Hey everyone! We're at the end of the year, and I've decided to make a tradition of last year's compiled list of sites posted on charactershrine.

Here's where you come in! Since I'm only one person who is absolutely horrible about keeping up with the community 100% of the time (I'm trying), I would like to ask the members to comment with links that are not listed already. Here's what we're looking for:

• Shrines/tributes that have opened during the year of 2009
  
• Revamps made in 2009. This means heavy changes (at least 50%) of the site must have been changed or modified.
  
• Sites that were offline for a while (since before 2009) and have gone back up again this year
  
• Shrines that were attached to fanlistings (the year the fanlisting went up does not matter, so long as the shrine went online this year)
  
• If you're not sure if any of these apply to a site you want to post, leave a comment anyway and we'll figure something out.

Feel free to post as many of your own shrines or someone else's, as long as it follows the criteria above. Remember, the kinds of games these characters come from aren't limited to Final Fantasy or RPG; as long as they come from a game on any platform, they're most certainly qualified.

If you see your site up here and are uncomfortable about it, comment or send me a message and it'll be removed right away. All posts are screened. Hope you've all had a good year, and hope to see you around in the next!

Shrines of 2009

BlazBlue - Litchi Faye Ling: Bold & Delicious

Guilty Gear - Ky Kiske: Heaven's Not Enough

Final Fantasy IV - Rosa: Purity
Final Fantasy VI - Cyan: Stalwart
Final Fantasy VII - Angeal: Alis Grave Nil
Final Fantasy IX - Garnet: Lilac
Final Fantasy X - Tidus: Ligne de Vie

Kingdom Hearts - Riku: Vagabond
Kingdom Hearts - Roxas: Drift

Megaman - Zero: Fire Carves Scars

Persona 4 - Naoto: Eclipse

Phoenix Wright - Miles Edgeworth: Separate Ways

Silent Hill - Heather: Hithero


The past years: 2008

I said I wasn't going to double post, but who knows when I'll have free time to community/FB surf like this so...

One of my hugest pet peeves is when I come across a site that has this infamous blurb: "The first site dedicated to..." or "The first fansite for...".

( continue?... )

Yes a two (maybe technically three) parter!

First, I wanted to ask (since I see it was linked here, so maybe the owner is apart of this comm.), does anyone know what became of the "On the Edge" shrine to Barrett? I loved that shrine so. the Besaid domain is gone, but did the shrine move/get adopted? I googled like crazy and nada :(  "....."

Second, pluggedy plug for my new site: Catharsis, a fansite to Ledah of Riviera: The Promised Land



Unfortunately the layout image turned out grannier than I wanted, poor file conversion I guess. I'll never know because my PS crashed and I didn't save the completed psd so.... Hilarious fact: I HATED (well maybe hate is too strong) the game. Riviera had to be one of the most tedious games i have ever played. Watching the same freaking overskill cut scenes. Having the characters ask you if you wanted to fight, when you cannot run from enemies in this game. The gross shoujo aspect (oh which tween girl can the tween hero get to fall in love with him. gtfo). Still, I liked Ledah, he helped keep me sane. Has anyone else played it? If so, did you actually enjoy the game?

(oh and about the shrine, if you visit, DO stop by the media section, the song posted there is beautiful beyond words...  i think it'll give you a good feel of Ledah)


//PostScript: I also changed the layout to the Continuum: Final Fantasy Link Directory . Mikari and I did a pretty thorough job of manually adding links, but in the rare case your site is not listed, please do add it! A link back is not required so no opening FTP (shizzam)

This topic has always amused me in the wonderful world of character site making.

• Why do people have buttons to link back to their sites but they don't have a links page?
  

Could someone enlighten me to the purpose of this? Why should I link to you when you will have no intention of linking to me? Does this mean that exchanging links = affiliation? because almost everyone seems to have those. Inherent elitism I suspect?

• Forced affiliation aka "Hi I just wanted to let you know that I've added you onto my list of affiliates".

Oh how I LOATHE those emails. I got one a few weeks ago actually. Do people not understand the meaning of "affiliation"? or has the meaning of "affiliation" changed in the wonderful world of character site making?

I digress =D

I haven't opened a site in more than two years, and this is the product of not doing much of anything else during that time. It's a whatever-you-call-it to Zack and Aerith from Final Fantasy VII.

But I do have a question! What button sizes do you usually make for your shrines? I remember when only 88x31px were used, but it seems like people have been using other sizes nowadays. Also, what is your general preference when picking site buttons to link to them?

(Apologies ahead of time for run-on sentences and over use of brackets. I tend to do that).

Hello! I'm the owner of Royal-Hours.net (who has had various aliases but whatever you know me by, I'll respond to it). For the past year and a half, was on hiatus then turned into a personal blog (during that time, I had actually been playing World of Warcraft obsessively but I've quit now :O)

Anyway, I've recently come back to the webdesigning world, mainly the shrining/fansite world, and I'm working to update my current fansites (or shrines). As I am updating my sites, I've been browsing the Internets and I noticed that, while anime and manga fansites are still up and everywhere (and increasing in numbers, it would seem), it seems gaming fansites are becoming rare? Am I just not searching in the right places? I really like gaming shrines, especially if it's a game I haven't played but have an interest in. I mean, I understand anime/manga is considerably cheaper than a video game, especially since not everyone upgraded to the new generation consoles (PS3, Wii, etc). But still, it's kind of depressing to not see more gaming shrines around.

