The reader survey held recently on Death Note News also pointed to another issue:  speculation and fact can get blurred when the theoretical is being reported alongside actual news stories.

An example was given regarding an article on Matsuda's Theory, wherein a reader had commented to state that the theory wasn't possible in one regard. Yet the piece itself was never updated to indicate this.  It has been now:

The point in a more general sense has been taken on board and our writers are going to try to highlight precisely what is fact and what is musing personally upon a facet of Death Note canon and its wider universe.

Hopefully this satisfies the querent at this time.

Here's the latest Death Note News article, as seen on Feedly:

However, that only formats well if all of the elements span the whole page.  If they take up only a fraction of it like, for example, an image alongside text, then the rendering breaks down completely:

We know what this issue is.  It'll stem from the time when Matti altered the CSS coding on the main website to force more room to publish the articles. There's a secondary lift from it, which she's not yet been able to find, which only to date has affected the draft article formatting.  Finding it has hitherto been on a back-burner, because that was only us inconvenienced and there were many more important things to concentrate on instead.

Now that we know it's a much wider issue, then it'll work its way back onto the priority list for site maintenance.  However, that is like finding a needle in a haystack, hence we hope you'll bear with us here.

Call this merely a heads up that the issue hasn't been forgotten and we can see what you're reporting now.  Thanks for that.

Veterans will know the score by now, however here is a recap for those needing the links to hand, 0r new to these kinds of events:

• General submission page - all the media via which you may message us or submit content as files;
• Cosplayer Questionnaire - to be answered by Death Note cosplayers (particularly those with Misa costumes) in order to advise others wanting to follow suit;
• Fan-art Questionnaire - to be answers by Misa Amane artists and/or those creating Death Note artwork per se, who are happy to pass on tips to newcomers in the Death Note fan-art communities;
• Fan-fiction Writers Questionnaire - to be answered by Death Note fan-fiction writers (Misa storytellers especially welcome) ready to extend the baton to those new authors coming through;

We have about four items ready for publication already, which demonstrates how on the ball some of you are. Everyone else, this event started yesterday, where's your Misa Amane articles, essays, analyses, images, photographs, tales, recipes and all the rest already?  Off you go!  Contribute now!

Many thanks to all who took the time to voice their thoughts on Death Note News' Month of... feature. In addition to airing viewpoints on various items relating to the running of the site, and how we deliver content to you, via the completion of last month's reader survey.

All comments have now been read. Some whilst blushing and feeling suddenly very coy; others forming a cringing addendum to our discussion agenda and/or directly onto a lengthening To Do list.  All were very helpful and wonderfully appreciated upon receipt.

There were a few pointers requiring acknowledgement, answers, action or announcements, including the results of who will be featured at the centre of future Death Note Month of... events. I'm here to bring you fully into the loop.

Ask.  We're always good for welcoming new writers, or other talented folk, into our team.  If it's a regular column that you wish to pursue, then hunt down Matti to discuss what you have in mind.  Either way, our contact page has a plethora of ways to contact us.  In this instance, an email (via the form) is probably best.

Everything has been collated, tidied up, formatted and emailed to the requisite Death Note actors.  Each acknowledged receipt of the questions and indicated their intent to answer as many as possible.

In short, we're confident that all (but possibly one) remain winging their respective ways to us and will be made public quickly thereon.

Another individual thought having a 'what if' month would be interesting, as in 'what would have happened to the characters if Light Yagami hadn't received his Death Note, thus the Kira case never occurred?'   I have to say that my imagination has been running overtime in pondering, since reading it posed there.  But could we pull off a whole month of it?   Probably.  Maybe another format would work better.  It's one of those added to the staff agenda for mulling over.

Nearly all of you indicated that yes, you would like to see a Month of... focus being the forthcoming Death Note movie, released at the end of October 2016.  Of those, one person voted for November to be the ideal month.  The rest of you didn't mind, as long as it happens.

