Letters to the Four Gods

These letters are the responses we get to each review. They are posted in the order that we recieve them. Each God, if they feel so inclined, may deign to reply.

You can also check out the second page of letters here

From: Maxi Rose
If it helps you understand any part of the page as to stealing, there's a midi on her page. Sadame no Hoshi.mid I made that midi. It sits on my Hotohori Shrine, with a little note to please keep my name as author attached, but feel free to use the midi. She didn't do that, though at least she had the courtesy to grab the midi instead of linking it off of my page.

So there you go. One item you can now know for sure was stolen without credit, even though the author was kind enough to give it away, provided the authorship was kept.

I've been stolen from before on my Hotohori Shrine. Maybe it's backhanded compliments? o_O Anyway, if you want to see it (I'm afraid to offer it up for critique. You might eat it. ;D) http://www.interlog.com/~teleute/shrine.html

@}>-`--,-- @}>-`--,-- @}>-`--,-- {{@}} --,--'-<{@ --,--'-<{@ --,--'-<{@
Maxi Rose Ghost of a Texas Lady | Anime: FY, MB, KOR | Bab5, Goth
Maxi the Southern Dragon (UDIC) | Anthropomorphics, Bisexuality, Jim
http://www.interlog.com/~teleute | Lexx | http://www.io.com/~jwtlai
@}>-`--,-- @}>-`--,-- @}>-`--,-- {{@}} --,--'-<{@ --,--'-<{@ --,--'-<{@

[Seiryuu:] Thank you for the comments, it is always nice to be vindicated, is it not? And we'll consider your webpage for a future barbeque.

From Tomo No Miko

howdy, i just wanted to make a comment on the "forever fushigi yuugi" page that just got reviewed on your page. it seems that not only was the text stolen for ALL of her character info, but that it was stolen word-for-word from the EX article on fushigi yuugi. just thought i'd bring that to your attention. ^_^

also, i noone gets nominated for upcoming months, do you just randomly pick a site from anipike or somewhere? also, do you notify the owners of a page when you review their site? ps do you plan on maybe giving awards for /well/ done fy pages as well?

felicia
Tomo No Miko, CTFC Pres "i'm not only the president...i'm also the miko"
SHFC, DTFC member
Tasuki no seishi, Koyasu Takehito no Seishi, Condor Joe no seishi
http://www.utdallas.edu/~berl5147/ UTDallas Electrical Engineering
"------Yuck! How can I be in such a feminine place sober?" -Tasuki
Fushigi Yuugi

[Seiryuu:] Well, Miko of my shichiseishi, we were going to pick pages randomly off the Anipike, if there were none nominated. We will try to email the page owner when the review is complete to let them know that there page is up for a nice barbe ... uh, I mean a review. As for an award, well, there are already two places to win an award for good Fushigi Yuugi pages. We review only.

[ Byakko: ] We considered reviewing good pages, but, as Seiryuu said, there are already awards for good pages. This is meant to help people improve their pages, not really to congratulate those who already have good webapges. But, y'never know. We're Gods. We're allowed to change our minds. ^_-

From: "Taline Keumbehdjian"

WHAT THE HELL??well if its THAT BAD!!! I guess I will have to remove it for good! I listed a few of the people's names from where I got some stuff from... EG. IMAGE GALLERY.. I PUT GENESIS'S NAME DOWN!!!!!!!!!! and for the Midi's I listed your little name and nellie's... Well I think it deserves a 3. NOT A 0.5!! I worked my ass off for this page! I wanted to didicate the page to fushigi yuugi... but I guess I will have to take it down since its that bad to you!! NOT TO OTHERS! hm.. thats wierd! only you said it was bad! I can read the text perfectly.. and the others can too... and the background is perfect!!the songs are great too!! and the HTML! WHO CARES! who would want to look at the html.. it all depends on the page!and what it says...I was going to take down the remaining characters and fix it up myself!! I didn't want to keep it without asking EX!! I wanted to do it myself and lighten it up alittle...you really hurt me....

