AQ : Rantings and Ravings

A lot of pages celebrate their anniversaries around this time of year, so I would like to dedicate this to all of the pages that have lived to see one more year.

Last summer, a lot of us were thinking things were just about dead in the SM universe (surprise! I didn't say community!). A lot of people were moving on, it had been some time since anything came out of Japan about the series, with the exception of the continuing series of "Sera-Myu" musicals, and there was nothing new happening with English Sailormoon, other than the show rerunning itself out . To be quite honest, a year ago I was feeling our Third Anniversary might just be our last one, with the site eventually fizzling out due to a growing lack of pages and topics to discuss.

Then something happened. Someone lit a fire under something somewhere, because all of a sudden, things were happening again. Pioneer came out of nowhere and said they were doing the 3 movies, which then led to the bomb that S and SuperS were going to be dubbed. That wasn't all: even in Japan, Kodansha launched a new manga series called "Sailormoon World" and the anime is now in re-runs. Also, just this past summer, another new Sera-Myu musical opened.

Speaking of "Sailormoon World", whatever happened to that? It quickly faded away and I can see why: the few pictures I saw of it were... well it looked like something a bunch of third string artists threw together. I haven't heard if it's still running, was cancelled, or fully completed its run.

Anyway, with all this shake up, a few of the sites that shut down about a year ago are starting to make a comeback of sorts. Some that were completely taken off the web are reappearing. Most will be generally inactive, but at least they're back. Even though active sites might be better than inactive, there's something to be said about good quality sites that have been pretty well "completed". Not only do they still provide for good sources of information, but I feel it will help to inspire newer fans to do more with their sites. So, here's to hoping this will develop into a new trend throughout the fall.

As for the possibility of a fifth anniversary? Who knows? We're not going anywhere soon.

Space: Too Bad it isn't as Rare as Halley's Comet…

Well it doesn't really have anything to do with space, unless you count the name, or maybe the wasted Hard Drive space...

Someone sent us an email pointing out we have yet to mention one of the most annoying things with some SM sites lately. The thing? Comet Cursors. For those of you who have been lucky enough not to run into them, Comet Cursor is a free plug-in for your browser that allows web sites to alter your arrow cursor into some kind of custom pic. Basically, it's just another useless web trinket. The worst thing about Comet Cursors is its feature that asks you to download the plug-in every time you come across a page with it. What makes this even worse is that there is a JavaScript which allows you to do about the same thing as Comet Cursor, but without the annoying download. There's no need for the plug-in or the little button ad that most Comet Cursor pages display somewhere on their page. There's no need for anyone to waste time downloading a useless, waste of disk space plug-in for their browser.

When it comes right down to it, Comet Cursor is an inconvenience, not a service. They recently emailed us to ask us to use the service. I felt like asking them how much they were going to pay me to advertise their company when I could use a script I put together myself and get the same effect and not advertise them.

If you want a little picture following a cursor around on your page, visit one of the JavaScript archives in our Page Tips resources and find a JavaScript that does the exact same thing. It's still useless junk if you ask me, but at least you will save us all the pain of having "Do you wish to download Comet Cursor?" pop up in our faces.