EDIT: Quick service note: due to my thesis, I will be on hiatus from moderating
for the foreseeable months. I will still be around but I will not be a
moderator. As such, active moderators will answer you and use this thread. Sorry
for the inconvenience
At Sheqel's request, since Minitoyko 3 is new and most of the old discussions
are outdated, I'm rewriting official threads for the Minitokyo discussion forum,
and closing the old pinned threads. Only these three threads are to stay pinned
as of now, since it has been noted that we have too many pinned threads. All
these threads are work in progress, so bear with me because it's quite long to
write them and I have much to do. If a feature is marked as 'coming soon',
please wait before suggesting till I have written it. We are also trying to sort
things out now so nothing is final yet. Check this thread frequently for
updates!
NOTE: I will keep this thread clean of
complaints, misguiding information and off-topic posts. I will also clean it,
from time to time, of posts no longer useful.
This thread is the Userguide. This thread will tell you everything you need to
know about Minitokyo 3 (Much of this is courtesy of Xandman, Shinsengumi and
Silentmasamune, so thanks to them).
Summary:
1 - The credit System
2 - Site layout, browsing, submitting reviews, searching, uploading and
downloading
3 - Forum and guestbook usage (drafted)
4 - The control panel, the profile page and friends (watchlist, friendlist and
hotlist only as of now)
5 - Groups (coming soon)
6 - Userpage customization
First things first, keep in mind that we will not tell you exactly how to gain
credits, at least for now. This is to avoid abuse of the credit system. Gaining
and spending credits is a slow process. You will NOT see immediate changes to
your credit balance. This is due to these reasons:
- Caching of the numbers.
- We don't want members to find out the exact formula for gaining credits. This
is to avoid abuse of the credit system.
As such, your credits balance will change slowly, over time.
1.1 - How to gain credits:
Contribute to the site. Most types of contribution will gain you credits. Some
will not, but we will not tell you exactly which ones. Once again, this is to
prevent abuse of the credit system.
Note that submitting gallery items is not the only way to gain credits. There
are many other ways which are equally effective. Just try to think about how to
contribute to the community, and you will surely find many ways.
1.2 - What will cost credits:
- Downloading an image.
- Posting a scan: very low cost (to prevent users from spamming the gallery).
LOW cost.
- Creating a new group: fixed cost, 40 credits. This is to prevent creation of
too many groups. Groups should only be created when there is a reason for it,
and only if you are really interested in that. Which means, willing to pay.
- Submitting indy art and wallpapers: variable cost. The cost depends on how
many members have added you to their watchlist. Only members active in the last
2 months count. This is to avoid friendlist whoring. This will ensure that
members only post quality submissions. For anything else, use The Sandbox or Anime Pictures
Dump.
Now before you all go ballistic and start complaining: the formula has been
created so that members who contribute to the community will NOT have problems with credits, as long as they
don't want to download the whole gallery. The
values are FAIR.
Just take part in the community, and you will not have problems whatsoever. The
main reason for the credit system was to avoid horrible problems like
indiscriminate leeching, friendlist whoring and spamming.
In Minitokyo 3, spamming will not help
you increase your credit balance. Quality contribution will determine that. So
just contribute, have fun in Minitokyo, be fair and useful to others and you
will never have problems again with the credit system, which is still being
worked on.
2 - Site layout, browsing, submitting reviews,
searching, uploading and downloading
2.1 - General Site Layout
The new Minitokyo has many different new pages and features you will have to get
used to. Some things will show on every page of the site:
- The main menu
- Your name
- Your credits
- The notifications count
- A link to your profile page
- A link to the control panel (see below)
- The logout button
- Partners and links
The main menu has links to:
- The main page (features recent forum posts, recent reviews, highlighted
wallpapers, links to recent wallpapers, indy art or scans, links to many
sections, statistics, members online)
- The browse page: browse images by series. More on this below.
- Forum: takes you to the forum. More on this below.
- Art: browse wallpapers and indy art. More on this below.
