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So much to do, so little time. |
Edit 9/27: We have selected a tech wizard and are working with them on the site revamp now. Thank you so much to everyone who offered to help! If anyone is still interested in becoming an audio master, video guru, or a writer, feel free to email us. We’ll be moving forward with those once the revamp is underway. Thank you!
It’s been a year and a half since our last recruitment thread, and this one is a little different. While we wouldn’t mind bringing on a writer or two while we’re at it, our main focus is something else entirely.
We’re hoping to do a technological revamp of the RandomC website. It’s had the same layout for years, we’ve been formatting our posts the ancient way for years, and we’ve been wanting to do all sorts of cool new stuff for years. Only problem is, the old tech is getting in the way of new ideas. We’d like to do things as simple as reformatting the front page or becoming mobile compatible, but we can’t because of all our outdated methods! Or we don’t know how to do it, which is the crux of the issue.
So the number one person (or people) we’re looking for is a tech wizard. We’re looking for someone who can figure out how to turn this ancient, decrepit hulk into something modern and user friendly. Mostly just user friendly! I don’t mind the site looking a a bit dated (or “retro”), but there are definitely usability improvements we need help with.
If you’re interested in taking up the cause, please email stilts(at)randomc(dot)net with the words “tech wizard” in the subject line. Please cc takaii(at)randomc(dot)net as well, in case I lose your email. We’ll discuss what we’re looking for, what your qualifications are, and if appropriate, some form of payment. I’ll warn you we aren’t exactly overflowing with cash—none of us have ever earned a dime doing this—but I’m uncomfortable asking for technological expertise without offering to pay, so when it comes to a number we’ll see what we can do. Though if you’re interested in being a tech wizard and writing, then that would make me feel better about the shitty pay. That’s par for the course on a fan site, alas.
In addition, we’re interested in bringing on people who are knowledgeable about creating audio content and video content. These are areas where our plans aren’t 100% formulated yet, so if you’ve got experience in the mediums and would like a platform where you can talk about anime a lot, please email me at stilts(at)randomc(dot)net and cc takaii(at)randomc(dot)net with “audio master” or “video guru” in the subject line. Please bear in mind that the tech wizard is our #1 focus, and also the preview is nearing completion and we’ll get busy with that, so if I don’t respond immediately, that’s why.
Finally, if you’re interested in applying to become a blogger, please visit our 2017 recruitment post for all the dirty details. Everything there should still apply, save that you should email stilts(at)randomc(dot)net and cc takaii(at)randomc(dot)net with the words “writer application” in the subject line. I won’t be able to offer individualized feedback this time, but if you’ve applied before, I encourage you to try again. One of our current writers was barely edged out on their first attempt, only to slay it on the second one.
If you’d like to email me with any other ideas or things you’d like to pitch, email stilts(at)randomc(dot)net with “other stuff” in the subject line. Once again, bear with me if I can’t get back to you immediately, preview etc etc.
I hope to hear from some of you soon. Thanks in advance for all your help, and for everyone else, thanks as always for reading!
Well in this day and age, finding an Video “blogger” would be the last problem. Twitch streams are your king. But, you should talk about anime and bring this medium on the screen.. not just streaming an anime episode and just “subtitle” it…
i think he or both means more some kind of episode reviews, that are out there on the net. in Video form
May I ask who is the anime girl with glasses from? Thanks
I believe it’s from Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashi!
And GL to everyone who’s applying!
Narumi from “Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku”. Or her twin from a series I don’t know.
Thanks for the replies
Out of curiosity regarding the techwizard part, but which coding languages do you seek then?
And is it only coding for the website or also server maintenance?
To be perfectly honest, I don’t know enough to properly answer that question. We work mostly in HTML and CSS, and we use WordPress on the back end, but I don’t know if that’s what we’d need to continue to do.
The immediate concern is coding for the website, though eventually we may need help with the server maintenance as well.
As Stilts pretty much says there’s nothing we are really looking for in terms of languages or software. If you have a preference or are skilled in a particular language/program we’re entirely open to it so long as it can yield a functional website. All that matters is you have some skill and knowledge alongside the interest.
I think the question is whether you really “need” to recode the site, or just find a WordPress Template that is a better fit for what you are doing. If you are paying for hosting, then you may want to see if your deal doesn’t include some of the gallery templates photographers use – which may allow you to setup what you’re looking for a bit more easily rather than rolling your own.
