you for a while

For the second installment of YouForAWhile.com’s Tori Amos website review series, I’ll describe, discuss, and dote on one of the more popular forum communities: The Afterglow.

Webmaster: While the Afterglow is successfully moderated by several devoted Tori fans, this forum appears to be Sarah’s (aka “Saar”) baby. Her boyfriend Andrew (aka “Teppic”)  is also a faithful admin.

URL Inspiration: “Maybe I’m the afterglow, because I’m with the band you know” ~Way Down

Summary: An interactive, drama-free Tori Amos community boasting over 1780 members.

Highlights: I’m torn between highlighting the professionalism of the site and emphasizing the warm, welcoming nature of the community. Aw, screw it. I’ll focus on both.

First, The Afterglow represents professional web-community design at it finest. The site is based on the popular forum template “proboards,” but The Afterglow is everything but generic. Their undying devotion to Tori Amos shines through every nook and cranny of the site–from the professionally designed American Doll Posse banner to the titles of every topic and sub topic, to the music blaring from the Happy Hippo who hangs out in the right-hand side bar. The Afterglow was no small effort to start and maintain, especially given that Saar and the other moderators appear to have full-time jobs. At the bottom of the page you’ll always find a mod who is online, keeping the conversations going (and drama-free). They show love to other budding Tori sites in their “Blanket Friends” links section, yet another indication for their love of the artist and her fanbase.

Second–The folk of the ‘Glow (the members and the mods) are fun, kind, intelligent, giving, compassionate, and above all, respectful. Saar and the other members of The Afterglow have established a password-protected “safe” area (called “Pick Out your Cloud”) where “Bees” (aka forum members) can discuss personal problems, share their most intimate secrets and fears, or just get to know each other at a deeper level. Only approved Bees are given access to the site, after the mods…who pay the utmost attention to everyone’s contribution, deem you a safe bet. While healthy debate is encouraged, for the most part The Afterglow’ community is always ready with a compliment, encouragement, or a thumbs-up smiley. While you may get a “I disagree and here is why” response…you’ll never, ever, ever get a “What are you, stupid?” response. Which is hard to come by these days.

Other Pages/Content: In addition to the numerous threads (Tori Amos-related and non-Tori related), The Afterglow features a chatroom, an index of members, a birthday list, a handy dandy search tool, help links, and all the Tori Amos avatars you could want (via a site called “Freezing that Frame” which deserves a review all to itself.). Private messaging capabilities allow members to have personal communications, a bonus for the shier members.

Layout/Design: Easy-to-navigate, professional, aesthetic, and currently inspired by American Doll Posse cover art.

Updates: The conversation is always going strong over at The Afterglow. An entire thread, well-updated, is devoted to site announcements which introduce everything from big advancements (i.e. Member of the Month, new projects, etc.) to small changes (i.e. the addition of a new super-cool smiley). This site has not been neglected since its inception.

Communication: All requests (i.e. link), questions, and even just plain “hello”s are answered within 24 hours (although usually sooner). Delays are most often related to time zone differences (The Afterglow is a wide-ranging international community) and not disinterest or neglect.

Future Projects: “Make a Toast”–a Tori Amos thank you book. Halloween gift and card exchange. Afterglow button sales. These projects are often spearheaded by active members and supported by the Saar and the Glow Team. Never a dull moment for the bees at The Afterglow. Never a dull moment at all.

Click here to visit the site.

Filed under: Tori Amos Website Reviews on September 30th, 2007