Thanks alot! for saying it blinded you!! ONLY YOU!!! I hope you better get my homepage URL out of your site NOW! because my page going to be gone...

Taila

[Seiryuu:] Ah, so if it isn't Taila herself. Two comments. One, who are these mysterious "others" you keep mentioning? I don't see anyone else replying in your letter ... Two, the HTML is the page. Keep that in mind for future reference.

[Byakko:] Well, Taila, we didn't mean to insult you. We just meant to point out some of the things you could do to improve your page, since right now it just was very difficult for us to read and navigate. We DIDN'T want you to take your entire page down, just change some things, since your page looked like it could have been a good page.
And just mentioning Genesis' name in the link list isn't good enough. As we mentioned many, many times in our review, you're STILL costing him/her a LOT of money by directly linking their entire image gallery to your page. How does $200/month sound to you? A lot? Well, that may be what Genesis has to pay because of things like this. If you want to use his/her images, at LEAST put them on your own Geocities account. Writing your own HTML code would be nice, too. ;O_O
In short, we're sorry you're taking down your page completely, instead of fixing the errors we pointed out. Nothing personal!

[Genbu:] Talia, please keep in mind that our reviews of your page was to help it improve, not a sign from the gods to take it down. That is your own choice. Suggestions were given on how to improve the page by pointing out what was taken, and stuff like coding, etc.

About saying how no one cares about the HTML and that what's on the page is what matters just doens't make sense. The HTML is what defines what's on the page. Words on a page are all fine and good, but when it's difficult to read them (and it was for all of us gods) then perhaps rethinking that philosophy may be the way to go.

As the other gods have mentioned, it's more than just the link to Genesis page. Sure, that's credit but when you've directly linked to Genesis' images, you must understand the consequences that Genesis may ultimately have to pay. Not too long ago, Geocities and other free web space providers didn't offer that much space... but now, that's all changed. You could have uploaded those images onto your own server after asking permission, at the very least. Yes, that's a lot of work, but you said you've put a lot of work into your pages as it is... if you want a really good page, this is what you have to do.

[Suzaku:] The other Gods have made their points well, so I have not too much to add. I do want to stress, however, that Simplenet accounts with high traffic pay an extra $200/month for their web servers. Direct linking to their images can literally cost them a great deal of money, and the same is true for many other ISPs -- because of this kind of irresponsible behavior, sites whose owners pay for their web space may actually be forced off the web by people who don't think before they link directly to others' images. Forever Fushigi Yuugi had a lot of good information, and definitely had the potential to be a good page, with some HTML fixes and with proper credit given to sources of information, etc. It's important to straighten out the problems with a web page before really promoting it, though, and especially to get permission when using things that others have spent a lot of time and possible money to get on to their own web sites.

From : Jellyn
Subject: Who Do You Think You Are?
Alright, I admit it, the subject was only so you'd be sure to read the message. :) Well, that and the Luna Rock of said name is playing in my headphones. :)

Anyway, I just wanted to tell you that your page isn't updated nearly enough for my snickering pleasure. Can you please consider doing reviews two or three times a month? I don't want to wait until September to be able to read more content on your page!

Alright, I admit this too. I'm only sending you a message so I'll see an update to the letters page if to nothing else.

:-)

-Jellyn

[Seiryuu:] Well. We will think about it. But some of us Gods are extremely busy running the World, and some of us Gods are extremely lazy. So it depends. We will ponder your suggestion, and discuss the idea of two barbequ .. uh, reviews a month.

[Byakko:] The main problem with doing multiple reviews a month is the fact that certain gods are very...slow...with doing their review. Genbu is called the Celestial Tortoise for a reason. ^_-

[Suzaku:] Well, if it will keep Byakko from chewing on me, I'm all for an extra web page roast each month. I have been pretty busy keeping my Miko and her Seishi out of trouble, though. Oy, Seiryuu, can't you calm down that blonde maniac? It was bad enough when they wanted me to perform sex change operations -- I'm a God, not a doctor!

