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Zenophilious

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  1. Like
    Zenophilious reacted to solidbatman in I rate your waifu/s/husbando/s   
    when the art is better than the character. 5/10. At least this saber understands armor. Not unique in any way. Loyal though I guess.
    Kanan went to the Itaru Hinoue school of art? Find me a better picture for a better response. 
  2. Like
    Zenophilious reacted to BunnyAdvocate in An Unauthorised History of /r/visualnovels   
    As communities age, a mythology tends to build up around their origins, with past eras vaguely alluded to as “golden ages.” I’ve seen this happen with reddit’s /r/visualnovels, a place I moderated during its most transformative stage, so I thought I’d offer my insider’s take on its history: what we’d hoped to achieve as moderators, the unintended side-effects of our policies, and why I think /r/visualnovels is stagnating these days. Fuwanovel isn't /r/visualnovels, but there's a lot of overlap in the fandom and I thought that given Ange's recent "state of the fandom" post, you guys might find it interesting. Given my acrimonious departure from the subreddit, you should take this with a grain of salt, but hopefully you'll get something from it~
    The Birth of /r/visualnovels

    The very first posts on /r/visualnovels.
    /r/visualnovels was founded in late 2009 by /u/Hpdarkman525 (the former account of /u/gambs), who made one post about the upcoming Umineko ep5 fan translation and then promptly forgot about the sub. At this time, the VN fandom consisted primarily of those who had learned Japanese to read VNs, and those who wished they had. Official localisations were almost non-existent, and the fandom hung off the words of the few fan translators. Knowing about VNs felt like knowing a secret, like a secret handshake to be acknowledged as a fellow western otaku.
    This didn’t really change until early 2012 with the release of Katawa Shoujo. We now had a Western VN that was free, easy to install (no fiddling with system locale), pretty well written (no cliche cries of “baka” or “onii-chan”), and handled a delicate subject (disability and self-identity) with a sensitivity that really spoke to a lot of gamers. The optional nature of the adult content helped attract horny teenagers while still retaining an air of respectability. KS managed something no other VN had: attention from the mainstream gaming crowd. It drew a huge wave of new fans to the medium, among which were /u/coldacid and /u/Kuiper who became mods on /r/visualnovels and began to promote it.
    While the influx of new members gave birth to the community, with newbies becoming veterans, the continued dominance of KS in the VN scene began to wear thin (it wasn’t until 2016 that the number of /r/visualnovels subscribers outnumbered /r/katawashoujo). Especially grating for veterans was the cry of KS as “the best VN ever written” from those who had only ever read that one VN. The constant stream of “what do I read after KS” and rudimentary technical questions on getting Japanese VNs working drowned out the rare news posts or broader discussion threads. The mod team had a hands-off attitude to it, they’d only remove spam or blatant trolling. This only changed in early 2014 when a relatively unknown user, /u/insanityissexy, requested a mod position...
    The Rise of Insanity

    Insanityy was a member of the old-guard, being drawn to the medium for Japanese VNs and caring little for what she saw as a pale-imitation in Western VNs. With no regard for the old mods, she singlehandedly brought order to a community that had been lawless. She began with a ban on posts for technical support questions and VN recommendation requests. Instead, they should be asked in the new weekly questions thread so as to clear up the front page for news posts and more substantial discussion threads.
    While this move was broadly welcomed by most of the subreddit regulars, it caused some disruption as activity on the sub plummeted. With the western VN scene so small, news was rare and the number of daily posts dropped from 2-4 to just 1. While some grumbled, others were enthused in having an active moderator who cared about the sub. /u/kowzz started a discussion thread on what we could do to improve activity on the sub, and from that discussion he started the weekly Sunday discussion posts and I started the weekly “what are you reading” posts. Unlike the questions sticky, the intention wasn’t to curtail activity outside of these weekly posts, but to provide a supplement to the usual discussions and encourage users to comment more.
    With such regular discussion posts, users started to bump into each other more often and a sense of community began to build. On a personal level, I also grew to know insanityy better as we exchanged dozens of increasingly lengthy PMs (so much so that each reply wouldn’t fit within the 10k character limit, we had to send our replies in 3 parts), with us quickly becoming close friends.

