PROJECT NAME: Otaku Board
URL: http://ob.otakufridge.com
SINCE: July 2, 2001

v.classic

v.classic.in

v.hnblue

v.ob2005

Originally located at http://www.otakuboard.com, these boards sprung from the demands of my site visitors as well as Animetric's own fan base. The four original sites that shared these boards were Hentai Neko, Animetric, Disc13 and The Anime Zone.

Rowena Lei of Animetric and I actually had a falling out in 2001, the details of which will remain in my head (OB was actually part of my sinister plot to uncover...well...something). At the height of that drama, Animetric built her own boards and Anime Zone dropped out of the anime biz. After a couple of years of detaching and re-attaching sites (and reuniting with Rowena Lei) into the Otaku Fridge, from which Disc13 and Anime Okashi came, this became the Fridge's community forum.

In October of 2002, I registered the domain otakufridge.com because I was having trouble with the original domain. It was kinda held hostage. That little problem got solved. But another problem arose: budget constraints. Since BulkRegister wouldn't let me transfer to a less expensive registrar, I opted to use the domain I registered in October.

Now I don't regret the move. I've consolidated the Fridge in one domain, which means I can get rid of some other extra domains I've been spending a lot on for the past few years (including otakuboard.net, kraiders.com etc.). I made OB the main base of all the sites by turning its holder into the Fridge itself.

I used to incorporate the look of the original OB (OB Classic) into upgraded versions of the boards. Although I doubt OB Classic retained how it first looked, at least it retained its original feel. The other skins I made were all exact replicas of Hentai Neko, Disc13 and Anime Okashi. Then Firesenshi created a black and red L'arc~En~Ciel skin. We couldn't apply those skins on the next upgrade because Invision's source codes and template systems changed drastically.

The final look, OB2005, is very similar to how Hentai Neko version 4 and the Otaku Fridge look. I didn't make it an exact replica of either sites, but instead gave it its own personality while retaining the feel of the Network.