45 replies to this topic

[Krusha]

Hi TxBullnettle,

I'm not giving him a single nanogram of support.

Not until he comes to the realization that his stance on downloads is absolutely ridiculously naive and utterly simplistic to the max. Which means he cannot paint all of this in a black and white picture where people who downloads are basically stupid and criminals.

It is regrettable, because the site is very nice. But his little problem of not having enough visitors is not really a problem. I have many, many suggestions for that (which would help him a lot). Some which he may very well welcome with open arms, and others perhaps not.

But until he changes on the download issue, all I can say is bye.

The way he has painted this, it is a matter of Japanese TV shows or him. And since 2000, I have greatly enjoyed TV shows, as they have all been a catalyst for my fandom as a whole. He has not been, however.

Many, many groups and smaller communities have surfaced over the years in the non-Japanese idol fan community. And here I use it in general, not specifying to be H!P only or AKB only. Many, many people have contributed in this community, for the benefit of everybody who are a fan or might become one. None of us placed ourselves above others. We've always encouraged people to buy what they like, and we've worked hard to make people be able to enjoy something which is so distant and inacessible in general.

He has zero clue, no knowledge at all how this works. And he has had some very arrogant comments on this issue. Sure, I don't know him at all so I cannot judge him as a person. But I can give my conclusions on his thoughts on this issue however.

So, that's that. Sorry.

No support.

[atoe]

Is your problem that he offers downloads?
You realise you're posting this on a site with a huge bittorrent tracker?

[Krusha]

Are you asking me this question?

If so, have you read the previous page at all?

I have nothing against downloads, nowhere have I said so either. My issue is with his attitude towards foreign fans and people who downloads files in general. It's just off the chart.

And as such, I have written a little about it here, as have others.

[DarkScorpion]

The overseas JPOP (not just H!P and AKB) relies on those "illegal" downloads. If there was no file-sharing, the online fan community outside of Japan would consist of 5 guys who went to Japan once and discovered an artist by accident. Every big site has been involved in file-sharing and the bigger sites ARE about file-sharing.

This guy is so out of touch with reality he can't put himself in the shoes of someone outside his country who has no exposure to Japanese artists outside of the internet. Saying "why don't you work hard and earn more money? " is the typical response of someone who has no idea bout the world out there. He also can't grasp the idea that something being illegal does not necessarily means its immoral.

I find it hilarious he created a site for the overseas fans but at the same time demonizes the very thing that made them become fans in the first place. Also he wants discussions but refuses to accept other people's opinions and point of view. And for the whole hypocrisy hat-trick, what he is doing is not exactly 100% kosher either.

Like Krusha said, let him take his ball and go home. His blog is not important, if some new is relevant enough some else will translate. There are a million AKB news sites nowadays. File uploads however is what keeps the fandom going.

Also he has no idea how we use internet in the West. Wanting proper discussions in the comments of blog articles is silly.

[bontakun]

I think its time that the entertainment industry learns to realize and appreciate the power of file sharing instead of falsely crying over how it cuts into their profits. For crying out loud, Hollywood is making more money than ever. Where is the loss? More importantly, look at the comedian Russel Peters. He actually implicitly endorses it as he knows its responsible for his fame. He knows he wouldn't be selling out his shows in a matter of hours worldwide if it weren't for all the shorts on YouTube. Heck, he even mentions it on his shows ("I know you downloaded this, you bastards!") but he doesn't condemn it either. He only requests that fans not upload his latest skits (hence the ban on recording during live shows) so that his new jokes don't become stale too soon.

I dare say a lot of artists could learn a valuable lesson from Russel Peters. Let your fans spread your material for free. Reward those who would buy by offering them bonus incentives in your DVDs/CDs but don't crack down either on those who don't. Trust that if they are truly fans, they will find some other way to pay you back for your generosity. If not, than they were never really fans in the first place so its no actual loss to you.

The thriving business enjoyed by both CDJapan and YesAsia is proof that file sharing is not hurting sales. If their sales do decline, its not because of file sharing either. Its because fans eventually learn to bypass them by organizing their own bulk purchase and shipping straight from Japan as its cheaper.

[marikosuki]

There's a great feature on ANN where they talk about the business: http://www.animenews...ture/2012-03-07

If he feels he's doing his duty by informing AKB management because of loss revenue, he's foolish. I bet management knows and privately endorses it. They know that the overseas market is small, and anyone who's an AKB fan is practially a wota. That means they save themselves a lot of headache and non-profitable effort by just letting us upload/download because they know we buy their real goods, just like Japanese wotas. With all the fansubbers out there, not just with AKB, but with the real indutry (anime), they're well aware of what we're doing. It only helps their bottomline by looking the other way.

[Blu-Cherri]

I think some people also don't realise that the reason akb48 have a youtube channel and can do all these streaming events(I know they probably get some money from google but even that comes from this) is BECAUSE people would download things illegally anyway. They're making things like this available to everyone because they realised they could generate money/interest by doing it legally and making it better(interactive, live) by running it themselves.

