AnimeSuki.com (site) closure & updated forum rules

[GHDpro]

As of today the AnimeSuki.com main site (www.animesuki.com) is now closed. Just in case you get confused: that's the original torrent index, not the forum! The advent of streaming sites such as Crunchyroll (etc) have made the site all but obsolete. The site wasn't being updated and was effectively defunct for several years now, so I think its closure was long overdue.

AnimeSuki (the torrent index) was started in an age where there were no streaming services to speak of (maybe Broadcast.com, does anyone remember them?) and Netflix was still only doing DVD rentals. In 2002 a "revolutionary" file sharing application (BitTorrent) quickly gained popularity and I noticed various fansub groups started to put up torrents for their new releases. However there was not central place where you could find them all. In the beginning I kept a list of all torrents on a forum post on another site I own, but obviously after a while that list became to unwieldy so AnimeSuki.com saw the light on December 2002.

Fast-forward 17 years and 95% off all anime each season is available on streaming services and with the exception of Netflix () they all simulcast the latest anime so you have to wait mere hours (or days at most) to be able to fully legally watch the latest episodes.

Now I won't deny there is still some need for fansubs to exist: like that small percentage of series that don't get licensed by any service or those specials and OVAs which often remain Japan-only. But for the rest most anime torrents you find these days are stream rips, which is straight up piracy. I'm not judging you if you go for these kinds of torrents (for you know: This content is not available in your region situations) btw, but those are not something I want to associated AnimeSuki with.

Anyway to wrap this story up, going forward the AnimeSuki Forum will be the main (and only) part of AnimeSuki that will remain operational.

To remove any potential cause for problems for the future longevity of the forum, we have updated the forum rules, in particular rule 1.1 (No piracy). This means effectively that going forward (with a limited few exceptions as outlined in that rule) linking to any download involving unauthorized copyright infringement, including unlicensed anime/manga fansub torrents/downloads will no longer be permitted. I don't think there were many links like that being posted anyway, so hopefully this will not impact any of you too deeply.

Will AnimeSuki (the main site) ever be back? Well not as a torrent index, or anything else involving a legal gray area, no. I've got some ideas (which is part of the reason I put off making this decision so long), but I'm having trouble finding the motivation to work on it so I don't have anything to show at the moment. So don't hold your breath.

Btw I'll be looking into upgrading the forum (finally) to better software (XenForo 2.1) soon, if you have any ideas, comments or suggestions for that please let me know.

[Kanon]

Got scared the forum was going to close for a minute

I'm not familiar with Xenforo, is it very different from vbulletin? I'm really used to the latter by now and I'd hate to lose some functionality. Must have for me is to keep a User CP where you can see threads you've subscribed to, for subscribing to threads to be as easy as it is now, and for there to be a button that leads you to the last unread post. I personally wouldn't mind if the forum stayed as is. It's not like vbulletin isn't supported anymore, right?

[GHDpro]

Originally Posted by Kanon

I'm not familiar with Xenforo, is it very different from vbulletin?

Nah. At some point the people who made vBulletin sold it to a company called "Internet Brands", who then proceeded to puke out vBulletin 5, which is quite awful (in my opinion).

Those people who made vBulletin then started a new company... called XenForo. So as you might guess things should be fairly familiar, apart from the fact that XenForo is much newer.

That said XenForo doesn't contain some of the features (by default) that vBulletin did. While users+forums+threads+posts will be easy to convert to the new software, basically everything in the "Community" menu (see top menu) will be much more difficult to keep.

There is also a lot of stuff we added ourselves (like customs BBCodes) that we need to convert over.

[Kanon]

Yep, I did some research in the meantime and it seems fine at first glance. I'd have to make an account on one of those forums to make sure I like it, but I'm just going to trust you on this. I mainly use basic features anyway that I assume most forums have. I don't use them much myself but I hope you'll be able to keep the BBcodes. The one for images is particularly nice.

I don't use social groups anymore but it might be a problem for some people if they disappeared. I know at least one is fairly active.

[erneiz_hyde]

Didn't this thread already happen long before, or what I'm remembering is a thread that announced the eventual closure and it actually just closed yesterday?

[Hayaku]

This has always been my homepage for all of my devices, so it's kinda sad to see the closure notice appearing. With that said, I can't say I didn't see this coming. But it will take time to get used to not seeing the Kairin-image along with the empty "latest releases" box.

Are there any plans to revamp the main page to something anime related or have it directly link to the forums?

~

[LKK]

Originally Posted by erneiz_hyde

Didn't this thread already happen long before, or what I'm remembering is a thread that announced the eventual closure and it actually just closed yesterday?

You're thinking of the announcement of an eventual closure that was posted a while ago.

[Haak]

Originally Posted by GHDpro

Btw I'll be looking into upgrading the forum (finally) to better software (XenForo 2.1) soon, if you have any ideas, comments or suggestions for that please let me know.

I'm assuming this will mean something that is more mobile responsive because that's been one of my biggest bugbears for a while now.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by Kanon

I don't use social groups anymore but it might be a problem for some people if they disappeared. I know at least one is fairly active.

One thing we thought about a long time ago was the possibility of maybe creating "real forums" for social groups instead of the sort of half-baked ones that vBulletin gave, as this would add a lot more options/power. So if we want to preserve a few popular social groups, that could be an option again.

Originally Posted by Haak

I'm assuming this will mean something that is more mobile responsive because that's been one of my biggest bugbears for a while now.

For sure. At various points I considered maybe trying to write my own responsive CSS for our vBulletin templates, but I ended up lacking motivation knowing that ultimately we just wanted to move to XenForo anyway (and so it'd all have to be thrown out). But yeah, it would definitely help.

[Haak]

If feasible, a dark theme would help as well imo.

[QS_Bilal]

ahh man.. reading this thread makes me feel like a grandpa..

vBulletin on here works incredibly well, mesa thinks. Usually implementing/integrating new software is a pain; I am guessing that is why we have not transitioned?
To me, putting effort into a 'AnimeSuki Store' of some sort would be more worthwhile, IMHO.

[MikuruX]

Man.....reading about the closure of the old main section of the site really does make me feel old. Now that I think about it, I was in the military back in 2002 when I first came here and now I'm frickin 38 years old. 17 years is such a long time, I swear.

Anyway, I just wanted to say congrats on being online for this long and hope for the best but just some advice as someone who also has had a site up for just as long as this place (only problem I keep rebuilding and tearing it down cause I didn't know nothing about upgrading scripts), be sure to have a plan that will keep your community here in the long run or else it'll be like mine. My site is still up but....yeah, dead community.

[frodonk]

Sorry for necroing, but for years now I've only been using forums.animesuki.com and didn't know the main site has died. On a whim I decided to check out the main page and got redirected here.

I just like to say how useful the main page was back then to find groups doing subs of the really old series from decades past since most of the old shows were never licensed outside japan I think. I have no idea if people are still doing projects like that considering the decline in active fansub groups over the years but the main site made them easier to find.

Here's to another 17 years of active members and lively discussions lol.

[Gally]

I never bothered to register on the forum before, but I came back here out of curiosity, as I used to visit the main page to see if anything had changed (out of nostalgia, I guess). And I have to admit that it still hurts me not to have the torrent list in front of me when I go to the main domain.

It's a bit like part of me died with the site. It's stupid, I admit, but it would be really cool if you could do something to restore the page's memory, at least to give a little sign of life and bring the younger generation back to something perhaps a little more "old-school". In any case, thank you for preserving the forum.