Why Retire From Fansubbing?

[Enragin_Angel]

Rainy: you are too naive with everything. You've said "I can't believe" this and that for like three posts now. Believe it. It happens.

[movax]

I think the hating on leechers is way overboard...several of the channels I'm in have awesome regulars (given, mainly DVD ripping chans, but a few fansub chans as well) and you can drop in any time and see a good, ongoing convo (though it will usually cause "WTF...u guyz r sick" hehe). Admittedly, you do get the asshole leecher sometimes, but it's more fun to make fun of them and then slap 'em with a +b after humiliating them If you get pissed off by people who could be several thousand miles insulting you with data packets, you have bigger problems, as in the lack of self-esteem for yourself on freakin' IRC children, IRC! Internet Chat!

[subcool]

I'v been fansubbing for almost 5 years now... and im at this point where its starting to get boring. I dont have the wil to work on it anymore.
Its not the leechers that are annoying, i havent really encountered a lot of those in my 5 years thankfully . but college is taking up more and more time, work is too and other projects im working on >_<
its hard to manage all of those and well, its gets boring...

The past 5 years have been pretty cool though, starting out @ Anime-Empire... then moved to Aoi-Anime and then founded Arienai. With a lil pitstop @ AE-Nisei doing manga work. Good things happend and bad things, i made friend and i made enemies (not that many enemies i hope >_> ). But meh, im at the crossroad with 2 signs now: "Retire" or "Continue". The choice is hard, but has to be made >.<

enough random rants from me... *poofs*

[DryFire]

hiatus is always an option.

[zako]

A rare post by me, but I found this topic quite interesting.

Everyone has their own needs and motivation to do what they want. As there can be many reasons why people decide to fansub and continue, there are many reasons why people decide to retire. You may or may not notice, but there are some people who come back to fansub after a while too.

I don’t think one answer can justify why fansubbers retire. Most people do join fansubs because they want to. “Being busy” or “hating leechers” alone probaly would not make a fansubber wanting to retire. In the end, only the fansubber him or her self would really know the answer.

I am seeing some interesting posts of comments from everyone. Overall, I think everyone has done a good job answering the question of why Fansubbers retire.

Regards,

Kurenai-X

[Obi-Wan]

Originally Posted by DryFire

hiatus is always an option.

Yeah, my retirement turned into hiatus real quickly. I am primarily an editor but I can do basically any other fansubbing task other than translate and do karaoke effects, and my biggest problem with fansubs is that I am so used to the way I do things that I can't enjoy the work done by other fansubbers. And I don't mean to knock on their ability or anything, but a lot of times I find myself watching something and rewording in my head and so forth. I tend to favor more liberal, R1 DVD type translations as well so that makes it harder when most fansubs tend to favor a more literal translation style as well as including things such as honorifics and notes (which I am also opposed to). There's a saying that goes, "If you want something done right, then do it yourself," and I think that greatly illustrates my approach to fansubbing.

Why I retired was simply burnout. At the time I was working on more shows than I cared to and more shows than my schedule allowed, which interfered with my ability to balance my time, plus I was somewhat multi-grouping and let's just say I had my own priorities list and it wasn't the same as the groups' wanted. But when you have 5 shows to work on, two of which you're doing 80% of the work on because either there aren't enough staff members to go around or no one wants to work on that series, you get burnt out pretty quick and that's what led me to desire retirement (and what is currently making me wish I didn't come back...go figure).

[bastard-sama]

Why retire from fansubbing? the correct answer is that WE can and you should not complain about it because we CAN

[N-Bomb]

Another reason to retire from fansubbing is because there's nothing being aired anymore that isn't softcore loliporn. Who the hell wants to work on that tripe? As a mecha fan, the shows I have at my disposal come largely before the turn of the century.

Sickening and saddening.

[complich8]

so ... I've been "fansub-retired" for a year and some change now. I haven't actually fansubbed at all in at least 6 or so months, I think.

I'll spare you the whole mini-biography, but ... when I started, my life was characterized by extensive free time and spare mental cycles, and fansubbing was a good way to keep me busy. Now, my life is full of other things that are more fun, more challenging and more rewarding than fansubbing was.