All excepting the single respondent who said no full stop to that and indeed everything about the Month of... events.  He/she really didn't like it and wished it would go away.  Your views have been read and noted.  Thank you for them.  Unfortunately, you were outvoted by your peers.

Everything in, it was overwhelmingly positive and extremely helpful.   Even the person who hated the feature told us nicely!  And we were really pleased with the wide array of places where people are finding Death Note News. Particularly as one source was apparently the Archangel Mello pointing this way with his fiery sword.

As for the one who asked if being in the Mello/Matt fandom counts - YES!  Yes, it does.  Most important part of the whole Death Note fandom Mello and Matt.  Though I might be biased, given what I write.

Lots of fabulous suggestions here.  We had Mello, Beyond Birthday, Mikami, Sayu, ALL live-action tellings together, L, Shingami (collectively), Naomi Misora, the LABB murders, and the movie thumbs up for a month closer to the release date.

We've decided to start with the one garnering the most votes in that survey.  Admittedly to the mild surprise of all here, though we're game for everything. Bring it on!   Therefore I can announce that June and July look like this, with more made public when we've finished tatting with the list:

By tomorrow, we should have their submission and questionnaire pages up and ready.  In the meantime, do feel free to send in things using generic tools for contributing content, or mentally amending questions pertaining to another character asked of Death Note fans writing, creating art or donning cosplay.

Also by tomorrow, we should actually start Death Note News' Month of Misa Amane.  Three items in already.  Get a head start on the crowds by chucking in any relevant content now.

I’m not really sure how to go about thanking everyone because it always feels like I’m missing someone who contributed and that’s so unfair of me. So, first, let me thank everyone involved because you guys did a brilliant work. The month of Wammy pointed a bunch of fans at an amazing topic, and it resulted in fantastic articles, great discussions and the analysis that this fandom comes up with that’s really awesome to read.

Matti, all the thanks to you for being an amazing hostess and making this site such a lovely place for Death Note fans to find. You put a lot of work into this, and, as a DN fan, I’m really happy you came up with the character of the month idea and that you’re making it happen. I’m really happy you came up with the whole Death Note News!

Not only that, thank you for writing fantastic fic focused on Watari. You do a lot and the result is amazing, thank you.

Orangepunch, thank you for the support behind the scenes. I saw maths happening and that’s awesome; it brought up more discussions, even if I can only admire maths from far far away.

Georgina Aguilar, thank you for adding beautiful fanwork to this fandom we all love and for allowing your art to be shared here.

Kinky Mattila, thank you for bringing to life a character we all appreciate in one way or another and for giving us tips so we can do it too.

CupofSquirrel, thank you for also bringing Watari out of the pages of Death Note and telling us a lot about it and encouraging more fans to cosplay.

Renchan, thank you for writing a great analysis on Watari’s blood type for us and giving us food for thought on the topic.

Everyone from the Pinterest Community for Wammy and Wammy’s House, thank you for keeping selecting and pinning stuff, grouping them in one place for all the other fans to find.

Ethereality, thank you for holding discussions with me about anything that can come up related to Death Note and that sparks the interest.

DeathNotegirl3675, for writing a great Watari fanfic to share with us.

Aerial Sky, for contributing to fandom in another awesome way and, in doing so, giving us more Watari fan-fiction to enjoy.

Tarot Mikami, for exploring the parallels of Death Note and Tarot with such depth and giving us interesting analysis to think about.

There is way more being discussed than we have time to write about in a month. That’s always a pleasant surprise.

It was fun; thank you all for making it happen. See you in the Month of Misa!!

Moreover, we've been getting content submitted for Death Note characters not yet assigned a month upon the schedule.  Each author/artist/creator merrily amenable to us withholding their work - kept safely in a folder per subject persona - until its moment for public focus comes. 

Therefore pretty much becoming informal trend-setters, as their vote places an impetus upon schedulers to move their choice onto our short-list for a monthly slot, maybe sooner than planned.

