2014 in Review: Changes and Open Staff Positions

Hey everyone, it's Jonathan, the site editor, here to give you some updates and a little retrospection on the past year. We're in the last month of 2014, so the staff and I are making plans for 2015. I'm planning some major changes, so here's a heads up of what's going down once January gets around.

Also, we have staff positions open. Please read on.

1. The Wednesday/Friday schedule will change to Tuesday/Thursday. This way, there will be a day between seasonal reviews and regular posts. Also, since it seems that Rainy Day Report won't be returning, there's no reason to keep the Monday spot open anymore.
2. We're changing the seasonal reviews a tad. Instead of five entries and a finale to wrap everything up, we will have four parts and a finale. The five part system left little breathing room for the staff, so I decided to fix that and give them more time to work on regular articles.
3. The game reviews tag will be used more as I check out more emulation methods and look into visual novels that I can properly run. I hope to have a Lux-Pain review in the future, but it depends entirely on if a current translation ends up being properly finished (the official one is nigh unplayable).

We'll close out the year with over 10,000 views for the blog total. I'm really impressed by this strong start, and I hope we break 2,000 views for a single month this December. If we don't, hey, there's always next year. October was our most viewed month, and our most viewed articles are seasonal reviews, as I expected. Hopefully, we can reach 100 views per article as the average by the end of next year.

Myself, Zach and Megan have been the most active staff in posting articles, though Stephanie, David and Joe have been invaluable in seasonal review loads. Walt and Tom have also been great team players behind the scene and have been able to pick up slack whenever we needed it most. Our newest member, Thomas, has been far busier than the rest of us this year, so he's only been able to contribute in our Fall reviews so far, but I expect that to change very soon. We're also working on a year end review, so look out for that in January.

Infinite Rainy Day is shaping up to have a very promising future, and I'm planning to make this a legit site down the road (money being the big obstacle). While staff positions are voluntary right now, I want to be able to offer compensation for the work of my staff. I have details in my Patreon, but the long and short is that Infinite Rainy Day is going to be more in the future, and I will make damn sure of it. My goal is to create an anime site that aims for a crowd beyond the usual fandoms, and I think we're building slowly towards that.

With 2015 coming, I've decided to bring on new staff, if anyone wants to join. You can...

• Contact me on Twitter 
• Leave a comment with an e-mail address I can contact
• Or simply e-mail me at jonathanjameskaharl@yahoo.com

We'll talk via e-mail, I'll ask for examples of your past work or a test article (or two) and see if you're what I'm looking for. What we're looking for most are seasonal reviewers, though other writers are welcome. To be more specific...

1. Seasonal reviewers - These writers focus on writing for our regular seasonal reviews series that goes on throughout most the year. Seasonal reviewers are given a minimum of five shows every season to review, usually more unless issues with other engagements arise. Seasonal review articles go up every two weeks for four parts, then come back for a final wrap-up before starting the next season.
2. Game reviewers - In particular, we're looking for those familiar with the visual novel and doujin gaming scenes (aka Japanese indie). Porn games are obviously a no go, but you can review clean versions. Anime or manga tie-in games are also perfectly acceptable, along with those who play a lot of obscure JRPGs.
3. Other - If you have any ideas for columns or topics to focus on, don't be afraid to pitch!

It should go without saying this is a voluntary, but anyone willing to contribute and *actually* contributes is welcome. You also won't be tied to your named position; you can pitch in with seasonal reviews with one or two shows, or talk about topics outside your normal expertise. We're a lax group, so don't worry.

That's it for now. Here's to the coming of a new year and a fresh chance at Infinite Rainy Day growing. Thank you to everyone who's been reading, I promise you won't be disappointed in the coming months.