Time to end it? (AnimeSuki torrent index future)

[Tasdern]

I check the listings a number of times every day. While the number of available anime is lowere than before, I can still find things like "Love Get Chu" and others. Some of these subbers don't have websites and it isn't easy to find these torrents. I would like it to stay around but it isn't like I have to do any work. I would be bummed if it went away but I would find a way to cope.

I do find it annoying when you can't include licensed torrents due to threat of lawsuits while Google and Bing can do so. (But they are not as easy to use.)

But here is another problem. ---- KAIRIN where would she go? Yes, she has her own forum but I always liked seeing her on the torrents page and how she would change every now and then.

[felix]

Originally Posted by brocko

Since some of the older obscure shows are starting to get lost (and probably would've been already if it wasn't thanks to Animesuki for housing them), what's gonna happen to the current obscure shows now when there's no more Animesuki to safe-guard them in the future for the time that they too start becomming old and lost? =/

I'd hate to see them all disappear because no one stepped up to fill the gap that Animesuki left behind.

Actually streaming sites and other forms of distribution are way better at this then torrents. If nobody seeds a torrent the listing is almost worthless. That's always been the caveat to torrents. Even shows from say one to three years back are practically almost dead with torrents.

Also technically speaking AS doesn't house anything; it's purely an index.

[Anlushac11]

I get all my unlicensed anime from bit torrents listed here. This is first place I come to to look for new titles and see if new episodes are released.

When a anime gets licensed then I move to Hulu. The only titles I follow regularly on HULU are Bleach and Naruto Shippuden.

Please dont discontinue bit torrents section unless have to.

[Tabris]

I think that it should live, if only for the sake of organisation.

I'm not going to lie, I haven't used animesuki for my torrents since I discovered Tsho back in 2006. But to Asuki's credit, it has a much better layout than most other sites and makes finding specific torrents a lot easier.

[Hideki-Motosuwa]

To be honest, I still use the torrent index up to this day since the site started due to it being organized than most sites I go to. I do intend to use the RSS feed on my site when I get redesign done but it will mostly sadden me if it was taken off.

Just throwing a suggestion but probably hire a staff that don't mind updating the index or something of that nature? Just a thought but I'm sure you're bound to find someone who probably wont mind doing it.

Sorry but I'm just blabbing at the mouth and such so don't mind me. ~ _~

[GHDpro]

Thanks for your comments so far.

I must say though, that I'm pretty much still as confused as before whether to continue the site or not.

For example, there are quite a few that say "The torrent index should stay!" only to continue with "...but I haven't visited it in years."

Also the sincere desire of others to keep the site as-is doesn't really solve the immediate problem of how to keep it updated. Asking for more staff probably doesn't work: out of 10 people there would probably be 1 at best that stays around for more than a few days. So I've thought of another solution (at least for the short term): if any fansub group wants their torrent listed faster they may request an account to the AnimeSuki backend by sending me a PM. I figure fansub groups would at least be keen on making sure their own torrents are added asap to AnimeSuki.

As for a solution to keep AnimeSuki viable and relevant in the future, I'm not sure. The best thing I can think of is an index that lists everything, including licensed series. Then where possible provide a link to the streaming site* for licensed stuff. For all entries (licensed or not) there should be a few icons at the end of each row that link directly to the search pages of Fanzub, TT and Nyaa (links=examples), thereby catering to both those who want the streams and those who want torrents without getting us in to too much legal trouble (I think).

However the problem with this idea is that I doubt it is doable to integrate into the current site easily, and a complete rebuild might be smarter. Which isn't a bad idea for certain reasons either, as for example most of the current backend scripts don't handle Unicode at all (=choke on any foreign character). And the problem with complete rebuild is... it's a lot of work.

*) This will not be as elaborate as I first imagined so should be less tedious for me to build. The original plan was to monitor streaming sites closely for new episodes, as is done for torrents now. But building something like that is a lot of work, which I didn't feel like doing as I explained in the first post of this thread.