Thus can fans ensure that their favourite character is queued, in readiness to be declared central to the attention of all.  Guaranteeing a month of contributions of fascination and interest to their sponsor, plus the rest co-inhabiting that region within the Death Note fandom's wider realms. (Whole new meaning to 'shipment areas' there.)

However, that's just one way to nudge us towards candidates for a Death Note Month of... feature.  Another is to tell us about them right here.

There's only been four announced thus far.  Those highlighted above.

At first it was all going to be about the month wherein each Death Note character's birthday fell.  But those cloister in certain months, and use up too many major stars too soon.  There were many more rules quietly introduced to determine the order of events.  Then those were refined into nothingness, and chucked out in favour of simplicity.

Now we have just one rule of thumb.  We're merely going for people, items, ideas, themes or anything related that differ notably from the subject of the month before.  That stops the content getting too same-y and keeps the creative juices flowing.

Which is why Mikami still hasn't secured June, despite more than one submission already received for publication when his hour arrives.

Misa has May - long-since announced and the infrastructure already up and waiting for her month to come and fill it.  But Misa Amane is Second Kira and Teru Mikami is too.  Well, he succeeds her role somewhere down the line, whatever numerical we give him.  That's two months side by side wherein we'd be covering much the same ground as we did with the first Kira.

So why not veer off somewhere entirely different to encourage contemplations from a refreshing new angle within the Death Note universe?  Which might amuse themselves out of mental Mu and onto the site as content, where we can all enjoy a fresh view too.

You never know, those introduced notions in their turn might spark ideas, inspiring a whole new take on Kira; to be aired later, when the wheel revolves to deliver us to another mass murder's focal point in our diary.

As in should Sachiko, Sayu, Ukita, Yumi and the unnamed baby be considered individually, or separated out into one of several potential groupings, for insertion on the schedule?  Do each, any of them or in groups warrant multiple weeks dedicated to their character(s), situations and circumstances - personal or representative?

As solitary focal points, could either lady and/or their children command a month's worth of inspired, new content - enough to fill the archives and sustain the momentum with a buzz throughout, whilst staving off boredom for our readers?    And for that matter, what of Mrs Mikami; Misa's sister in Osaka; and all those other shadowy figures of family in the background?  Should the answer to the queries posed above measure up equally for them too.

We're not sure.  Call this a consultation with yourself bought in as expert for advice.

Instead, for June, it's currently a toss up between Shinigami - as a concept and a whole; individual Death Gods pencilled in for individual showings on the program for future months - and Naomi Misora.  

Do you have anyone or anything else you'd like to offer to the table for potential gazumping of the slot?

All due applause and accolades are directed towards:

Sakiko Rau - who kicked us off with an essay on why she (and we) should like Matsuda from Death Note. She will also be jumping on board as a regular columnist writing from a Japanese perspective.  You heard it here first.

Lua - who did so much in the background to keep the home fires burning, as well as penning a philosophical analysis of Touta Matsuda's importance within the Death Note narrative.

Aerial Skye - who gave us cosplay advice for Matsuda costume creation.

All on the Death Note News Community Touta Matsuda Pinterest Board, for maintaining a steady flow of interesting images and links whatever the month.

Lei K - who turned her considerable talent to Touta Matsuda artwork especially for this event.

Silent Reaper - who allowed us to share her classic comic strip Matsuda's Rant.

Deacon (and the Tuxedo Team), especially Beyond Infinity/Jin - who let us publish their photographs of an amazing Matsui cosplayer.

Ziferonan - who gave us full rein to plunder an extensive collection of Matsuda fan-art, fan-fiction and cosplay too.

Stella Meyer - who not only sent in her Matsuda artwork, but answered questions providing insight and tips on creating the same.

Liam Dodd - who brought an air of the academe to proceedings with a scientific examination of Death Note's infamous Matsuda rescue with a mattress.

Emerald-Moonlight - who let us loose on her gallery and permitted the republication of three pieces of her Matsuda art.