- Scans: browse scans. More on this below.
- Reviews: takes you to the reviews section. No spoilers there.
- Groups: takes you to the group browse page. More on this below.
- Support: takes you to the support section. Not everything there is updated
yet, refer to this thread for now.
2.2 - Browsing the galleries
You can browse the galleries either by type of submission (vectors, anime
wallpapers, male scans, etc..) or by category (Ai Yori Aoshi, Masamune Shirow,
Final fantasy VII, etc..)
To browse by category, use the browse link from the main menu. This will bring
you to the Browse page. Here, you can either use the alphabetical listing on the
left to search for a specific category, or you can use the links in the main
body of the page, either to search for categories by type (action, comedy, drama
etc) or to jump to the most popular artists and studios. Either way, you will
reach the category page.
This page is extremely important because it lets you
- Browse the images by type (example, anime wallpapers of that category).
- Upload images in the category (more on this below).
- See information, feedback, reviews, and popular images for the category.
- Browse all the images of the category (button at the end of the page, in the
middle).
The other way to browse the galleries is to use the art or scans link from the
main menu. This will bring you to the type specific galleries (anime wallpapers,
male scans, doujinshi, etc.) which contain every image of that type posted on
Minitokyo. Every type specific gallery contains, in its general page,
highlighted images, popular images and recent images, as well as links to browse
the gallery either by popularity or date of submission
- The art page contains links to Anime wallpapers, General wallpapers,
Doujinshi, Abstract art, Vector art.
- The scans page contains links to Male scans, Female scans, Couple scans, Group
scans, Miscellaneous scans
However you cannot submit images from here.
In both cases, when you are browsing the galleries, you can use the menu on the
left sidebar to switch from popular submissions to date submissions sorting and
vice versa.
From there you can access the image pages. These are the features you will see
there:
- In the main body you will see the thumbnail of the image, as well as the
comment of the author, the statistics and then, scrolling down, the comments and
the quick reply box. Note that the image, if clicked, will bring you to the full
view page. The appropriate amount of credits will be deducted.
- In the left bar you will see a link to the author's gallery, followed by the
owner options (if you made the submission) and the user's options. Owner options
are edit comment, update the image or delete the image. User options are
download (the cost in credit is shown only here) and add to favorites.
2.3 - Searching
The search option is not showing in every page anymore. The search page is
accessed through a link in the left bar. There are two kinds of searches now:
- The gallery search can be reached from the main menu, in art page and from the
scans page.
- The forum search can be reached from the main forum index, for the sub-forums
indexes and from the forum threads pages.
2.4 - Uploading images and submitting
reviews
To upload an image, you need to reach the correct category first, through the
method described above. Once you are there you can submit images or reviews
through the links in the left bar. Note that:
- If your image belongs to an anime or game series, post it there
- If not, but it belongs to a studio or artist, post it there
- If it's a creation totally made by you, even in concept (i.e your own
character or such) post it in the 'original' category
- If not, but you know where it is from, post it under the 'Other category' and
write in the comment the name of the anime series/game/studio/author
- If not, post it under the appropriate unknown category. Keep in mind that this
is only a LAST resort, and that duplicates will be deleted.
Reviews
Reviews need to be written by you, in English, and must be detailed and as
grammatically correct as possible. You must also choose the type of reviews
(anime, game...) and rate the category for each different trait. Finally, you
can upload up to 4 scans
Wallpapers
You can only submit wallpapers YOU made. These wallpapers must have a minimum
quality. Anything that does not reach those requirements will be deleted.
Please, if you are new to walling and/or unsure about it, submit in The Sandbox instead.
You must choose between anime wallpaper and general wallpaper. Most of the time
it will be anime wallpaper. Then, after entering title and description, you will
be brought to the proper upload page. The file size limit is 2048 KB (2 MB).
Only jpeg images are accepted.
Indy Art
You can only submit art YOU made. These art pieces must have a minimum quality.
Anything that does not reach those requirements will be deleted.
You must choose between doujinshi or vector art.
