Saving You a Read: I Scored 38%!

In my prior site-related post, I meant to get around to comparing The Pink Sylphide with Jason of Anime on My Mind‘s anime blog quality rating post. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it that far before I had typed up way too much. Any introduction to this post is on my prior posting, so I’ll jump right in.

Rather than copy every item from Jason’s post, I’m only copying over those relevant to The Pink Sylphide. Be sure to check out the original post to see all the items!

Blog Itself

+1 point for WordPress. Favortism. Plain and simple.

+1 point for purchasing own domain name. They’re $8 a year, and they dramatically help visitors find your site.

Score two points for The Pink Sylphide right off the bat. Yay for favoritism! I knew considering dropping Drupal for WordPress would be a good choice in the longrun! =D There’s nothing quite like being a freed genie.

Look and Feel

+1 point for viewable on small (i.e. 1024 x 768) monitors.

+1 point for viewable cross browsers, down to Netscape 4.

+1 point for kawaii banner instead of pretentious banner. Subjective.

+1 point for a site mascot.

+1 point for quick loading (i.e. should be zero wait when viewed through broadband).

+1 point for using good HTML techniques, i.e. specifying width and height tags for images and description tags for links.

+1 point for modifiying readily available theme instead of leaving it “factory stock.”

+2 points for writing own theme. I think half the anime blogging community uses k2 or Pool themes. So 2 points more for people who come up with something new and novel, even if it is ugly.

I never realized 1024 pixels wide was “small”, especially back in early 2006. Maybe it was meant “large”? My site uses a fixed-width, which is apparently something demonic as web developers go, but it keeps the content at a readable width. Ever try reading text that requires physically turning your head from left to right and back again, because it stretches all the way across your widescreen monitor? When it comes to small devices, the layout’s width is just a little more than the width of my nine-screenshot collages. Therefore, there’s going to be a minimum width no matter what, unless images are disabled. I’ll be bold and give myself a point for this one.

As for cross browsers, I cannot say with Internet Explorer 6, but Netscape 4 should at least be able to read my content. Who even uses Netscape 4? At least upgrade to Phoenix 0.5. I know I did back when it came out, and it sure beats most of today’s browsers on speed. Of course, nothing can compare with Opera for me. Even with lack of testing, my layout is so simple, I should be able to get a point here.

Since I don’t have a banner, and I don’t have the means to have a mascot artwork, I miss out on two points here. Oh, for want of a skilled artist able to draw cute faeries, and willing to work for a decent commission price…

Load speed is instant for me on a good day with DreamHost, which is more often than not these days (a good thing!) As long as DreamHost behaves, that’s another point for me.

I’ve considered going and adding in those height and width attributes to my image elements (web geek here!), but the amount of work has been daunting. And the longer I slack off, the more work it will be… No point for me. I do put title’s on most link (assuming the linked text isn’t enough). Maybe I get half a point?

My layout’s visual look is 100% designed by me, although it’s very basic that many other sites will have a similar look. Since it is based on a theme’s HTML (although heavily modified), I qualify for all three points, right?

Blogger

+1 point for using real name.

+1 point for using e-mail address.

+1 point for about page. Always good to learn something about the blogger, even if it is, “I own 16 cats.”

+1 point for any accurate self-photo on said about page.

+1 point for over one year of anime blogging.

+1 point for at least ten posts a month.

-1 point for any day with more than five posts. Post dilution theorem.

+1 point for having purchased anime goods in the past month.

Real name? Check. E-mail address? Working on that. About page? Check. Photo? Added just because of this, so check. That’s three points. Oh, let’s add an e-mail address onto that about page and grab up another point. It’s been on my to-do list for a long time, anyways. Four points!

I’ve only at about a half-year of blogging, and a third a year if you don’t count the time I was in “pre-launch” while working up a content buffer. No point for seniority. Eh, I believe in merit pay over seniority pay, anyways. Now if only I had the meritable content…

I like to imagine I’m making the ten posts minimum per month, and with only a few posts per week, I have no problem of too many per day. Two more points.

My latest anime goods purchases at this time include: Janggeum’s Dream, series two (Korean animation) as well as the first sound track CD; Super Moonies: Die Macht des Mondes (German Sailormoon CD), and an animated Korean movie. I also have a half-year’s worth of Japanese anime to watch which I’ve bought in the last year, but haven’t gotten to yet! The items I bought in the last month, though, I imagine those will be enough to get me a point here. Should I post a comment on Jason’s post asking him to “define anime”, and if Korean animation and German songs to a Japanese series qualify?

Community

+1 point for referencing other blogs once in a while. Again, under this “visiting other blogs is good for community building” canopy.

+1 point for lack of comment spam.

+1 point for RSS or Atom feed available.

+1 point for valid and Magpie parsable RSS or Atom feed.

+3 points for positive interaction with Japanese blogging community. Is it just me, or is there like a giant, gaping Sunrise-plothole class chasm between the English and Japanese language blogging communities?

I miss out on two blogroll points as I don’t have one. Maybe sometime next year.