MRSJeevas - who wrote Matsu fan-fiction for this event, though that's not nearly all, considering that in another guise, she is Matti - who researched, edited, proof-read, wrote and caused a backlog on much else that was published this month.

Tarot Mikami - who took us once again into the depths of the tarot's secrets, this time with a distinctly Matsuda Death Note flavour in regard for his monthly focus.

And, of course, all who read and commented, shared links and discussed these articles elsewhere. 

And prepare to do it all again, this time with the focus on Wammy.

Apologies to those used to seeing much more regular updates to Death Note News, especially those who have submitted something for Month of Matsuda and have been subject to delays in their publication.

There have been some unavoidable real life issues amongst the editors here, which resulted in a bit of a block. 

We are looking to zoom up to date now, so expected a sudden rush of articles as the bottleneck clears.   As you were.

What will we accept?  Anything really, as long as it's suitable for all ages and able to be posted in an article here.  Even if that's just a heads up on where it's lodged elsewhere.

There's more about that on the Death Note Month of... homepage, and the various ways in which content might be added is on the submissions page.

Of particular interest are essays, images, opinion pieces, whatever, which tell us something we may not have realised about Death Note's Matsuda.  A nuance in his name; a tell in the way he acts, dresses, speaks; a facet in his plot-line or history, which you'll only know if you have some obscure insight; or a detail of his characterisation which skips the masses by.

Because most people seeing Matsuda's event coming up were more than a little disdaining - what do you want a Month of a Matsuda for?  He's nondescript.  He doesn't do anything!

No, only shoot Kira and denounce Near.  So, what have you got to tell them they're wrong?  Or do you agree?  Write that instead.

As usual, we'd love to hear from Death Note fan artists, writers and cosplayers.  You each have your own page, with a questionnaire apiece, regardless of whether you do or don't cosplay Touta.  Or simply send us a photograph, gallery link or email of your Matsuda work, if you want to participate, but not bother with the sharing of secrets.

We'll post them roughly as they come in.  The last day for items to appear is March 31st 2016.

See how organised we are this month?   All the lessons learned, even if we are a bit late.

Real life is happening in abundance.  In a good way for a change this weekend, but it means that no editor will be here to post anything until Monday.  Apologies for any inconvenience caused.   I'll look forward to perusing all that you've done and sent in then.

Also there is a slight backlog in Matti responding to emails etc, because of said real life inconsiderately intruding.  Thank you for your patience and all that.  No-one will have been forgotten, though again it may be early next week before anyone answers. 

But you'll be busy anyway, writing your Matsuda stuff.

You may be wondering what happened to Matsuda Month on Death Note News, particularly as three pertaining to Kira should turn up today.  Yes, we should be talking Touta Matsuda from today, but did you really think Light Yagami would give up his central limelight spot so easily?

Actually, I can't really blame Kira for this one.  Last night we had some technical issues, whilst coding blAIRbender's cosplay piece.  My computer went down with the last trio of Light Yagami articles on it.  Blair's questionnaire got posted, because it was passable in format, though it is missing a couple of lines of text and some URLs.

By the time I'd fixed my PC, it was already extremely late.  We went in all guns blazing, but the quality went severely downhill through pique and exhaustion.  We figured you'd rather give up a day of Matsuda, let Light have one last prima donna hurrah, than have sub-standard stuff because we were rushing.  Nor would that have been fair to those submitting their work at the end.

So Month of Matsuda begins tomorrow.  Today, unless a major catastrophe kicks in, there will be the final articles from Month of Light Yagami (give or take the actor interviews following when they come in - you did amass over 100 questions for each of them behind you all!).

Apologies for any inconvenience.

Anything missed?  Any great ideas sizzling away on a back-burner, in danger of becoming charcoal, because no-one's checked that list since we wrote it?  (Being too busy organizing, liaising, coding, formatting, chasing and all other manner of orchestrating e-mails zooming back and forth, coz folk beautifully, fabulously and brilliantly did join in.  In absolute droves.)

