Grow to a news magazine, or shrink to a blog? Choose your own adventure! Also: If you’ve been thinking you want to help out with HD, now would be the time to chime in.
Put simply, I’ve got my fingers in too many pies. This site is the main one, a vast expanse of flaky crust hiding sweet fruit filling within, but I have a few other smaller side projects that are being pesky in terms of time and attention required that I would really like to get around to as well, and blogging here at HD isn’t affording me the luxury of much else in the way of pastimes right now.
It feels to me that HD is at a crossroads, and a choice must be made. One option would be to pursue an agressive agenda of expansion and self-promotion, which is the line of thought I seem to have trapped myself in over the past few days. I look at the stats and think “gee, xxx visits / xxxx pageviews is nice, but the content I’m providing is worth at least twice that.” This is probably an exercise in egotistical self-delusion, but I can’t shake the thought that if I just tweaked the interface, opened things up a little some how to make them more accessible, people would start coming and say, registering on the forums or something.
As it is, though, I know there just isn’t enough content being generated here to warrant that sort of attention. I’m at my limit; as long as I have a day job I can’t push out any more than what I’m doing right now. What this means is that to expand, HD would need a staff of at least one other person committed to generating content and keeping things afloat. Quite apart from my reluctance to share my baby, I’m not sure that such a person exists (let alone more than one) who is not already involved either in his or her own project, or a larger affair with which I might find myself in indirect competition.
I’m not convinced that HD could provide a meaningful alternative to the array of other sites out there already purporting to do something roughly similar to what it would morph into, should this direction be taken (see here, here, here, and here; there are probably many more). I find that as-is, my ability to provide engaging, lucent material for the site has been stretched to the breaking point as I don’t have enough time to devote to individual pieces; there’s always something new coming up that needs to be dealt with.
I thought that the new format would ease the updating burden somewhat, but it hasn’t; Posts are taking longer and longer to compile. I find myself waking up these days before my 4:30 AM alarm goes off and still not having enough time to hit the “publish” button before I head to work three hours later. I don’t mind this, it’s what I do, but it doesn’t leave me with the time to provide additional special material that provides the window dressing to the meat and potatoes of the newsposts.
I’m at a loss. Should I aspire to turn HD into a competitive news and culture portal site, a more serious magazine-type affair? If so it will require even more work than it does now, at least in the short term, and for a very uncertain outcome. The benefits (should they come) would have the potential to be great, however: a more intelligent, deliberative, yet cutting-edge source of news, reviews and opinion on the world of 2D Japanese culture, hopefully fostering an equally vibrant community in the forums and 2DDB. I can guarantee we’d use better English than the four sites linked above, at least. :V
The other main option I see ahead would be a contraction of the site from its pretensions to holistic coverage to a much more blog-like style, where newsposts would shrink to what I personally might find interesting instead of trying to be all-inclusive. This approach has its own benefits, not the least of which would be the decreased (or at least more flexible) workload. Also, blogs are Where It’s At these days, from what I hear, and if one can master their own particular brand of blogging chic that can become its own magnet for inquiring eyes and minds.
Going more bloggish and less pseudo-professional seems rather attractive at this juncture, given everything else on my plate (the Comiket application deadline looms large, among other things), but by doing so I would be abandoning a potential source of revenue in the form of a more professional site, abandoning a potential future asset for leveraging things such as interviews and acting in press capacity at events, and most importantly abandoning the vision of a 2D culture-based community that I believe can be better – smarter, faster, stronger, we can rebuild him – than it currently is.
In the end, I’m just one guy trying to make my way in a very wild internet. If HD is to grow, I can’t do it alone. If it is to shrink, so be it; the quality will probably go up as a result. But I can’t continue on like this. It’s tearing me apart.
This is where you come in: I want your comments, suggestions, thoughts. You, the readership of HD, have come to matter a lot to me (perhaps more than you really should, to be honest – I started with the intent of blogging here for myself, and recently have been looking at the stats far too often), but be that as it may, many of the faceless stat numbers have shown up here over the past year and commented, put a face on the void, and for that I am incredibly grateful. I hope you’ll once again lend me your impressions now, as I just flat out don’t know which way to go.
As an aside, if you’re reading this and would be interested in contributing to an enhanced, expanded HD, now’s the time to let me know. As I said, I can’t do this alone.
I don’t know how much I can offer you in the way of advice or support, but before HD turns into something completely other let me just say that the way it is now it has become an indispensible resource for me. Your site is the first thing I check when I wake up and the place I watch most avidly in the hopes of catching an update. If it’s becoming too stressful to continue, then I suppose this is as good a time as any to find some other way to make it work, but know that the site’s present incarnation will be greatly missed.