[culex]

Intl fans rather learn about these girls from silly pirated tv shows then from 2nd hand opinion site
pirates killed the site lol

[Juriken'14(狩)]

to me he is just a pretentious asshole

let his crappy site shut down

I wont miss it a bit





btw

someone should tell him that "AKB48 China Official Fan Club" just formed an "Official" Fansub Group http://club.akb48.co...-12732-1-1.html (their subbed videos can be watch online @youku or download , for example : http://club.akb48.co...-13817-1-1.html)


and asskissery wont work

[wtfhax]

to me he is just a pretentious asshole

let his crappy site shut down

I wont miss it a bit





btw

someone should tell him that "AKB48 China Official Fan Club" just formed an "Official" Fansub Group http://club.akb48.co...-12732-1-1.html (their subbed videos can be watch online @youku or download , for example : http://club.akb48.co...-13817-1-1.html)


and asskissery wont work

lol first comment, just to bash a person? - lol
Seriously keep it calm, he has put a lot of work in to this. The fact that he has a different opinion is not something you can change, and referring to his website as crappy is definitely not getting you anywhere. Just because you don't agree with a persons view, doesn't give you the right to bash them. This isn't the youtube comment section.

[Juriken'14(狩)]

^
first of all, don't quote the post above you. only noobs do that, use " ^ " instead.

second, I did not bash him. I said "to me he is just a pretentious asshole", not "he is a pretentious asshole"

that is just what I think about him (+his action+website). my "opinion", just like his "opinion"



"...he has a different opinion is not something you can change ..."

when did I try to change his "opinion" or POV . I pretty much said : go ahead, shut it down. I don't care and I won't miss it.

I'll feel sad and pity him if he needs random people@internet's approval before doing anything to his own website


btw if you saw my posts @other forum , currently I'm extremely calm and polite

[Krusha]

As for me and the site, I think it's a great addition to the English fan continuum so to speak. He translates a ton of interesting articles, news entries, posts, and similar, plus Japanese fans thoughts on things. I am very interested in the things the girls posts about on G+, and things like that.

I really do applaud him for this and thinks it's a great job really. But where I think he does a great job in translating, I think he does a laughably tragic job with the following two things:

a.) Running his site - or rather, understanding how to create a well-functioning fansite in the Western Hemisphere.
b.) Understanding music industry / piracy / promoting something.

And he completely fails with this as has been shown by some of his posts regarding the piracy issue on his blog.

He doesn't seem to have much understanding of it, and doesn't really want to talk about it either, which makes it difficult. For this reason, combined with what he said about some sites, is why I think he can just close his site at any time.

[TxBullnettle]

As stated before I do some editing for him. He knows where I stand on this "piracy" issue, and we sort of just agree to disagree. However, he's certainly not going to grow his fan base in the meantime. Ironically, the other guy who edits Wrap Up is a new AKB fan and (due to my dark influence) is now fully enjoying the H!O tracker.

There are a lot of people who gave positive feedback to what Tom does, and I think demonstrates a need for such a website. I'm cracking down on my Japanese studies and would like to continue on with the site at some point in the future, should the author decide to give up.

At the end of the day, it really is a shame that he can't understand the position of international fans...

[Lacyrains]

I myself enjoy the site greatly. Alot of info on there you would never know about otherwise unless you are in japan. For that i commend him.
The whole political correct side of his opinions i strongly disagree with but as long as he isnt trying to push stuff down my throat i can deal with it.

What confused me is one day he posted site is shut down and next day it was updating again??

[wtfhax]

Yeah don't quite understand that either lol. But I don't mind ^^ While I don't agree with the author's standpoint I do like the content.

[DarkScorpion]

What confused me is one day he posted site is shut down and next day it was updating again??

Its because he is a big baby

[vutt]

I'm actually very much enjoying his site. Feedback/comments translations from Japanese sites do add a special unique flavour to his site compared to other non Japanese AKB blogs.

About his opinion towards downloads - well it's his opinion. That doesn't make me think anything less of him. I'm thankful for him what he does on his site.
And for the record - Let's not forget that strictly speaking majority of H!O tracker stuff is illegal in all western countries. But I do agree that it in fact doesn't hurt Japanese sales. Maybe even other way around - it's good publicity. I can confirm this based on my very own experience here. However having said that H!O is used heavily by Japanese to and that does have impact to sales. I don't buy naive statements like all those who download wouldn't bought shared stuff anyway. Money is money and everybody optimizes.

[kidafohs]

This is the site that starts a lot of the rumours about AKB members some of them are quite stupid but translating 2ch haters rubbish into English lets the rumours spread. On Sashi he and his minions stated that every song on the HKT stage was centred by Sashi he then went on to say that all the flowers were received because AkiP went around every company and ORDERED them to send flowers can you imagine AkiP walking into Sony and telling them what to do come off it. He is the mouth piece for 2ch and the AKB bashers who can write English good riddance hello-online is interesting and informative and even though we may disagree we don't tend to flame each and crap on the group we like good riddance to them.

[Noriega]

^
I usually read the Japanese version of these 2ch matome threads b4 i read his translations, and its about the same.
Just 2ch butthurt wota, 2ch trolls etc.
For the most part, he's just translating (although its a sloppy job of it)

But yeah, 2ch is all about being overly-sensitive and flaming and bashing. I've learn awhile ago to filter it out

My advice is to ALWAYS take 2ch threads (translated or not) with a grain of salt.

[kidafohs]

I notice akbwrapup and 2ch are making a move on Mayuyu and Yukurin now putting out the photo were Yukurin has her hands between Mayu's legs but on top of her dress and Mayu is smiling. So what everyone by now knows or should know all about their relationship they have been caught by the cameras on stage and backstage so many times that it just seems natural. If they said the pair were dating men now that would be an eye opener.