    Later that year, I proposed an overhaul of the user flairs. The subreddit only offered a basic vndb icon. I wanted to expand that to hundreds of options with a larger profile picture offset to the side of a user’s post as a way to personalise each user. With enough options, I hoped it’d be easier to identify users at a glance and it’d add some character to the subreddit. I was admitted to the mod team to oversee the flair changes, but was soon upgraded to full mod status after a few months on insanityy’s urging.
    The two of us fed off each other’s passion as we sought to build a more active, mature, and compassionate community. We never paid any heed to the old mods, mod policy was discussed between us on google hangouts and implemented immediately.

    To foster a sense of community, we aimed to have a community event once a month: best X contests, census surveys, recommendation charts, fanart contests, halloween/april fool themes being among just some of the activities we organised. We even got Mangagamer to sponsor some contests with free VNs. To foster a sense of community, we aimed to have a community event once a month: best X contests, census surveys, recommendation charts, fanart contests, halloween/april fool themes being among just some of the activities we organised. We even got Mangagamer to sponsor some contests with free VNs.
    We downplayed the seedier parts of the medium, nukige news was banned and discussions on “fapping” were frowned upon. Neither of us were against porn, we’re both fans, but we feared it’d attract a more neckbeard-type audience.

    We aggressively went after trolls, but not by banning them. We had automod automatically remove comments from users prone to cause drama, then we’d manually approve non-trollish comments. That way everyone was able to participate in our community, but bad behaviour wasn’t rewarded with lots of attention.


    In the following year, insanityy asked the inactive older mods to resign. Kuiper recognised that he was no longer needed and respectfully stepped down. Coldacid said his inactivity was only temporary and he’d be back, but later left reddit for voat as part of an anti-censorship protest. Gambs asked us to drop the subject as he didn’t want to step down, so we carried on ignoring him.
    We also added new members to the mod team: /u/FunwithGravity for his knowledge of Japanese, /u/Cornetto_Man because he got along with everyone, and /u/Avebone because he was active at times when the rest of us were asleep. They were added primarily to approve posts mistakenly removed by automod when me and insanityy were afk and had little input on mod policy.
    Everything seemed to be going great, we had a growing community that we got along with, trolls were few and far between, and our moderation seemed popular. Then we got a modmail suggesting we try out a new chat program called Discord...
    Discord on Discord

    When /u/Kowzz and /u/Arcanus44 suggested creating a Discord server, we were initially skeptical. It sounded just like irc, and the /r/visualnovels irc channel had been comatose for years. However Kowz and Arc promised to take care of it for us, Kowz would create the server and Arc would drum up interest. So in Sept 2015, Arc hosted a “meet n’ greet” in voice chat on Discord. While it was by most accounts a success and quite popular, we got some complaints about inappropriate conduct by a couple of users and decided that if this Discord server was going to be linked with /r/visualnovels, we’d need to take an active hand in making sure it maintained our standards.
    Kowz was happy to have us onboard, making us admins on Discord. It all seemed smooth, but underneath the surface, the seed of turmoil had been planted in our differing beliefs on who owned the server. Kowz and Arc considered themselves the owners and we were partners, while we considered them to have created the server on our behalf and that it’d run on our principles. Up until then, we’d not had any disagreements on mod policy. Me and insanityy would talk an issue out, if we agreed, we’d propose it to the rest of the mod team and vote on it. We’d picked mods who generally thought the same as us, so votes were normally unanimous. That wasn’t the case with Discord. Kowz and Arc had different ideals on how to run a community, and our usual resolution process of voting felt unfair to them as we outnumbered them 5 to 2.
    The problem only got worse with time as insanityy hated arguments so she avoided the staff discussions on Discord and popped in only to vote. Arc and Kowz felt increasingly marginalised by this and that their opinion wasn’t being heard. This led to a standoff where Kowz and Arc demanded their 2 votes should count for as much as the rest of us combined, while we /r/visualnovels mods threatened to create a new server unless we kept one vote each. Discussions got heated until Kowz and Arc eventually backed down. In protest, they chose to stop participating as mods.
    While Discord helped bring friends together, it also brought those that disliked each other together. It’s easy to ignore someone on reddit as its tree structure allows for parallel conversations, but the format of Discord makes that harder. This started to become a problem on the server, especially as Discord attracted a different type of user to the subreddit, those who had little patience for the more verbose and patient discussions of the subreddit. We got complaints from the subreddit veterans about some of the newbies but we weren’t sure what to do. Being disliked isn’t a bannable offense, but it was driving away some valued community members.
    We didn’t want to create a separate server that split the community, so our misguided solution was the creation of a hidden channel: #sub_regs (a.k.a. the fanclub) that was invite only and accessed via the tableflipper role. The hope was that it’d serve as a backup channel for when #general was annoying and that it’d keep the community veterans on the server. However it ended up encouraging an elitist attitude that divided the community further.
    The Fall of /r/visualnovels

