Major site overhaul for El-Hazard's 15th anniversary

[Icy EyeG]

In order to celebrate the El-Hazard's 15th anniversary EHOL was completely renovated. Therefore, if everything goes according to plan, you should see a lot of new stuff on the 26/05/2010!

This was something that started with the forum upgrade carried out by Rob and was promised some time ago, but it took longer than expected for two reasons:

• lack of time (all pages had to be recoded semi-manually);
• a lot of new content (100+ pages) was included (see changes bellow).

Regarding the latter, EHOL grown a lot thanks to the generosity of Jason Bertovich (Makoto) and Aaron Ziegler (Spanner). They co-authored a fantastic site called The Wanderers' Guide to El-Hazard: The Magnificent world (some of you may remember it, as it used to rival, in a jokingly way, with EHOL), hosted on Geocities. However, after Geocities' shutdown they generously let the content of their site to be ported to EHOL and so it lives on. The main challenge of the merge was that some content was redundant. Therefore, there was considerable effort to maintain things coherent.

Besides the new content, thee main difference between “old” EHOL and “new” EHOL is that the latter is now powered by MediaWiki, instead of a custom Perl-CGI engine.
Despite the conversion to MediaWiki, the EHOL’s interface and decoration was kept as similar as possible to the old one. The skin used still has some minor graphical bugs (if you run EHOL in Firefox/Opera/Safari), but they will be addressed over time.

It should be noted that the site isn’t intended to work as a wiki per se: The anonymous editing and registration are disabled, as well as the toolbox and talk pages. The reason for using MediaWiki is to make the life of the editors easier. With MediaWiki is much easier to upgrade and upload content, correct text errors, etc. Let’s face it, EHOL doesn’t have the user base it had a few years ago (which is understandable), and therefore on the one hand, it has to be managed in an efficient way and on the other hand, if it had public registration it’d be easily vandalized (due to the lack of full time maintainers).

This conversion allowed EHOL to gain new features:

• Feeds integration – you can now subscribe two feeds: one for the recent changes in the site content and another for new forum posts (that started working when Rob upgraded the forum);
• IE8 Web Slices (WebChunks in Firefox) support – the navigation sidebar can be made into a Web Slice, which allows you to access EHOL’s main menu easily;
• Thumbnails are generated dynamically, which increases their overall quality;
• YouTube video integration at the Goodies/Media section;
• ISBN search. It’s possible to search an El-Hazard book on select library databases using its ISBN (already provided by us in the book’s page);
• New introduction section (from Wanderers' Guide to El-Hazard), featuring locales and characters description, as well as a lot more information about El-Hazard;
• New Radio Dramas guides/summaries (from Wanderers' Guide to El-Hazard and Hitoshi Doi);
• New Books and Comics (from Wanderers' Guide to El-Hazard);
• New Cards and Trinkets (at the goodies section - from Wanderers' Guide to El-Hazard).

Some of these pages are uncompleted:

• The soundtracks section is missing some of the cover scans. This is mainly due to the fact that the old scans were from SonMay/EverAnime (i.e. bootlegs). However, we now have access to the originals, so they need to be scanned and uploaded;
• The books section is missing the books scans;
• The Manga and Comics section is also uncompleted (some pages and all book scans);
• Some images are also missing in the goodies section.

These will be uploaded in the upcoming weeks, as they weren’t done in time for the 15th anniversary.

We do hope you enjoy the new EHOL and are looking forward to hearing from you!

[Captain Southbird (EHOL Creator)]

Well, I officially brought the forum to the front at about midnight CST (obviously that meant it was late for some and early for others, but that's the nature of timezones.)  Everyone SHOULD be able to see the Wiki.  The old site is still mostly intact though, and I'm sure some of you may have deviant bookmarks that will get around the currently three redirecting pages. 

UPDATE YOUR BOOKMARKS to the new Wiki:
http://www.el-hazardonline.net/El-Hazard/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

I will eventually backup and decommission the rest of the old site as time permits. 

But in any case, a special warm thanks to Icy who made all of this happen, the first serious overhaul since ... probably the lost "Executor82" made the persisting layout back in 2003.

[flyvapnet]

Congratulations and thank you, to those who worked on revamping this Web site!  El-Hazard will live on, due to your efforts.  This site should be deemed an Internet Treasure.  Good job!



=^..^=

[rowan_a._seven]

Indeed. You've done a marvelous job on the revamp, and you have my sincere thanks for keeping this site alive and going all this time. I still use it as a major resource when I research El-Hazard, and the love and effort you've put into the site really shows. Thank you.

[Triple_R]

I want to personally thank you for keeping this site going.

I myself never became a major anime fan, much less an El Hazard fan, until a few years ago. But even so, El Hazard was considered a "cult classic" at the time, and hence I was encouraged to check it out. And I'm very glad that I did!