- Doujinshi are art pieces you made/drew totally from scratch. Any such
submission, even if hand-drawn and then scanned, is to be submitted as
doujinshi.
- Vectors are, as said, vectored images.
Then, after entering title and description, you will be brought to the proper
upload page. The file size limit is 2048 KB (2 MB). Only jpeg images are
accepted.
Scans
You can submit scans in this section. The quality of said images must be high to
very high. You are expected to search for duplicates before submitting your
image. It is not allowed to enlarge/apply filers to meet the minimum image size
requirements. If the image has been scanned by you, point it out. If not, give
credits as completely as possible by writing down the source and, if known, the
scanner.
You must choose between male, female, group, couple or miscellaneous scan.
- Male scans feature only males, in any number
- Female scans feature only females, in any number
- Couple scans features a male and a female character
- Group scans features at least 3 characters, and they must be of both
genders
- Miscellaneous scans do not feature any human character. Robots or animals are
examples of what should go there.
Then, after entering title and description, you will be brought to the proper
upload page. The file size limit is 2048 KB (2 MB). Only jpeg images are
accepted.
2.5 - Downloading images
Well downloading images is actually quite easy. Browse the galleries until you
find images that you're interested in, as explained in point 2.2.
When you are in the image page, either click on the thumbnail or on the download
link in the left bar. The download link also shows the cost in credits. You will
then be able to see the full view image.
The cost of images is driven by their file size. Scans cost more than
wallpapers, and doujinshi cost the least.
- You can make a new forum thread by entering on the right forum and clicking on
the new thread button in the left bar.
- You can create threads as long as they are not doubles. Check by searching
before posting a new thread. Also be sure to create new threads in the right
forum, and that they are not just spam threads.
- Enter the forum where you want post the thread and at the bottom of the page
enter the thread name and the starting post. Starting posts must be at least 30
characters long. You can also make a poll thread by clicking "show poll
options" and entering the poll name and the possible choices.
- Threads can be closed if they are spam, if they are offensive, if they
infringe the Minitokyo policy or if they are doubles. Threads can also be closed
if there is no point at all in letting them open, at the discretion of the
moderators, or if the member who posted the thread ask for it to be closed.
- Double posting is not allowed on Minitokyo. If you have additional comments or
thoughts to add to a thread, please use the 'Edit' button underneath your
post.
4 - The control panel, the profile page and
friends
4.1 Watchlist, friendlist and hotlist
Here you will know the differences between friendlist, watchlist and hotlist and
who shows up in your profile page.
Watchlist is a list of members you want to watch. You will receive notifications
for the wallpapers, indy art, scans and reviews they submit.
Friendlist is a list of members who are your friends. People you care enough to
want to know what they post in the forum. You will NOT receive notifications when they submit wallpapers, indy art or
reviews. You will only receive threads notifications. The reasoning is, you
should check up on them from time to time. This is not a list meant for 100
members or so, but for your, so to speak, best buddies.
Hotlist as of now is not working. And not
showing in the profile page as well. As of now, you'll only receive
notifications of threads by the members in the hotlist. Later on, when it is
fully implemented, it will have more features. Like small photos of the members
in your hotlist and maybe more.
As for the profile page:
You will see in the mutual friends table only those members you added to
friendlist and who added you as a friend. If you add someone to your friendlist
, but he does not add you back, you will not see him as mutual friend. Not even
if he added you to the watchlist.
You will see in the watchlist table those members who have you on the watchlist,
not the ones you have on watchlist.
Groups are places where people can join together to discuss the topic at hand or
meet people with similar interests. The groups can be accessed through the
Groups link on the Main Menu. To join a group, go to the group page and click
"Apply for Group" located on the left hand menu. This will then be
sent to the group Admins/Mods for approval.
To create a new group: As previously stated, to create a new group costs 100
credits. At this point in time there is no search feature for the groups
section, but if you want to create a new group please do your best to check that
one hasn't already been created. Otherwise your group could be deleted.
