Welcome to The Galactic Guide, the Sailor Senshi Sanctuary's Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) file.  Here you will find detailed answers to the most frequently submitted questions I receive via e-mail or previously in the guestbook.  I will update this page as necessary.  If you have any further questions or want more information, don't hesitate to e-mail me!

This FAQ was last updated 07/27/2013.

Before we begin, a little information about the history of Sailor Senshi Sanctuary, something I like to call "The Fall and Rise of a Fansite."

Sailor Senshi Sanctuary was originally created in 1998 and went online in 1999.  It continued to be expanded upon and saw heavy traffic up through July of 2001 when the site's host abruptly discontinued their hosting services.  SSS disappeared overnight and due to its large size and heavy traffic, a suitable and affordable replacement host could not be found.  The full site was archived offline as best as could be maintained.  It sat for many years and many failed relaunches until the year 2009 rolled around, what would have been the site's ten year anniversary.

In early 2009 I began to go through the archived files, settling on beginning with the oldest and most complete archive I had.  After over seven years of passing the archive between different storage media, different computers and different hosting options it was pretty badly fragmented.  In this way, even the oldest archive was somewhat incomplete.  Additionally as once commonly used file formats changed over the years and became obsolete, some of the media archived at SSS was no longer relevant.  This pertained mostly to the videos which were in RealMedia format and at much lower resolutions than are prevalent today.

Reviewing the archives struck a chord with me.  I really missed the site, I missed how it was back when it was forced offline, I missed Sailor Moon.  I wanted to bring SSS back.  It was then, probably in February of 2009 or so, that I decided instead of updating SSS and making it anew I would restore it to how it once was.  A Sailor Moon site from the era of when Sailor Moon was the biggest thing online.  Most sites from that era were built upon free hosting and because of that particular business model falling apart, most of those sites are gone.  An entire generation of Sailor Moon content lost to the winds of time, which happen to blow much faster on the other side of the screen.  This site, however, was more or less spared.  Essentially it was sealed off during that era, a time capsule of how the Internet and Sailor Moon once danced together in perfect time.  Looking back, if I never had hosting pulled out from under me all those years ago I would have probably never archived the site.  More than likely it would have just slowly faded away as many other web projects have.  Strange how fate works out like that sometimes.

Throughout the spring of 2009 I worked on pulling together the different remnants of the site from the different archives and failed relaunches.  With each attempted relaunch over the years the site became fractured more and more, making the eventual restoration just that much more difficult.  Over the summer I began unifying the archaic file naming scheme that the site was originally based upon.  This also allowed me to clean out unused files and remove unnecessary graphics.  A full overhaul of how different pages linked to one another was also long overdue.  Many pages were also reworked due to the changes in the naming scheme.  Some downloadable content that was previously considered lost was also restored from alternate system wide backups.  Most of the pages that required the heaviest changes still look exactly the same but are much better laid out both on the visible side as well as the technical side.  Discontinued file formats as well as content that was simply lost was obviously not restored.

Using a combination of archives from different points in time I was able to piece the site back together to how it was, more or less, right around the time it went offline in 2001.  As a whole I'd say about 98% of the core site returned.

So if you're asking yourself why this site looks like it was made in the 1990's, the answer is because it was made in the 1990's.  Content will continue to be expanded upon.  New features will continue to be added.  Old content will continue to be updated and improved (scans for instance).  However the site will preserve the look and feel of how the majority of Sailor Moon sites, and the Internet as a whole, used to be.  Consider it a classic Sailor Moon online retro experience.  So while it may appear that this place hasn't been touched since the turn of the last millennium, rest assured that it is still being lovingly worked on and expanded upon.  Just don't expect it to change.

I have one request however and that has to do with the amount of stuff I will be hosting here.  As SSS is 100% free of advertising, I make zero revenue on the site.  This means I pay for 100% of the site out of my own pocket.  Due to this I have limits on the amount of bandwidth I can use, healthy limits, but limits just the same.  Please do not direct link to any images or other files I have here from other locations (websites, forum posts).  However, feel free to browse and download as much as you would like.  If you're looking at a large file here that you know you can get elsewhere (the video games for instance), then please do so to help ease the load for others.  Common files such as those will probably be exactly the same from different sources.  If the strain on my hosting becomes too great then I will have to temporarily disable site features and that's the last thing I want to do.  Please be courteous before you click.
 