As far as taking on more staff, I know that I myself would be more than willing to lend a hand but being at best semi-literate in Japanese and presently living back in the US, I feel I would have very little to offer in terms of content. I assume I speak for a lot of your readers in that respect.
Good luck finding your groove, and know that I will continue reading no matter what.
i love it the way it is now but if any thing it should expand and become huge and immens like http://boingboing.net/ is up dated by alot of people in a bunch of vairous post throug out the day. it seems to work
Yes, I believe Carter does indeed speak for the rest of the readers.
In my case, there’s also the problem of me being portuguese and thus not having the best english knowledge.
I really like the actual state of HD and it is indeed my best source for otaku related material, not to metion the ammount of japanese culture information I could learn. *Thumbs up for the Comiket Survival Guide*
Also, I have a portuguese website regarding japanese media entertainment which is now in hiatus. Maybe it’s better to spend this one month hollydays preparing it for the “new version”. Since I’m a university student, I’m thinking of making it a monthly e-zine… maybe that’s the best for my short schedule. Just saying that because I seem to have a somewhat similar problem.
Anyway, it’s really nice that you wrote this post, so now, whichever is your decision, we we’ll surely understand.
Ganbatte Shingo-san!!
I agree with the previous posters. If you want to provide the content yourself and you have side projects as well, pace yourself out.
If a daily update is too much, do it every other day and have the no weekend updates. Or my preference is to seperate the general and figurine news from the ero. XD
So you have certain dates for general/figurine and ero the next day. Pace yourself out. The easiest way to get burn-out is trying to do too much for your hobby.
Take care!
>>Carter
Thanks for the affirmation. I guess that’s perhaps what I was looking for more than anything else, subconsciously; I think I’ll continue more or less as things have been going and see what happens. You can’t push the river, as they say, and I think the best way to develop the site will be to just let it grow (or shrink) naturally instead of trying to invoke sudden and radical changes. The shift to this new layout is what has no doubt prompted the line of speculation that led to this post, but I need to remember where I started and stick with that.
>>BB
Boing Boing is a bit out of my league, I’m afraid; it seems mostly built around spotlighting material canvassed from other blogs, and places like Blog Suki are already doing a great job at compiling what’s out there in the anime blogosphere.
>>ShinjiPG
Thanks for your support, again, it’s a real pick-me-up. Reading the comments here has helped me take a step back and look at what I’m doing from a bit of distance, which is what I really needed… mired in the frenzy of daily updates it’s hard to sit back and read over what I’ve written from the perspective of an outsider, except to check for spelling and grammar mistakes and syntax errors in the layout. Good luck on your site – I think the Portuguese-speaking anime community will only be growing in the future, considering the special ties Japan has with Brazil.
>>LoA
The problem with pacing myself in the way you suggest is that by skipping a day of updates I wind up with twice the amount of work – or at least twice the amount of material to browse through – the next day. As it is I’m able to safely take Mondays off, coming off of a Sunday news day which rarely produces much of note. Otherwise, miss a day and something has to give.
Regarding the separation of ero from the rest of the material, I’ve been trying to figure out an effective way of separating the various “Sides” to make them individually accessible to those with particular interests in each category. As of yet I haven’t been able to come up with a good way; for the reason mentioned above it wouldn’t work too well to stagger the days, I think. If you have any ideas for more effective presentation of the news content I’m all ears.
Thanks to everyone who has commented here so far, you’ve really made my day. I feel more confident going ahead with things pretty much as they are now.
I’m gonna sound like a broken record, but I too like to go to your site often to just read up and click on lots of links. I run a joint japanese entertaintment blog and we started at the pace that you’re going. For some miraculous we had at least a post a day for who knows how long and now we’ve slowed down quite a bit. During that time, I checked the stats almost ever hour, almost losing sight of why I wanted to do this in the first place. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I have learned that updating everyday is crazy. Its just plain ridiculous and I commend you for being able to do that. If what you’re doing now is too much, cut back on some sites. I initially wanted to see a magazine from you, but upon reflection, that may be too much. Whichever choice, I’ll still come back for more.
I’ve only been reading your site for a few weeks, and I just want to add my thoughts on it, even if is quite the same as above, I think your web site is good as it is. Bigger and more professionnal, as you say, will require far too much work or at least the help of other. On the other hand, I think doing less updates as was mentionned earlier or even doing some more specialised articles can be a good idea. If you speak about what you like, there will always be people with the same interests, thus will you always have readers.
