What's your take on AnimeNewsNetwork?

[Slice of Life]

Originally Posted by Quarkboy

Some of their moderators do, but generically the site has no official policy on fansubs.

There are many newspapers (most in fact) with a clear political stance which doesn't mean that this stance can be found in golden letters in their charter. ANN has a clear stance on fansubs. Mentioning animesuki is not even allowed there AFAIK (Ironically, crunchyroll et al are.)

[Quarkboy]

Originally Posted by Slice of Life

There are many newspapers (most in fact) with a clear political stance which doesn't mean that this stance can be found in golden letters in their charter. ANN has a clear stance on fansubs. Mentioning animesuki is not even allowed there AFAIK (Ironically, crunchyroll et al are.)

But in my mind their stance is not so much a function of their _beliefs_, but is a protective measure to placate their sponsors and their relationship with R1 and R2 companies. With the exception of Zac (who has a complex position, but is very anti licensed fanssubing), I know the people who actually run ANN are not nearly as anti-fansub as, say, the people who run animeondvd.

[Slice of Life]

Yes, that all may be, but I am talking about ANN, the anime news network, as it exists on the internet. The site as you say. Not the inside of the heads of people I don't even know.

[SinsI]

Originally Posted by Mgz

the top 5 "anime blog" from google all have some form of ads/affilitation click in their sites, so they are also making money off fansubs as well, OMGZOR bring in the pitchfork and burn them along with the coporate capitalist pig dog ANN

At least some of those "Top 5" are "top" because they deliver their reviews faster than anyone by watching them RAW, thus they aren't "making money off fansubs".

[Quarkboy]

Originally Posted by SinsI

At least some of those "Top 5" are "top" because they deliver their reviews faster than anyone by watching them RAW, thus they aren't "making money off fansubs".

Well, would anyone read those reviews if it weren't for fansubs? Sure they might not be using fansubs to write their reviews, but the whole reason people visit sites like that is so that they can decide which fansubs to download or which raws to download (also illegal, in any case).
So as usual it's all interconnected.

[IHaveCrayons]

I agree with many of your points but they're pretty much the only website to cover things quickly and as they occur.

[Vexx]

I don't know about the "only website". I seem to equal or beat its "news" info from other sources. ..... (plenty of other info sources out there - ICv2 for example).

[Westlo]

Originally Posted by Slice of Life

There are many newspapers (most in fact) with a clear political stance which doesn't mean that this stance can be found in golden letters in their charter. ANN has a clear stance on fansubs. Mentioning animesuki is not even allowed there AFAIK (Ironically, crunchyroll et al are.)

I linked someone a thread there in a PM and when I checked my sent file because I got a reply saying the url wasn't allowed, it looked like this.

http://forums.[This URL is a known Fansub Distribution website]/showthread.php?t=64880

[WanderingKnight]

Wow, they're also filtering PMs?

Way to go, ANN.

[IHaveCrayons]

Wow... they blacklist Animesuki? I did not know that.

[Quarkboy]

Originally Posted by IHaveCrayons

Wow... they blacklist Animesuki? I did not know that.

The BB has a giant filter and yes, asuki is on the filter. You know, it's REALLY easy to get around the filter and it's all automatic, so I'm not sure why people make such a giant deal out of it.

The filter is primarily for sites that sell bootleg DVDs but it also prevents links to torrent listing sites. It's again. simply a protective measure for the site, so that they can claim that "they don't link to fansubs" on their site to their sponsors.

[WanderingKnight]

You know, it's REALLY easy to get around the filter and it's all automatic, so I'm not sure why people make such a giant deal out of it.

I don't have an issue with them blocking it in the PUBLIC forums, I'm amazed at them blocking it in PRIVATE messages. The users are responsible for their little chat via PMs, not the mods or ANN staff.

[Slice of Life]

... whenever you think you know everything ...

Quarkboy, I've been an admin of a computer network for a long time and I tell you, monitoring private communication just because you have the power to do so is so low I wouldn't even have thought about it. And I don't consider myself a person with strong ethics.

Don't tell me there are people with hearts of gold who do so just because ADV forces them to.

[cyth]

Originally Posted by Mgz

the top 5 "anime blog" from google all have some form of ads/affilitation click in their sites, so they are also making money off fansubs as well, OMGZOR bring in the pitchfork and burn them along with the coporate capitalist pig dog ANN

Last time I checked, they were a professional news organization that should by all means pay respect to content creators. It does seem like this issue has been trivialized, judging from some responses here. Maybe it's because a whole lot of us don't respect copyright, but when you're running a legit business, matters such as copyright aren't exactly irrelevant.