What is SSS?
Sailor Senshi Sanctuary is the spiritual reincarnation of a long lost page called Sailor Moon Sanctuary, of which was not mine.  I built on SMS's excellent navigation and organization system when creating SSS.  SSS was intended to be constantly updated (not abandoned for years like most Sailormoon pages, even in the 1990's) and improved.  SSS was a great source for information, images, videos, video games, audio, music, midi's, lyrics, translations, and more!  Also, it was always being added upon.  After a number of hiccups due to the free hosting options going away, I trimmed down SSS and recreated it in December of 2004.  After losing it once again I rebuilt SSS from the ground up based on an older archive in an attempt to recreate some of its former glory.  The SSS you are browsing today was restored in the image of the site as it was in 2000 - 2001, however I am once again updating the site and adding content.  Yet the feel of the site is meant to remain that of how the Internet (and SSS) was back during the turn of the last millennium.

When did SSS start?
July 18th, 1999 is the official date of the site's grand opening.  Prior to that SSS had been around for about two months, but featured very little in the way of content, and up until just before the grand opening featured only the inner senshi, except for Venus.

Why does your site look like it was made in the late 1990's?
Because it was!  Sailor Senshi Sanctuary was essentially caught in a time capsule of online progress.  The site was archived and pushed aside for many, many, many years.  While I attempted to restore the site many times over those years, things never fell into place, leaving the site archived nearly exactly as it was when it went offline back in 2001 when NBCi (formerly Xoom) folded their hosting.  Once I finally got around to restoring SSS, I felt a lot of nostalgia for the older era of the Internet that it was built upon.  Since the majority of my time and involvement with Sailor Moon took place around the time the site was at its peak, I wanted to preserve that over all feeling.  Instead of upgrading SSS I decided I would attempt to restore it to how it was just before the original site went offline.  In that way SSS can be considered a Sailor Moon site preserved in the tradition of how Sailor Moon sites were during the height of their popularity.  I continue to update SSS, including adding new features, but the style and feel of SSS will remain as it is - as it always was.

Has SSS received any awards?
Yes, it has received a few many years ago when site awards were all the rage, although I have never applied for any.

If SSS won awards, where are they?
Simple, I created SSS as a reference and resource for Sailormoon, not as something for me to flaunt around and say how great it is.  When someone did present me with an award I would be very thankful, but decline to post it on my page or accept it unless insisted upon.  In the beginning I created SSS for myself and a few of my friends, but it quickly became quite a large reference and media source.  This site was also used as a starting point for up and coming web page designers that were beginning Sailormoon sites.  Although I can lay no claim to ownership of the old video clips, and most of the images in the senshi areas, many once came here and asked to take content.  (which I would always allow but would like to know the URL of the page where it was going so I could make them a link banner for my links page).  Most of what this site contains is stuff from other sources (many that don't exist anymore) as well as items that I have in my collection that I haven't seen anywhere else.

Does SSS give awards, and if so how do I apply?
In late 1999 I began selecting one site a month for the short-lived Sailor Senshi Sanctuary Award for Excellence.  However, it was an award that could not be applied for.  I would choose a page each month that I felt was worthy of the honor.  I would browse many Sailormoon pages, as well as all the site links in the guestbook... so signing the guestbook would pay!  I decided to do it this way because instead of people begging for awards, I can choose at my discretion which pages I thought were deserving.  Also it opens an award up to, for instance, the new webmaster or webmistress that may not apply for an award for fear of not receiving it.  (Yes, at one time people online actually thought like that)  A Sailor Senshi Sanctuary Award for Excellence was not simply given away, only the deserving would get them.  As the whole idea of web page awards faded away, as did the SSS Award for Excellence.  Sadly, I was only able to award a few of them before SSS went offline in 2001.  I have no plans to return the award program to SSS at this time.

What sites have received a SSS Award for Excellence?
Unfortunately the list of sites the award was presented to was lost to winds of time.  Besides, I seriously doubt that a majority of the sites are even still around, being updated or at the very least still run by the people who earned the awards.  With Geocities gone these days and most free web hosting disappearing over the years, a large portion of the Sailor Moon web site community has been swallowed by the ever-changing digital frontier.

Questions, comments, suggestions?
Well then, e-mail me!