Toon Zone
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Toon Zone (TZ for short) is a popular web portal focusing on animation-oriented journalism and discussion. The web portal, which is divided into news, forums, and web hosting, was created under the guidance of Brian Cruz, Eileen Delgadillo, and Colin Feder. Although Toon Zone's history dates back to 1994, when Devon Thomas created the Warner Brothers Club forums, the current incarnation of the site launched on August 24, 1998.
The site is often incorrectly called Toonzone, without the space in the name.
Contents |
[edit] Focus
Toon Zone primarily focuses on American animation, comics and Japanese anime. The news section, whose front page is styled after popular online magazine Slate, publishes news about all varieties of animation and comic releases, as well as reviews, interviews and editorials. Toon Zone also features hosted web sites, but its most recognizable feature is its message boards. Both are dedicated to subjects such as the DC Comics and Marvel Comics animated universes, Cartoon Network, including the Adult Swim and Toonami programming blocks, Nicktoons, Disney and Warner Brothers Animation. Toon Zone has also added a section for original animation and comic content called Cartoons, Dammit!.
[edit] Forums
Toon Zone contains many message boards, including the ones mentioned above, as well as many others, such as "The Entertainment Board","'Fun & Games", "Comic Book Culture", and "The Drawing Board'". Toon Zone also hosts a DC-themed message board for The World's Finest site, "The DC Animation" board, as well as its 'little sister' the "World's Finest Writers' Corner". That forum focuses strictly on fan works for the DC Animated Universe as opposed to "The Story Board", which is a source for general/non-DC fan works. Some message boards also contain sub-message boards, like the board named "Reality Bytes" in the "Fun & Games Forum". General discussion can be found in "CafeTZ". Questions can be answered by mods or other users in the "Feedback & Suggestions" forum, and "Is This Thing On??" is useful for testing out various posting functions.
So long as visitors do not violate the posted rules (which are to be read before registering), Toon Zone is an inviting tight-knit community for animation aficionados that love every aspect of animation.
[edit] Spinoff Sites and Growth
TZ began as a fan site for Tiny Toons and Animaniacs, though it has expanded since then to include wider ranges of animation.
The site now consists of a plethora of original content that Toon Zone created, or accepted under their banner. The website The World's Finest, considered by many to be the best DC Animated resource online and easily the most popular site on Toon Zone, has brought in literally tens of thousands of new visitors. The site's current upgrades use Flash for a more professional and dynamic look. Its forum is also hosted there, and it is likely the most popular and longest-running animated DC forum online, operating since 1998. Toon Zone has hosted this site, but many incorrectly cite WF's and its message board as a Toon Zone property. To reiterate, The World's Finest is a site independent of Toon Zone, though Toon Zone's owners have agreed to host this website.
In 2003, Vincent Benenati, a former editor, left Toon Zone and launched Animation Insider, a similarly themed animation news and information portal. A year later, staff members of the Termite Terrace forum launched Golden Age Cartoons, their own domain dedicated to classic Warner Bros, MGM, Columbia, and other animated shorts of the so-called golden age of animation.
Some detractors of the site suspect that the prevalence of Warner Brothers material on the hosted sites is evidence of a "bias" toward the company; Toon Zone staffers say this is due to the site's history. Before widening its focus, Toon Zone was a Warner Brothers fan site. Over its eight years, the site has branched out to cover classic cartoons, web toons and anime. Most of Toon Zone's hosted sites focus on individual shows, and not all are considered widely popular among today's toon viewers. For example, the cult Adult Swim classic Home Movies, the HBO Spawn and the Silver Age Warner Brothers cartoon Tiny Toons all have their own sites. However, TZ also hosts some sites that focus on studios rather than individual programs, such as the popular Marvel Animation Age site.
Many forms of animation are covered by the many sites and forums at Toon Zone. The site now includes a vast new section, including new forums, for an original venture titled Cartoons, Dammit! (originally called Animated Diversions before it was relaunched with new series).
[edit] The Toon Zone Community
The engine of Toon Zone's growth is its forums. A number of animation industry professionals, including Craig McCracken, Lauren Faust, Bruce Timm, Dwayne McDuffie, Paul Dini, and Bill Merrick have accounts and post regularly. Adult Swim has even mentioned Toon Zone on the air, jokingly calling it a "gated community," though they misspelled the site title as "Toonzone" (many other forums have made this same mistake). During major events on television, Toon Zone can have more than 1000 members logged on simultaneously. The community includes animation writers and artists.
Unlike some other fan sites, the moderators on the Toon Zone forums are defenders of intellectual property and strictly edit any mention of or link to illegal downloads. They also ensure a safe environment for the community's younger members (anyone 13 or older may join) by monitoring potentially age-innappropriate discussions. Toon Zone is a family animation site, so any threads dealing with possible mature content are marked appropriately. (One example was the Talkback thread for the Teen Titans episode "Birthmark.") The forums operate under a "three strikes" guideline, and members are often banned after the third offense. Though in some rare cases members have been reinstated after much intervening time and private discussions with moderators, most bans are permanent. Banned members who sign up again under a different name, in violation of Toon Zone's Terms of Service, are always immediately banned again as soon as they are discovered.
[edit] Staff
Over the site's almost seven years of history, the editorial, news, and moderator staff have changed significantly, but all are unpaid volunteers. Most take nicknames, often based on the names of cartoon characters. The staff includes the three founders: Eileen Delgadillo (Harley), Brian Cruz (Brian), and Colin Feder (Colin). Many staff members have worked or currently work in animation or comics in a professional capacity. The current chief editor of Toon Zone News is Ben Applegate, a journalist at a Korean newspaper. The World's Finest creator Jim Harvey is an administrator, writer, reviewer and journalist, as well. Though the total number of active volunteer staff at the site is difficult to determine, it is probably over 60.
[edit] References
<references />