[Kusa-San]

You should develop your crowdsourcing idea. It's a good one. Then, fansub team would be able to add themselve their torrent.

[Zlaya]

I visit the index daily and would cry if it went away allso, first post yay

[felix]

Interesting how there's nobody that's "I visit the index and forum...".

@GHDpro

So a index to series page to an index of a index to a torrent page where you actually get the actual torrent from? You could add RSS support and the meta-indexing becomes even more pretty.

Anyway, with regard to what you said about the site's life "don't kill what isn't dead", when has that ever worked for the better? Time has never been an issue... so why is it now? Technologically everything you said is fairly easily achieved (as long as you don't integrate, as you said). Is there a checklist for all these requirements? for more context.

[Fahd]

Originally Posted by GHDpro

If any fansub group wants their torrent listed faster they may request an account to the AnimeSuki backend by sending me a PM. I figure fansub groups would at least be keen on making sure their own torrents are added asap to AnimeSuki.

That's probably the best short-term solution. It would be interesting to see how many fansubbing groups take up your offer, say after a year, (if you're willing to give a number). I'm just wondering how many groups would think it important for their torrents to show up on the animesuki front page, as opposed to just being on any other torrent page (Nyaa, TokyoTosho, etc).

But building something like that is a lot of work, which I didn't feel like doing as I explained in the first post of this thread.

You'd be making this in your spare time, so if you're not going to be using the end product and it's not fun to make, then you shouldn't feel as though you have to. Throw some ideas around until you come up with a use for the front-page you like (& would use) and go with that .

And the problem with complete rebuild is... it's a lot of work.

Otherwise known as effort vs. reward, or work vs. how much fun you get back . Best of luck with whatever decision you make .

[synaesthetic]

Originally Posted by felix

Here's another ugly side to streaming: a lot of people are blocked.

lrn2proxy

I "officially" cannot watch BBC iPlayer because I don't live in the UK.

Yet I still watch BBC iPlayer all the time!

[felix]

Originally Posted by synaesthetic

lrn2proxy

I "officially" cannot watch BBC iPlayer because I don't live in the UK.

Yet I still watch BBC iPlayer all the time!

Yes, however that doesn't change the fact that you are technically blocked.

I'm actually not even sure if bypassing a block is not just as illegal as torrenting it. Minus the logging.

[TheFluff]

Originally Posted by felix

Yes, however that doesn't change the fact that you are technically blocked.

I'm actually not even sure if bypassing a block is not just as illegal as torrenting it. Minus the logging.

Depends on where you live. In the US it's at the very least a DMCA violation; you're circumventing an access restriction. I'm not sure how the actual copyright part works though.

[creb]

Animesuki is still one of (if not the best) forum for discussing anime/manga for western audiences. And a lot of that audience, I think, came from the days when the torrent index was one of the top stops on the 'net for those of us looking for releases.

It's been years since the torrent indexing has been relevant. Yes, kudos to trying to stay on top of licensed anime, but let's not beat around the bush. There's a reason places like nyaa have become the to-go sites for torrent indexes.

Animesuki's index has become a niche, and while niches can work (bakabt), they usually work better as a private tracking service where people maintain entries (again, bakabt), which Animesuki definitely isn't.

That said, is there any particular reason to stop the indexing? It seems to me to be a largely automated feature, so regardless of how relevant or used it is these days, does it really require any real amount of resources to maintain? ie: Is there any practical reason (costs too much, etc) to not keep it going anymore?

Even if I haven't used the torrent indexing here for several years, I don't think disuse alone should be a reason to remove something.

If, however, you really do want alternative ideas, then again I'd like to suggest something similar to bakabt. Re-structure your unlicensed anime listings in such a way that the torrents are maintained by dedicated seeders. That seems like a lot of work when something like bakabt already exists though, so I guess I keep coming back to whether it really costs you guys anything to maintain the indexing as it currently stands, if for no other reason than nostalgia's sake.

[Random32]

Optimally I would like to see Animesuki expand out beyond just unlicensed series. US Licensing seems the only one being taken into account and there are more visitors to ASuki than just those in US.

