I prefer Animepaper atm...
When you contribute, posting on forums or commenting on wallpaper you see the results of contributing (aka, more paper) immediatly. It's better layed out and since it has high requirements on wallpaper submission you won't find any low quality stuff (such as crap made in MS paint...). I suppose I'm one of those quality over quantity people.

For disadvantage I'd agree scans at AP are expensive most of the time, but paper is very easy to obtain and if you donate you get 1k papers If I recall. Also Don't like their new forum layout, too bulky.

I like minitokyo but I don't like getting the image "Pwned" when trying to download something even tho I had a 5 free downloads. My credits never seem to go up, but they go down just fine, maybe it's just my impatience ^^.

I do love MT wide selection in gallery items and scans are far cheaper. Also like the personal userpages, adds a nice touch that you normally don't see and also gives you more of a sense for the creaters style.

Well, I know that this kind of thread would come up sooner or later. And lol I'm very rarely interested in such discussion, but let me share a bit of what I think.

Historical view:
Long ago, when AnimeOnline's galleries were still alive, it was a nice place where walllers gather and share their work to the community, as a sidefeature of the forums, which was the main part of AO. Just artworks showcase, and has nothing to do with user status or levels.

But, not so long afterwards, MT came with a lot of spiffy features, such as level system based on art submission, so most wallers migrate to MT's to gain more acknowledge of their works. The initial version of MT was more focused to the gallery system, so the forum and the overall community rules and ethics lacked attention. Then MT was upgraded to v2, where the level system improved, customisable userpages and the forums better organized. The member weren't as abundant as it is now, and most of them were more geared towards making high quality submissions, even better, yet, consciously. Sammo, Cloudnine, and several others are the gems of that era. So, what makes v2 bad? There is no antileech sytem! The bandwidth were sucked 80% of the time by unregistered leechers (yes, at that time, even unregistered members can leech scans and walls). That makes v2 the slowest MT ever, which was unconvenient.

Then, ProjectZen came with super HQ scans database and wallpapering community as a sidefeature, but not for so long, because of a reason which is still unclear. Now, they're planning to re-open, but there's still no confirmation of the date.

Some of the PZ founders built AnimePaper but it had a messy scans gallery initially, because the system is still geared towards user participation in the forums and such. The early AP had no wallpaper gallery if I remember correctly. It was meant to be a resource and brainstorming center for wallpaper makers. Then, it was upgraded to v2 later on with a revamped, organized galleries, and a wallpaper gallery system, which is using a level system similar to MTs. But the very same problem happened to AP. The wallpaper gallery was swarmed with low quality walls and spam comments. There were no antileech system either, so bandwidth soon enough became a core problem. To alleviate this, it was -shortly- upgraded to v3, where Paper system was first introduced. They also draft more staff members and gallery moderators. All wallpapers submitted must be moderated to meet the criterias, otherwise it will be deleted. Short or unconstructive comments were deleted, and resulted in a paper fine to the poster. Elitist, maybe, but since then, AP galleries are free of LQ submissions. Now AP has raised the 'quality submissions' bar even higher with their new v4.

MT v3 came before AP v4, with lots of great new improvements as you see it now. Highlight system, credits, dl quota, antileech, and no level system. But the LQ walls are still there, and the spammers are roaming free. Why?
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This is some of my thoughts:
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- Not enough gallery moderators! Some of the mods I know has retired or being less active then they were. I know, they all humans, and they have LIFE. So, the easy way to solve this is to draft more gallery moderators (with proper qualifications in sense of art and participation, of course). I don't care less about the mods being active in discussions, as long as they keep the gallery clean, that's all that matters for the meantime. Less than 20 person moderating more than 100k people is BS.

-Apply a credit fine system. For every deletion of LQ/unqualified submissions or spam posts, there should be an appropriate (big, if needed) fine to the user. This is to prevent users from doing it repetitively.

-The antileech is not working properly! I tried to download a wallpaper several days ago, and all I got is an annoying 'P4WN3D' image. wtf. I tried again and again to no avail

-The current wallpaper and artwork criterias are ok, and gives lots of starters a room to breathe, but still, to encourage users to improve even more, there should be a bit more of elitism and seniorism in the community. Give more privilege/advantages to users who made high quality/highly creative submissions.
For example :
*Artwork being highlighted/featured means you'll get more download quotas and/or credit.
*Add a highlighted artist slot or something like that. Make the wallers feel they are appreciated for making a well-thought art, and not just to see their work dissapears from the frontpage several minutes later, swarmed by the crappy ones.
*If needed by the example above, make different ranks/status for members. Pro wallers, starters, MVP, hot newcomer, etc. so that pro ones won't get highlighted or any whatsoever advantages.

