Mecha Talk

For those who saw the earlier update, yes, that was an April Fools' prank. Given how many years this update has been in the works, we couldn't help but have a laugh before finally starting over. What you see now is the real design, what we've referred to for years as "MAHQ 2.0." This new design is the way MAHQ will look for the rest of its life (which will hopefully be many more years). I have to give an enormous amount of credit to Dale for working on the design and Damian Fuentes for providing the graphics.

We've added several new features as part of this redesign. First, a long-requested search bar is finally available. If you've ever found yourself at a loss as to where to find a specific mobile suit, worry no more. We've also added Google Translate functionality, which will allow non-English speakers to view the site in French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, Korean and Chinese. Another new feature is an integrated Twitter widget that allows you to see all our tweets in one spot. Please note that we will be making some tweaks to these new features. If you find that something isn't working, we're probably aware of it.

One thing you'll quickly notice as you click links is that only the front door is done. Given the sheer size of MAHQ, we determined that the work of converting it behind the scenes would be so mammoth a task as to be a de-motivator. Therefore, we decided to do a live rollout. None of our navigation is changing, so you can click between the old and new design with no problems. Our original intention was to rollout five new sections today, but time worked against us on that one. Instead, you'll see them in the next few weeks. And over the next few months, you'll see more and more of the site converted to the new design until it's all done.

With all that out of the way, it's time to take note of what today means. It was 10 years ago today that Dale and I launched a tiny website called the Fantasy & Animation HQ. Not to sound like a broken record, but where the site has gone in the last decade has been far beyond any expectation we had. We never thought it would last this long or build a self-sustaining community. Hell, when we started FAHQ, there wasn't even such a thing as podcasting. That this site has lasted as long as it has is truly a testament to the people who visit everyday, who post on the forum and who work to help us improve it. None of this would have been possible without that support. So with that in mind, here's to 10 years so far, and hopefully to another 10!