EDIT: Quick service note: due to my thesis, I will be on hiatus from moderating for the foreseeable months. I will still be around but I will not be a moderator. As such, active moderators will answer you and use this thread. Sorry for the inconvenience
At Sheqel's request, since Minitoyko 3 is new and most of the old discussions are outdated, I'm rewriting official threads for the Minitokyo discussion forum, and closing the old pinned threads. Only these three threads are to stay pinned as of now, since it has been noted that we have too many pinned threads. All these threads are work in progress, so bear with me because it's quite long to write them and I have much to do. If a feature is marked as 'coming soon', please wait before suggesting till I have written it. We are also trying to sort things out now so nothing is final yet. Check this thread frequently for updates!
NOTE: I will keep this thread clean of complaints, misguiding information and off-topic posts. I will also clean it, from time to time, of posts no longer useful.
This thread is the Userguide. This thread will tell you everything you need to know about Minitokyo 3 (Much of this is courtesy of Xandman, Shinsengumi and Silentmasamune, so thanks to them).
Summary:
1 - The credit System
2 - Site layout, browsing, submitting reviews, searching, uploading and downloading
3 - Forum and guestbook usage (drafted)
4 - The control panel, the profile page and friends (watchlist, friendlist and hotlist only as of now)
5 - Groups (coming soon)
6 - Userpage customization
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
1 - The credit System
First things first, keep in mind that we will not tell you exactly how to gain credits, at least for now. This is to avoid abuse of the credit system. Gaining and spending credits is a slow process. You will NOT see immediate changes to your credit balance. This is due to these reasons:
- Caching of the numbers.
- We don't want members to find out the exact formula for gaining credits. This is to avoid abuse of the credit system.
As such, your credits balance will change slowly, over time.
1.1 - How to gain credits:
Contribute to the site. Most types of contribution will gain you credits. Some will not, but we will not tell you exactly which ones. Once again, this is to prevent abuse of the credit system.
Note that submitting gallery items is not the only way to gain credits. There are many other ways which are equally effective. Just try to think about how to contribute to the community, and you will surely find many ways.
1.2 - What will cost credits:
- Downloading an image.
- Posting a scan: very low cost (to prevent users from spamming the gallery). LOW cost.
- Creating a new group: fixed cost, 40 credits. This is to prevent creation of too many groups. Groups should only be created when there is a reason for it, and only if you are really interested in that. Which means, willing to pay.
- Submitting indy art and wallpapers: variable cost. The cost depends on how many members have added you to their watchlist. Only members active in the last 2 months count. This is to avoid friendlist whoring. This will ensure that members only post quality submissions. For anything else, use The Sandbox or Anime Pictures Dump.
Now before you all go ballistic and start complaining: the formula has been created so that members who contribute to the community will NOT have problems with credits, as long as they don't want to download the whole gallery. The values are FAIR.
Just take part in the community, and you will not have problems whatsoever. The main reason for the credit system was to avoid horrible problems like indiscriminate leeching, friendlist whoring and spamming.
In Minitokyo 3, spamming will not help you increase your credit balance. Quality contribution will determine that. So just contribute, have fun in Minitokyo, be fair and useful to others and you will never have problems again with the credit system, which is still being worked on.
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
2 - Site layout, browsing, submitting reviews, searching, uploading and downloading
2.1 - General Site Layout
The new Minitokyo has many different new pages and features you will have to get used to. Some things will show on every page of the site:
- The main menu
- Your name
- Your credits
- The notifications count
- A link to your profile page
- A link to the control panel (see below)
- The logout button
- Partners and links
The main menu has links to:
- The main page (features recent forum posts, recent reviews, highlighted wallpapers, links to recent wallpapers, indy art or scans, links to many sections, statistics, members online)
- The browse page: browse images by series. More on this below.
- Forum: takes you to the forum. More on this below.
- Art: browse wallpapers and indy art. More on this below.
- Scans: browse scans. More on this below.
- Reviews: takes you to the reviews section. No spoilers there.
