By: Janelle Jimenez
What "ain't easy?"
Life in the Sailormoon Cyber Community. More specifically, the life for someone "popular".
I can just hear all the groans and moaning now, "Janelle's on her soapbox bitching about how
people are unfair to her..." Well, I say to you, shut up. :P I've never whined about how people were unfair, just about how they were stupid. There's a difference. Besides, I don't think people treat me unfairly--I think people misjudge me...and that happens offline too, so it's nothing new. Anyways, this is broken up into two parts:
The first part, Being Popular Ain't Easy. I can just hear the backlash. Just be calm for a moment as I continue.
People seem to think that to be known and popular is the ultimate goal of making a webpage. I know that's not why *I* made a webpage, and if that's why you did, I'm really sorry about you. Couldn't you have spent that time looking for a cure for cancer? I'm not going to say I'm an SM Internet Celebrity, but I do know that I am known by a lot of people. To say I didn't know so many people visit my site would be false modesty on my part, but I am truly shocked as many people do. I also know that I'm not well-liked, but what can you do, you know? If I'm going to be given the role of the "bitch" then I'll have to take it.
So then why am I saying being popular ain't easy? Well, for one, I can't say a damn thing without getting a bunch of flames about it. When the ESMG first opened, I could say anything I wanted without getting much backlash (tho, that was due to the fact no one SAW the site in the first place.) However, now I can't say anything negative without getting a billion comments on it. It's nice to know people are reading, but it's annoying to hafta deal with crazed Mamoru fans too. Do you REALLY want that? It's like being stalked by the paparazzi.
People also find a BILLION things to pick about you, so people will stop thinking your perfect, god forbid people look UP to you. (Well for me, I don't mind. I think it's scary people look up to me, I'm a bad role model. :P) However, it can get to the point of being hurtful. I am not a lame ass who stays on the computer all day long. I don't let fame get to my head. I don't do vicious, competitive things with other webmakers. I'm sure that Jackie Chiang, Mara K., Hitoshi Doi, Apatt don't do that too. I'm sure we all have lives. Oh! But wait! If we DON'T update our pages for awhile, people seem to think that we're just neglecting our sites. And yet if we DO update our sites, then we get laughed at because we have no social life? COME ON! GET REAL here. I know a lot of people are jealous of people at the top, not of me, but of all the other people--so they have to find the stupidest things to bitch about. I'm getting annoyed at hearing people call Hitoshi Doi a loser, how many people know him personally? I do recall about 200 seperate emails from people complaining my site hadn't been updated in 3 months--HELLO! I was in Japan during that time! I believe that my foreign exchange experience was slightly more important.
This pretty much leads into part 2 of "It Ain't Easy..." )just pretend it did.) Being original and innovative is no longer easy. Actually, it's pretty damn impossible. There are so many sites that more or less, they all look like each other. I was one of the first sites to have as much information as I do in a colorful manner (and Doi was the first site ever to have a lot of information), but now mine looks like everyone else's. And I think it's great. Now people don't have to search so hard to find the information they want. But is the fact there are so many great sites with the same information I have really my fault?
I'm not the only site that gets criticized (actually, all sites do, but I'm speaking from personal experience.) People criticize other sites just breaking thru for having "boring" vital statistics. Well, those stats aren't so boring to a person who's never met the Outer Senshi. Alot of people seem to forget there are still a lot of newbies running around. People criticize others for having no new interesting scanned images, excuse me, but did you ever consider the idea that maybe you've SEEN them all? Honestly, we are we assuming every image is stolen? I guarantee that no one has scanned an image that someone else didn't already have, unless it's fan art. There's only a limited amount of artbooks, media book, anime manga, and trading cards out there. It isn't infinite. Eventually (if not already), all those resources will be tapped. However, to a neophyte, all those images are new to them. Alot of webpages are made for the newbies, not for the elite. I stopped going to webpages about 2 years ago because I had learned all I cared to learn and acquired all that I cared to acquire. Some scans are brand new to me, and I think it's great.
Once I was criticized for not wanting people to take my information or pictures--but then I was criticized by the same person because I had the same pictures and information as everyone else. Doesn't that seem rather...odd? How original can any site be when every day new websites on Sailormoon are being created. Nothing is new. Nothing is break through. Just about everything you can think of has been done. Honestly, if you, someone who has been around the SM Internet World for three years, sees a site with quizzes and polls you yawn and think, "nothing new." However, to neophytes, this is a wonderful, fun, new thing, so don't tell people their site is boring. Maybe it is to you, because you've visited 40,000 websites already.
Well, us "popular people" try hard to make people happy. It's difficult to maintain a big website, and people who say we whine too much about it should seriously try it themselves. Rather than criticizing, try seeing exactly how much time it takes to build, manage, and try and keep your fans happy. If you say, "why should you care what the fans think?" then why are you even bothering to make a webpage? Webpages are to share information, not for yourself. Of course you should care about what the reader thinks. I know what's kept me going thru the years is that I know I'm helping people.
Rather than criticizing webmakers for not updating alot--try and be alittle less selfish and realize those creators have lives too...and don't get at them if they do update alot saying they have no life. Criticizing others for stupid petty reasons like that are doing nothing other than destroying the community. I personally like to keep a low profile so I don't have to deal with it and also because I am uncomfortable when I enter a room or channel and 50 people go, "OH! I KNOW YOU!"
So to those who think popular webmasters and webmasters in general have it made, I've got two words for ya: SUC--...oh wait. I've got three words for you: It Ain't Easy.
Comments on this article can be sent to:
Janelle Jimenez.