Finds a whole article written in advance, and promptly forgotten about; has a frightened little gasp over the short list pertaining to Light Yagami's birthday on the 28th.

Never did source an astrologer to tell us about the propensity of Pisceans to become Kira; nor anyone to explain why it matters that his Light Yagami's blood group is A; nor whether the Fire Tiger of the Death Note manga birth year for Kira, or Earth Snake of the anime, best suits Light's personality as described in the Chinese Zodiac.  If anyone actually knows any of this stuff - or related charts, no-one mentioned Indian astrology yet! - then you have two days to jot your knowledge down and rush it to us in time for Kira's birthday on February 28th.

Pretty much guaranteed to ninja yourself into our already chock-a-block publishing grid for Light Yagami month though!

Then there it was, a faded, pencilled little note - create a gift store for Kira on Death Note News.  It would tie in nicely and we have a freaking website to pay for!  If we could just start remembering to populate (and promote) our Death Note Gifts area (tick), we might get a dribble of commission in to put aside towards hosting costs (He Moves Me Differently, not really here); domain name retention (here); Kira crossword prizes etc.

So when things get tough, we wouldn't have to resort to desperate measures, like launching an appeal replete with photographs of the wide-eyed, cute, beseeching faces of our two kittens and boa constrictor.

(Incidentally, and remarkably, that worked!  Yow and Jiji are currently nowhere to be seen, out playing without risk of our kittens creating more kittens; plus they got their travel home, all their inoculations and insurance to cover them at their friendly, lovely vet. Tinkerbell is having a vivarium built especially for her. Until about two days ago, I'd have said she's the happiest boa constrictor alive. Then she got mites.  This is not a great learning curve, but we're winning nontheless. No infestation of snake eating mini-spiders noms Tink on OUR watch. And yes, Anonysnake did raise Anonymous to help haX0r said mites.  Two Anons anyway.  No more about that here.  This is a Death Note news site!  If you want to keep up with kitten/boa gossip, follow them on Twitter like normal people.)

Anyone returning constantly to the Death Note News website today will have glimpsed hints that things weren't going well behind the scenes.

It all went pear-shaped with a little routine link checking found some leading the wrong way; coupled with the notion that it would be a lovely thing to have a countdown timer to the deadline for asking Light Yagami actors your questions. Exasperated by the fabulous idea to have a sidebar slider Highlighting Interesting Things, plus Stuff our Readers Want to Find Fast, with images.

Who would have thought that three simple, five second tasks could cause so much code to explode?

But we live and learn, with today being a particularly large curve for the latter, and normal service is now not only resumed, but greatly improved.

We hope.

And while we're here with site news,  a persistent issue with Facebook has finally been fixed too.  Until recently, all Death Note News articles linked on Facebook appeared stuck displaying an older news item's headline, though the URL itself was correct for whatever was being shared.

Now all Facebook shared links should feature the related headline instead.  Can I hear a cheer to cover the freaking hours spent pouring over code working out why and the forty seconds putting it right?  Thank you.

If anyone spots anything else going awry anywhere on the site, we'd be grateful if you don't mention it would give us the heads up.  Half the time such things remain broken simply because no-one here knows there's a problem.   Thanks in advance for any feedback and tip offs.

The clue's in the title.  It's all about Kira, Light Yagami, Raito, Tsuki, or whatever other name the eldest offspring of Soichiro and Sachiko goes by these days.  Gami.  God.  Nothing.

Our Light Yagami Death Note Month of.. - as with any others forthcoming in the series - encourages everyone reading to share their own expertise, talent, know-how, opinions or whatever else they have on topic to send in.  We'll be posting all the anticipated artwork, fandom links, character analyses, recipes, stories, event heads up and Kira forum promotions that you send us, probably as they come in; while also creating lots of Kira-inspired content ourselves.

This doesn't replace the more general content of Death Note News articles, but runs alongside, in addition to all the rest.