I don’t reference other blogs often as I haven’t found many to mention for any reason. I do mention sites I pull information from (such as my upcoming post on the Korean hanbok), but I simply haven’t gotten around to posting many non-episode commentary topics. When I do post something outside of episode commentaries category, though, I have nothing against referencing other blogs, and linking to their posts. It simply doesn’t happen often. I’ll take a point for this, then dock myself half a point for infrequency.

The best part of being unknown is getting a point for lack of comment spam. Nice. Add in two points for syndication, and that wraps up this one.

I don’t know anything about the Japanese blogging community, so I get no points there.

Posts

+1 point if posts are categorized by series or some other system that makes some sense.

+1 point for varied post structure. Not everything needs to be six (or four) images and a paragraph.

+1 point for screenshots. I like screenshots.

+2 points for over 30 screenshots an episode. I like screenshots.

+3 points for full-sized screenshots. I’d really like to see more bloggers offering larger screens, especially with shows like Ergo Proxy popping up. Tiny 100 pixel thumbs just don’t cut it with Ril.

+1 point for occasional fanservice.

+1 point for reviews averaging over 200 words long. I like words.

+1 point for punctuation. I like commas. Semicolons are good too. Indifferent about exclaimation marks.

+1 point for spoiler warnings. Always good idea.

I’m working on categorizing, but hope I have some sane in place already. As for varied post structure, I do have varied types of post (episode commentary, series preview, Japanese words, wallpaper, cultural commentary). Does that count? I think I can squeeze two points out of this.

I get a point of screenshots, but almost stand to lose five points because I have under ten per episode commentary. I’m not sure what may have happened to don’t include more than ~20 images on a page from the “do’s and don’t’s” post, unless this is a call for multi-page episode commentaries. You know, if you look at three of my episode commentaries in a row, that’s 24 to 27 images right there. Read just one more episode commentary and you’ve seen over 30 images for that one series alone! No full-sized screenshots, though. If you want to see things full-sized, then you’ll have to watch the episode yourself. B’sides, my images are 160 pixels wide (or about 214 for widescreen!), which is a lot more than 100 pixels ;)

Since I’m not a fanservice person, I get no point here. In fact, I simply skipped over the “fanservice break” in Jason’s post, which might almost cost me a few points. Maybe I can redeem this point when I get to the episode of Petite Princess Yucie with the girls in maid outfits?

I think I’m averaging over 500 words for many commentary, at least 400. I try my best with grammar and punctuation. Every episode commentary has a warning for spoilers at the top. Easiest three points yet.

Content

+3 points for blogging about shows no one else is at the moment. Nadesico in a sea of Mai Otome 4tw.

+3 points for inclusion of manga reviews. The ratio of anime blogs to manga blogs is like 25 to 1, in other words, about the same ratio of males to females in a class titled, “RF and High-Speed Analog Circuit Design.”

+3 points for highly specialized niche blogs.

+3 points for editorial. An occasional post about “Why subs are better than dubs” or “Has Gainax lost their edge” shows that a blogger can wax poetic on more than just an episode. More importantly, it helps round out the thoughts of the blogger and encourage debate in the blogosphere. Opinions are good.

+3 points for non-generic tone. After reading someone’s blog, one should get a sense of, “That’s one angry person,” “That’s one cheerful person,” or “That’s one witty person.” If the blog fails to convey some sort of emotion through the tone of the writing, it’s generic.

There’s potential for a good number of points, but since I haven’t gotten around to some of my Studio Ghibli post ideas, and since I don’t know the anime memes, I miss out.

While only three points are given for blogging about a show no one else is, have you tried looking for Janggeum’s Dream commentary? Even Japanese commentary on the series is almost non-existent, and it has a Japanese dub! Blogging about the wonderful Yeonsaeng is worth another three points alone, and this is before even mentioning Seven of Seven and other series. But, to be fair, I’ll take it with the three point cap.

Comic reviews is something I’ve considered, and I was going to do comparisons between the animated and comic versions of Saint Tail, but that never materialized. No points here.

I don’t get any points for specialized niche, as there’s more than would fit that I want to write about. If I did go with a niche, it would have to be defined loosely enough to fit in posts about Yucie, Sugar, Duck (Princess Tutu), and Janggeum all in one breath.

There are no editorial points for me yet, as any editorials I’ve started writing ended up going nowhere. This is why there’s no editorial on the definition of “anime”, looking at Japanese animation animated in Japan, Japanese animation animated in Korea, Korean animation animated in Korea, and USA animation animated in Japan or Korea.

I don’t know if I have a generic tone or not, as using clean grammar and such tends to genericalize ones writings a bit. Here’s hoping I put in enough little side remarks and comments and personality, as I’m going to take two of the three points available.

Conclusion

So, how’s I do? 2 + 6.5 + 7 + 3.5 + 6 + 5 = 30 points! Wait, what was the total possible? One moment while I tally that up… 84 seems to be it. All right, 36% percent. Since I see what looks like a spam comment or two on the rating post as well, I’ll give myself an extra two points, which gets me up to 38%. With a score like 38%, I must be doing something right!