By The Eva Monkey on Thursday, October 4th, 2007
A little bit over 5 years ago, I set out to create a concise singular site of resources dedicated to Evangelion. An ambitious prospect to say the least when you’re dealing with a work that not only has an ever-expanding universe, but is already a work steeped in uncertainty and brimming with layers of detail. I never truly achieved the goal I set for myself with the site. Eva Monkey never lived up to the subtitle I gave it, “The Ultimate Evangelion Resource Site”. I still cringe inside whenever I read that horribly arrogant and inaccurately phrase. Don’t get me wrong, I consider Eva Monkey a success in a number of ways. I’m certain I was able to do a lot for the fandom by taking up my ambitions as many of the sites I read when searching for answers fell into various forms of inactivity or termination. I saw a need, and I wanted to fulfill it. And that journey was immensely rewarding and fulfilling to me. But at a certain point, you have to accept that there is only so much that you as one person can do, and that it’s time for a change.
To that end, I am hereby retiring EvaMonkey.com. I especially want to thank Carl Horn, formerly of Viz, as well as Brendan Jamieson of EvaOtaku.com. You have been a greater inspiration to me than I can convey, and it is your dedication and passion that ultimately led me to create this site. I think thanks are also in order to my girlfriend, Christina, whose infinite patience with the time I put into this site and fandom is completely undeserved. I also want to thank everyone I met along the way for your friendship and for sharing your experiences. You gave me a feeling of kinship that the immediate physicality of “IRL” life simply couldn’t afford. In particular, I want to shout out to Rachel Clark, whom I would be completely lost without; Sarah Myer, for being an all around awesome person to get to know; Xanatose, for being an enigmatic wonder that I love poking at; Travis Farren, for squealing “OMG it’s teh Eva Monkey” at Katsucon 2004; Vulkurt, for being the coolest teacher ever; Otaprince, DatDude, Seele08, Alan, Kyle, and Dan from OG, and anyone who I just can’t think of right now. And lastly, thanks to everyone who’s ever asked a question, contributed an article, or posted in the forum, without you, Eva Monkey would be nothing but a bunch of files on a server.
Now, this is not quite an end of an era. I’m not throwing in the towel quite yet. A month or so back, Rachel Clark, and a few others got together, and decided to unite our sites, time, energy, and talent together to form a new site and community, one which will hopefully achieve the goal that both Rachel and I set out to accomplish with sites like EvaMonkey.Com and EvaCommentary.Org. This new site can be found at EvaGeeks.Org. There you will find (in time) many of the same resources and features of both Eva Monkey as well as Eva Commentary, particularly the Eva Monkey Forums, which are now the forums of the new Eva Geeks site. And if you’ve ever wanted to get involved, now is the time to do it. This new site is being built from the ground up to allow any dedicated and responsible Evangelion fan to get involved, share their knowledge, theories, and ideas. Whether you’re a forum member, a wiki editor, a content editor, or a news poster, this new project is a communal effort, possibly unlike any before. This is a site by and for the fans in every sense of the phrase. While Eva Monkey will remain up in its present state for as long possible, my efforts and attention will now be channeled into Eva Geeks.
Thank you for the last 5 years. I’ll see you all on the other side