Lots of websites are started up every day, and just a little over a year ago, BOO was started and joined very shortly by BOO Forums. With the upcoming release of Back-on‘s new song, Sands of Time, it seemed like a great opportunity for us to celebrate our very first birthday and also their new work at the same time!

After some discussion, we’ve opted for April 6th 2008 as our official birthday, and we’ve already started planning a number of things to mark the occasion! As BOO+Forums is fundamentally a fan community built for Back-on fans by fans, one of the major areas that we are focusing on is the:

Fanwork donation request!

This is where we would humbly like to ask everyone for their contribution! And what we are looking for, as ookami, one of our forum moderators (who came up with the idea) so excellently put it: (everyone’s) own little tidbits of Back-on goodness!

So, it can be art, writing, sketches, music, singing, covers, wallpapers, videos, literally just anything that you’ve made as a fan of Back-on. Please don’t hesitate to submit your work, as they will be appreciated, since you have spent time on it!

In addition to this, we are also going to do a:

Banner Rotation

To celebrate this event, and for the forseeable future, we will be randomly rotating the forum banner (the large image at the top!) using member-contributed work! The idea is with thanks to Sesshy, and I really hope everyone will be kind enough to submit their work!

The current banner featuring flower and Butterfly was kindly created for us by Sound-Ex/Nao, which I think is a fantastic example! Simple yet so very effective. So long as the banner is less than 850px in width and has a suitable height (minimum 150px) then please send them in! The minimum criteria (of course) is that it should say the forum name somewhere.

Another thing that we will be doing includes:

The New BACK-ON Dictionary in WIKI format

Originally a concept started by ichiban (forum moderator) as a forum thread where users contributed their definitions and collaborated to form the content. We’ve decided it’s time to make it ‘official’ and neat and tidy by making it like a WIKI! This will form part of the main site and will be editable only by forum members. The original forum thread will still remain though!

And as with every website, the time comes for a new fresh look, so we will be introducing:

New website and forum theme

This is still very much in the works, and we will/are working with some members to ensure this goes well and on-time! At the moment the new forum theme has already been approved by Sowon (co-admin of the BOO Forums) but the site theme is progressing a bit more slowly, so on that note, we would be very grateful if you could let us know what you would personally like to see on Back-on Online! This can be done by commenting at the end of this post, or by getting in touch via the Contact Form.

We also have other ideas in the works that are coming along, but our focus is primarily on donated fanworks, so if you do have something that you’ve done with Back-on’s music, pictures – literally anything – please do let us know! Any work can be submitted to us by emailing:

submissions(AT)backon-online.com

This is a big event for us, and we very much hope you can join us in celebrating our first birthday! :) Thanks!

This time, a day dreaming… and Kodou were the top favourites of our voters, and as usual, we have also put up two extra downloads for just one week only, including the much-requested Hikari Sasuhou (Survive ver.) as well as the runner up from the previous polls, forward.

Thanks to everyone who voted in the latest polls, and if possible, it would be great if you could vote again in the next one, where:

• Butterfly (Butterfly single)
• DRIVE (New World album)
• Believer (Chain single)
• Grab (Survive compliation album)
• Gaku-Ten (Baby Rock album)
• RAIN (New World album)

are all up for selection. It might be a bit more difficult to choose this time! :)

More updates will be forthcoming throughout the site, as well as more content from various contributors! And before I forget, we have updated the affiliate link with Sound EX from their Myspace to their official new website! The people behind the website are Nao and Sesshy, and I would encourage everyone to pay a visit, particularly as the graphics used for the site design really are fantastic! I’ve included a screenshot of the new site design below as a taster, but look out for the flash movie on the splash page – it’s worth the wait – and this is coming from someone who doesn’t usually take a second glance at splash pages.

Despite continuing RL commitments, I will try and be as active as possible to make up for the lost time. Send me an email or something if you feel (at any point) that I need to be kick-started into action. ;)

Moving on to the planned updates for news, I am currently facing a small backlog of news posts about Back-on‘s activities that need to be written up, so they will be released over the next two weeks or so. This includes the new PV preview of Butterfly that is available on Back-on’s Myspace, some new videos on Youtube from Sound EX and blueblueblue, as well as some interesting news about Back-on‘s charity efforts and alot more!

However, one of the major works planned for September 2007 is to the main BOO site. Some of you may already have spotted a difference or two already, but I’ll try and summarise the changes below:

• Wallpapers – A brand new section of Back-on wallpapers for your desktop that has been created with the help of MJTheOne! All the fantastic work you’ll see was sent to me a few weeks back, but alas it’s taken me a while to work out the layout and actually post the content! The first wallpaper – Chain – is all ready to be released, and you can get a sneak preview thumbnail below!

  

  Please do show your support for MJTheOne by visiting his Deviantart account (to view his other work- I personally love the 3ds MAX designs!) and by leaving him your comments!

• Lyrics – This is definitely one of the most popular sections of BOO, and now that I’m armed with a bit more experience with WordPress template editing, the Lyrics section is now ordered alphabetically rather than chronologically! Hopefully this will make it far easier to view all the lyrics (that, and everything is now on the same page) Of course, feedback is always appreciated!
  Please also lookout for the release of more lyrics later on this month!
• Where to BUY Back-on’s CDs? – BOO have already made a brief stab at this information on the Music page, but with the forthcoming release of 2 singles on September 19th 2007, it seemed like a good time to write up a proper post. I would definitely welcome any input from other fans for this section, and will be making a post on the Forums in the next few days for people to post their suggestions too!
• And other ideas! – These are currently taking shape in my mind, so are not finalised per-se. I will be bouncing a few of these ideas off a few people this month to see if they will be suitable for BOO first, just in case ;)

Well, as Porky Pig might say at the end of each Looney Tunes episode – ‘That’s all folks!’ – but only for now! Please do let us know what you think of the new updates! :)

p/s: For visitors who are also looking for the next Music update, don’t worry – it’s coming soon!

It isn’t all singing and playing – Back-on eat snacks prepared (by a very lucky lady) and have a little fun as a group too, so it’s quite an interesting video to watch, especially if you’re enjoying the music as well!

You can watch the video by clicking on this direct link, or scrolling further to watch it directly on BOO! Why not let us know what you think too in the comments section? :)

Update 28/12/2007: Thanks to TELO for letting us know about the video going offline! We have now updated the link with the same PV that has kindly been uploaded by dualimaen.

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