MySQL informs me that since starting FanCruft, I’ve reviewed over 100 anime. I’m just getting started, and there’s a long way to go (for comparison, ANN has information on 4735 anime titles). I was going to write tonight about the excellent Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumi, but this is “way more important.”
Of course, one review was actually written by a friend of mine: Last Exile.
So, what’s in store for FanCruft in the future? When I started, I had basically had to rely on my gut for what differed among anime. I did pretty well for just guessing — on many, many occasions, I’ve written that one anime reminds me of another one, only to have FanCruft identify the two as similar. It’s not very strong evidence, but it’s a starting point. To an extent, the changes in store for FanCruft are a reflection of changes in my worldview. Especially, I now believe that a crowd with excellent resources will usually beat a lone expert (not that I’m an expert on anime, just a dedicated fan).
So, FanCruft is going to be opened up. Big time. Eventually. I do believe that experts can help in setting up the overarching rules of a website, and that doing so is one part computers, and one part social-fu. I can’t give an ETA on this project, because it’s big.
I’ve also realized that the basic idea of rating things based on aspects is a powerful one. There are other websites that do this, of course, but they aren’t usually very transparent about where their data sources.
So, the future of FanCruft? Bigger, better, and more open. How cool is that?