Animexx.de

Animexx.de is a German online community for animanga fans. It's called the online club of Animexx e.V. and serves as the official site of the organization. The site serves as a kind of social network for fans of all kinds of anime and manga fandoms and some other media fandoms. It's also one of the largest German multifandom archives for fanworks of different kinds. The site offers information about conventions and the German Cosplay Championship (DCM), an event calendar, message boards, a wiki, a webshop, the online magazine AnimePro, and various other community activities for members like RPGs and playing Go.
Many category and status pages feature fanart of Aiko and Yuki, the official Animexx e.V. mascot characters.
The site currently has over 110,000 users, approximately two thirds of them are active and two thirds of them identify as female.
==History==
2000: site goes online
2001: in July the site has 5000 registered users and Animexx e.V. buys their own servers
2004: introduction of the Animexx shop, the virtual currency "Karotaler" and the cosplay and convention picture categories
2006: in August Animexx.de counts 100.000
2008; site admin cato announced that the cosplay category would be renewed, giving users new functionality.
2010: changes were made to the front page of the cosplay category with new rules for what kind of cosplays would have a chance to be shown on there.
2011: Implementation of a new subsection for the fanfiction archive on the site for "Fanfiction-Hörbücher und -spiele" (fanfiction audio books and audio dramas).
==Structure==
Signing up with animexx.de is free, but membership in the parent organization Animexx e.V. is not and different "levels" of membership exist: active members of the Animexx organization are distinguished by different colors and symbols next to their username.
Every member has a profile (Steckbrief) that comes with a Weblog space and different possibilities of customization. The user or nickname (often called Animexx-Nick) can also serve as a Pseud for a fannish identity and some people use it for conventions or meet-ups. Animexx actively supports its community and strives to be more than just an archive for fanworks. Members are encouraged to use the message boards, to find members who live near them or to form "Zirkel" (engl. circle), groups that have their own forums that can be open or closed to a subset of members to form their own little communities.
Many conventions, clubs, meet-ups and cosplay groups are organized via the "Zirkel" function.
The site has a virtual currency system, called "Karotaler". With this currency members can buy virtual items that are then displayed on their profiles. Most of these items are related to well-known fandoms, have a connection to recent events, have funny descriptions or can be collected to get access to another item. At Conventions where Animexx has a booth, it's possible to receive a special code to get a Con-Hopper medal for this event to display as item on your profile.
Hentai or Adult-Doujinshis can only be accessed by users who have verified their age, either by entering the number of their German identity card or by submitting a scan of a passport/driver's licence/other identity card that proves that they are at least 18 years old.
There is also an english version of the page that is in essence a forum for English speaking fans and links back to the German site and German entries for everything else.
==Fanworks==
Animexx allows many different types of fanworks, for example fanfic, fanart, doujinshi, knitting, food, cosplay accessories, jewelry and various other crafts.
As of 25.11.2012, the site hosts more than 141000 fanficshttp://animexx.onlinewelten.com/fanfiction/ accessed 25.11.2012 and over 1Mio. pieces of fanart.
Fanfics are sorted by genre, key words and language: although about 98% of all stories are in German,http://animexx.onlinewelten.com/fanfiction/ accessed 14.10.2011 works in other languages are welcome. The most popular fanfic fandoms on the site as of 14.10.2011 are Naruto (14458 stories) and Harry Potter (10671), followed by Beyblade (4690 stories), One Piece (4147), Dragon Ball (4058), Digimon (3216), Inu Yasha (2735), Detective Conan (2403), Final Fantasy (1967), Weiß Kreuz (1904) and original fiction.
Animexx has galleries with over 5Mio. convention, event and cosplay pictures. The pictures can be browsed for cosplay and J-Fashion (like Gothik Lolita, Visual Kei and traditional Japanese clothing) respectively. They can also be browesd by event or photographer. Thus it has grown to be one of the most important online communities for the German cosplay subculture, alongside the more focused cosplay.de (formerly Cosplay-Heaven). It's also encouraged to link to and embed your convention and cosplay vids. In early December 2012 the animexx cosplay category counted 124.808 approved cosplays by 16.928 cosplayers.
Since Dezember 2011 the site has a special category for what is called Fanfiction audio books, where users can host their podfic and podcasts (although only files without music are allowed to avoid trouble with the German performance rights organization GEMA).
===Rules===
Animexx.de doesn't allow:
* sex scenes with children aged 14 or younger
* plagiarism
* works containing bestiality, necrophilia, or cannibalism
* works that glorify violence and especially Nazism
* begging for comments
* Author notes in the middle of a text
* insulting lurkers (Schwarzleser)
* stories in chat log format
* the use of photographs in art
* selling fanart
With the rise of the archive’s popularity animexx.de over the years introduced quality control for different fanwork categories, like fanfiction (grammar and spelling),8 Fanfic-Regeln, accessed 7. December 2012. fanart (e.g. sketches on lined paper, traced pictures without some form of transformation and bad scans of art won’t be approved and doujinshi, photos (picture galleries will not be approved if the quality of pictures isn’t good enough, there are too many similar pictures of one of the same motif, if there is no connection to events, cosplay or Japan) and cosplay (users need to upload a picture of the character or artwork their costume is based on and in cases of cosplay that consists mainly of bought articles of clothing there needs to be visible similarity, the cosplay needs a cover photo where the whole costume is recognizable and there should be a description of what kind of work was done on the cosplay),. Nearly all user generated content has to be approved before it shows up on the site. The process of approving fanworks is taken on by volunteers (called Freischalter) who follow animexx guidelines. There are frequent controversies about the way approvement is handled and some users see the guidelines as too strict while others thinks they are justified.
Animexx offers various ways for writers and artists to improve, for example a platform to find betas or writing partners and extensive writing, fanart and cosplay tutorials.
===Contests===
Users can create their own fanwork challenges. They can specify the fandom, topic and specific rules (length etc.) and assemble their own jury (or decide for themselves.) They have to offer prices for the winners: accepted are fanworks, goods, or "karotaler", a virtual currency that can be used to buy virtual items on the Animexx site.
==Games, competitions and prize draws==
Occasionally the site in cooperation with sponsors offers users the opportunity to win prizes or take part in fun games hidden on the site. The two most popular occasions are the easter egg hunt and the advent calendar. Questions and riddles all revolve around anime, manga and Japan or are small fanwork contests.
==References==
Category:Multifandom Archives
Category:German-Language Websites
Category:2000s Archives
Category:2010s Archives