[Seiryuu:] Damnit Jim, I'm a God! Not a doctor! *giggle*

[Genbu:] Sorry, but Seiryuu doesn't get out much.

From Siodhachan

hallo

I have some questions 'n' comments about your page.. the one that reviews Fushigi Yuugi pages.

What is clean HTMLing? (*thinks* I think I read that somewhere on a comments page...) I actually have a FY webpage (just not at this addy. ^^) and I like to think it's nice. However, I have never heard of clean HTMLing before and if there is a way to make my webpage better, I'd like to know.

I said somewhere on my page that images were meant to be passed around unless the person who hosts them did something special to them: ie cleaned, scanned, colored, drew or captured them. Those require permission and a link. What do you think? General anime images get passed around a lot, but some people who scanned them like the rest of the masses may get upset if they think their image is floating around.

About ideas, there are lots of FY fanclubs floating around. I think the original was the Nakago one. Are the other sites plagiarizing the Nakago FC creator's idea?

While it is great that you are reviewing people's sites and telling them how to improve it, aren't you afraid of offending people so badly that they flame you? It's one thing to help people, but it's another thing to anger...

Ah well. ^^ Thanks for your time. And I would like a reply if possible. I'm really curious...

siodhachan

==
You have left me, and where have you gone across the sea?
Is there hope there?
**Dreary is all the world that Man have touched. The
sea is wide: who knows what we shall find?

[Seiryuu:] What is clean html coding? Well, html (Hyper Text Markup Language) is what defines the webpage - the text and graphics. For a better explaination of what html is, and what you can do with it, I suggest checking out the NCSA Website. The site includes an introduction to html, and basic tutorials. It's great for beginners, as well as internet veterans.

As for what I consider clean html, I prefer to be able to read the text. As in, the backround color/image does not clash with the text color. I would hope that for those people who have English as their native language make their page look like it. THisss ?IS NOT EnglisH as FAr as I AM CONCerned. I would like to see a layout, that is pleasing to the eye (preferably no puke green colors, or orange or anything like that). No images that overlap the text.

The problem with most websites today is that the quality in anime websites has gone down considerably since the internet explosion in the last few years. People have gotten used to seeing so many webpages like Forever Fushigi Yuugi, that they start thinking that Forever Fushigi is a good webpage. But it is not. If you would like to see an excellent Fushigi Yuugi webpage, go to Yui-chan's page. Yui-chan is Japanese and her spelling and grammer in English is better than most webpages originated in America. Pathetic, isn't it?

As for the images on your site, personally, I think images are meant to be passed around. Under three conditions. One, credit is given to the first person who originally scanned, screencaped, modified, etc, the image. Two, that you do not link directly to someone else's website - you upload the images onto your own server. Three, you know for sure that the original creator/modifer/capper/scanner has given permission for the pictures to be used on other webpages. Once those conditions are met - PAR - TY!

Lastly, on the issue of flames. Well, that comes with the territory. And I am a Dragon ... so a little heat never bothered me. Personally, if the webpage does not meet my standards, I will say so. That is what we are here for - to improve Fushigi Yuugi webpages. If people want to flame us for what we say, go right ahead. It still won't change the fact as we see them.

[Suzaku:] I say, Seiryuu, we may have had our differences over that Miko business, but sometimes, you are brilliant! The NSCA page is a terrific place to learn HTML! Follow the 'Beginner's Guide to HTML' link, the first reference that I used to learn it myself (even Gods aren't born omnipotent, we just have lots of time and very good memories). It's really very easy! ^_^ Good HTML is extremely important for a good web page, because if you have a really great page, you want to be sure that it's written so that as many people as possible can see everything that's on it!

Do you have additional comments for us? Well, please feel free to email us at : thefourgods@hotmail.com. We appreciate your input.

Back to this month's review.