I was a leecher on DALnet starting from 1999 or so. Long ago, one of the editor/timers of AnimeJunkies was displeased with how Killshok was running things, and when Aniverse was created, he decided to start up a new group. When he finally found a translator in 2002, he got two experts at the time (one from BakaMX, one from Anime-Keep) to volunteer as mentors in training the new members. I was one of those new members who joined, and was taught the basics of editing, encoding, and typesetting.
While some of their software and methods are now outdated, their basic principles still hold true, and I still go by them today, using today's technology. Their early guidance helped me learn faster from a lot of beginner's mistakes. Granted, each of them had their own quirky biases from their field, but we were mutually aware of that and they gave me the space to develop my own style.
I believe that this type of mentoring is completely nonexistant today. Things change much too quickly and documentation on fansubbing has proliferated to the point that self-study is possible. Is this a bad thing? Are they jumping into the deep end devoid of wisdom? We can't say for sure. Whether they learned alone, or from somebody else, we still see fansubbers with various levels of skill or work ethic. What I will say though, is that it was nice to have a working relationship with experienced subbers and gain new connections, whereas self-study is more solitary.
This is especially true for typesetters and karaokers, because for those positions, it's mostly about experimentation and innovating from previous tricks. It's probably a better idea to bounce a few ideas off each other, rather than unleash these bouncy, neon-coloured, oversized and excessively flashy experiments upon the viewing public. They'll probably skip the theme songs to watch the episodes instead at that point.
