Return to Glory

Hey guys,

This post marks the beginning of my blog in the VGD Blog feature. I would like to begin with a brief summary of my time at Very Good Days. Like many Stereopony fans, the PV for “Tsukiakari no Michishirube” was the first time I heard Stereopony, and I was instantly hooked. This was about one week before “Hanbunko” was released. It was not until around June 2010 when I discovered Very Good Days and I would not join the forum until November 2010. During this time, Stereopony was on hiatus because of SHIHO’s injury, which I believe was probably why I did not join the forum until “Chiisana Mahou” was nearing its release. Very Good Days was pretty much a dead forum because of the hiatus. It also didn’t help that the original administrator and most of the moderators had gone inactive. Eventually, daibasu stepped down and promoted nikid to Administrator. Long story short… I became a member, became very active, and when nikid was promoted she promoted me to Administrator as well.

At first, it was a lot of work but it was fun. When Arcluna was able to arrange an interview with Stereopony at Anime Boston 2011, everything just took off from there. More people were discovering Stereopony and joining Very Good Days, which helped motivate us to keep going forward. More members were offering to help contribute, and it seemed like we were gonna keep growing with Stereopony. It sure was an awesome ride… until Stereopony disbanded less than two years later. Within months we lost all of our momentum, and we were back to square one.

However, I believe that there’s a strong chance for Very Good Days to return to its former glory. Before I talk about that though, I need to share a brief history of the forum’s history. Between 23 February 2010 and 18 January 2013, Very Good Days was hosted on ZetaBoards as a free forum. After Stereopony disbanded it was decided by the core VGD Staff that we finally leave ZetaBoards and host our own forum since we were limited as a free forum. We were already paying to host our website, so it also made sense to host our own forum. The only problem was that there was no easy way to transfer our content and database from ZetaBoards to the new forum since ZetaBoards Staff did not accept these requests. However, there was one method that was proven to work, but we were unable to successfully do it. In the end, we had to make the very difficult decision to archive the old forum and start a brand new forum with our web host.

Recently, we successfully migrated from our first PHPBB forum to this new XenForo forum, which means we were able to save our user database and all of our content. At the time of writing, the Very Good Days Forum currently has 7,877 posts. It’s nothing compared to the original forum’s 26,630 posts but I’m sure we will reach it again one day.

As an Administrator for Very Good Days these past years, I’ve seen this community at its small beginning in 2010, its growth in 2011 after Anime Boston, its peak in 2012 during and after Stereopony’s U.S. Tour, and its fall in 2013 after Stereopony disbanded. We’re currently halfway through 2014, and I would say our situation is similar to our small beginning in 2010 (except a little better since we have an active staff). Both AIMI and Draft King are finally stepping it up. Plus, people are still discovering Stereopony for the first time through YouTube, anime, and other online forums. If this keeps up, I believe that Very Good Days will continue to grow throughout 2015 and will reach its peak again by the end of 2016 if not sooner. Reaching that peak again really depends on how well AIMI and Draft King are received.

While the success of Very Good Days is dependent on the success of AIMI and Draft King, it is also important to point out that it is also dependent on the fans. Very Good Days is run by fans, for the fans. How hard and how far Very Good Days is willing to go all depends on the dedicated fans who are willing to be involved in the community.

If Arcluna never attempted to get a press badge at Anime Boston 2011, then Stereopony would not have known we existed and asked us to help promote their U.S. Tour. If dereko92 never made cover videos on YouTube or talked about Stereopony at other forums, then we would have less than half our members. If Hirotana never joined, then no one from Very Good Days would’ve been able to watch Stereopony’s Final Live. If crimsonknight4 never joined Very Good Days, then we wouldn’t have translations for any Draft King content. If TAAU never joined the forum, then we might not have discovered the existence of TWO different “white” Stereopony demos. If Drahc never got the Stereopony logo tatooed to his arm, then SHIHO would not have remembered who we were when we went to Stereopony’s Final Live and saw them through the window. If Elsuke or TonyTonyChoppa never made their generous donations, then we would not have been able to get web hosting or buy gifts for Stereopony. If nikid didn’t stay active, then there would be no Crazy Monkey smileys (no!). The list goes on… If no one joined the forum, then none of the things I just mentioned would even have happened in the first place.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that you shouldn’t just sit and wait around for AIMI and Draft King to release something before becoming active on Very Good Days again. You should log in right now and do what you can to contribute to the community by participating in the forum discussions. It might not seem like much, but if everyone posts a little bit each day, then we will have an active forum in no time and be that much closer to returning to former glory.

I trust that all of you dedicated Stereopony fans will do your best to help. AIMI’s, NOHANA’s, and SHIHO’s birthdays are coming up soon, and we still don’t have a plan for what we’re doing. If you want Very Good Days to do something special for them, then now is a perfect time to join in the discussion.

See you on the forum.

-RS Out!