Probably moreso than any other anime I've seen, El Hazard really captures the imagination. It's a shame that I can't think of many animes quite like it, that mixes action, epic fantasy, comedy, romance, gorgeous character designs, cool heroes and megalomaniacal villains quite as well as El Hazard does. And it's aged quite well, imo.

So having a site like this one, were I could talk about El Hazard with other fans passionate about the show, and share my fanfics and AMVs with them, was a real joy. Your resources were and are out of this world too; I truly haven't seen anything quite like it for any other anime. Your screenshot collection is exhaustive, and it's great to simply look over it.

So a big thank you to the staff of this site! 

[Captain Southbird (EHOL Creator)]

Your screenshot collection is exhaustive, and it's great to simply look over it.

"Exhaustive" is the word for it    This site has a lot of context for me as well; I started it relatively young with an inappropriate view of what makes a website good.  I was basically under the impression of "more is better", and figured when a website just posted 1-3 screenshots of an episode, it just wasn't presenting the truth of it.  But I have more than enough that you could turn it into a comic strip!  But I guess "more is better" wasn't always wrong; it did produce a large portion of the content of this site!

A funny memory is that when I was just getting started, I went around to other El-Hazard websites and asked if they would care to merge with me (if I thought they had something in particular with merging.)  I was even interested in character shrines at the time... figure a shrine-per-character would be of interesting value.  But alas, none of them responded to me... only one El-Hazard site ever did, one I really hoped would join with me, and that was of course the one this template is known for.  Looks like I won in the end. 

Just the lack of joining me made it an unofficial rivalry; quite appropriately like Makoto vs. Jinnai, where Jinnai claims crimes perpetrated by Makoto, who Makoto is oblivious to.  So I tried my best to provide content that they didn't have, hopefully content that would make my site the greater draw.  I suppose that worked for a while.  But I'm really glad they offered up their work at the end of Geocities.  And I mean it in a very mature, non-gloating way; they did some solid work, and they are truly the most appropriate merge for a site that wants to know-it-all.

[Makoto Mizuhara]

Your screenshot collection is exhaustive, and it's great to simply look over it.

"Exhaustive" is the word for it    This site has a lot of context for me as well; I started it relatively young with an inappropriate view of what makes a website good.  I was basically under the impression of "more is better", and figured when a website just posted 1-3 screenshots of an episode, it just wasn't presenting the truth of it.  But I have more than enough that you could turn it into a comic strip!  But I guess "more is better" wasn't always wrong; it did produce a large portion of the content of this site!

A funny memory is that when I was just getting started, I went around to other El-Hazard websites and asked if they would care to merge with me (if I thought they had something in particular with merging.)  I was even interested in character shrines at the time... figure a shrine-per-character would be of interesting value.  But alas, none of them responded to me... only one El-Hazard site ever did, one I really hoped would join with me, and that was of course the one this template is known for.  Looks like I won in the end. 

Just the lack of joining me made it an unofficial rivalry; quite appropriately like Makoto vs. Jinnai, where Jinnai claims crimes perpetrated by Makoto, who Makoto is oblivious to.  So I tried my best to provide content that they didn't have, hopefully content that would make my site the greater draw.  I suppose that worked for a while.  But I'm really glad they offered up their work at the end of Geocities.  And I mean it in a very mature, non-gloating way; they did some solid work, and they are truly the most appropriate merge for a site that wants to know-it-all.

Weeeelllll...

I wouldn't say completely oblivious.  I must admit, there may have been twinges of jealousy at the ability to provide some of of the content that you could.  ^_^

Honestly, you say that you're glad that we offered up the content, but really, I'm very grateful that you thought it was worth saving.  It really made a grizzled old otaku's shriveled heart glow.  \m/ ^.^ \m/

Honestly, it was just bad timing when it came to hooking up back then. I was already committed to launching the page and had done so much foundation work on it already. that it didn't feel right to jump tracks at that moment. If you would've hit me up a year earlier before I began or a year later after it launched, I probably would've joined forces.    Sorry for making ya wait so long. 

In any case. Here's to another 15 years.  May Karou Taures be remembered as only a bad dream. 

[stinko]

Hey, updates! Looks like my inactive ass chose the right time to drop by.

I don't really know much about the site's history, or even how long it's been around. Archive.org dates the domain to 2002 though, so I can see where it's been maintained for quite some time. I remember back in 2002, I made a fansite for a game. It looked like crap since I had just learned some basic html to throw the thing together, but I kept it updated nearly every day and kept adding content to try and draw whatever few viewers it had back. But after about a year I'd had my fill and abandoned it. So around now you've been running this site for about 8x what I put into that one. I understand what kind of commitment that is, and I really appreciate it.

And if you're going to be overhauling the site, I might have some content ideas if you want them. But if you're just planning to merge content from The Wanderers' Guide to El-Hazard: The Magnificent World, that's fine too.

