Aniblog Tourney Feedback

Zoom in for our feedback of Aniblog Tourney. (Art by Kagati_49)

Hello readers, finally I AM posting something relevant to Metanorn and Aniblog Tourney rather than featuring other blogs. It was a mutual team decision that we would do it all fair and square, depending on our readers’ support alone. So, if you like what we do, show your support on our round two live poll (to be closed on 8pm GMT on 6th May, 2012). I will also take this opportunity to answer the feedback we have received till now along with the comments from Tourney I, even when I was not responsible then. As I said earlier, I came to know about AniTourney, way later the polls closure and as Metanorn was going through the shift of owners, this literally went under the rug. Though, now that it’s going down again, why not see what people thought of us before and now?

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Tourney I: Vs Oishii

• Omisyth: REALLY tough to decide between Metanorn and Oishii. Oishii’s got a great layout and the content’s interesting, but Metanorn is (was?) like the bubbliest pop blog ever. Would be voting on nostalgia for the latter though…
• Baka-Raptor: Oishii Anime has 365 days of anime characters. Metanorn has 365 screenshots of every episode it blogs. Tough call…
• Scamp: The other one is bloody difficult though. I think I’ll go for Metenorn though for their super early and uber-detailed season previews
• zzeroparticle: As for the second, chii gets my vote for the content since metanorn is kinda messy as far as their layout goes…
• Taka: Oishii and Metanorn is a tough decision for me. I have had Metanorn bookmarked for a long time but never visited it too often. I like it for it’s posts with the Oricon charts and music posts. I also enjoyed Anime’s Next Top Model or w/e it was. That was fun to follow. Oishii looks like something I might add to my reader. I really like the interesting and dynamic layout which it manages without an ungodly load time. So I’m gonna give my vote to Oishii.
• mefloraine: Metanorn vs. Oishii is one of the easiest decisions I’ve made…I do not like Metanorn (their layout kills me, for one), and I do like Chii’s 365 days of characters series. Soooo~
• Ruby: First one was really easy, I like Fuzakenna and second one I was going to vote for Metanorn but Oishii is pretty good too, hmm I dunno..
• Mint: As for the second matchup, I really can’t decide. I actually really like Metanorn’s layout, haha. And Oishii’s 365 Days of Anime Characters feature is pretty awesome.

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Tourney II: Vs Kotatsu

• Tofu: Oh gosh where do I begin with this!? Bobbierob is an amazing guy who is a big fan of K-On like me plus, I really love his writing and his ability clearly shows being in the Anicorpse, tackling the first episode of Nazo no Kanojo X. But Metanorn and Sekijitsu are practically bro’s and I owe a lot to Metanorn as it was the site that started everything for me. I’ve followed them much longer than any other site and I continue to because of their fun and awesomely diverse team, their innovative ideas that just keep coming and coming (I swear, when are you gonna run out of ideas Kyo!? LOLS) and well… you get the picture. This is THE HARDEST choice I’ve ever made in the Tourney but I’m really gonna have to give it to Metanorn.
• Baka raptor: Metanorn: Gotta give them tons of credit for not only surviving the retirement of their first-generation bloggers but growing even bigger afterwards.
• Spiral: The Kotatsu’s not that bad at all. It’s just against METANORN.
• glothelegend: Metanorn vs The Kotatsu was tough, but in the end, it was the fact that Metanorn has more yuri that swung my vote in it’s direction. I mean, that and the fact that Metanorn was one of the first blogs I knew of/followed.
• Reiseng: Note: I have a bit of a bias towards Metanorn because I am Twitter buddies with Foshizzel, Aanaga and Kyokai as well. When it comes to Metanorn, I’d really like to congratulate Boss Lady. She keeps the blog running and is honestly one of the best team blog administrators I know. Content wise, Metanorn covers a good deal of anime, and is a good source for episodics. I haven’t visited enough (mostly because I don’t visit blogs often these days), but you folk have most of the bases covered. A few improvements if I will: I am pretty neutral about the design, but I do have a few nitpicks. The colorful author avatars scattered throughout the posts are pretty much a trademark sign of Metanorn, and I guess that’s good, but at the same time, it can be a bit distracting. It’s hard to read a post while your eyes are seeing so much contrast (black, white, green, etc…). Also, larger fonts please! I am going blind in my old age. As far as improving as a team blog goes, I get the impression that not all the members know each other that well. I don’t know why I get that impression, but for some reason I do. I haven’t read enough to be sure, but are you guys unintentionally forming sub-cliques? It’s not a big deal, but it is one area almost all team blogs can improve in (don’t worry, you are much better than a lot of team blogs). If you want an example of team members who understand one another well, take a look at THAT Anime blog (not 100% sure if this is true for the newer staff, but definitely true for the older staff).

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You can’t make everyone happy so there’s no point of me commenting over the unhappy folks but for the constructive ones, here goes:

• As Baka-Raptor said, we have come a long way in the last four years and do not plan on stopping. If you have been with us for some time, you already know a lot of changes happened design and content-wise (domain, hosting, layout, team, variety; what not), and we are nowhere near perfect. We are continuously trying harder to bring entertaining content to our readers as our only aim.
• Personally, the previous two columned layout was pretty busy (not to mention bandwidth sucker, our server crashed twice due to it). After the domain move, we tried our best to make it lighter but don’t ask me to make it a bland white themed blog. Black is our thing and the techno background suits our variety nicely. I’ll see if a larger font would even work with the design but hey, I’ll try the improvement.
• For the coloured highlights on posts, that is only relevant for our season previews and tag team first impressions. There’s no extra neon colours in the regular posts at all.
• I swear I didn’t bribe any Tourney staff to put Metanorn on Round 1! We ideally should have been seeded and our opponent should have been a team blog rather than a solo blogger, but we are here to play along, and as nicely as possible.
• Sub-cliques is the least of my problems. Let me tell you, METANORN TEAM TALKS TOO MUCH. Of course, for a new reader, the only conversation visible is on twitter and posts but oh the things that happen on emails, forums, skype and IRC…. It’s a compliment to be compared with THAT team and I am literally blessed by an amazing team of writers (you know it). Seriously, I rabu them.
• I’m also very thankful to our increasing regulars (anibloggers/readers/lurkers), who have supported us throughout the years.

Overall, we have things covered and will continue to weed out the old bad habits of too many screens and even sometimes words. So, you can ask, “Kyokai, pray tell, what is constant for you guys if you are always on the move?” Well, to put it simply, “CHANGE is what’s constant for us and we have become okay with it. The good and excellent are still in process!”

Thank you, for your continued support. Can I hear some Aye for Metanorn Team?! 

About Kyokai

The Boss lady of Metanorn, who makes it all happen. An animanga enthusiast, who watches/reads almost anything that strikes her fancy. Just beware of her Death Perception and always keep her happy. Regularly found at @KyokaiTM & #[email protected].