    With many of the friendly conversations and community atmosphere moving to Discord, the subreddit began to suffer. Inside jokes that were incomprehensible to those not on Discord were frequent, and the community split between those using Discord and those not.
    There was also a degree of burnout among the mods. It’s inevitable for all mods, you spend long enough dealing with the worst of the community, the trolls and the spammers, and you begin to develop an us-vs-them mentality. You retreat from the community and draw closer to your fellow mods, looking down upon the normal users. We mods gradually stopped being members of the community and instead became overseers.
    Then there was my messy departure from the sub in April 2016. Due to a range of factors: financial difficulties, gender dysphoria, and some toxic “friends,” I became deeply depressed and tried to commit suicide. My fellow subreddit mods (and best friend insanityy) decided the best response was to out me as transgender, block me on social media, and ban me from the subreddit I’d loved so deeply. Insanityy never spoke to me again.
    The rest of this is speculation, I was no longer an insider, but from my perspective it looked like this event accelerated the emotional distance insanityy felt from the subreddit as she stopped caring about the community. She tried to carry on as normal at first, running a few contests, maintaining the animated banners I’d once made, but her heart wasn’t in it. She resigned later that year.
    With her went the desire to innovate, to improve the community. The remaining mods were followers, not leaders. They could maintain some cosmetic updates and copy the old contests, but they were unable to do anything new. They enlarged the mod team with an additional four members, but it only increased the sense of inertia and made it even harder to get anything done. The subreddit began to feel stale.
    The mod team had also become unbalanced, where once me and insanityy spoke up for minority tastes in EVNs and otomes, now the mod team was dominated by Japanese VN fans just as the VN scene was increasingly embracing EVNs. The subreddit felt more elitist than ever just as the medium had never been more diverse.
    Unintended Side Effects
    While our policies may have made sense at the time, some of the decisions me and insanityy had made began to have a detrimental impact on the subreddit:

    We’d brought on Automod to help remove posts when only me and insanityy had to manage everything. We found having a bot leave the removal comment sparked fewer arguments with OP than if one of us did it, and it was more effective at catching spam. But while we strived to reapprove mistakenly removed posts promptly, sometimes OP deleted their post before we could. Psychologically, it also made it dangerously easy to leave some content removed. As we mods burnt out over the years, our standards for what counted as a worthy post kept getting higher with fewer and fewer posts being approved. The end result has been a severe drop in discussion posts on the sub. We’d brought on Automod to help remove posts when only me and insanityy had to manage everything. We found having a bot leave the removal comment sparked fewer arguments with OP than if one of us did it, and it was more effective at catching spam. But while we strived to reapprove mistakenly removed posts promptly, sometimes OP deleted their post before we could. Psychologically, it also made it dangerously easy to leave some content removed. As we mods burnt out over the years, our standards for what counted as a worthy post kept getting higher with fewer and fewer posts being approved. The end result has been a severe drop in discussion posts on the sub.
    When recruiting new moderators, we sought people who thought as we did so mod decisions would be consistent and there wouldn’t be arguments in the mod chat. Modding is stressful enough without the stress coming from within the mod team. However, as you add more mods who agree with you, you can start to have an inflated view of how widespread your opinion is. A circlejerk mentality builds and outside opinion is increasingly easy to dismiss. This can leave users feeling like their opinions don’t matter to the mods and builds resentment.

