Quote:
Another things to consider is the validity of fansites themselves in this day and age; aside from those of us who started coming here a long time ago, who is going to come to a fansite for any reason? For people who want news on their favorite games, there's a whole bunch of better websites out there that keep up to date on that kind of stuff. Fan art and such can be found elsewhere as well. The only real thing that can draw people in are the things you will only find in fansites, like opinion articles or what have you. And let's be honest here, how many people here would care about that kind of stuff? I like a good interesting read on things I like, but not everybody else does. As much as I don't like the thought and consider them to still be viable, even forums themselves are starting to become obsolete to most people, the few I still know of that are still strong are the popular ones that have been around for a long freaking time.
What the site probably needs most is some new staff members that are not only passionate about Kirby and the site, but can actually keep coming up with new exclusive content that people will like and keep coming back to, but all things considered, don't really see that happening. Aside from those who have interest in such things to begin with and keep up with it, who even understands HTML code anymore (or whatever it is KRR uses)? With things like Facebook and all the social media nonsense everyone seems to value more than life itself and websites for almost anything under the sun, personal websites aren't even really a thing anymore. Places like KRR are something akin to a relic of a time long past; it may have wowed people back then, but today it's just a shell of its former glory (worst case scenario is Super Mario Bros. HQ, that used to considered one of the very best Mario fansites out there, now it's just an unattended corpse littered with enough unrelated ads that would make even the most tolerant of people turn away in disgust). Could KRR come back up and reclaim it's lost glory? It's always possible, but all things considered, I think it's very unlikely; KRR as it is today is the equivalent of someone, long thought dead, waking up from basically a four-year long coma.
I feel like this a very good articulation of some of the things I've been feeling about this site.
I was never really into the site politics (I had joined the community back in 2008 when I was 14 and by then the site had already pretty much passed its heyday from what I understand) and enjoyed having a place to talk about the anime. I was annoying, but you all put up with me. Bless.
The thing I loved about KRR, aside from the forums, was that it had an outstanding database of stuff to look into. To this day, I still use the OP HNK section to see a quick list of the subtitled episodes, since the thumbnails make it easier to remember the episodes. KRR has a fantastic information database.
It's easy to want to ask for (/demand) changes, especially if you're like me and have zero understanding of any underlying politics. That said, it would be pretty cool to see the site undergo a rebirth (major design/coding changes, pages added,) because the amount of organization and depth of information about Kirby content (the games, anime, etc) stills hold to pretty impressive standards. Forum boards are sadly outdated but I think the site still holds strength in being a nicely organized Kirby information center. Perhaps not dissimilar to how Serebii.net is my go-to on Pokemon information due to its extensive database.
...And to end this completely off-topic, thank you to the hero that added Wess from Mother 3 as an emoji
