Maybe Side7 could have its own mascot? It’s always cool whenever there’s a character that represents a website, one that the community can draw for fun and in support of the site. If Side7 had a mascot, it could possibly be included next to the logo on the top banner, which might bring more personality to the site. Side7 already has a comforting visual appeal, so maybe this could help further solidify its overall “face” and presence? It would be a small addition, but over the years as an internet user who loved all things community-oriented and artistic spaces, even the smallest of things like a mascot always had a huge impact on the atmosphere (in my personal opinion) and made me excited to log back in every day.

Just an Idea!

Side 7 actually does have a mascot. Her name is Oni. She's a blue cat that wears a tech eyepiece. She was the site's IRC Chatbot years ago in the late 90s and early 2000s. I'm slowly rebuilding her to be the site's Discord bot. She'll be active with the next site update (v5.15).

Here are some pics of her:
https://www.side7.com/content/R19ob2RDr2
https://www.side7.com/content/z39qYoo39R
https://www.side7.com/content/eXrBZOnQrR
https://www.side7.com/content/eXrBZOOerR

I would add her to the header bar, next to the logo, but I've not had luck drawing her well enough, yet. I wanted her to be much more visible on the site, like having her on error pages, or the sign-up page, etc. But, again, I've not drawn her really well of late.
-- BK

Awwww she’s so adorable! I had no idea, and she’s an awesome mascot!
In that case, I can’t wait to see more of her in the Discord, and I’m super excited to draw her Side7 has so much history, it’s gonna be fun to keep on learning more! And no worries about not having her on more pages yet, you already have enough on your plate running things, it’ll be cool enough to see her in the future when you get an ideal drawing of her. :3

You're telling me this site has deeplore??

That's a really good idea. Could even put her in the header graphic (would love a better header graphic than just a screenshot of the website).
-- BK

Well, Side 7 was established in 1993... there's a long history there.
-- BK

BadKarma:

Well, Side 7 *was* established in 1993... there's a long history there.
-- BK

An “About” section with a timeline of Side7 and all its history would be pretty dope.

chromatic_mortality:

An “About” section with a timeline of Side7 and all its history would be pretty dope.

::laughs::

Yeah, I maintained one for a long time, and no one seemed interested in it, so I stopped maintaining it and eventually phased it out. I wonder if I could recreate it all from memory.
-- BK

BadKarma:

::laughs::

Yeah, I maintained one for a long time, and no one seemed interested in it, so I stopped maintaining it and eventually phased it out. I wonder if I could recreate it all from memory.
-- BK

Mannnnn really? I'd totally be interested, if you did. Not sure about anyone else, but I personally love reading site lore. I'm shocked no one in the past was interested, it always felt like people loved stuff like that before, but I guess not everyone huh. XD

Speaking as someone who's worked in archiving, never torch your history. D: Even scattered notes makes the archaeologists' jobs that much easier; see: B*zzly automatically deleting comments by closed accounts, and thereby burning the paper trail.

This timeline talk recalls my attempts to track down one post back in the mid-2010s where dA laid out its ostensible vision for site development to see whereabouts the Eclipse was forecasted (and/or just how many empty promises they'd foisted). I did find their "official" timeline (original journal leads to a 404 but the page itself is archived), plus the more detailed user effort that sadly wasn't maintained past early 2015, but so far no luck on the roadmap I'm thinking of.

Fortunately, I have enough historical files, emails, and such that I think I could reconstruct the site's history.

Fun fact: Side 7 was started in 1993 as an Anime-related BBS.

-- BK

That would explain why the deeper I delved into the submissions, the more consistent the theme became.

(Mad kudos for implementing infinite scroll in a way that doesn't crash the browser in the first ten minutes—looking at you, DeviantArt! Made it to Summer '02 before other tabs finally crushed memory and I had to reboot.)

Cats até nice, but may I introduce you to the joys of rabbit?

Y'know, I remember @Navi1101 having an odd fascination with blue cats when we were in the university together. Now it seems to make sense.

I'm thinking of maybe a purple and black butterfly, or some other animal with a purple and black color palette. Hm.

Gotta agree, there.
-- BK

Rabbits are pretty awesome, too.
-- BK

Plus, the Wayback Machine ought to have a bunch of archives that could be of help.

Why not have some artists draw Oni, with the best getting their renditions used on the site? This is what FA does/did for their site banner, and what e621 does/did for their landing page.

Good point. I've just gone there and confirmed that they captured the history of the site.

I had thought about that, but I need to put together a proper model sheet for Oni, I think. I want to be sure she's represented correctly for official website appearances.
-- BK