It’s time to do my semi-periodic navel gazing when it comes to my blog and podcast, and thus it’s time to both throw out a few ideas to get people’s thoughts, as well as to sort my own.
The first thing I noticed when using the new gallery for the first time a couple days was that it seemed pretty cool to use. As a result, I used the gallery for my review of Special A episode 1 and, after a few CSS and code adjustments, it works like a charm, and adds features to my blog such as making it easier for people to see larger versions of all the sots. And doing the friggen captions is easier too! Yay! As for any other part of the episode reviews, I think I’ve settled into a good format, but if anyone has any suggestions, feel free to leave them.
Second, I was reading a blog post by…someone (can’t remember now) about how they liked reviews of anime to have, you know, pictures. While that obviously isn’t an issue with my episode reviews, my series reviews are glaringly lacking in pictures. Part of this is because I sometimes review series a good deal after watching them, and since many series I watch I get through Netflix, I don’t really have access to the discs to take pictures when I write the review.
However, I thought about using this new gallery feature to maybe start adding images to reviews, if I have access to source files (raws or dvds) that I can get pictures from or if I can grab good screenshots that I can find online already. I’m still thinking about this, though. I suppose I could always take screenshots as I watch series as well.
Third: categories and tags. One thing I dislike is the fact that I have a list of anime series on my blog which includes some of the series I’m blogging as well as some which have only one post and are only categorized because I just happen to be talking about the series in some way (see the solitary post under the Angelic Layer category, for example).
In reality, all series should probably be listed as tags, but then I’d have anime series mixed in with other tags, and I want at least some of them separate, which is why I do it the way I do. But on the other hand, I don’t like mixing hardly-used anime categories with ones I post more about either.
This ultimately has three issues I need to work out:
1) At one point does an anime series switch from being tagged to being a category? Am I only categorizing series I blog? Doing them as tags would also let me somehow tag my series reviews under each series, which I’m currently not doing as well.
2) What category(s) DO I put them under then? Anime in Japan? What if it gets licensed then? Do I create categories for each season (or for older series, each year) and categorize them that way?
3) I detest tag clouds, but I’d still like to list tags on the home page. I’m thinking like in a drop down box since there may be quite a few. However, I haven’t been able to find a plug-in that will let me do that (I’m almost to the point of wanting to write my own).
Right now I’m not sure what the answer to any of those questions are right now.
Fourth, as the third season of my podcast is quickly coming to a close, it’s time to start thinking about ways to improve that. I’ve already gotten input about it possibly being too big and/or long. One possible solution to this that I’ve thought about is to publish the full podcast as I have been doing, but also publish each of the 3 sections of the podcast independently as well. So in all there would be 4 files: the podcast as a whole, the news section, the new releases section, and the review section with, possibly, a different RSS feed for each.
Given how I already do my podcast, this won’t be a big deal to do as I typically record these sections independently anyway and throw it together at the end, but I’m not sure how useful breaking it down like that may be to people who listen to the podcast. I guess if all you’re interested in is the review, though, you wouldn’t have to either find where it starts or wade through 10 minutes of other stuff first.
That’s all I have right now. Of course, if anyone else has anything else to say…then feel free to.
6 Comments
I think VLC player will let you take screencaps from DVDs. May be something to look in to.
Yeah, taking screen caps of DVDs isn’t a problem, if I already have the discs (and pretty much everything I own I’ve already reviewed…). It’s just that when I watch a show via Netflix or something, I don’t have the discs there when I do the review.
As I said, I suppose I could take screenshots as I rent a series and just select the best ones when I do the review, perhaps.
I cap on the fly while watching. It’s only one keystroke, so… Sometimes it’s needed to step back a few frames, but not too often.
I cap and summarize on the fly. I have a notepad file open right next to the player and I type as I watch.
More on topic, I have the exact same feelings about categories and tags that you do. I feel like the best solution must be some amalgamation of the two. I think tags work better for more editorial blogs, but categories seem to fit when you talk about whole series. If you figure out the answer to the problem, please let me know!
“I cap and summarize on the fly. I have a notepad file open right next to the player and I type as I watch.”
That’s typically how I do episode summaries as well. I may watch it once just watching it first, but sometimes I won’t. Usually it depends how quickly I feel like getting it out.
“If you figure out the answer to the problem, please let me know!”
Haha, sure thing!
Ahh, okay, sorry I misread that. I’m not entirely familiar with the Netflix service either. I guess screencapping immediately is the best solution.
Regarding the tags/categories, what about listing the broad categories and then in a (collapsible?) sub-list, create some links to the tagged anime series names. On the front page, it would give the illusion of categories while retaining the true nature of categories/tags.