The New Shenmue Dojo

[Yama]

After many years, the king of informational Shenmue websites is being awaken from it's sleep in hope that the series will soon follow suit. After a lengthy stint as Administrator, Hellraiser has passed on ownership and direction of the site to myself. To express my gratitude and willingness to help, a new website was formed to house the years of insightful information Shenmue Dojo possesses.

Through an entirely new website built from the ground up, the original Dojo's layout was kept in mind, yet the page was turned to a hopeful future. Visually, many of us fans are fond of the streets of Dobuita. However, as we also know this is all some players ever visited. The new design is aimed at the dramatic ending of Shenmue II with an emphasis on the future of the series. Next to imagery, this delicate campaign can be lead to success by the constant spreading of information and welcoming of new and old players. To look beyond the cave ourselves, we must first get the other half of the world to step into the massively underplayed streams and marshes of Guilin.

Aside from the rebirth of the website, I am proud to announce a new community forum (with all remaining information kept intact). Through these new features, select news posters (contact me) will be able to post news/community updates directly to the front page of the website via the ease of Shenmue Dojo's message boards. Along with this, other features are being introduced and expanded upon: DojoTV, Dojo Gallery, Dojo Chat, Reputation System and a bevy of upcoming other features. All website-side message board links have been amended, pages have been (*)faithfully transferred and features have been implemented. *All articles were kept as true to their original form as possible. It is felt that the original articles mesh well within the new shell, it also allows for some of the original Dojo to remain with us through nostalgia.

I'm thrilled to share this exciting time with everyone and am honored to lead such a project. I'm faithful this is one step closer to bringing the Shenmue community together in hopes of bigger and better things within the franchise.

(Huge thanks to Mr. Rod and Master Kyodai for the back-end help!)

[Crimson Ryan]

FIRST

Does look fantastic. Congratulations on the hard work..

[Riku Rose]

Looking good. Will take some getting used to.

[Crimson Ryan]

Looking good. Will take some getting used to.

True. I was skeptical at first. But this is change for the better..

[Bluecast]

Back to green! My plans for world domination foiled! Nah just kidding. I love phpbb3 gives me more options I needed than 2.
Thanks for keeping the old blue dick on. Place looks great. But I never liked the default of Avatars on the right.
Now some post whoring to catch up on.

[ys]

Alright, we're back. Let's hope some of the other regulars didn't give up during the downtime. But I guess they'll show up soon enough.

PS Same here with the avatars on the right. Just because of the fact that we read from left to right so it's more intuitive to see the name of the person writing first and then go on to the right with the text. Not a big deal though, just something I've always found.

[Riku Rose]

I'm more used to avatars on the left but that's just me.

I prefer post count over the thanks system. We talked about it before I believe and evreyone said it would just end up in people afraid to post certain stuff just to try and impress others.

EDIT:

Also a way to seperate sticky topics more would be great.

Please thank me .

[Shendream]

It's a real pleasure to see the new design, excellent work and I hope that soon we will finally have new informations regarding the Shenmue saga and Yu Suzuki.

[Crimson Ryan]

I'm more used to avatars on the left but that's just me.

I prefer post count over the thanks system. We talked about it before I believe and evreyone said it would just end up in people afraid to post certain stuff just to try and impress others.

EDIT:

Also a way to seperate sticky topics more would be great.

Please thank me .

Didn't notice until you said, actually. Need a seperate thread for requests..

[Bluecast]

I'm more used to avatars on the left but that's just me.

I prefer post count over the thanks system. We talked about it before I believe and evreyone said it would just end up in people afraid to post certain stuff just to try and impress others.

EDIT:

Also a way to seperate sticky topics more would be great.

Please thank me .

Yeah we did. Never liked karma systems,always turns into a popularity contest.
I just simply won't use it.
But me and Kenny may be the only ones glad there is no post count.

[Yama]

Well done, Yama.

Shenmue will always be one of my favorite games/series.

[ys]

I'm more used to avatars on the left but that's just me.

I prefer post count over the thanks system. We talked about it before I believe and evreyone said it would just end up in people afraid to post certain stuff just to try and impress others.

That's a good point about the thanks versus post count. I've seen this on other sites where it indeed ends up in people trying to cater to what others would like to read/see. Our post count is still there in the profile though but I wouldn't mind seeing it here. Especially with our community we all know each other quite well so the thanks doesn't maybe matter that much?

[Yama]

Go check out the 4,000 + image gallery, it should get your mind off of avatar position.

Seriously though, make a thread and put up some things that the general consensus would like to see (viewforum.php?f=49). This way the thread doesn't turn into a request haven, like Crimson said. We'll definitely tend to certain things and continue to update and add to the site. No worries.

Glad to hear the positive feedback though, makes it worth it.

[ys]

Go check out the 4,000 + image gallery, it should get your mind off of avatar position.

Will do!

Seriously though, make a thread and put up some things that the general consensus would like to see. That way this thread doesn't turn into a request haven, like Crimson said. We'll definitely tend to certain things and continue to update and add to the site.

Glad to hear the positive feedback though, makes it worth it.

It's all just some personal opinion. Overall it's very good work of course with these remarks being more minor details. I even like the little detail on the main site with the actual Sega logo at the bottom I'll continue checking out the other forum.
PS Needed to add this. I like the thought behind the look of the site.

[Dallow]

First off, awesome job with the new site. Much prefer it over the old one and is way easier to navigate.

Secondly, the forum looks great and it feels like I'm in a totally new place. It is faster, easy on the eyes, has nice colours, and (to put it simply) looks beautiful. Give yourselves a pat on the back.

Thirdly, the avatar and side-profile placement is different but I like it. Also, I'm glad postcounts have been done away with because such scores are irrelevant.

The only gripe is the addition of the rep system because it can easily be abused. I've witnessed such things divide communites to a small degree so, as Ryudo stated (or words to the effect), I shall just pretend that the system does not exist.

But anyway, good stuff!