At Otakuworks, we call people who have donated "premium members". But that doesn't mean that donating is the only way to become a premium member.

Last month I started the June Donation Drive, but did it a little differently than in previous months. As usual I asked those who could afford it to donate. But I also asked those who wanted to donate, but couldn't, to let me know by posting in the thread. Twelve people did:

Less that 20% of Otakuworks members viewed the thread, and only 5% of the people who actually read the thread posted a reply. These numbers are terrible. Administrators don't create useless news threads. We make them because we feel they're important for you to know about.

Therefore, a second method of becoming a premium member has been added: user participation. Currently, you may become a premium member by doing the following:

1. Making ~10 daily non-spam posts in the forums
2. Writing at least 5 anime/manga series reviews and/or synopses per month
3. Becoming a manga uploader and uploading at least 5 chapters daily (contact me directly by PM if you wish to do this)
4. Donating

If you feel you have met either of those conditions for an entire month, contact me and I will give you premium membership for the next month.

As my personal thanks to the twelve users who responded to the June Donation Drive news post, they have all been given premium membership for the month of July.

The main point of this is that we receive few donations and even less user participation. I'd like to see them both increase.
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Yeah it's that time again :p

In our first month with the new server we've had no problems at all... it's really nice. The bill for this server us due a week before the month ends so we have a few less days to raise some money, but I know you guys will come through.

Donate link is here (and at the bottom right of every page):

http://www.otakuworks.com/donate.html
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You may notice that despite our policy of adding only recent series that we have added the series Moyashimon and Myself ; Yourself. These two series were not added randomly, they were requested. While it is true that these requests were made by donators who have a higher priority and access than those who do not, they can be made by everyone due to another policy we have here at otakuworks--to not become another premium site!

How does one request you might ask? There is our feedback forum which is the most direct method, and then there's contacting an admin (such as myself) via PM. Otakuworks as a whole will not improve without the participation of our members in the process. It is through a few members that the content which you find here is added. We thank the many fansub and scanlator groups which have given it to the public as well, but do not forget the effort on our part both financial and otherwise in presentation here. It is with hope our members keep this thought in mind. While the preceding may sound like a request for more financial aid via donations it is more a request of our members to participate in the process in whatever manner they can.

/HAND.
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Okay, so we're bringing back ratings as you may have seen. The way we collect it is as follows. Essentially for each release or series you rate three distinct aspects:

• Story - well ... really... it's um the story you're reading or watching. How does it develop, was it good.. did it suck, etc.
• Animation (anime) or Scan Quality (manga) - for the quality of animation or drawing you see on the anime or manga you're rating. Remember though, sometimes the quality is due to the scanlator/subbers encode or the raw which they got originally.
• Seiyuu Quality (for anime) or Sub Quality (manga) - For anime, how do the actors (seiyuu) do. Do they fit their roles? For manga .... is the translation effective at conveying the story? Most scanlators have good translators, but there are exceptions...

Consider these factors in your rating, and please be sure to rate!

Note: For a few days after initial launch (the post date of this thread) we will not display how ratings are dispersed as we gather data on bias, effectiveness, etc. If for some reason we need to purge the rating database (we doubt it) you'll be able to rate it again. This feature is by no means complete, this is just the initial beta stage.
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We are pleased to announce that we have successfully switched over to our new server. The site was only down for a couple of hours, and the switch went very smoothly. We will most likely experience zero downtime on this new server. We also have a little more space now.

Anyways, thanks for being patient with us.
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