A lot of this is from memory. I’m not sure of exact dates or the exact order of things but this is my experience.

Even though this site is relatively new there is a history to my website making that started back when season four of Digimon (2002) came out. I don’t remember exactly why but I was pretty obsessed with it and started going online and really liked all the Digimon websites back then and still do. I guess I wanted to make a website because I thought they were cool so I set out to do just that. Some of the sites I liked were digiexperience.net and thedigiport.com (thedigiport.com is still around) and I tried to make a site like theirs. My problem has always been making a layout that is as good as everyone’s or one that I can at least stomach. The site’s current layout is just one that I can at least stomach for now I suppose.

Anyways, so I started learning about making a website. I never could really comprehend html so I stuck with webpage makers like you find with geocities. I had a pretty cheap photo program that I would make graphics in. I remember something I always really wanted to be able to do was the abstract effect you see in my banner. I could never find how to do that on the net. Funny thing is, that would be what would get me back into all this…but you need to read all of this to learn why ;-) So I started getting everything together and writing content. Wait, I never wrote much content. That was why I failed. My original site is actually online still believe it or not. http://www.dnn.vze.com you can go see how much of a mess it is. I had a Digimon only website at http://digi-past.vze.com/ which is also online still. It’s weird to think I made those 5 years ago. From the looks of it, I actually had some affiliates…man they must’ve been nice to affiliate with that junk hehe.

My experience with affiliating was good for the most part. I was able to get some affiliates but I did have a problem back then. I had one affiliate that was just a total asshole to me one day or maybe he was just being honest. My site wasn’t going anywhere and all I remember was him cussing me out over IM when I asked him a question. I think he may of removed my button and I asked him why and for some reason he didn’t handle it well…who knows.

Having not done too well I moved on to some Star Wars RP in msn chat rooms. I got to be pretty well known in the community and I met two guys that I became pretty good friends with. We ended up forming a community that was rather successful and we all shared the power. However, when it came to the RP, myself and one of the guys were really strong and this made the third guy uncomfortable. One day he went into the site permissions and demoted us to normal members. He then basically took everything away we had worked for. Now know I was part of this community for probably a year or two so this had hurt me quite a bit. When this happened, I basically swore off working on any kind of site and the internet in general. The site was the first site I actually had written content for. Not just a little, but a lot. I’m sure the site is out there still but I don’t care to find it.

Somewhere in there I made a Yu-Gi-Oh! site. I remember absolutely nothing about it but that I made it. I think it may have been an RP?

Now we’re in the current year, 2007. One day I was just surfing the net and I just had the idea to look and see if I could do the abstract design that I always wanted to do. I figured, hey, I’m older and smarter…Maybe now I can accomplish this? Well I was able to. I found out how to do in 5 seconds what I couldn’t figure out how to do for years. Sad really. Oh, and just so you know. It’s a brush you download!

When I learned how to do the abstract brush it kind of awoken something inside of me. I started watching anime after not watching any for about two years. Gundam Seed Destiny, Digimon Savers, and Full Metal Panic were what I watched. (I’m pretty amazed how easy it is to watch anime online now) The idea of making a site floated around in my head and I started to work on graphics. First were forum avatars and sigs. I liked what I made so I started working on layouts. I still haven’t made a layout I’m OMG WTF PEW PEW PEW LAZERS over. In a few weeks I had acquired the skills and know how I would need to make a site so it came down to deciding whether to dish out the money for a host. If I was to dish the money out then there would be no going back. For about a week I thought about it and finally decided to take the plunge.

Here I am now…a few weeks in to the site and I’ve got about two sections completed. I’m very happy with my progress because I’m actually spitting out content. I’m not sure exactly why I am making this site. It could be because I want to keep these animes alive and not let them die like Digimon almost died. Maybe I just have a desire to make a site and learn how the internet works? There is one thing that stands out to me from one of the sites I mentioned earlier, digiexperience.net,

“The Digimon Experience was a website for actual Digimon fans... run by actual Digimon fans, not for profit, not for traffic/hits, not for popularity... but because we actually love the show. If you focus more on your content... and you truly enjoy what you're doing and not focus on your top site or search engine position... then you'll get what you're after in the end.”

I believe if I can stay true to my love for these shows and create a site that fans of these shows love then I will fulfill whatever desire is burning in my heart.