Animation Source Forums

Personally, I liked AS back when it didn't have a character page at all. On ANY source. I'd rather there be no characters again.
But if it's what the people want, why not the 'fan character source'. Sounds like it'd save some headache and most everyone would be happy.
Re-submitting all those characters for some members could be really bothersome, but other than that, I really don't see a problem with it.

Okay, this is a topic that I've been worried about ever since the April Fools prank basically foreshadowed it [as I see it'll most likely happen].

Strangely enough, I find myself thinking that having a Source site for OCs/fursonas/fan characters that are not related to the main cast of a series as being a great idea, if only because many characters I've seen [mainly on TLKS and BS] are usually original characters that are their own... or fursonas of members... or are unnaturally-colored [ex. "sparkle-dogs"... ew.]. I doubt I'd use that for my own characters [as all of mine ARE related to the source material in some way, shape or form and I choose to stick to the original films as much as possible], but I'm sure most members have a bunch of characters with their own lives, stories and adventures. At least a separate Source site would allow them to still be creative with their characters, but I agree that general Source rules should obviously apply.

The only real downside I see to this happening is that I fear many fans will spend more time on their fan characters and OCs rather than the official characters that drew them into the AS sites in the first place. Could this lead to the death of the original Source sites? Maybe, but that might be a risk worth taking.

Of course, the new rules won't please everyone, but if it pleases the MAJORITY, then it totally rules and should be applied by all the mods in all the sites - no favoritism allowed. Thank you, democracy. If some members don't like it, then they should keep their drama to yourself and go to DeviantArt or post them in a thread here on the forums.

I also think that the ratio for OCs and official characters should be effective for EVERYTHING and everywhere, not just for fanfictions, fanart and fan-images/renders. If possible - since it is a FAN SITE - the ratio should be a bit bigger, like 1:8 or 1:10 if possible, so that we truly don't lose the FAN in these FAN SITES. But that's just my opinion on things.

I hate to say that the French BS has it right, but... *sigh* the French side has it right. Why can't the English sites be the same way? It'd make them the high-quality fansites that they SHOULD be, after all, and if all of the mods do their job correctly, it'd be a very big help.

My only other question would be about characters that have a lot of interactions with but aren't genetically related to the characters [like a "just friends, not mates" or some sort of a rival]... would they be remain on their respected Source or would they have to be moved to this new one? Just asking out of curiosity.

That and the character rules prior to creating a character page. We need them SO BADLY and it'd really be a HUGE HELP, Steet.
...Heck, I'm sure plenty of other sections need a rules page too, but I can't think of them right now. XD

Thanks for reading my two cents on the issue and hopefully things work out in the long haul!

- Juuchan17

I remember at the beginning when the characters needed a mods' validation, the mods page was filled of characters, even 40 per day sometimes xD but I honestly liked checking out every single one, if there are rules, they had to be followed and respected.
If we will bring back the mods validation for the characters like it is for images and art, I think it shouldn't be a problem. That's what moderators have to do.


I agree with what Mighty said, getting rid of all the pages isn't a good idea, the majority of the members won't like it and I liked the idea of a character section because all the fan characters are listed and easy to find if you have to do a request or a trade, etc, I remember that it was kind of...annoying to go through a person's gallery to search a decent full body pic (if there was one) because you had to do something with that specific character. The character section keeps the characters in order in my opinion. Of course, now everything is messed up, no more Balto relation, sparkledogs that are Balto's relative spread all around the world, book/movie/cartoon characters turned into canines...originally, it was a good idea for me, but, like you all said, it needs real rules.

An idea I just had: calling the place where all the characters are something besides a "Source". Say, a hub? Or a "gathering" even? It would help to keep people from asking for non-animation sources, and it would help to show that the characters are NOT getting their own site, just a place for them to be kept. Opinions?

^ That's not a bad idea.

But I've also been thinking, does this site even need to be apart of AS? Does anyone remember Gamebook Land (I believe it was called)? Steet made the site sometime in 2008, and I was a webranker there at the time. I'm not sure that it even exists anymore, but I don't believe it was linked to the Balto and Lionking sites at the time. It was its own site.

Sounds good to me. Maybe it could have a connection/link to AnimationSource, but not technically be part of it, kinda like FanFiction.net and FictionPress.com--they're labeled as "sister sites" and link to each other, but FF.net it specifically for fanworks and FP.com is specifically for original works.

^^ Huh...I didn't even know that site existed in the first place. Well, you learn something new every day.

Anyway, having it's own site would kinda make more sense to me, especially since there's going to be a lot more activity on this site I'm guessing.

You guys pretty much read my mind. I'm all for it NOT being specifically a part of AS, after all it is "Animation" Source, hub for quality FANsites. This way you remove all the members who don't care about the movie, it may decrease population a little bit, but is it worth it? I think so.

I'm all for that too. It makes perfect sense and is a good solution.

That makes sense to me too. That way it wouldn't take away from the actual sites. "Original Character Hub" or something like that would probably be perfect. Though obviously, the rules would still apply. Also, if there were to be a character hub, what kind of animals would be allowed? Just the ones from the movies like it is now, or...? Just an issue I believe may need seeing to...

All animals, even humans, should be allowed. As long as they aren't awkward in anyway, which would obviously be against the rules.

Awkward in which way? Lol, I for one consider a demon/werewolf/vampire dog wearing legwarmers, glowsticks and having striped fur with tattoos pretty awkward XD.

^ That was pretty much what I was referring to.

I guess if we might go through with this I might as well work on my characters and Images gallary.

Brilliant idea! I was originally annoyed with the idea of a source for characters if we're keeping characters
at all, but I would be fine with it if it was this way. At least it sounds like it's less associated with AS.