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Greetings and welcome back esteemed Nico-ers!

Did everyone have a blast with Chokaigi 2?

Although we all know and love real time commenting on Niconico, what about comments at events?

Well, we have an answer for that, too!

The theme of the Chokaigi is "つくるのは、あなたです", literally "Made by you." As the heart of our community is maintained by Nico-users via comments, concurrently several booths were gracious enough to set up free commenting areas there.

Feast your eyes on some of the pics your English admin was fortunate enough to sneak while working at this awesome event:

Ever see such a marked up head? This totally reminds me of signing yearbooks!

Even the Eva 01 got comments!

The Nico News booth set up a huge section completely dedicated to free commenting!
These two are filling in the prime space right in the middle of the Cho!

Further down the side, we find some adorable drawings!

How many characters in this shot can you recognize?

Stay tuned for more Chokaigi posts!

And join the conversation on:
Twitter
Facebook
Google+

-Niconico

Greetings Nico'ers!

Soon it'll be 6 months since our English Niconico release. And to celebrate this special occasion, we're happy to bring you this rare treat - a statistical look at English Niconico.

While we've seen steady growth of viewers and commenters on Nico Live, English Niconico isn't faring as well for video commenting. In other words, users are watching videos, but aren't commenting nearly as much as our Japanese or Taiwanese users.

We need our English speaking viewers to comment more!

The Taiwanese version of Niconico has roughly the same number of viewers, but they get anywhere from 5-10 times more comments EVERY DAY! That means the average Taiwanese user is writing 5-10 times more comments than the average English Niconico user.

Taiwan only has 23 million people and according to wikipedia, up to 27% of the world's population speaks English! That's a whole lot of people...

As you're well aware, commenting is the defining feature of Niconico and is what sets us apart from other sites. Sure, other sites might be faster, better looking, easier to use, but none of them allow users around the world to interact with one another via live comments over the screen like we do.

If you like Niconico, if you want English Niconico to do well, we need you to comment MORE!

OK! You're probably asking yourself "How much should I comment?"
Well, since the Taiwan version gets 5-10 times more comments, how about writing 5-10 comments on every video you watch? Of course, there is no limit on commenting so the sky is the limit! Before burning up your keyboards, there are a few things you should keep in mind:

• Commenting too much (spamming) will temporarily lock your account. Try to put 2-3 seconds between each of your comments.


• You can comment in any language on English Niconico. English is our base, and we display the USA flag, but this is an INTERNATIONAL website. Our goal is to spread Nico-culture around the world.


• Using Japanese slang such as "wktk, utsu, 8888, wwww" is great! Huh? What do these mean?!


• Have fun! There is no wrong way to comment. Try commentating on the video, writing your reactions, playing with emoji/kaomoji, and experiment with different sizes and colors!

Remember that comments are Niconico's lifeblood. And if you want to see new features, more Nico Live programs, and further support for English Niconico, please support us by commenting on Videos and Nico Live Broadcasts!

Don't you want to see more English danmaku like this? :)

Thanks for reading!

-Niconico

We've already shared an in-depth blog post about commenting with you (complete with pictures!), but now it's time we step things up a gear by showcasing a video!

Pop Quiz Time!
Question: Do you remember how to type vertical comments like this?

View this post to find out!

This time we're happy to share with you some videos that harken back to the olden days of Niconico in Japan. These videos utilize a different player, giving them a certain rustic Nico-feel, but are still a great first step in understanding the awesomeness of commenting on Niconico.

The Commenting System Makes Niconico Unique

Why just watch a video when you can share your reactions with viewers around the world? We hope this post will help the Nico community understand what makes sharing comments the right way on videos such a hit.

The first video starts by giving a simple explanation on how to comment, then it gives viewers an opportunity to try commenting out for themselves. This is a practice video, so go wild and add all sorts of comments (they'll even give you a practice joke!).
And if you really want try do something cool, open Command settings and change your comment color, size, and position!

Head there now and practice commenting! or click the video below!

Niconico Textbook STEP1【Writing Comments】

Now that you've got commenting under your belt, how about checking this video on how to search for videos on Niconico? It also briefly touches on Niconico Tags!

And that's all for Nico-post! Now go forth and comment, comment, comment (in English)!

-Niconico

This is the second of a series of Nico Blog posts about commenting on English Niconico. The second topic we'd like to address is how to comment on videos. I'll also throw in examples and give you some commenting tricks!

Now that we've gotten the "why comment" out of the way, allow me to show you how to tweak your comments and give a few guidelines on how to write unique comments! First, let's talk about how to change your comment settings.

Click the comment settings on the left side of the comment bar

The following menu will display

Row 1 = Text Size
Row 2 = Text Location
Row 3/4 = Text Color

Here we see a comment flowing across the screen from right to left on our default, "white naka" setting.

Here is a Top/Big/Red comment


Our Bottom (shita) setting is where most users expect to see subtitles and are usually reserved for subbers. 

While we're on the topic of subtitles, also note that the Small size is most often used for subtitles.

Last up is a neat trick we haven't seen much of on the English version yet: adding line breaks, like this!


The secret keyword is Control+ period (.) 

This is the first of a series of Nico Blog posts about commenting on English Niconico. The first topic we'd like to address is "Why comment on videos?"

First off, a little background: One of the most common questions we get about our service is, "What makes Niconico different from all the other video sites?"

Our answer, in a word, is this:

Comments!

Placing comments directly on videos allows users to not only interact with the video itself but also with other users. In the 6 years of Niconico, users have found some very creative ways to comment on videos. And in the 3 months since the release of English Niconico, we've already seen some videos with fantastic comments!

The next question we usually get is, "Well, sometimes I just want to watch the video instead of comment. How do I do that?"

Our Qwatch player makes this easy! press the "dialog" option, button #8 below, to hide comments.

Find out more about our video help player

If the conversation has gone this far, the next thing the user normally asks is, "Is commenting over the video really that fun?"

We think so! Seeing everybody's reaction to a video we can all watch and share experiences together thus giving s a richer experience than "Open the video, watch the video, close the video." 

Here are some examples:

This is from the extremely popular video "Mikumiku ni shiteageru". After we posted this picture on Facebook, some users told the world that they saw our picture ON Facebook! 

Next is an example of a reaction to the video itself:

Someone thought to superimpose the supernova via comments! Awesome! 

These are just a few examples of why we think commenting on Niconico can be fun, but the English site is still new and we need YOU to comment while you watch videos! So much of Niconico's culture is user based, so don't hold back, comment anything and everything you think, feel, and hate and love about videos!

Have you found any great comments? Did you write an awesome one yourself?

Let us know at on Facebook!

Happy Nico-ing!

Niconico English