Forest Page
| Website | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Forest Page; フォレストページ |
| Owner/Maintainer: | Visual Works, Ltd. |
| Dates: | 2003-present |
| Type: | Hosting service |
| Fandom: | Multifandom |
| URL: | http://id.fm-p.jp/ |
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Forest Page is a Japanese website that lets users create simple homepages without needing to code or pay for hosting. It markets itself as a hosting service with a focus on fanpages, especially dream novels, a type of fanfiction that lets readers insert their own name – a kind of reader insert – into a romance with a fictional character.
Other features are built in without the need to set them up as a separate service, such as an Applause/Clap feature, a BBS, an email form, and a diary section. Users can also password-protect their work, like many Japanese fansites. But where fans with knowledge of HTML could create a splash page and require a password before viewers ever get to the homepage proper, a site hosted by Forest Page will have a publicly viewable homepage. The site asks for a password only when viewers click on one of the pre-set links on the homepage.
Forest Page was most popular among Yumejoshi and younger fans without the money or coding ability to create their own site. Since sites are usually edited through a cell phone, Forest Pages were more popular among writers than among artists, who would usually invest in a scanner or a tablet rather than relying on a cell phone camera. Websites like Pixiv, Tegaki and drawr would eventually draw many Japanese fanartists away from their personal sites with the offer of free, high-quality image hosting and online drawing programs, but as of 2015, Forest Page was still logging 1.8 billion hits monthly.