It has now been well over a year since I started this group, and what year has it been! We have hundreds of great deviations in our galleries, where I expected maybe dozens, and over 500 watchers/members, while I thought about 100 would be the absolute maximum. This encourages me, as it shows that there is room for different kinds of cosplays in our hobby, dominated as it is by bishounen and delicate magical girls (neither which we disapprove, btw).

The group was founded for the simple reason that its founders wanted to see and encourage Manly and masculine cosplays and costumes, as the perceived cliche is that none exists. I'd like to think we've proven that is not true.

I also wanted to say something about our approval process for Deviations since we receive quite a bit of feedback on it.

I am a big believer on being very equal opportunities group (we do not get into cosplay politics) but there are a few rules we want to adhere to, even if it means turning down submissions now and then:

Firstly, if the cosplay or the photo is not manly in any way, it is not suitable to this group. It might be a great cosplay and a great photo, but we want to be true to the name and the spirit of this group. There are plenty of galleries oozing estrogen out there, but the focus of this group is different. Again, no insult on other types of cosplay, but we believe in having a strong theme, and that our fans come here to expecting certain kind of cosplay style in our photos.

We often get multiple submissions of the same cosplay. As a rule, we preferrer just a one shot per cosplay unless it is truly exceptional. This is in order to stop the galleries being too repetitive and boring. So if we accept some submissions and fail others of the same cosplay, this is the most likely reason.

Also, there is the issue of quality. While I'd like to think that we are not unreasonable, we like to keep the quality of the submissions on higher side. There are many groups that don't care about the lack of focus or composition of their photos, but we do.

Next, I want to thank all of our Watchers and Members, and our fine Mods. You are what makes this group a success! Whenever I get a message telling me how happy they are that this group exists, it makes all the work seem worthwhile!

Finally, I want to turn this Journal over to questions and comments from the members. What would you like to see in this group? Are you enjoying it? Is it providing you with your daily doze of Manliness?