    Insanityy was a kind soul and hated conflict, she avoided disagreements as much as possible. As a friend, this was fine, but as a mod it meant she avoided openly discussing mod policy on the subreddit as inevitably there would be some disagreement. This lack of discussion with the sub made it hard for users to object to the direction the sub took, allowing the mod team to grow out of touch with what the userbase wants.


    Hopes for the Future
    While I may have been quite critical of the current state of the subreddit, I think the community is a good one and there’s hope for improvement. A smaller, more motivated mod team would help, as well as scaling back some of the restrictions like the question and image-post ban. Let activity on the subreddit explode. Should low-quality content grow to become a problem, perhaps /r/visualnovels should split just as /r/gaming and /r/games have, or perhaps a split between Japanese and English VNs would help?
    Not every idea will work out, but what’s important is to be trying new ideas and be responsive to change rather than clinging to an outdated format.
    As I said at the start, please remember this isn’t an impartial view on the history of the sub and that this isn’t meant to downplay the hard work of the current mod team. Modding is exhausting, it’s a constant burden with little praise. Even if I consider them poor mods, it doesn’t make them bad people.
    I know she won’t ever read this, nor will she care what I think, but I still believe insanityy was an inspirational mod and a wonderful friend. It’s incredibly hard to go it alone like she did when she first took over /r/visualnovels. She stood up for what she thought /r/visualnovels could be and put in so much effort, every day, rain or shine, she never shirked from her responsibilities. I miss her every day.
    If anyone wants to know more or say hi, you can contact me here on Fuwanovel, tumblr,, twitter, or Discord (Sunleaf_Willow /(^ n ^=)\#1616)
  3. Like
    Zenophilious got a reaction from EastCoastDrifter in Clockwork Leyline and Hoshimemo: What actually happened!   
    Yup.  Just thought I'd poke some fun, since I know where you got the title from.
    Yeah, I don't really understand why people are accepting this excuse.  It sucks that the engine is crap, but that doesn't excuse pushing a product in that state to release, with Sekai having full knowledge of how borked it was.
  4. Like
    Zenophilious got a reaction from Nandemonai in Opinions on the current visual novel fanbase/community?   
    Yeah, it really was, considering how easy it is to interpret that statement as "gay and transgender people are degenerates".  There is literally nothing else in that sentence that refers to only disliking gay/transgender characters in VNs, and it seems to link being gay or transgender with being a degenerate.  It also doesn't list any other qualities these "degenerate" characters have that makes them so reprehensible to him, other than being gay and transgender.  I'd say it's pretty hard to say he doesn't come off sounding like a bigot.
    Then there's the choice of the word "degeneracy", which implies that there's something inherently wrong with their lifestyle itself, and echoes the ideology and speech of homophobes that find the mere existance of LGBT people offensive.
    So, yeah, that was a pretty unfortunate word choice, if that's what it actually was.
  5. Like
    Zenophilious reacted to EastCoastDrifter in Fuwanovel Solar System   
    So recently, I've been playing a game called Space Engine, which is a really cool universe simulator where you can explore stars, planets, galaxies and the like.  I've stumbled onto a very interesting solar system, so I've decided to name all of the planets after Fuwanovel members, in honor of this great community.
    Important Note: The solar system only contains 25 planets, so obviously I couldn't reference all of Fuwanovel's members.  I tried my best to name those after very prominent users.  If you don't see a planet named after you, my deepest apologies.  I could only fit so much within the technical limit.
    With that said, here is the Fuwanovel Solar System.
     
