Viz (the DiC of Inu-Yasha). But we hardly worship him, just respect him and the hard work he puts into translating the newest issue every weekend.

Image Abuse: I stand totally differently on this issue now. I used to think that people have the right to protect 'their' images, and others should respect that and just look. Now I see how incredibly ridiculous this is. It's not 'your' image, no matter how much time you spend scanning it and editing it so the corners aren't funny. Images are a way of sprucing up your site or better sending a message, not a trophy of the three hours of editing you went through. A popular argument as I remember it was 'I spent 3 hours scanning these manga, so I don't want anyone stealing them. How would you feel if you spent 3 hours on an image and then someone else just grabbed it and spent 2 seconds on it?' I say, what's wrong with that? You just saved someone a bit of their precious life, shouldn't you be happy that you're providing them a 'service' by letting them use your ever so priceless and important images? I suggest you go out right now and steal someone's prized scan, just to piss the selfish b*tch off.

I do, however, still think that direct linking an image is wrong, because it just causes everyone a hassle in the end.

DiC: I still hate DiC for what they've done, but now I've realized that DiC isn't alone. I don't think I've now seen any dubs that were good _and_ true to the anime. So it's not like DiC's crime is unusual like I'd previously thought.

Anti-Shrines: I still stand the same, freedom of speech, blah blah blah. If you think Anti-shrines are just so wrong you can't believe it, get over yourself. Other people have opinions and even if they don't match your own, they're O.K.

SOS: Whereas before SOS made me very very angry, I just sort of laugh now. Who better to worship DiC Sailormoon than a group of big-headed, lying idiots?

MiXX and Smile: recently Sailormoon manga got kicked out of Mixxene and into Smile, a more kiddy magazine. I see no problem with that. Do you guys really think that MiXX is going to stay true to the manga, right down to the nudity and the lesbianism? No, they'll figure something out. In the end it'll match the other stupid kiddy comics in Smile to a T.

Awards: Everyone hates awards that are easily won because then even bad websites get to...oh uh.....not this.... FEEL GOOD ABOUT THEMSELVES! When someone asks you: Do you like this picture I drew? I spent an hour on it and I'm very proud of it!" do you say : "No, It's not worthy of spending the time to look at, you untalented slug." No! That's mean! But that's what one does when they don't give someone an award. The person is asking them to look at their pride and joy, and when you respond by not giving them your approval, they get angry and give up. The artist in question would probably not draw as much and would definitely not feel happy and confident in their artistic abilities any longer. The website owner, too, would feel sad and wouldn't work on their website as hard or as confidently. If one has praise, however, they are encouraged to work harder and thus, to improve.

WPR groups: I probably should stay off this topic because this is a WPR page, but it's my most dramatic change in opinion so here it goes. I think website reviewing is useless and wrong, at least the way we're doing it now. Who are we to tell an innocent victim that we hate or like their page for such and such reasons, and then post it to the world for all to laugh at? It is useless because people like the way their websites look, and we do the best growing on our own. It's better to learn a new tequnique ourselves and mature our style ourselves then to fake goodness for a hoidy toidy reviewer. I feel ashamed I used to do such a thing and feel it was right and kind.

If I were to start it all over again, I would make it a service to the webmaster, not to my ego. I'd take requests by people and then send them my thoughts privately through the email. Sites I thought were good and worthy of seeing I'd put on a page titled 'the stuff I liked alot'. The point is, we need to 'help' those who want to be 'helped', not complete unsuspecting strangers who are probably perfectly happy growing on their own terms.

One reviewer I do like is the witches five, because they describe the website rather than spew their negatives thoughts on it, more of an advertisement for the website then a 'look how cooly I can make fun of this persons faults!' contest, which often ends up hurting the reviewed party.

One reviewer group that I recently started to hate was the AQ. I used to worship them like Gods, but now I see them as stuck up and cruel. They don't even allow self-nominations, so they only review innocent victims in the end. But I could be wrong, maybe they have low self-esteem and they help sick puppy dogs or something.

I can only hope that the new reviewer keeps positive with her reviews so as not to discourage the reviewed, offers help after if they need it, understands that it's her opinion she speaks, not the standards that the website should rightfully be up to queue with, and that she does requests rather than random sites. (And I'll tell you, there's never any shortage of requests!!)

So, this is Kimiki, signing off from the melodramatic hellhole that is the SMC. I'm off to more peacefull pasture, where the community is small, friendly, and goofy rather than large, lonely, and over-dramatic.

What can I say, I just have to curse my least favorite teacher right after graduation...

Signing off (Forever! Hahahahaha!)

Kimiki

Email me at kimikiness@yahoo.com to tell me that I offended you. I'd love to ignore you.

(I know, I'm such a bitch! ^^;)

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