Tony and the graphics situation??

Well just on the technical front, the site has a number of serious accessibility issues. Plus the present layout appears to be a bit of a kludge for wordpress which often generates a number of fatal errors if you click around the site a little.

I'm seriously considering just starting from the default Wordpress theme and going from there. I don't have any major inspiration at this point. I think it's probably a better idea to just get something minimal up that works asap.

If I decide to fuck everything up (which I know is going to likely piss off / turn off a lot of users) I might first go shopping around for alternative Wordpress themes to start from. But my gut instinct is to just go default and work from scratch.

I actually dug out the original Megaten anime looking for some inspiration. I find a hard time grasping how to wangle something like that into an interface though. I think Ideally I'd like the layout to have lots of retro computer equipment all over the place and magnetic tape reels -- that sort of thing. You know, playing off the "database" theme and sticking to the root precepts of Megatendom.

For now though, my thanking is I'd need some basic graphics help to go forward. And again I worry about people getting bent out of shape about change. But the site like I said, is just technically poorly designed in so many ways from a basic accessibility standpoint (graphically it's fine as far as I'm concerned, but I don't have tools I'd need to maintain it's current presentation)

At any rate, the default Wordpress setup is a very minimalist blue on white look. I made a basic banner logo that I think works that I could work into the blue header which I'll attach. The white would feed directly into it. I think the graphic represents the heart of Megaten. The only logo I think I'd prefer would something better with the same elements, or better yet something like a computer (probably a portable) with something really digital/occult-like in the display. To do that right it'd probably have to be an art-piece from scratch (that looked like professional art)

At any rate, Tony had a blog category basically setup for every game, and banners for every game. That's way too much I think, and not very farsighted. So I'll probably break the news categories down to pretty much what the forum categories are. All the Persona games go into one category for example. Each category will need an avataar that should pretty well represent the entire series. For Persona the obvious pick is Igor for example. These avatars won't be worked into the banner. Instead they'll be somewhere underneath it (though probably overlapping it somewhat) like that Microsoft Word paper clip.

Smaller versions of these avatars will appear in each blog post instead of the boxed in decals currently on the front page.

The avatars should more or less all look as similar in style as possible, but should be actual production art from the game probably. They should basically look like the avatars you'd expect to see next to a text box in a game. The avatars will have completely transparent backgrounds and should only be flat on the bottom.

If you wanna help produce stuff, mostly I'll need those avatars worked out. I think that'll be enough to get the site back to a functional state and swap over to a new theme.

We will also need a new font. We probably need two actually... one for the bbs and one for the website banner. I think I'd like something that looks pixely with some desintegrating if possible (like the effect used in the anime lettering)

The problem so far is the public just doesn't seem interested enough in Megaten community website to warrant such loving care. That is my major moral dilemma at this point. I don't want this place to be staffed by a handful of people. I want the entire community to pull it's own weight.

If it was so staffed, at the least said people should be financially compensated. It's just too much work to shoulder.

Below is my only idea for a banner graphic so far. Along with the lettering and everything else you'd expect. It has the four elements of Megaten which should be in every cannon game as far as I'm concerned; Izanagi, Izanami, Kerberos, and Hinokagutsuchi (the sword)