Current mood:	infuriated
Entry tags:	blaze totalpokemon spinarak

Want a laugh?
I sincerely hope you do, as I have a joke. What happens when you give a webmaster Blogspot? This my friend. Not only did he manage to blow up his own head, but successfully proved his head is bigger than Serebii. I'm sorry, but I need to address some very concerning inaccuracies. Then we can finally get to my surprisingly happy take on TotalPokemon.

Blaze's Blog: (This paragraph represents BGT's Guest Blog) "This is something BGT wrote yesterday (Directed to PJN, following Private Messages Paul sent to him via Shinou). I know some will call it biased since we both run TotalPokemon, but honestly it is very true. Anyone who knows BGT can tell you that he straight up tells it how he sees it, even if it means alienating or going against his own friends (or Co Webmasters). He tends to not get involved in fights or drama in general with other people, but even BGT could not put up with PJN."

My Response: I'm not going to comment on PJN's Spinarak project at all, they teased us and it could be worth it, but I'll save my judgment until it's out. What I would like to say is that what followed that paragraph didn't seem like the BGT that I had seen before. In fact, my opinion of him took a dip. He usually isn't malicious and insulting. Opinions of the webmasters were completely rude- period. Only a second rate webmaster would actually attack the character of another solely because someone said they were good. I don't think BGT was jealous, but, I'm left wondering why he would do that...it surprised me in a sad kind of way. Comparing stats with PC was just stupid. I mean, if they actually had confidence in their own forum...they wouldn't give a damn. I don't see any other forum, besides POL's, playing the tit-for-tat statistics game.

Blaze's Blog: "All I can is "wow", this is a blog nothing short of amazing. These are rock solid facts, which no one can dispute. Bravo to BGT for being brave for writing this feature, and even allowing myself to republish it on The Blaze Life."

My Response: (That concluded BGT's blog) All I can say is "sad", this blog is nothing short of low. These are rock solid opinions, which almost anyone could dispute. Bravo to BGT for lowering his morals enough to write this, and even allowing myself to comment on it without permission on FandomObserver.

Blaze's Blog: "Anyways enough about that, I want to focus on his newest scheme to get hits. That is as you probably all know his big new "revolutionary idea"..... Spinarak.net"

My Response: Why do you care? Blaze went on to discuss PJN's Spinarak project and how angsty he was that he didn't know what it was and PokeJungle & Co wouldn't tell him. Who gives a damn? I'm sitting here patiently, not complaining. Yes, ok, it goes a bit far with the hype, but it's no reason to ape out. If it's a scheme to get hits, I'll be mad. Although so far PokeJungle's projects really haven't been disappointing. Smeargle's Canvas and Mt. Moon both panned out well. PokeChan...well...that needs some fixing, but it is the first 4Chan like Pokemon imageboard. I'm not too worried that the project will be stupid so much as it just may be mediocre and nothing to really be excited about. Spinarak.net is at the moment a very humourous teaser site. I'd have to say that this was a completely pointless blog. You did give it free publicity and just COMPLETELY ADDED TO THE HYPE! So congrats on falling into what was PokeJungle's plan probably from the beginning. Absolutely no publicity is bad. He's certainly gotten a bit of it now.

Blaze's Blog: "As anyone from the Old PC knows, the Staff have become more powerful and downright power crazy. They decided that they rather pay for the Server, then have us have anything to do with it."

My Response: I think the staff has just gotten overall smarter. Yes, definitely more smart.

Blaze's Blog: "I am just genuinly nervous that I cannot replicate my Pokemon success into the Gaming Market. I mean I go from competitors such as Serebii, to the likes of IGN, Kotaku, and Joystiq. I just don't know if it is going to work out, which frightens me since I am usually overly confident about every project I get involved in."

My Response: As a level headed person, I'd have to advise you to actually catch up to who you name as your competition before trying to start a new simultaneous project. In fact, I'd say just get in the same league.

Blaze's Blog: "For those of you who know or do not know, I am the one who got Seafoam Island (SIVPH) into power at PokeCommunity in the first place. He recently publically considered switching to Shinou Community Forums in what appears to have been a publicity stunt to make gains at PokeCommunity."

My Response: Really? I didn't know. Of course you've also made claims that you directly compete with Serebii, BGT has said that Shinou has better statistics than PC at its start (statistically wrong)...so...I'm not ready to be fed bullshit by you. Pray go on though. I'm sure it wasn't a publicity stunt either. Most likely you shot your mouth off and gave it publicity, similar to what you just did to Spinarak.net. But hey, mistakes are bound to be made twice. Mewthree had absolutely every right to be mad at your dismal review. If he respected you as a webmaster, he'd respect your review and opinion. Because he contested it, it leads me to believe he doesn't.

