James

Aside from his work on OtakuBoards, James is a valuable asset to n-sider.

James first joined the forums in late 1999 when the forums had only just changed to “theOtaku.com: Forums” from Absolute Gameboy forums. When he first joined, James was a Moderator on the forums but he was also the editor of Absolute GameCube (the GameCube-centric channel on theOtaku) and he was a contributor to Absolute Gameboy and Absolute Xbox. The editor of Absolute Gameboy was Frank (which was then theOtaku.com’sr largest gaming site – the only site to compare in size was theirr Dragon Ball Z site).

Frank was not only the editor of that site (and probably the very first editor on theOtaku.com), but he was also theOtaku.com: Forums’ first Administrator. Frank was essentially the chief admin at the time (in other words, he basically had the same job that James has now). Adam was the network owner, but Frank ran/owned the forums.

After OtakuBoards V2 went down and OB re-opened, James had gained greater control of the site, becoming its primary administrator, or Site Director. There were no longer multiple administrators. Under James’ guidance, OB became more organized and a greater premium was placed on the quality of discussion taking place on the boards. The forum’s membership population and content grew to an admirable size and was only superceeded by myOtaku with its launch in 2003.

James has taken the site through various iterations, almost reinventing OtakuBoards across seven different versions and creating a unique interface for each of them. Perhaps the most memborable of these versions in the current version 7. Version 7 was a radical departure from other OB layouts, with the interface being drastically changed. James, dissatisfied with VBulletins restrictions, collaborated with jblessing, the technical staff member, to come up with a layout that was truly unique to OtakuBoards. Among the changes introduced in V7 is the navigation panel that sits on the left side of the page providing improved accessibility to user options, and a horizontal post bit. V7 is the longest serving version in the history of the forum.

In 2003, James decided to step down as site administrator to take on a more limited role, wanting to create more space to devote to his studies and education. The position of Site Director was created, with the administrator position going to Charles. James took up the position of Site Director, allowing him to remain a key player in the development of the forum.

James has gone on to helm other projects on the OB, the most recognizable of these is the popular myOtaku.com, which added a blogging service to the ever-expanding theOtaku.com and its affiliated sites. He also designed layouts for several theOtaku.com iterations as well as drawing up the mascot for theotaku.com’s Guru, the online quiz section of the Otaku network.

James is currently working on a new update of OtakuBoards. There is no expectation that there will be a major departure from V7, with James himself describing it as more of an evolution than a revolution. In fact, OB’s next version is code-named “OB Evolution” and is not set to arrive until 2007.

Categories: Members, Oldies, Staff