[Captain Southbird (EHOL Creator)]

And if you're going to be overhauling the site, I might have some content ideas if you want them. But if you're just planning to merge content from The Wanderers' Guide to El-Hazard: The Magnificent World, that's fine too.

Uh, it IS overhauled.    If you're still seeing the old page, then you need to fix your bookmarks.  (The old page will be removed entirely in the near future, save a bit of legacy, although ultimately it should be removed.)  It is now in a Wiki format (although there's no public registration simply to keep things sane around here, so new accounts must be created internally.)  And it already has the merged Wanderers' Guide content!  Finally, no one said new content would be disallowed around here. 

[Icy EyeG]

Honestly, you say that you're glad that we offered up the content, but really, I'm very grateful that you thought it was worth saving.  It really made a grizzled old otaku's shriveled heart glow.  \m/ ^.^ \m/

Of course it was: both you and Spanner put a lot of effort into it. The amount of information you gathered was impressive. 
So it'd be a big loss, as your site wasn't backed up in archive.org nor reocities.com.
Believe it or not, when I heard Geocities was closing, the first site I remembered was yours.

And if you're going to be overhauling the site, I might have some content ideas if you want them. But if you're just planning to merge content from The Wanderers' Guide to El-Hazard: The Magnificent World, that's fine too.

Finally, no one said new content would be disallowed around here. 

Exactly, do share your ideas with us, and in the meanwhile check out all the "new" pages on the site!

[stinko]

Ah nice, I'm seeing a lot of new content on the site map now. *clicks random character page.* Arielle Relryle? I never bothered to learn her full name, but that's a pretty good one. Think she could have had more r's, l's, and e's in that name? Rel ree?

Ok, so for content there's a few things I thought were outdated. I think most notably I was always wondering why this site lacked a cosplay section. Ok, so at least shortly after I found the site I looked on my own some ~5 years ago and didn't find squat. But surprisingly there's some decent photos out there now. Not a huge amount obviously, but enough to devote a page to at least. I've got a small collection myself but am currently in the process of expanding.

The doujin section is also fairly out of date. I probably have a complete collection of anything you can find online, although I can't tell just how many you're lacking since I can't view it anymore (I guess due to logins being temporarily out?). There were even a couple translated, which is kind of remarkable.

And, the fanart section is probably out of date, but that may be nitpicking since it's already pretty big. I'd at least like to see the life-sized Ifurita they had at the Tokyo Anime Fair 2008 added somewhere, although I haven't been able to find many pictures of it. Might be a hair too big for a figurine though.

[Captain Southbird (EHOL Creator)]

The doujin section is also fairly out of date. I probably have a complete collection of anything you can find online, although I can't tell just how many you're lacking since I can't view it anymore (I guess due to logins being temporarily out?). There were even a couple translated, which is kind of remarkable.

Actually it's just a section not done yet.  Site-based logins are a thing of the past (there's only a couple Wiki accounts and no public registration.)  FYI, your forum login is only good for just that.  I suppose that makes the site not really live up to the full spirit of a Wiki, but it was more to allow a closed circle few people access to the site without complications of giving out webhost administration.  And of course run on something modern and upgradeable as opposed to my old CGI custom scripts.

Anyway, Icy said he'd get some of that missing stuff up starting around the 10th.  I'll probably be doing some updates as I have time as well.

And, the fanart section is probably out of date, but that may be nitpicking since it's already pretty big.

That one was admittedly a little bit of a throw-together.  It would probably only REALLY be best served by some kind of public gallery, but I don't think we're getting into anything that complicated right now.    There's undoubtedly millions of bits of fanart out there -- ranging from the very poor to the very best -- and I doubt we'd ever have a COMPLETE collection.  I figure just showcasing some of the better stuff will suffice.  (And yeah, that probably means it ought to be sorted and some removed, but whatever.  )

I'd at least like to see the life-sized Ifurita they had at the Tokyo Anime Fair 2008 added somewhere, although I haven't been able to find many pictures of it. Might be a hair too big for a figurine though.

I doubt anyone would really nitpick the size limit of figurines..

[stinko]

That last sentence was supposed to be a joke, heh.

I think the issue is that it's not a figurine, it's a doll. And a licensed one at that:
http://archive.numenor.ca/archives/2004/06/01/lifesized_anime_dolls.php

So I'm at a bit of a loss as to where it would go. Figurine seems most similar to it from what I'm seeing at least. And since I only know of the one Ifurita doll, it hardly warrants its own page.

And while I'm at it, the rest of the images I found for it come from these places:
https://secure.pmoon.co.jp/TOUSHINDAI/gallery/gallery.htm
http://mingreen.hp.infoseek.co.jp/bfc2005tokyo1.html
http://photobucket.com/images/ifurita%20anime%20fair/