Notes for 4 Aug. 99: More WPRs were added to the list, as well as minor clarifications.

Night of the Living WPRs
1 Aug 99

Living dead aside here...a few months ago there was a massive flood of WPRs (translation: Sailormoon Webpage Reviewers), which kept us all pretty busy in April and May. The end result of this was that we ended up with 7 active, functional WPRs. The rest died *g*, were abandoned, are suffering serious problems, or have become podiums for orators. .

Now, it's August. Apparently, some of the dead have risen from their graves, along with some new spawn...I checked the Links page out at RPG Busters and discovered that there are now 12 active WPRs and 9 deceased ones. 12...wow, that is a large amount, and I suspect that there is more. I personally blame The Small Lady for this spawning. She was the one that wrote that article giving advice to new WPRs. She is the one that has spawned this evil...

Anyway, I looked at all of these kids here, and came to some conclusions about some of them, old and new...and I will tell them to you: the positives and the negatives (and they all have at least one of each), and my prediction for the future for them. I figure that everyone else will be doing this shortly at the Amazoness Quartet, but at least here, I know that I will definitely get my letter published for submission. I didn't cover them all: the very new ones I didn't have enough info on to make a judgment on. I also left out the inactive ones and the shadier ones, as well as whichever ones I didn't get to because it is 1:04am right now and I need to get up at 5:00am..

Let the necropsies begin...

Amazoness Quartet
Positives: Reliable, dependable, outspoken, intelligent, and most of all, those Lemures are as funny as hell.
Negatives: May I never be on the wrong side of the coin, because they can get very harsh.
Prediction: They set the standard, and they'd have to do a lot of damage to themselves before their prestige ever wanes.

The Small Lady
Positives: Intelligent, updates frequently, and can tell you that your page sucks and still come off sounding nice and sweet.
Negatives: I can't stand the grading because I can't understand the concept of grading. Also, Homework Help has been forever in coming...
Prediction: Will still be a top player as long as she keeps being nice...we the people like nice a lot...

The Fifth Witch
Positives: They cover everything. They are so in-depth that the next step for them would have to be them videotaping the site's author as the author is writing the HTML code.
Negatives: This zombie was one of the few that has not risen.
Prediction: If they doesn't come back soon, they may find themselves being written off by many, a fate which they do not deserve.

S.T.A.R.
Positives: Frequent reviews, lots of things to do there, beautiful site. Currently hiring a reviewer (think I should go over there and apply? *g*).
Negatives: Can get boring, because they are reviewing the same sites that I just read reviews on at other WPRs a few days before.
Prediction: A good WPR with a lot of potential, but needs to plan their review choices better.

Kinmokusei
Positives: Multifunctional reviewing, covering all sorts of types of pages...and a polite and friendly lot as well (they thanked me for the buttons I made).
Negatives: More substantial updates needed, and they need to get some of those sections that they have been promising up and running.
Prediction: Points for trying hard, but they can still improve themselves more. They are also hiring if anyone is interested.

RPG Busters
Positives: Intelligent critters who are taking on the confusing and to me, hard to visualize task, of reviewing RPGs. Now, does that not go against all of the WPRs' tenants of non-involvement and anonymity? But you have to respect them for that.
Negatives: The layout still needs some fixing, and it seems like they have the same RPGs up there all the time.
Prediction: They're the original RPG handlers, and they will be around for a long time if I have anything to say about it.

The Needleleaf Society
Positives: The original group to have the balls to feature a Miss Congeniality. Also, they had good reviews and very entertaining editorials.
Negatives: They came back and didn't get 100% of their site up before they promptly died again.
Prediction: The review style is much different from before; it seems sharper and more harsh. They may need to prove themselves to a lot of people before they are accepted again.

SAR
Positives: A group that specializes in multifaceted reviewing, and also the first one with the nerve to review other WPRs. Admirable courage.
Negatives: Seem a little too arrogant for their own good, especially after all of the personnel problems and lack of substantial updates.
Prediction: Its protegee, Kinmokusei, has evolved more than SAR has, but SAR is undergoing major changes in style, personnel and leadership and are coming back. I think that they still need some hard work, and I will reserve judgment on them until the near future

Rootbeer Reviews
Positives: They were taken over by a nice young girl, who is not as bitchy as the last owner was. Also, for a site with a white background, they are very pretty.
Negatives: More grading *grr*, and the reviews need more meat to them.
Prediction: Beef the reviews up and this one may have a chance.

Keeper of Time Webpage Reviews
Positives: She has promised that she would not use ja ne, she has a soapbox, and she likes to use big English words...I love her already. She is also another sweet-tempered reviewer who is trying hard to review well.
Negatives: She needs to work on those reviews a little more, and she needs to fix some of her HTML code.
Prediction: Being less than a month old, it's still too early to tell.

Witches 4
Positives: They explain what each rating means to them, instead of letting you figure it out.
Negatives: Basically lost my respect when they copied almost verbatim the disclaimer from The Fifth Witch's site.
Prediction: It's a loud cross between The Fifth Witch and Amazoness Quartet. It's too soon to tell where it will go.

Zettai ni Ayakashi
Positives: Mild and light reviewing in a pretty site design. The three/four of them each review in their own unique way, even with different rating systems (from none to ratings to descriptive rankings).
Negatives: A scale of 3? I can't figure out how that one works. Also, updates are few and far between.
Prediction: This site evolved from TROTAS, which evolved from another site that was mocking the AQ. I will stay out of any political squabbles, but as for this WPR, it looks nice but needs some serious updating.

Draco Says
Positives: She and her cat review lots of pages, and not just Sailormoon ones. Such variety is nice. Also, she's not anonymous like all of the others.
Negatives: She's not anonymous like all the others. I'm just so used to the WPR mystique...Also, I can't say I have ever gotten into Dawson's Creek.
Prediction: She's not quite mainstream, therefore, she'll probably be around a lot longer than most of the others here because she's in this for herself, no one else.