By now you guys must have noticed the new look. We’ve been hard at work and listening to what you guys wanted. We listened and we came up with a cleaner and cuter look.

Please drop by the forums and tell us what you think!

Want to blog but not get into trouble? Want to blog in total secrecy? Want to blog like a spy? Want to blog about something but are afraid that if you are discovered you may loose a friend, loose your job, or loose your respect? Here are a few tips on how to become anonymous online.

1. Use a Pseudonym or a Pen name, and don’t give away any identifying details.

First of all it would make sense not to use your real name, nick names or any other online names others may know. Use one that no one knows.

2. Use Anonymizing Technologies

Some blogging services may keep IP logs of your logins. If you want to be totally anonymous use sites like anonymizer.com that sort of hides your IP address and uses its own. Another thing you could use is something called a proxy, but thats another topic we need to discuss on.

3. Use Ping Servers

Though you keep your site as anonymous as possible you’ll still want traffic. Make sure to let sites like pingomatic.com ping your site to let other know. The good thing about this also is that pingomatic broadcasts to a lot of news venues at once. Other sites may post links or trackback to your article thus giving you traffic.

4. Limit your audience

I know its sort of difficult to do this but you should try to limit your audience. Surely you wouldn’t want your friends at school to know you are blogging rants about them right? Some blogging services also have password protection of posts.

5. Don’t let Google see you!

I know it sounds crazy but if you really want to be secretive online to a limited number of people don’t let Google see you! There is a way to do this by uploading a file called a robots.txt file. This file tells search engines to keep out if you set it right. For more info on this search for “robots.txt” on Google.

6.Register your domain name anonymously

If you have your own private domain, I suggest you don’t give out your personal information in your billing. People may still be able to figure out who you are if they do a WHOIS on you. Not all domain registrars offer this service but there are a few you can easily find out by googling them.

[Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation]

I guess I’m obliged to reply to this tagging thing. From time to time its fun to answer stuff like these.

I was tagged by Rei. And before I go start making another tutorial FAQ now that the “Matt” fiasco has subsided, on with the stuff.

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I suppose you guys have already figured out by now that Matt has been banned again and are itching for an explanation.

Here are 5 reasons:
1. He was banned in the first place for going against the admin’s authority.
2. He was banned for thinking that he was an admin and ordering around some users.
3. He was banned because he simply did not give respect to others.
4. He was banned because of his “attention seeking” which we tried to ignore at first but it just became so ridiculous that we had to do something about it.
5. He was banned again for trying to stir up a fight with another user again.

Some 6 quick facts about Matt:
1. He was banned in the past for “stalking” some younger girls.
2. He was banned in the past for “flaming” lots of users. (And we got the emails he sent to them to prove it.
3. He thinks he is the coolest/hottest guy in the forum. (Seriously, you don’t proclaim this. You wanna be cool/hot? Be humble first.)
4. He thinks he can do a better job than the admins (So flaming people and disrespecting them is admin material? I don’t think so.)
5. Posts on the forums using his PS3 hooked to a 42 inch LCD TV. (Uhm, yeah and thats supposed to mean that he is mature enough not to boast about it. Zing!)
6. He asks all the girls to be his girlfriends. (Now girls, did you know this?)

Now still think he is a great guy? I never wanted to post this and leave him alone but he never wanted to leave us alone, so there you go Matt.

Recently we’ve been having some people think that we have banned someone that wasn’t justified. Before everyone go loco let me let me give out a few facts.

• * When we ban someone, all three main admins (Ishida, Rukia and Tohomiko) discuss about it. We only ban people when all three agree that a user deserves a ban.
• * Second chances, yes. We give those who were banned another chance. Just to clear things up, the user we banned a few weeks ago (which most of you know who), has been banned in the past for flaming other users and surprisingly stalking them (especially the younger girls, tsk, tsk). So don’t you think we were gracious enough to let him come back despite what he’s done in the past?
• * Some of you think that all the admins do is just be the “police” of the forum and you think you can do a better job. Well if you can multitask and handle a load of paperwork and do every other 10+ tasks that needs to be done immediately then maybe you can.

And also here are a few things you should not do:

• * Tell the admins what to do. Seriously, please don’t tell us what to do. We know our jobs better than you think you can do.
• * Do not order anyone around thinking that you are an admin. If you see something wrong, or someone is misbehaving, try not to argue with them in the post. Just report him in the staff lounge.

Now with this knowledge I do hope we come to understanding. Any reactions or complaints? Please feel free to comment or drop by the staff lounge. Thanks…