When did you start making shrines/do you think you will stop

Talk with others about anything shrine-related, be it presentation, content or something else.
Destinie
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When did you start making shrines/do you think you will stop

Post by Destinie »

When we think about making shrines, a lot of us think about what made us start. But have you ever thought about stopping? Is that something that will come on a whim or do you see yourself making shrines for a set amount of time?

Or maybe you quit for a while and you wanted to return to the shrine community. What made you want to return?

---

For me, I started back in 1999. I like telling the story of how I first got the internet and struggled to find a way to make my first website. At the time, it was magical! My first big site was a Beanie Baby Website, my second was a Pokemon fansite, my third was a Digimon one, then I made several small Pokemon and Digimon shrines at the time. I loved interacting with people and loved sharing my interests.

Around 2003 or 2004 (graduating high school), I dropped out of it. I had an interest in improving my drawing skills and got caught up spending most of my time on Deviantart. I started to regain interest in about 2006 when I was working on a webcomic with my younger sister. My first shrine to re-emerge was my Meowth shrine, at the time, it was only 3 pages and included: "Information, Scans, Links" that's it. When I was in my last year of college, I found Amassment, and at the time I had a couple various fanlistings and small shrines I had made when I had time over the summer in 2007. Amassment really got me interested because I had no idea there were still people out there who enjoyed doing the same thing I did.

But will I ever stop? Probably, yes. Do I know when? Not really. I would like to hang on to my sites for a long time because they let me keep my coding and web design skills fresh and I really enjoy networking with people with similar interests. It might not be for another few years now. But I guess I will see myself stopping permanently at some point, I just don't know when.

How about you?
Mikari
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Re: When did you start making shrines/do you think you will

Post by Mikari »

Hard to say when I started with the characters shrines. Reno Pixels might have been the first as the others were more so general anime and video game sites focused on fanfiction and graphics. I started designing around 1999 or 2000. Amassment got me into the information centric style shrines, though that was an interest destined to fade as it was something I acquired from a group rather than come up with on my own. The interaction here was what motivated me. I've been busy lately and haven't posted on forums as often. Since I wasn't doing anything with my sites, I recently took them down and kept only a smaller more personal general site. I still have my old shrines saved on my computer so I may put them up again if I ever become motivated in the future. Fanfiction is another interest that's fading (though I intend to finish my last incomplete chaptered story and maybe write a few one-shots). My interest in pixels is growing and also my interest in video games is staying strong. All that might eventually lead to new shrines for new subjects, who knows, maybe when I have more free time. I don't see myself without a site though. It's been a part of me for so long and even when I lose interest in a subject, I still want to have a site of sorts to a different one.
dubiousdisc
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Re: When did you start making shrines/do you think you will

Post by dubiousdisc »

I started in 2004 since at the time I had been visiting other people's Pokémon fansites and I had a sort of a "me too" moment. I'm not quite sure if it was making fansites that kept me returning to webdesigning or if webdesigning was what kept me returning to making fansites. However, the flexibility of the medium of the fansite has a great appeal to me, as it allows me to experiment new things in terms of how to write, how to divide the content, what's my scope, additional things going on with the layout, and so on. It's basically a playground of all the things I love to do at the same time.

Thinking of how I would build a site right now, I could easily say that making sites to write about other people's characters and worlds is an interest that's going to stay. It might morph into other forms, but the main idea will probably be always there. Now, of course, I say that not knowing what the future will bring, both in terms of how busy my life will be and in terms of technologies that will be developed that might make the very idea of a website obsolete. I think of how for the generation of my parents the amazing new thing was television and they would have never expected the internet to exist in the first place, let alone surpass it. In a vacuum, I say the interest itself is going to stay. What shape will it take, that I can't know.
anon

Re: When did you start making shrines/do you think you will

Post by anon »

I started in 2000 but my first serious fan site was in 2001. I say this because I was in an extracurricular studies activity and one day we got to make websites, which resulted in a page with my favorite Digimon on there hosted on a school server. In 2001, I made my first website on Geocities, which happened to be a general Digimon fan site. Over time, the fan sites I started visiting were very character and couple centric and I became interested them because I was both impressed by their sites and liked the narrowed focus those sites gave.

I did stop recently (well, the end of 2008 was my decline) because I'm not as interested in making fan sites anymore for a number of reasons. If I were to cite them it would be a combination of Internet paranoia, as I'm not good at separating my online and offline lives, the fact that a lot of media is already easily accessible, and mostly because I've been tired of dealing with fan crazy out there and genuinely worried that my personal privacy would be invaded. It made me realize that I don't want to be part of some fan communities.

Who knows if I'm going to pick up making fan sites again? I definitely don't see myself not owning a website, though. Even if it's for my original works or fanart, I'll still own a website even if I leave the shrining community.
Destinie
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Re: When did you start making shrines/do you think you will

Post by Destinie »

@Jo You know, there have been times where I considered not making a shrine due to the fanbase. But I tend to try and stay away from fandoms. So, generally speaking, my shrines don't have a lot of exposure to those people because of that. It's a shame that the craziness of certain people make others lose interest in things that they like or not want to be part of the community.

@Mikari No pressure on bringing yours back, but I will miss them, especially iHime. I liked that one a lot.