  6. Like
    Zenophilious got a reaction from EastCoastDrifter in Opinions on the current visual novel fanbase/community?   
    Yeah, it really was, considering how easy it is to interpret that statement as "gay and transgender people are degenerates".  There is literally nothing else in that sentence that refers to only disliking gay/transgender characters in VNs, and it seems to link being gay or transgender with being a degenerate.  It also doesn't list any other qualities these "degenerate" characters have that makes them so reprehensible to him, other than being gay and transgender.  I'd say it's pretty hard to say he doesn't come off sounding like a bigot.
    Then there's the choice of the word "degeneracy", which implies that there's something inherently wrong with their lifestyle itself, and echoes the ideology and speech of homophobes that find the mere existance of LGBT people offensive.
    So, yeah, that was a pretty unfortunate word choice, if that's what it actually was.
  7. Like
    Zenophilious got a reaction from Plk_Lesiak in Opinions on the current visual novel fanbase/community?   
    Yeah, it really was, considering how easy it is to interpret that statement as "gay and transgender people are degenerates".  There is literally nothing else in that sentence that refers to only disliking gay/transgender characters in VNs, and it seems to link being gay or transgender with being a degenerate.  It also doesn't list any other qualities these "degenerate" characters have that makes them so reprehensible to him, other than being gay and transgender.  I'd say it's pretty hard to say he doesn't come off sounding like a bigot.
    Then there's the choice of the word "degeneracy", which implies that there's something inherently wrong with their lifestyle itself, and echoes the ideology and speech of homophobes that find the mere existance of LGBT people offensive.
    So, yeah, that was a pretty unfortunate word choice, if that's what it actually was.
  8. Like
    Zenophilious reacted to Darklord Rooke in Opinions on the current visual novel fanbase/community?   
    Your casual linking of homosexuality to degeneracy is not welcome on the forums. Either you were memeing like Kaguya says, or you were serious and broke rule 6 of the Fuwa guidelines. Kaguya's being nice and giving you the benefit of the doubt, I however don't and think the forums can cut you and not lose a second of sleep over it.
    Lucky for you I'm not a mod.
  9. Like
    Zenophilious reacted to Kaguya in Opinions on the current visual novel fanbase/community?   
    Degenerate is an incredibly unfortunate word choice indeed. 
  10. Like
    Zenophilious reacted to Darklord Rooke in Opinions on the current visual novel fanbase/community?   
    That and the word "theme" which was then clarified later on to reference to homosexual characters. Classifying homosexuality as a degenerate theme is most definitely an unfortunate choice of words
  11. Like
    Zenophilious reacted to Kaguya in Opinions on the current visual novel fanbase/community?   
    Sure, I can throw you another one of these, @Barry Benson
    1-Isn't this an inclusive community that accepts all opinions? I wasn't memeing here and I legitimately don¡t like gay or transexual topic or characters in VN's. I think they are "degenerate" like I mention in the post before. It's my opinion bro, not trolling. Then again, proves my point of how mods don't know when to discern whether we're trolling or just being serious about these things.
    So that's not memeing, huh? As far as I'm concerned, it makes your case worse, tbh. We're not a place open to all opinions. When have we ever been? Fuwanovel is no free speech haven and we don't particularly value it. This works 100% like a private club, and people will and have been removed for being assholes, treating our users like shit, spamming and all sorts of reasons really. You think gay and trans people are morally degenerate? Well, there's definitely no place for that opinion on fuwa. I'll leave it up this time, but you can and will get in trouble for it. In fact, if any other mod wants to give you a third strike for it I have no recourse to stop that even though I kinda like you, because they'd be absolutely right. 
    The last time we tried to shitpost in the coliseum of chatter (where shitposting is supposed to happen) everyone involved in it got warnings and temporary bans.
    Last time I remember giving warnings and temp bans was when people were in violation of another rule, one about trolling instead. You know what though? Mods can be wrong, and so can I. PM me about the instance and if there's anything inappropriate about a punishment, I can revoke any warning and do an official apology. 
    Low-key calling me a moron is rude, bro.
    Come on man, I'm the one who should feel insulted by that. Hell, you agree with me on it. You know it's not toxic. It's why you say we should differentiate between friendly banter and toxic comments, because you know it's not toxic. If anything, it only shows that we're not on the level of mutual respect I thought we were, because you think the staff is dumb enough to think that's toxic 
    As a last pointer, to respond to your serious question (implying that you're not being serious about the rest of the post?) I stay here because I like it more than reddit and because the friends I've made over the time are here. I don't like the core of fuwa (if you consider the modding policies to be "the core" of this website in the first place) but that doesn't mean that I'll stay here because, in the end, I like it more than other places.
    Well, not moderation policies, but what the community is like. You know and mention it too! We're a beginner-friendly "PC" community who doesn't welcome a lot of normal internet culture, which goes against a lot of what you talk about, and created a lot of discord between you and the staff team in general.
  12. Like
    Zenophilious reacted to Kaguya in Opinions on the current visual novel fanbase/community?   
    Well, angry mod to come and give you "you have two warning points for trolling lmao" as you put it, @Barry Benson. Let's take a look at this gigantic wall of text, shall we. There's stuff I probably should answer for you there. 
    "Community: I honestly feel like there's a mix of a lot of people and personalities in general. It feels like in general this is a "more friendly" community in a sense, it's too PC for my tastes in general, but no matter who you are you'll end up finding people to be around within here if you look hard enough (I mean, just look at my cancerous ass.) It has way more EOP's than JOP's in general and it probably lacks elitism, which shies away potential drama which could, in short, generate more conversations. Elitism is cancer, but it's a necessary cancer, and it creates discussion, compared to just accepting new people who "Have just read Doki Doki or Grisaia and they already think they'll never read anything before." JOP's are partly right when they refer to original works being better, spoiler alert, they are because translations never deliver what the author intended, and no matter how good the translator is the majority of these games have what makes them special, taken from them. ANyways, I'm derailing too much. In general, there's a broader spectrum of people here, way less than reddit, which leads to the false belief that "we" are more cohesioned, which is a lie. I've never seen such categorization and grouping as I've seen in this medium ever. Then again, I've not been to many mediums either so yeah."
     