There are still many that exist, I know, and I've visited In The Fade to find some, but a lot of my old favourites have closed (like I said, I've been working on updating my sites and I've had to weed out a LOT of broken links) and OVERALL, it feels like gaming shrines are on a decline ...? A lot of the ones still existing, I find, are gaming shrines that have been around for a LONG time already.

I've found some new domain collectives, but almost all of them are focused on anime/manga and I can't seem to find any new gaming shrines. Not that there's anything wrong with anime and manga, but my first love is video games, so I'm really curious as to where they all are.

Are gaming shrines a dying breed of shrine now? Or am I just really terrible at searching?

(P.S. I don't know how to tag this post, moderators please feel free to tag this for me).

As most of you (hopefully) know, the charactershrine moderators have been brainstorming ideas as to how to revive the community which, let's face it, has sort of come to a stand-still. carbon mentioned to condensation (who forwarded the idea to me) the idea of starting the recovery process out with a meme; ultimately, it will give everyone the chance to (re)introduce his/her self and will hopefully get everyone's juices flowing again.

So, without further ado, here are the questions (all you have to do is post a comment with your answers):

1. What is your name?
2. What is your URL?
3. Why did you start creating shrines?
4. What keeps you inspired?
5. Do you put media in your shrines and why/why not?
6. Who was your first shrine dedicated to?
7. Why did you start off by enshrining him/her?
8. Is the shrine still alive today; if not, why?
9. Which shrine is your most prized creation and why?
10. How long did it take to complete?
11. What made you decide to pay tribute to that particular character?
12. Do you have any other shrines in the works; if so, what are they?
13. What is your favorite shrine made by someone else and why?
14. What, in your opinion, is the most important aspect of a shrine?

Hi I'm Ali, I'm a newbie here, I saw Stefi's post in Amassment and thought this community would be right up my ally.

I see some of the sites owned here and I'm really impressed, so I thought maybe I could get some help here (maybe I'll post over @ amassment too).

I was really big into websites during 2001, but then school/work/volunteering/social life really didn't allow me to work on or create sites any longer, so I fell off for quite a few years (the domain I kept registered and hosted but it was dormant). Now that I'm back 'in the game' so to speak, I'm making sites and working hard on them, but it's hard to get people to link exchange or link voluntarily. I am thinking my sites are missing a certain 'x factor', but i just don't know what. Also, I admit, I've been lazy with meta tags and joining relevant directories as well.. (I read over the Archive: Discussion Questions before posting). Almost all of my sites are 'off the well beaten path' aka for characters/series that aren't really shrined so it's not like i have a lot of 'competition'.  I've checked out other popular FFVII sites to see what they are doing differently (not to rip off them or anything) but it seems like the same content. Is it a matter of networking and 'who you know' as well?

If anyone would mind taking a gander at two sites I am most concerned about (i guess because they are my biggest fandoms) and give me some pointers (what needs to be added, curse me out for typos, etc), I'd be oh so grateful. And don't be easy on me.

Zack Fair (FFVII) : http://eiyuu.org/zack
Angeal Hewley (FFVII): http://eiyuu.org/angeal

Thanks soo sooo much!

Hey everyone, it's been quite a while! Since this community is rather static, I've decided to compile all the questions onto one page for easy referencing. A huge thanks to everyone who has participated these past few years; your opinions will hopefully beneficial for future shriners to come. Below is a list of all the questions you've asked, organized according to category, accompanied with the topic starter and a link to the post.

( General )

( Structure & Building )

( Media )

( Design )

( Character )

( Fanlisting Culture )

As the 2008 comes to an end, I wanted to wish everyone a happy new year and hope the fourth coming year will be filled with more new shrines and less domains disappearing. Haha, just joking! =P

Anyway, I thought it would be a neat idea if we compiled a list of shrines that came online this year. This isn't limited to brand new sites-- it could be shrines that were offline for sometime and then recently came back up or even shrines added on to fanlistings.

So, if you guys would be so kind as to post links to shrines in the comments section, that would be awesome (because God only knows how hard I fail when it comes to finding new shrines). It doesn't have to necessarily be your shrine; just post a link to any shrine that was put up this year, and I'll add it in. I'll check this post and my e-mail often within the next few days, and I will update the list accordingly.

Also, if you see one of your shrines being linked here and you don't want it up, feel free to shoot me an e-mail and I'll take it down asap.

Other than that, thanks everyone, and have a good new year!


Shrines of 2008

Ace Attorney - Phoenix Wright: Checkmate

Final Fantasy VII - Aeris: Fated
Final Fantasy VII - Aeris: Great Gospel
Final Fantasy VII - Barret: On the Edge

Final Fantasy VIII - Squall: Shift

Final Fantasy X - Lenne: Pearl
Final Fantasy X - Shuyin: Nocturne
Final Fantasy X - Yuna: Will

Final Fantasy XII - Gabranth: Stray
Final Fantasy XII - Larsa: Armistice