@Dubious I relate. :D I love using my shrines to experiment with different things. [s]and I just like coding sometimes[/s]
anon

Re: When did you start making shrines/do you think you will

Post by anon »

Yeah, the thing is a lot of people assume they're my best friend the moment I respond to their e-mails and when it gets to the point they stalk my Facebook, I was like, "No." Granted, it was partly my fault I linked my shrine e-mail with my Facebook account since I was playing a Facebook app that would have given me extras on an SNS account I use... this is why I hate the Facebook friend finder, and even after I removed it Facebook still logs it in their system.

Also, when I closed down one of my biggest shrines I got a huge backlash and basically the fan community was acting like they were entitled to decide what becomes of my shrine, and that killed any consideration of me reuploading the shrine again.

You closed down your shrines, Mikari? That's a shame.
Destinie
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Re: When did you start making shrines/do you think you will

Post by Destinie »

Joe wrote: Also, when I closed down one of my biggest shrines I got a huge backlash and basically the fan community was acting like they were entitled to decide what becomes of my shrine, and that killed any consideration of me reuploading the shrine again.
That sucks! It's nice to know that people enjoyed your site at the same time. =) I had one instance where I was in college and I was running the Dinosaur King Shrine/Fanlisting at the time and I had a very young fan who kept emailing me suggestions for the site. I felt bad because I liked talking to her but at the same time I was in school and didn't have a lot of time to dedicate to the site. I think she felt like I told her off in one email because I said that I didn't have a lot of time and I didn't think she understood that the site was a fanlisting and not a general site. (I wasn't going to catalog information about ALL the dinosaurs in the anime. I just didn't have that sort of time or energy.) I didn't hear from her again, it made me kind of sad. But- that happened to be the only negative experience. I get some nice emails from Avalon Code fans now and then....all 3 of us. HA.

I could see how that attitude would deter one from wanting to put their sites back up.

On the flip side, I do enjoy your Takari site and am glad that was reuploaded. :3 I can keep enjoying it and feeling nostalgic.
anon

Re: When did you start making shrines/do you think you will

Post by anon »

Destinie wrote:That sucks! It's nice to know that people enjoyed your site at the same time. =) I had one instance where I was in college and I was running the Dinosaur King Shrine/Fanlisting at the time and I had a very young fan who kept emailing me suggestions for the site. I felt bad because I liked talking to her but at the same time I was in school and didn't have a lot of time to dedicate to the site. I think she felt like I told her off in one email because I said that I didn't have a lot of time and I didn't think she understood that the site was a fanlisting and not a general site. (I wasn't going to catalog information about ALL the dinosaurs in the anime. I just didn't have that sort of time or energy.) I didn't hear from her again, it made me kind of sad. But- that happened to be the only negative experience. I get some nice emails from Avalon Code fans now and then....all 3 of us. HA.
Oh, no, I like getting e-mails from people who enjoyed my site! It's just when they start trying to get me to beta their personal projects, which really has nothing in relation to my site, I'm just like, "Whaaat?" and I'm like, "No."

I have a soft spot for my Takehika and I don't think I would close it down anytime soon (which is weird because I have pairings in Digimon that I like better than them). I guess since I haven't run into personal drama and any of what remains from the trainwreck of shipping wars, that might have contributed to it.
karenjeane
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Re: When did you start making shrines/do you think you will

Post by karenjeane »

I started making websites in 1997... I had a general Star Trek: TOS site for a couple of years. While I had enjoyed visiting anime & game shrines during that time, I didn't really start making them myself until about 2000. I bought a domain in 2004, which was a huge milestone after years of free hosts and subdomain hosting.

When I finished university in 2006, I wanted to dedicate my time to making and sharing art, rather than working on fan sites. Turns out I wasn't hugely productive during this time; it was hard to maintain stability when switching jobs every few months.

In 2009, I returned to school for a one-year college program, and also joined Amassment: both huge sources of motivation. I had revived my Spock shrine, and by the end of the year, a couple of other old shrines had been dusted off and returned to the 'net.

Since then I've been maintaining the websites, and while working full-time seems to leave fewer hours for such things than being in school, I don't feel like I'll quit anytime soon. I'm already excited about uploading my Literature Marathon project.

I like that so many interests & hobbies that were previously considered for younger people are becoming just as acceptable for those a little older... Hopefully shrines will be the same. I mean, a lot of us here were among the first generation to grow up with the internet, so we're gonna keep doing what we've always done online. It's only natural.
Varen
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Re: When did you start making shrines/do you think you will

Post by Varen »

I don't quite remember when I started. I know that I was definitely in my pre-teens when I started fiddling around, although I don't think it got serious until I made my first big fansite (Ky) at around... 2005 was it?

As for when I will stop, it's hard to say. I don't think I've stopped yet, but I do think the interest is slightly dying on me. I think I should take account how the internet itself is changing. Back then, fansites were a craze because they were the only domains for information/media/opinions, etc. But now it's just easier to search through a tumblr or something for all of that. There's also the fact that I only seem seriously interested in web designing once in a blue moon. With my lack of interests/motivation in general in RL, it's hard to bleed it into the online life as well.
Iris-NoireORG
wasting internet space until i get motivation again
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