-Elect a team of approved wallers, to supervise the highlighted items/users lineup, and make highlight recommendations. They should also sweep the entire gallery periodically for LQ walls and scans. They should have the power to propose a report of LQ submission with higher priority than most normal users, or even better, give them the authority to delete very-LQ submissions at once. The idea is to separate this highlighting and filtering work from the mods, or just to make their work easier. This way, the mods would have more free time to do other moderating tasks.

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Quite a few suggestions, but IMO those are the important ones for the moment. The main concept is to manage the system towards a better one, and to encourage new members to participate in artwork creations, with proper appreciation for their effort.

All in all, for me AP has a better community ATM, if not a bit elitist, but I aggree that there are more quality walls there than in MT. MT has a bigger community, means more ppl to interact and such. Most of my friends are here.. this is the place where I develop my skills, so MT has became a home for me, I'll never leave MT. But nowadays, spammers and LQ submissions really breaks my heart.

o.o woa, easy now ok?
well i think both are kinda best, this place, for it's communitie, and animepaper for it's high quality scans, and you can request songs there and so

KorganoS: your history is full of errors

I think I am the only one qualified to talk about the histories because I've been around for much longer than any of you and was a part of the creation of most of the forums you guys mentioned.

short summary:
AO was the FIRST anime wallpaper gallery | died because ewdi sold it.
PZ was the FIRST scan gallery | died because of hosting issues
MT was created by sheq to compete against AO and PZ when both were failing | focused on WALLS and SCANS
AP was created by bantam after MT but he had the idea a long time before mt was ever born | focused on SCANS and MP3s

I was in the betas for all PZ MT and AP, eventually to become a moderator for both PZ and AP. Technically now I am the head administrator for PZ but it doesn't look like we'll be getting much done anytime soon.

Same here. I was around in the initial launching of PZ and AP.

Chronologically it's in the following order in terms of length of existence (oldest to newest).

AO > PZ > MT > AP

MT came after PZ went down due to hosting and AO was dying. AP was like carrying the PZ banner [created by members (not founders) of PZ]

The original AP did not used the paper system nor did it have the level system. They started out with only a scan gallery (like PZ). Wallpapers are submitted in the subforum like AL and PZ. I believe AP continued the PZ's original system of "get 10 posts and you have full access to the Gallery" but attracted too many unwanted spammers. The paper system was implemented in APv2 as a countermeasure which has continued till this very day. Quite a successful system there because it has gone through long periods of refinement.

And wasn't MT created by ewdi? Or Kev? Can't exactly remember the details since it has been like over two years ago.

I will have to go with minitokyo...
it might be a really stupid reason for me to not like animepaper...
but, for some odd reason... ever since I got a "highlight" on one of my wallpapers...
I had a really good feeling some people there started hating me. and started giving my giving hard criticism, that makes me want to cry ><
and the some of the mods are really strict....and kinda mean.
just because I submitted a scan, that wasnt big enough... one of them come to me and started yelling at me like crazy @_@... but the stricter the better I guess...
but both sites are great! but I like minitokyo better^^

I belong to both AP and MT I like them both. I'm having someone attack my computer every time I got to AP. So I haven't been there in a while...I'm still kinda new to MT but I'm starting to prefer MT better since the mods at AP are super harsh and aren't very helpful if they think you asked them a dumb question they won't reply sometimes!

LMAO @ this thread

since shinn and w00t posted, i dun wanna be left out!
look at w00t being all cool and "back in the day"
anyways, yeah, w00t got the timeline right.
AP was about the mp3's and scans, and as it evolved it grew to have a wall gallery. it always had the scans, and the mp3's, and the paper system was introduced with v2 right away, long before MT's credit system.
granted, as a staff member, i'm kinda biased towards AP, but i'll say my biggest dislike of MT, besides the tons and tons of low quality walls and rips that make it through every day, is the fact that the layout is cluttered and confusing. thats why when i came here, i signe dup and didn't post anything for months, because it took me forever to find anything. and when it went to MT 3 i was completely lost and even asked a staff member how to post, and he responded with "i don't even know".
yes, we're harsh at AP, but it's mainly because it keeps leechers and rippers away.

i have nothing against MT, just find it too confusing and full of spam
layout is key in design

Quote by w00taznKorganoS: your history is full of errors

I think I am the only one qualified to talk about the histories because I've been around for much longer than any of you and was a part of the creation of most of the forums you guys mentioned.

w00t O_o;
thanks a lot for the correction...

Animepaper owns Minitokyo...

Don't bump old threads, especially when you have nothing intelligent to add.