Donate anime goods to Anime Planet, for contests, etc. Read!

[sothis]

I was going to wait to announce the contests till I figure them out, but then I had the idea to post this thread, so ill post it anyways ^_^

OmegaPhoenix is generously donating a few Witch Hunter Robin posters, and other random things for use in contests. I plan on making all of the contests related to anime recommendations, but that isn't the point...

I thought it would be a good idea to post something about anime-stuff donations for the site. Maybe some of you have random posters, toys, or media that you have lying around that you'd be willing to donate for the cause. Even a promise, perhaps, of burning a dvd or cd set of a selected series for a contest winner would be a great donation.

Why would you want to do this?

Well, many anime fans are flat out lazy ;) I'm sure if you are reading this, you've already read my incessant pleas to make recommendations, contribute screenshots, or do other things for the site that help it grow. Problem is, incentives. People don't really want to do it, I think, unless they get something out of it... maybe that's why the 2,000th recommendation contest worked so well ;) there was a reward! :)

I am guessing that the contests I will launch to win the WHR posters/other stuff, will be highly successful.. because for once, its GOOD STUFF you will be getting to do various things, and in addition, it helps the site out dramatically. It would be nice to be able to run contests like this on a monthly (or maybe more, depending) basis. Not only would it encourage people to help the site/anime recommendation database (depending on the contest) grow, but I'd be able to give out snazzy prizes in return.

I don't expect all of you to do this, or even most of you. But, in the case that you have goods you'd like to donate, please private message me in the hub or in here, and let me know if you can help out ^_^. Again, it can be a variety of things. From toys, posters, dvds, or even things like burning a rare series (or a series of the winner's choice), etc. You can be creative! And hey, if you really want your prize to go to a certain type of contest, let me know, and you can figure out what kind of contest YOU would like to design.

I would probably make most contests related to the anime recommendation database.. because honestly, its the one part of the site that is growing dramatically, that is gaining attention from other websites, AniDB users (because of being linked), and people on the web and other hubs. The database growing means Anime Planet, as a community, and as a well known-website, will grow.

Thanks, I hope this works out well ^_^ I'd love to throw contests on a regular basis.

I think is a very good idea, but check out the quality of the text that would be done....

Anyway, I was thinking that it would be a good idea to put wallpapers, winamp skins, other skins, some mp3 and other attached to the anime recommendations, so if I check Naruto for example, I would see a page with the recommendations, some naruto wallpapers, the intro song and the likes, I have started in the past an OST database website, that goed quickly into the forgotten side of the web... it runned for about a month, and the last week with 0 visits and no a single ost writen on the database I took the site down. I writed near 20 ost into the database :( anyway, all of this to say, that I think that an OST database has never been done, so it could be a good addon to this site. Anyway, all of this are just some throughs, do with then as you please ;)

[ZDragon]

Heh, I remember it... didn't I make the banner for that OST page?

Well, anyway, I believe more "add-ons" to the page are needed as well. Anime recommendations aren't what everyone wants to do, and some are hard because there really is no anime like that, it's completely special and/or freaky :-D But other things would probably bring more people to write something... I just don't know what it could be :p

sothis, the biggest problem I see with these donations is sending them. For example, sending a packet with CDs or toys or whatever you don't really need/want anymore - it can be extremely expensive to send. I, for example, am still going to school and don't really have the money to send anime. But I could donate full series burnt on CD (I hope I get my DVD burner soon *sigh*) out of 200+ Gigs of anime. Even got rare stuff like Digimon Frontier Raws...

[sothis]

Anyway, I was thinking that it would be a good idea to put wallpapers, winamp skins, other skins, some mp3 and other attached to the anime recommendations, so if I check Naruto for example, I would see a page with the recommendations, some naruto wallpapers, the intro song and the likes

i guess i dont really see the point in doing this. if you are saying that should be the incentive, to get wallpapers and an ost, that wont happen. not only do i not have a database of wallpapers, but i certainly dont have the bandwidth to host them all, and in addition, i *definitely* dont have the bandwidth to host ost files for people to download. this isnt a "put everything you possibly can" database.. its for recommendations. screenshots are there to help your choice, and if you want detailed info, you go to anidb. if someday i start getting tons more donations to host that kind of thing, i might consider it.

Anime recommendations aren't what everyone wants to do

hopefully you dont speak for everyone. if you do, well, then im sorry, but this tool isnt for them, then. honestly, people are just really, really fucking lazy. it does *not* take time to do a recommendation. kerhunge, for example, told me yesterday he would try to do some recommendations. once he actually started doing it, he told me several times how easy making recommendations actually is, so he did a lot. people often only recommend series one way. so trigun -> kenshin, they never do kenshin -> trigun. that doubles your votes. i might implement a feature which does this for you, if you choose to.

think a series is too hard to recommend? fine. but there are a ton of series which arent... popular series, or series that are really closely related to others (i could make a list if you want). there *are* people out there that do the difficult series. its possible to recommend things for them, those just take time and thought, which most people, you are right, dont want to do.

But other things would probably bring more people to write something... I just don't know what it could be

hence the fact that im going to do contests. plus, once the database grows more, more people will participate.

sothis, the biggest problem I see with these donations is sending them. For example, sending a packet with CDs or toys or whatever you don't really need/want anymore - it can be extremely expensive to send

it would cost probably 5-6 bucks. people collectively donated close to $300, that im using to host the site per month. if people could donate 300, (some people donated 25-*100* in one shot), then i believe there are people out there that can spend 5-6 bucks to send a package to me. if you dont have money, thats fine... i did say in the first post that i understand most people probably wont be able to do this, but if people do want to help out, they can. burning full series, would be great. those are good donations too.