For example:
https://www.template.net/cms-templates/wordpress-templates/anime-wp-theme/
or
https://www.formget.com/anime-wordpress-themes/
Be happy to discuss more if you want to drop me a line. No need for payment, just want to keep enjoying the site!
Very likely there are WordPress templates which would suit us just fine, but the issue is none of us are comfortable fiddling with it given our lack of knowledge and available time to learn. It’s why we are open to anyone with website design talent, no matter their personal software and coding preferences. We would rather have people willing to give it a go than avoid applying because they might lack WordPress experience for example.
And if you’d like send Stilts a message NaweG (he’s the main contact for this). We’d be really happy for any help and information you could provide!
OK, email sent 🙂
In terms of the theme, you could base the new design on something like this
http://justfreethemes.com/demo/?theme=Numinous
Incoming Randomc Youtube/Twitch channel? :9
Potentially, but that’s something we’d figure out after getting the back end taken care of 😛
I can see the attraction of vlogging for the vlogger but I can’t see it for the audience. I can read much faster than anyone can speak, so I don’t waste my time with video. Plus you can skip-read something you’re maybe a little bit interested in to find out more, but it’s very difficult if not impossible to do this with video.
Oh yeah you’re not wrong Angelus, it’s why we have been discussing it more as something extra alongside the usual written material. IMO podcasts are probably the extent of any audio/video on our part for the moment given the time required for their creation and editing (and our already minimal free time), but you never know what the future might allow.
Probably best not to recruit any random person to do video blogging. If you ever got someone terrible with no personality infront of a camera you’d sink your Youtube dreams before they even began. You’d also need someone entertaining that people can listen to for any length of time. Someone random with no experience speaking would be awful too.
If you ever get a fair few applicants, it may be worth the staff deciding amongst themselves who is the better choice. The more critical eyes on candidates would be better.
I think it’s great you are trying to modernize the site, especially if the main purpose is a functional one, that allows you to do the things you need/want.
However, I’d really like to let you know one of the worst things this tends to bring, and warn you about it.
When a popular site tries to modernize its website, they tend to use a fully aesthetics-focus approach, and disregard usability, especially when it comes to things like load time.
I cannot emphasize this more, please do not slow down your page’s load time just to make it “modern”, this happens *A LOT*, especially in forums, and usability goes to the drain, ppl start asking for the old site, which brings me to my second point.
Please, keep the old site alive, try to make your migration a backward compatible one, so that the old site can show all the kind of information it’s currently able to, and cleanly avoid all the new, incompatible stuff in the article(if any).
If you do this, it will bring new ppl to your site, attracted by the new features (I hope), and keep the old ones around with a safety backup. Regarding the bandwidth issue, it will probably be *LOWER* than if you fully migrate, because even if a small percentage of people go to the legacy site, it will consume less bandwidth per access than the new one(probably).
Btw, I dont know about ‘techwizard’ or anything, but at the very least I know a bit about the technology you’ll be needing to put together and I’ve been reading posts here since Omni’s time. If you have any question regarding my comment or if I can be of help, I’d be more than happy to help you. regards
Now that’s actually a really brilliant idea! I’m addicted to Reddit and absolutely hate the new interface, so I’m completely on board with the idea that users can have a choice of accessing old RC if need be. No guarantees though, none of us are literate with web designs and it could prove far more difficult than expected. But we’ll definitely be discussing this so stay tuned!
Me either, i still prefer the “old classic” Comments on Reddit
You know about the “opt out of redesign” button on Reddit, right?
Good suggestion. We’ll keep that in mind, thanks!
Stilts, video blogs on Anime are a dime a dozen on YouTube. Those that review range from really captivating to–their alright. Are you sure vlogs are the way to go?
From what I understand of current discussions is that we will never abandon our commitment to providing written posts. Rest assured. However, we’re looking to experiment further afield to see the other kind of content we could try doing.
Also be aware… the Video blogger (be it male or female) will get some attention because of her/his face and i bet also some “nasty” comments… you know the cliche
in the wrong case, you guys will need some “police admin” to look over the new one
Touching on what Worldwidedepp just said, for some reason it’s really easy to criticize reviewers based on their body image, body language, what they are wearing. reviewers on vlog must nearly have figures like the girls on Harukana Receives visually pleasing is the size I believe. it’s easier with blogging because no face is associated.