- Groups: takes you to the group browse page. More on this below.
- Support: takes you to the support section. Not everything there is updated yet, refer to this thread for now.
2.2 - Browsing the galleries
You can browse the galleries either by type of submission (vectors, anime wallpapers, male scans, etc..) or by category (Ai Yori Aoshi, Masamune Shirow, Final fantasy VII, etc..)
To browse by category, use the browse link from the main menu. This will bring you to the Browse page. Here, you can either use the alphabetical listing on the left to search for a specific category, or you can use the links in the main body of the page, either to search for categories by type (action, comedy, drama etc) or to jump to the most popular artists and studios. Either way, you will reach the category page.
This page is extremely important because it lets you
- Browse the images by type (example, anime wallpapers of that category).
- Upload images in the category (more on this below).
- See information, feedback, reviews, and popular images for the category.
- Browse all the images of the category (button at the end of the page, in the middle).
The other way to browse the galleries is to use the art or scans link from the main menu. This will bring you to the type specific galleries (anime wallpapers, male scans, doujinshi, etc.) which contain every image of that type posted on Minitokyo. Every type specific gallery contains, in its general page, highlighted images, popular images and recent images, as well as links to browse the gallery either by popularity or date of submission
- The art page contains links to Anime wallpapers, General wallpapers, Doujinshi, Abstract art, Vector art.
- The scans page contains links to Male scans, Female scans, Couple scans, Group scans, Miscellaneous scans
However you cannot submit images from here.
In both cases, when you are browsing the galleries, you can use the menu on the left sidebar to switch from popular submissions to date submissions sorting and vice versa.
From there you can access the image pages. These are the features you will see there:
- In the main body you will see the thumbnail of the image, as well as the comment of the author, the statistics and then, scrolling down, the comments and the quick reply box. Note that the image, if clicked, will bring you to the full view page. The appropriate amount of credits will be deducted.
- In the left bar you will see a link to the author's gallery, followed by the owner options (if you made the submission) and the user's options. Owner options are edit comment, update the image or delete the image. User options are download (the cost in credit is shown only here) and add to favorites.
2.3 - Searching
The search option is not showing in every page anymore. The search page is accessed through a link in the left bar. There are two kinds of searches now:
- The gallery search can be reached from the main menu, in art page and from the scans page.
- The forum search can be reached from the main forum index, for the sub-forums indexes and from the forum threads pages.
2.4 - Uploading images and submitting reviews
To upload an image, you need to reach the correct category first, through the method described above. Once you are there you can submit images or reviews through the links in the left bar. Note that:
- If your image belongs to an anime or game series, post it there
- If not, but it belongs to a studio or artist, post it there
- If it's a creation totally made by you, even in concept (i.e your own character or such) post it in the 'original' category
- If not, but you know where it is from, post it under the 'Other category' and write in the comment the name of the anime series/game/studio/author
- If not, post it under the appropriate unknown category. Keep in mind that this is only a LAST resort, and that duplicates will be deleted.
Reviews
Reviews need to be written by you, in English, and must be detailed and as grammatically correct as possible. You must also choose the type of reviews (anime, game...) and rate the category for each different trait. Finally, you can upload up to 4 scans
Wallpapers
You can only submit wallpapers YOU made. These wallpapers must have a minimum quality. Anything that does not reach those requirements will be deleted. Please, if you are new to walling and/or unsure about it, submit in The Sandbox instead.
You must choose between anime wallpaper and general wallpaper. Most of the time it will be anime wallpaper. Then, after entering title and description, you will be brought to the proper upload page. The file size limit is 2048 KB (2 MB). Only jpeg images are accepted.
Indy Art
You can only submit art YOU made. These art pieces must have a minimum quality. Anything that does not reach those requirements will be deleted.
You must choose between doujinshi or vector art.
- Doujinshi are art pieces you made/drew totally from scratch. Any such submission, even if hand-drawn and then scanned, is to be submitted as doujinshi.
- Vectors are, as said, vectored images.