I’m absurdly busy right now, with a lot of Chinese New Year and graduation and immigration matters. Give me a few days to think this over and I’ll offer my opinion early next week.
Sorry :( …
>>Spartan
Thanks for the input. I think I’m going to try to do as you suggest and stay “on message” a bit more, without cutting back too much on the core news updates. I’m gradually getting over the thought that people will visit and think “looks like HD hasn’t posted a new feature in a month, I guess I’ll stop visiting”.
>>Agent Wax
No problem at all, I’d like to hear from you whenever you have the time. Good luck with all three of your current preoccupations, I hope immigration doesn’t prove to be too much of a headache.
I agree with Carter as well as all the other posters. I’ve also been here for only a few weeks, but I must say, I love the sight how it is. As for updating, I think it’s best to just go at your own pace. We all love reading your updates and one way or another, there’ll always be people reading this. Hang in there, alright?
>>Thimnkersblock07
Thanks for chiming in. I guess I’m the one who is least satisfied with the status quo, and I’m not really that unhappy with it at all… this is a good reminder to just let things go at their own pace, as you say.
your site is quite enjoyable to me. i think i would like you to expand your toy reviews. the pics are great already. but i really enjoy your h-game reviews too. i hope you do more. they are very informative and entertaining.
since you live in japan, maybe do more articles or essays on life in japan. i love the culture so i’d like to learn more.
oh btw, i’d be happy to contribute but i’ve been slow with updates on my own site so i guess maybe in the future, i can help you out; if you still need it.
Since when were there so many people interested in such esoteric stuff. This sounds weird, but I’d rather you shrink to a blog, or at least delegate the work around and keep yourself, yourself. Somehow a lot of the charm lay in the fact that you were the one doing it, probably because of your understanding of two different, dynamic cultures that I don’t see anyone else have around.
Oh, and NEEDS MORE MOE.
>>Os
Sorry I forgot to respond to you earlier ;;
It sounds like we’ve shared a common experience here. One goes slightly insane trying for daily updates with an already full schedule, but I’ve found for the most part that it’s a good insane. Being on top of all this information is something of a rush in and of itself, but being constantly on an information high (isn’t that a Macross Plus song?) can’t be healthy either…
>>LiK
The three things you mention are all part of the game plan for the future, whenever I have a free moment to pull things together. Figure reviews come together pretty quickly so as long as I can scrounge up the cash to pick up the items I’ll be posting reviews with relative frequency. Eroge reviews and Japan features take a considerable amount of time to put together, which is why there are so few of them here thus far ;; I’ll be doing as much as I can, though, and hopefully you’ll find some more things of interest in the near future.
>>Kwok
On the “keeping yourself yourself” line, I’m with you. Ultimately bringing on other collaborators would change the site in that respect, and I’m not ready to go there yet. For better or for worse it’s just me for the time being.
I don’t know if I can possibly inject more moe into the site without it imploding in endless refrains of Miko Miko Nurse. ;; It’s not an aesthetic principle that I’m incredibly taken with, aside from a clinical / academic interest and exceptions for certain stories and designs. It’s amusing and entertaining, but not quite an obsession, I suppose – Lolitron and Neko Mimi Mode are probably better blogs for that. :3
Shingo,
I read HD because you write interestingly and intelligently, in English, about eroge (and other things, but that’s what I visit for). It’s not surprising that 99% of web material about erotica “lives in the slums”, requiring one to wade through pages of tasteless filth to reach the desired piece of (one imagines) less tasteless filth. :) But that makes it all the more valuable when an author like you brings some information out, and provides guidance for the rest of us. I’m grateful for the effort you put into writing HD, and I think you should take HD in whatever direction continues to make you happy writing it.
>>librarian
Thanks. I think you’ve put your finger on one of the things I’m trying to do here; while I believe in calling a spade a spade when it comes to erotica, the Japanese industry is far too complex and nuanced to be reduced to “HOT HOT HENTAI CUM HERE”. There are also real people behind it (not tentacle demons, as per the prevailing theory) and understanding where they fit in the mess of modern Japanese visual culture is a fascinating ethnographic trip.
I intend to keep on keeping on in much the same vein as before, and hopefully the occasional insight will emerge from among the frenzy of consumerism and hype of Mainichi Junk. I’m really covering all of this here for “academic” purposes, after all.
…really.
Exactly my feelings here too. I enjoy the way you write up on the KimoOtaku with an equal mix of passion for moe and academic interest. Interesting use of the word ‘academic’, actually. Why don’t you tie in with an academic who you can work with to get this actually studied and published in a sociology paper?