Perhaps Podcast would be best?
A simple disclaimer that hateful comments will result in an immediate ban should solve those issues right away. I really doubt any such Youtube channel will get 100s, 1000s of comments so moderation should be fairly easy.
For those that don’t know you can block people from your channel pretty easily so any such trolls could be one click poofed into oblivion never to bother anyone again!
It’s not simply about blocking hateful criticism, it’s how the reviewer handle him or herself with the replies. Working in IT I am constantly measuered by feed back with remarks from end users due to a service agreement. When I succeed it’s great but if the solution is unsatisfactory critics really criticize and loose faith.
I wasn’t talking about blocking criticism, If someone can’t handle criticism they shouldn’t put themselves on a platform that exposes themselves to such a thing. I was talking about blocking the genuine honest to goodness trolls that are only there to be an ass to the person in question. There’s a very clear and defined difference there and I’m sure the staff here have seen both spectrum’s.
You’re assuming vlogs are what we want to do. They may be! But to be honest, we haven’t decided what we want to do. We just thought we’d try to find someone to talk to about these areas while we’re recruiting anyway.
Understood, it is my fault for assuming.
and i just want to “remind” you that a coin have two sides
Yeah, sorry. I am like that.. i am “grey”
So, up till when can we apply for any of those positions? ^_^
You don’t need to post on this thread to apply either, just drop an email to stilts, making note to cc takaii at the addresses noted above. All the information is listed in the post.
Stilts will know more (he and Takaii are handling the hiring), but pretty much up until we announce who’s been brought on board; if there was a specific cutoff date it would have been explicitly stated in the post. If you’re interested the sooner the better though 😛
Already did send one through my work related mail ( programming and stuff is work related, whether the projects are more out of hobby then actual paying ones or if it is an actual paying one, i consider both of them work related ) so was curious about the response time and deadline ^_^
I haven’t replied to anyone yet. We wanted to let a few days pass so emails could accrue, and then takkun and I need to find a few free minutes to actually go over ’em. Plus the preview is in progress, and I’m behiiiiind~ (but what’s new). I’m hoping to start replying to everyone in the next few days (hopefully…), though as Pan-chan said, it’s basically open until we announce we’ve picked someone. I’ll update this post when that’s the case.
This sounds exciting! I can’t wait to see what the website looks like when it gets underway!
This might be off-topic, but what’s Divine up to these days?
As RC’s resident tech person, I want to give you a better idea of what is expected of the tech position.
During my time here, I have done the following:
– wrote a WordPress plugin to help the writers format their posts consistently
– created the rotating banner on the front page
– encoded promotional videos (PVs) each season
The first two items are one-time things that require no maintenance, while the last is a recurring, infrequent task.
If you are hired as tech, expect to participate in the encoding as well as help with any projects the team has in mind. As Stilts mentioned, the first project is to make RC mobile-friendly/responsive.
Here’s what we want a potential applicant to know before applying:
– HTML/CSS/Javascript (frontend stuff)
– PHP (because WordPress)
– Linux (rare sysadmin stuff)
– anything that helps automate PV encoding (e.g. writing scripts or knowing how to use certain tools); specifically: downloading PVs, running ffmpeg with specific settings, batch resizing and renaming screenshots
If this sounds like you, please consider applying. We’ll be glad to have you aboard!
I haven’t commented in RC for a while now. But just want to get this suggestion out.
Instead of using the Categories for anime titles, migrate them to Tags. I don’t think Tags existed in WordPress when RC started. This would help really organizing the content.
Segments like Season Preview, Best of Anime, Anime Episode Review, First Impressions, etc (anything that ties to the site) should be in Categories. Other stuff like anime/movie/video game titles should be in the Tags.
Best practice would be 1 Category + multiple Tags per post. This means you can tag all anime titles included in a Season Preview (or Best of Anime) category.
It’s not extremely hard, but you’ll need to do the SQL query for it.
I would have signed up for the tech position if I wasn’t so busy these days. :\
If you need a tech adviser tho, I’m always @ Discord. The IRC guys are mostly techie too.
If it were servers, migrations, and linux no problem. You guys are looking for more of a front-end dev.
Wordpress itself is honestly more knowing where things go than PHP. CSS / HTML controls the formatting. Also aren’t there plugins for making it more responsive? Unless you are running a super old version…It’s very insecure if you are too far behind.