Then, after entering title and description, you will be brought to the proper upload page. The file size limit is 2048 KB (2 MB). Only jpeg images are accepted.
Scans
You can submit scans in this section. The quality of said images must be high to very high. You are expected to search for duplicates before submitting your image. It is not allowed to enlarge/apply filers to meet the minimum image size requirements. If the image has been scanned by you, point it out. If not, give credits as completely as possible by writing down the source and, if known, the scanner.
You must choose between male, female, group, couple or miscellaneous scan.
- Male scans feature only males, in any number
- Female scans feature only females, in any number
- Couple scans features a male and a female character
- Group scans features at least 3 characters, and they must be of both genders
- Miscellaneous scans do not feature any human character. Robots or animals are examples of what should go there.
Then, after entering title and description, you will be brought to the proper upload page. The file size limit is 2048 KB (2 MB). Only jpeg images are accepted.
2.5 - Downloading images
Well downloading images is actually quite easy. Browse the galleries until you find images that you're interested in, as explained in point 2.2.
When you are in the image page, either click on the thumbnail or on the download link in the left bar. The download link also shows the cost in credits. You will then be able to see the full view image.
The cost of images is driven by their file size. Scans cost more than wallpapers, and doujinshi cost the least.
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
3 - Forum and guestbook usage
- You can make a new forum thread by entering on the right forum and clicking on the new thread button in the left bar.
- You can create threads as long as they are not doubles. Check by searching before posting a new thread. Also be sure to create new threads in the right forum, and that they are not just spam threads.
- Enter the forum where you want post the thread and at the bottom of the page enter the thread name and the starting post. Starting posts must be at least 30 characters long. You can also make a poll thread by clicking "show poll options" and entering the poll name and the possible choices.
- Threads can be closed if they are spam, if they are offensive, if they infringe the Minitokyo policy or if they are doubles. Threads can also be closed if there is no point at all in letting them open, at the discretion of the moderators, or if the member who posted the thread ask for it to be closed.
- Double posting is not allowed on Minitokyo. If you have additional comments or thoughts to add to a thread, please use the 'Edit' button underneath your post.
More coming soon.
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
4 - The control panel, the profile page and friends
4.1 Watchlist, friendlist and hotlist
Here you will know the differences between friendlist, watchlist and hotlist and who shows up in your profile page.
Watchlist is a list of members you want to watch. You will receive notifications for the wallpapers, indy art, scans and reviews they submit.
Friendlist is a list of members who are your friends. People you care enough to want to know what they post in the forum. You will NOT receive notifications when they submit wallpapers, indy art or reviews. You will only receive threads notifications. The reasoning is, you should check up on them from time to time. This is not a list meant for 100 members or so, but for your, so to speak, best buddies.
Hotlist as of now is not working. And not showing in the profile page as well. As of now, you'll only receive notifications of threads by the members in the hotlist. Later on, when it is fully implemented, it will have more features. Like small photos of the members in your hotlist and maybe more.
As for the profile page:
You will see in the mutual friends table only those members you added to friendlist and who added you as a friend. If you add someone to your friendlist , but he does not add you back, you will not see him as mutual friend. Not even if he added you to the watchlist.
You will see in the watchlist table those members who have you on the watchlist, not the ones you have on watchlist.
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
5 - Groups
Groups are places where people can join together to discuss the topic at hand or meet people with similar interests. The groups can be accessed through the Groups link on the Main Menu. To join a group, go to the group page and click "Apply for Group" located on the left hand menu. This will then be sent to the group Admins/Mods for approval.
To create a new group: As previously stated, to create a new group costs 100 credits. At this point in time there is no search feature for the groups section, but if you want to create a new group please do your best to check that one hasn't already been created. Otherwise your group could be deleted.
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
6 - Userpage customization
Ok I will admit this was a little misleading. Here you'll have the links to the pertinent threads. Currently they are:
Custom Userpage Layout Tutorial for Photoshop
Custom Userpage Layout Tutorial for Paint Shop Pro