The user interface for ASuki is the best though imho, which is disappointing since restrictions on what content is offered leads to me hardly ever using it. The links to Nyaa/etc. idea seems nice, though definitely not as good as ASuki indexing licensed torrents.

I think if there is a way to offer licensed stuff alongside unlicensed torrents, that is definitely the best way to go. Otherwise, shut it down and keep it as an archive. Its not worth maintaining if its usefulness is very little already and declining further in the foreseeable future.

Originally Posted by synaesthetic

lrn2proxy

I "officially" cannot watch BBC iPlayer because I don't live in the UK.

Yet I still watch BBC iPlayer all the time!

You live in the US and I'm pretty sure you are bypassing a restriction and that is just as illegal as torrenting whatever you want to watch. Its dumb, I know...

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by Random32

Optimally I would like to see Animesuki expand out beyond just unlicensed series. US Licensing seems the only one being taken into account and there are more visitors to ASuki than just those in US.

Currently, the servers and registration are in the US ... they'd have to locate the servers in a country more friendly to the sliding slopes of copyright protections and the rights of consumers. The US Big Media punt to the world is the bizarre concept of "intellectual 'property' law" they are voraciously trying to export.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by creb

That said, is there any particular reason to stop the indexing? It seems to me to be a largely automated feature, so regardless of how relevant or used it is these days, does it really require any real amount of resources to maintain? ie: Is there any practical reason (costs too much, etc) to not keep it going anymore?

For what it's worth, it isn't really an "automated" feature. I guess we can say that it's "computer-assisted". Some torrents may be automatically added if they follow a very predictable pattern (once someone manually tells the system what that pattern is), but there are still a lot that fall through the cracks, and it requires near-daily fiddling to keep it accurate and up-to-date (even with the lower number of new series). This is due both to the strict listing policy/rules, and also the way things are organized. It's getting harder to find volunteers who are willing to check in daily and do this sort of clean-up work, but this causes frustration to fansub groups whose listings may be delayed or missed entirely in some cases. So this is why the interim solution was to allow interested fansub groups to participate in the process and manage their own entries. This is a sort of "many hands make light work" approach.

[TheFluff]

Originally Posted by Vexx

Currently, the servers and registration are in the US ... they'd have to locate the servers in a country more friendly to the sliding slopes of copyright protections and the rights of consumers. The US Big Media punt to the world is the bizarre concept of "intellectual 'property' law" they are voraciously trying to export.

; <<>> DiG 9.7.0-P1 <<>> animesuki.com in a
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 54084
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;animesuki.com.                 IN      A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
animesuki.com.          5207    IN      A       95.143.193.31

IP address:                     95.143.193.31
Reverse DNS:                    [No reverse DNS entry per ns1.servainet.com.]
Reverse DNS authenticity:       [Unknown]
ASN:                            49770
ASN Name:                       SERVERCONNECT-AS (ServerConnect Sweden AB)
IP range connectivity:          1
Registrar (per ASN):            RIPE
Country (per IP registrar):     SE [Sweden]
Country Currency:               SEK [Sweden Kronor]
Country IP Range:               95.143.192.0 to 95.143.207.255

; <<>> DiG 9.7.0-P1 <<>> forums.animesuki.com in a
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 5857
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;forums.animesuki.com.          IN      A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
forums.animesuki.com.   3826    IN      A       216.18.221.150

IP address:                     216.18.221.150
Reverse DNS:                    forums.animesuki.com.
Reverse DNS authenticity:       [Verified]
ASN:                            18450
ASN Name:                       WEBNX
IP range connectivity:          2
Registrar (per ASN):            ARIN
Country (per IP registrar):     US [United States]
Country Currency:               USD [United States Dollars]
Country IP Range:               216.18.128.0 to 216.18.255.255

forums are hosted in the US, torrent index in Sweden

[Kudryavka]

Could we get a poll going on this?

[felix]

Originally Posted by Komari

Could we get a poll going on this?

It's GHD call if he wants to keep it or not, not ours.