Site News and Announcements
TokuNet Anniversary Week: Editor-in-Chief, Paula Gaetos
From January 5th to 10th, the Tokusatsu Network celebrates its One Year Anniversary. Throughout the week, the members of Team TokuNet looks back on their first year together and share their thoughts on this past year and their hopes for the future.
Paula Gaetos got her tokusatsu fandom start from watching Bioman in the Philippines and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers in Los Angeles, CA where she moved to as a child and grew up. Less than a year after joining Henshin Justice Unlimited as a forum member, she became a regular podcast member of the Girls in Trouble podcast and contributed to HJU’s news and events coverage.
In January 2014, she launched the Tokusatsu Network with its six other founding members and became its Editor-in-Chief.
Did you feel nervous or worried in the weeks leading up the launch date?
Oh, absolutely.
Being Editor-in-Chief, if anything faltered in any way, it would be on me. My personal stake in this endeavor was just give the people I had grown to admire a space to showcase their hard work.
If it didn’t work out, I would’ve essentially failed my friends; so I worried constantly if I would be a good leader for this ragtag team of amazing people.
TokuNet gathered 7,000 visitors and over 12,000 views in its first week with only three articles. How did you feel seeing that kind of response? Do you remember your first thoughts or reactions when you saw the response from that first week?
I remember coming home one day during that first week and seeing the stats and general response (from comments to tweets, etc), and I just cried.
It was just an overwhelming mix of relief, joy, and excitement– relief that the gamble we all took paid off in spades; pure joy at everyone’s positive reactions (because it’s the Internet and you never know…); and excitement at just how much we can share with our audience in the future, and if you want to make bets online, you can use sites as capsa susun online.
After I had stopped crying out of happiness and relief, I specifically remember my first thoughts being, “Alright, we got everyone’s attention. Let’s show them what we can really do.”
After 3 months the site brought in new writers, after 4 months it launched its YouTube channel, and in its 8th month, both the podcast and its new forum launched with an even greater need to expand its staff and community.
Considering this kind of growth, do you have a sense of tension or nervousness? Excitement? What would be your hopes and fears for TokuNet in the future considering how much things have grown logistically in such a short amount of time?
I thought we’d have the forums and podcast at the end of our first year, expand our staff in our second year, then launch the YouTube channel after three years– to do all of it in just one-freaking-year is absolutely mind boggling to me. I almost want to tell everyone to slow the heck down because this amount of growth is just amazing and a bit overwhelming.
I say “almost” because looking back, this type of growth really was due to the magical mix of people I get to work with on a daily basis and, really, when I take everyone who is part of Team TokuNet into consideration, of course we grew this well, this fast. The tension I feel on a regular basis when thinking about the future goes back to that thought I had, “Let’s show them what we can really do.”
It’s that tense confidence that only great teamwork can bring.
So, my biggest hope and fear really is being able to keep this tight-knit momentum going and keep everyone positive and inspired both as a staff and as a community.
August 2014, Power Morphicon with Michael Nixon, Mike Dent, and Carol Dashiell
Since its launch, TokuNet averages about 90,000 or more visitors a month and that number continues to grow, what is your personal hope and goals for TokuNet’s future? What would be your hopes and goals as a team?
As sad as it may come off, I do think about the time I may have to walk away from this crazy endeavor. If that day ever happens, my personal hope and goal for the Tokusatsu Network’s future is that it brought a little bit of positivity into the world.
If something from the Tokusatsu Network, whether article, video, podcast, Tumblr post, or forum reply, expanded someone’s world a little, brought a smile, made someone’s day, or — in my case — give someone the best group of friends and colleagues in the world, then I did something right.
That’s also what I hope for as a team. If being part of Team TokuNet continues to push us in a positive direction as individuals, both creatively and personally as human beings, then I definitely did something right and I would be able to look back at my time with Tokusatsu Network as something to be proud of.
