Nineteenth Interview

Interview by: AIM
Site: Advanced Anime
Webmasters: Ben
Interviewer: Jade

Jethrajade: When and why did you start your site?
Ben: I believe I started it back in the fall of 2000
Jethrajade: Wow, that long ago? Why did you start it?
Ben: I was enjoying the programming aspect; writing the html.
Jethrajade: Oh, so you made the layout yourself?
Ben: I've always done the design myself. It's one of my favorite things to do ;-)
Jethrajade: How interesting. Do you have any staff members who help you?
Ben: I have 5 wonderful moderators who take care of the day to day workings of the site.
Jethrajade: Do you work mostly on the layout and general content?
Ben: Well, the content is all user driven. I mostly do programming, design, advertising and conceptual work on the site.
Jethrajade: From what I understand, the site is mostly user driven, save for your html-tweaking and our moderators' input. How much time do you put into your site on a daily basis?
Ben: Yes, you seem to understand. As for the amount of time I put into the site on a daily basis...it varies greatly.
Jethrajade: How about a brief walk through a day and a life of you updating the layout?
Ben: Sometimes I will spend entire days and late nights, other times, just an hour or two.
Jethrajade: I hear you on that.
Ben: I only update the design of the site when I am either inspired by some other design I see, or when it is necessary to accommodate a new feature on the site.
Jethrajade: Is it frustrating being a webmaster for a popular site, or do you find a sense of satisfaction in being a webmaster?
Ben: Mostly I have a sense of satisfaction, but there are certainly times where I am frustrated.
Jethrajade: Would you say that mostly the programming gets frustrating, or do you think that it has more to do with running the site itself?
Ben: The programming I can work through myself.  Any frustration from it is relatively easy to resolve. Running the site, on the other hand, requires a lot more patience. Issues that arise take a solution from the community.
Jethrajade: How do these issues get solved if its one regarding the community?
Ben: Usually the moderators will bring an issue to my attention,
depending on the issue I will approach it differently
Jethrajade: Ah, I see.
Ben: Often I will look to the moderators if it is something isolated. Larger issues I will ask the community for feedback
Jethrajade: Hmm, that makes sense.
Ben: More often than not, the community will give me feedback if I am asking or not.
Jethrajade: That's a good way to solve it. I know that the pace of anime and manga is growing. Do you try to keep up with that pace when you update your site?
Ben: The pace that I match is that of the site community, not the anime industry.
Jethrajade: Ah, so I see yours truly is community driven. I don't see too many of your type of sites, I should say.
Ben: Yes, it is no longer that I can add a feature to the site just because I can.
Jethrajade: Why so?
Ben: I have to think about how each update will affect the community.
Jethrajade: Oh! Now you're coming into a whole new light here. You're not just a webmaster anymore, but a leader, sort of say. You have to think on a larger scale than just a few fans.
Ben: Basically, the features that I add now are to facilitate the growing community of the site. Yes, it was not a position that I was expecting to assume
Jethrajade: Well, I'm glad you did. In all honesty, this interview carries more weight than I expected.
Ben: How so?
Jethrajade: Most webmasters are just that: webmasters. They don't regard themselves as leaders, or even give me the thought that they think on a large scale. They update to keep up with the anime industry pace. They try to gain a more popular fan-base. But you have done the opposite.
Ben: I realized about two years ago that the value of my site was not the content, but the community.
Jethrajade: So, it looks to me that you are cut out for more than just a webmaster.
Ben: Well, who is to say what will come?
Jethrajade: Hehe, that's true. What do you expect will happen with your site in the near future?
Ben: The site will continue to grow and I will continue to add features to the site to facilitate that growth.
Jethrajade: Another thing is that you take your site very seriously, almost like a business-man or politician.
Ben: I treat it as a business. In all practicality, it is.
Jethrajade: Well, I wanted to know: Do you think all sites should be seen as a business? Or do you think it depends on the content, etc?
Ben: I think it depends on the webmaster. Each person will treat their site differently. In most cases though, some aspect of business will be involved in running a site.
Jethrajade: For example?
Ben: Whether it's negotiating advertising deals, or simply paying your hosting company.
Jethrajade: Right. But besides the actual monetary aspect, do you think some intangible aspects are business-like as well?
Ben: Certainly for community web sites. Perhaps a strictly content site could get away without it, but most web sites now have some form of community.
Jethrajade: In your eyes, do you think that the community decision should outweigh the moderators/webmasters' decision on certain issues? This is a vague question, so I'll take it as you interpret it.
Ben: It's a good question.