Which isn't to say fansubbing wasn't fun, challenging, or rewarding -- it was all three, to some extent. But, like many of the people who start on it in their late high-school or early college careers (the main demographic of fansubbers, I'd wager), as time went on I found other things were just simply better ways to spend my rapidly diminishing free time.

I've seen a lot of leecher-hating in this thread. And some random flaming. And I dunno, it seems to me that the annoyance with demanding unappreciative perspectiveless people diminishes with time, as you remove yourself from it. I certainly understand it (I mean, I subbed around 80 episodes of Naruto , among other things). But if you let externalities be your motivation one way or the other, or really let it influence you at all, then Sturgeon's law kicks in, and you're pretty screwed when that happens.

[PEDOS_GRANDE]

Originally Posted by N-Bomb

Another reason to retire from fansubbing is because there's nothing being aired anymore that isn't softcore loliporn. Who the hell wants to work on that tripe? As a mecha fan, the shows I have at my disposal come largely before the turn of the century.

Sickening and saddening.

Hey, there's been mecha since the turn of the century. Too bad it all sucks, mostly. And sometimes is combined with lame schoolgirls or miko. LAME.

[aliensporebomb]

I look at it this way: people get into things pretty heavily for a while and
move on. Jobs, careers, romances, etc.

I definetely appreciate the work the fansubbers do.

I'm starting to learn enough of the language so I can learn what groups
do a better job at it than others. I'm also learning to recognize where
a group gets it wrong.

Even so, I appreciate it because sometimes a turn of phrase can have
more than one meaning. Sometimes what seems "wrong" might be
a reference to that dual meaning.

There's gratitude but after while you learn to expect something for
"services rendered".

So I can see why many opt to "retire" after a while.

Still, the fansubs live on so those groups aren't entirely forgotten.

[Soulfang]

Originally Posted by PEDOS_GRANDE

Hey, there's been mecha since the turn of the century. Too bad it all sucks, mostly. And sometimes is combined with lame schoolgirls or miko. LAME.

Don't forget lesbians...

[PEDOS_GRANDE]

Originally Posted by Soulfang

Don't forget lesbians...

Im waiting for a mecha/kid ninja show. That would destroy our concept of "Suck".

[zalas]

Originally Posted by PEDOS_GRANDE

Im waiting for a mecha/kid ninja show. That would destroy our concept of "Suck".

Stellvia had a robot, a ninja and kids....

[bastard-sama]

Yeah it did... interesting

[DeathWolf]

as a long term subber...(i started around 2000-2001) i can perfectly understand those that want to retire. Fansubbing doesnt bring you directly anything of value. To the opposite, it takes time and doesnt give much in exchange.
What you get is friends, recognition, and sometimes some nice ftps to download more stuff.
Some also learn a lot by doing fansubs.
The problem is when one or more of these "rewards" disappears. Why continue subbing? In my case i've been pushed to continue by habit, and sometimes for friendship... but there's no real strong reason to continue.
Especially when, when you do what you think is great work, you risk being in "competition" with groups that will openly bash you, and make many people think your work isnt worth it.
When that happends some realize that the fansubbing is no different from the real world, it's made of harsh humans, with conflicting concepts and ideals. That's when many quit.

[bastard-sama]

well yeah all these excuses about this one thing but the only real reason is that you CAN all these excuses are just an addon to that...

[PEDOS_GRANDE]

Originally Posted by zalas

Stellvia had a robot, a ninja and kids....

Does not count.

[I EAT BABIES]

Sometimes people retire because they're replaced by faster people and then they never get assigned any work and so they sit around waiting for work until they realize the group actually hates them so they decided to just leave instead of trying to find another group because that group has sentimental value or emotions tied to it and it just wouldn't be the same joining another group plus life can get it the way.

[N-Bomb]

Originally Posted by PEDOS_GRANDE

Im waiting for a mecha/kid ninja show. That would destroy our concept of "Suck".

You idiot, have you never heard Kyoji blathering about Tobikage all the time?