Blaze's Blog: "P ST (Shinou) Network which stands for (Pussiance Pokemon - Pokemon Safari - Total Pokemon) will become a premier partnership between different languages. This will allow us to freely exchange news, media, projects, and even staff."

My Response: No problems with this, sounds fine. Sounds like a great way to share information. I love Pokemon Safari, especially when it was bilingual. Pussiance Pokemon, however, was already mentioned in my blog for being a non-sourcing joke of a site. I don't respect it at all. I'm interested in more news in this topic however.

Blaze's Blog: "Blaze Ranks Seafoam Islands - 63 /100"

My Response: I'll defend your right to give the site a shitty rating, but for all that's good, please explain it. Yeah...great...he spends too much time socializing and doesn't update his site. He gets a 'F' for that? Oh please. Explain in more depth or don't bother giving a rating. I started off this blog handing out reviews and quite purposefully left out any sort of rating. Giving your opinion is so much more helpful than handing out a meaningless number without explanation.

Blaze's Blog: "I have been portrayed as an "asshole" or even at times I have been descripted at the "devil", which is actually quite amusing but totally inaccurate."

My Response: Misguided Webmaster with a big ego is certainly more accurate. I don't think you're an asshole, and certainly not the devil. Just for the record.

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So why did I do that? Why did I give a quite obviously slanted response? Coming from my blog, I try to keep as balanced as i can.

I will explain in very simple terms though. Blaze is a webmaster of a popular site and a popular forum. This gives him some influence in the fandom, which translates to power. Therefore his opinion is carried with his power behind it. And from the beginning, we've learned that those in power most respect it and use it wisely. This blog was so infuriating from so many levels. Not only did it simply serve to be an outlet so he could tell us all how great his site is compared with others, but it's purposely used to slam and slander his competition. He has completely and totally abused his power.

So where does this leave me? I use my blog to comment on sites. I use my blog to refute and sometimes give unfavorable information. There are two very key differences. One, I have no site in which to flaunt. Two, I have no power to go with my opinions. I'm offering you my thoughts, and I leave it up to you to interpret them and agree/disagree with me. Not to mention I don't use this to purposely and publicly humiliate anyone besides the above example, and in my opinion, I don't give a damn. He decided to write it and very much deserves any negative response he gets.

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Total Pokemon v3: (Regardless of personal feelings, I do offer unbiased comments on sites)
So what's new with this site? Well, it now has an image gallery / new layout / site & forum login / index. Site and forum login is nice, but since the login has nothing to do with the actual site, I find no benefit with that. Gallery is definitely good, lots of Anime pictures up for use in it. It's better than Serebii's way of giving readers images...definite kudos for that. Layout is definitely looking sexy. Index is now too confusing, really. News is too small and I'm just too overwhelmed to feel compelled to actually use half of the stuff on it.

Overall it's a nice change, mostly a facelift with an utlrasnazzy image section, but it's apperciated. It did serve to revolutionize the site. Search function is now also much easier to use, nice.

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Spinarak ... can it be stopped?
One of the key phrases in the hype is "Spinarak can't be stopped". So can it be? Is it just a flop or will it really change the way we look at fansites? Personally, I do think we need more information. I find myself looking forward to when it's revealed simply to see what it *is*. Other than that it's disappointing that we only have a spoiler site and a lot of riddles. For fun, I'll go over it as Blaze did.

Bug + Web + Change. Let's put those key phrases together. Obviously Spinarak is probably the intended bug, and it can build webs, and the site should change the way we look at something. Referring to a specific hype thread on Mt. Moon, "Sites link to other sites who link back... sites partner up with others to make better end-user experiences..." (Koroku), coupled with the mention of 'net' in that post... wow. It's obviously about PokeJungle's Network. Because Blaze doesn't do such extensive research on the topics he blogs on, I don't blame him for not knowing.

It's really not a secret for those with any sort of brain power.

Considering that PokeJungle has several services, including MMC, SCO, and PokeChan (how do you abbreviate that?)...there is at least some promise in any sort of Network. However, the fact that he publicly mentioned other sites and webmasters were involved, specifically the ones from Mt. Moon, means that it's on a bit bigger scope. How far he's going is the big question now.

So I will amend "Personally, I do think we need more information. I find myself looking forward to when it's revealed simply to see what it *is*." with my research officially done. I'm now excited to see what the new Network will bring.