Jethrajade: Thanks.
Ben: When I make decisions about issues, I give a lot of weight to the voice of the community.  However, there are times where there is a direction I know I want to take the site. For example, sometimes there are people who wish the site was more like it was in the past.
Jethrajade: More like in the past?
Ben: Usually this means smaller. They feel that in the past there was a more tightly knit community. Some even like the previous site designs. There is certainly nothing wrong with these.
Jethrajade: Right.
Ben: But I know that I want to continue to grow the site. I will take these ideas into consideration.  As I grow the site, I try to make it more personal, give a sense that it can be smaller.
Jethrajade: That sense that it can be smaller, what do you mean by that?
Ben: People can have their own circle of friends on the site. Groups within the much larger community. People can also add their own art to their personal galleries rather than their art being lost in the larger galleries.
Jethrajade: That's a nice feature.
Ben: There are ideas that are simply incompatible with the direction the site is going, such as site design. Previous site designs can not accommodate all of the new features.
Jethrajade: Is that the reason for using new and different site designs?
Ben: As mentioned previously, that is certainly one of the reasons.  I had to change the layout of the member accounts to accommodate everything that I was planning to add.
Jethrajade: Earlier, you said that sometimes another design can inspire you to build another site design. Are there other sites that you particularly enjoy, besides its layout?
Ben: In terms of content?
Jethrajade: Yes.
Ben: I can spend a lot of time on Wikipedia and the CIA world factbook.
Jethrajade: Wikipedia and CIA World Factbook?
Ben: Yes.
Jethrajade: I know both sites. What do you like about them?
Ben: I remember a time where acquiring information required going to a library, looking up a book, hoping it was the right book, reading it and looking up its references to find out more. With Wikipedia, it's all just a mouse click. With the CIA World Factbook, there is so much information, all of which is relevant to one of my favorite subjects: geopolitics.
Jethrajade: I knew it! I was trying to think of a way to ask if your field was either business or politics.
Ben: Both
Jethrajade: I see that now.
Ben: I am focusing on international business currently. Previously I was studying Game Theory as it applied to politics.
Jethrajade: Are you in school right now or are you already graduated (from college)?
Ben: I am at my second college, still working on my BA.
Jethrajade: Oh, same here. Actually a BA and BS at the same time.
Ben: Wow, in what field of study?
Jethrajade: BA: Fine Arts-Studio Arts, BS: Physical Therapy.  I'm a geek like that.
Ben: So physical therapy to support your art, huh?
Jethrajade: Actually, Art seems so easy for me, I can paint, draw, anything pretty much. So why not get a degree? Physical therapy, I want to help other people.
Ben: That is quite noble.
Jethrajade: Funny, I just realized we opened our sites the same year. Were you a big anime fan then?
Ben: I was then.
Jethrajade: Were you hoping to share your "love" of anime with others through your site?
Ben: Not quite, although I am aware that other people who start anime sites have that goal. I've always been more interested in the function of a web site rather than the content.  Anime simply was the content of the time.
Jethrajade: What did you like most about anime?
Ben: The art itself.  I've always enjoyed the art.
Jethrajade: Yeah, same here. Any love towards any anime favorite characters?
Ben: I suppose there are a few.
Jethrajade: Such as?
Ben: Totoro, Kiki, Chii.
Jethrajade: From Chobits?
Ben: Yeah, it was one of the few animes that I watched all the way through.
Jethrajade: Are you a CLAMP fan, or are you just a Chobits fan?
Ben: Well, neither really.  I am a fan of Miyazaki, that's about it.
Jethrajade: Ah, I see. :-)  Are there any other qualities that you like in anime that you don't see so much in American animation/comics?
Ben: There is often a distinct Japanese cultural aspect to anime that is very different than American animation.  I greatly appreciate that difference.
Jethrajade: That's good. I think all anime fans know that, but just not in so many words.
Ben: I agree.
Jethrajade: So are you still into anime or have you kind of outgrown it to where you don't really care so much about it?
Ben: I still enjoy Miyazaki.  I don't really watch much else.  Although I have to admit that I do watch some of those Yu-Gi-Oh duels.  I think because they remind me of my Magic: The Gathering addiction from when I was younger.
Jethrajade:  Same here, but mine's Dungeons and Dragons.
Ben: Yep, that too.
Jethrajade: hehe, well, I think this interview went into a different direction than I anticipated.
Ben: So it seems ;-)
Jethrajade: haha, You're a different kind of webmaster, you know. So that's why I'm honored to have interviewed you.
Ben: Thank you.