In any case, I probably wouldn't have approached the criticism the way I did if they hadn't condemned fansubs. Most bloggers do not. So far I haven't heard an official word of approval from them, but I guess us critics will have to start thinking differently. They write articles based off fansubs, they make money with those articles, they create interest among their readers who will download fansubs based on their recommendation. So if I want to end this bloody ethics argument, I'll have to come to terms that AnimeNewsNetwork in fact does support unauthorized digital anime distribution and that Zac Berthscy is just their vocal minority. As Slice of Life has argued before, their stance may not be written in golden letters, but superficial evidence say otherwise. Based on those random facts, we can now assume that they are gradually taking the role of a revolutionary, if not a pro-fansub organization. I must say, this is quite a turn of events.

[Quarkboy]

Originally Posted by Slice of Life

... whenever you think you know everything ...

Quarkboy, I've been an admin of a computer network for a long time and I tell you, monitoring private communication just because you have the power to do so is so low I wouldn't even have thought about it. And I don't consider myself a person with strong ethics.

Don't tell me there are people with hearts of gold who do so just because ADV forces them to.

I wasn't aware they filtered PMs... I suspect that's a limitation of their forum software (it probably allows filtering of everything or nothing), and that's it, but I won't defend them for that unless that's the reason.

[Pantsgoblin]

Originally Posted by Quarkboy

I wasn't aware they filtered PMs... I suspect that's a limitation of their forum software (it probably allows filtering of everything or nothing), and that's it, but I won't defend them for that unless that's the reason.

Yes, phpBB automatically does this. We didn't purposely set filters to include PMs. I can inform Dan (our webmaster) to add this on his "to do" list, but it's probably not going to be that high on it.

[Malintex_Terek]

ANN is only really a news source, I'd prefer ANS if it were faster - but even for that, places like Yotsuba are much better at getting up-to-date information, even if speculation and "word on the street" can better be found there. AnimeOnDVD is also a more stable place to lurk, without a racemate of retards.

I was banned from ANN for criticizing the staff's method of running things there, not to mention their purpose, as in my eyes it looks like they take credit for the work of a thousand Anonymous, but please take this argument as unbiased as far as that ban is concerned -

The forum, and non-news articles, are little more than a medium for a handful of aging hipsters or middle school kids to exercise power over a mass of idiots. The sheer number of people who read the columns and actually find them interesting/educational, rather than just insulting or just plain ill-informed is outrageous. Hypocrisy is the rule of the day there, but if criticism is raised people are banned faster than American sympathizers were shot by the NKVD in Soviet Russia.

I originally went on ANN because I felt the website had gained enough notoriety to serve as a front for me to stump for Ouran Host Club and One Piece to get licensed by FUNimation (it worked!), but in recent times anime companies have shied away from ANN in favour of AnimeOnDVD, so that advantage is gone

My recommendation is, ANN should be used for its encyclopedia and for nothing else.

[Crontica]

i wouldnt say ANN is bad i say it rivals Wikipedia in the AnimeInfo department when some one hasnt created a anime article on wikipedia i usually go to ANN
sure the info of the anime on ANN is short but is enough for me

[DarkCntry]

As far as I am concerned with ANN, it's good for random anime-inspired updates. Zac, and most of the editorial crew, are sensationalists and will go out of their way to create the ways to draw the traffic. Zac's good at what he does and he rocks the boat on a lot of hot topics...everything from moe/lolita to AMVs, he knows how to rile up both sides of the fence and he proceeds to usually do so.

I have a few professional-personal qualms with ANN in how they handle a few of their business practices, but again, these aren't really something that stands out over that of my own opinions of other similar sites. ANN has quite a few issues to work out, especially in the realm of professionalism in their editorials, after-all, there's just so much that someone can take of Zac interjecting flamebait into his editorials just to spur on flamewars. It's great for drawing in the rubberneckers, but it does absolutely jack for professionalism. Hell, it's bad enough that Zac's back on the "I'm not really an anime fan" binge.

[cyth]

Originally Posted by DarkCntry

Hell, it's bad enough that Zac's back on the "I'm not really an anime fan" binge.

Yeah, the "anime is my job" attitude is getting tiresome. I know of people in anime journalism that are awesome both as professionals and as otaku. Actually, what ticks me off is the fact that ANN is providing content for hardcore otaku, yet editors like Zac Bertschy still believe the correct way to treat this crowd is to pigeonhole it, fling poo at it, and encourage others to do the same. As if anime as a whole is finally breaking into the U.S. mainstream... It's been trying to do that for the last decade.

(I hope you're taking notes, Zac!)