    Community, that's a thing. We exactly intend to accept people who have just read dokidoki and grisaia and not treat them like shit and talk about how they have inferior taste or something. Your "cancerous ass" is indeed constantly mildly annoying and it has gotten you in trouble before, though you yourself talk about it later. Fuwanovel was in part precisely made to break away from the old toxic community, and you're well aware of how that works. You know what doesn't make people excited to be part of a community? Going to talk about a cool game they just played and being unilaterally told they're normie garbage who should read [insert niche thing here] instead. There are things to appreciate about popular games. You know what does feel good? When you show what you like, don't get slapped for it and get slowly introduced to more underappreciated games that are in some ways like what you've read before. This whole "EOP vs JOP" thing is beyond fuwa. If people intend to go shitting on everyone else, they probably don't belong here. Which brings us to the second point. 
     
    Modding: and the last point I mention falls back on the topic of modding in this website. I'll try to sum it up saying that the mod team as it is right now feels like good modding consists solely on deleting posts that are "harmful" or "incite hate." I know that there are probably other duties you have to fulfill as a mod, but as far as I'm concerned deleting posts and handing bans without reason / warning seems to be the priority now, god bless. 
    Now, inb4 angry mods come and say "You have two warning posts for trolling, lmao." Firstly, I am not putting as an example my personal experiences here because my warnings were justified (TLDR; I told someone to kill himself in a post and I created troll threads personally attacking Okami.) The issue stems from things like deleting a SoU DeSukA meme with a spongebob picture in a thread that was talking about localizations or something like that, or literally deleting a post that says "Kiri rules this community" in this thread. Mods need to start discerning which posts are clearly toxic and which posts are just friendly banter. Derailing is a shit reason to hide posts and everyone derails in general at some point. Inb4 my post is derailing.
     
    Moderation is significantly easier to talk about than anything else ever as far as I'm concerned, and I can answer any questions about it anyone may have. Shoot me a pm, ping me on discord, quote me in some random thread, doesn't make a difference. 
    There's one big misconception you're making here. sou desuka spongebob meme or kiri shitposting isn't being hidden because it's toxic. Only a moron would ever think it's toxic. Not even you believe it's toxic though, since you correctly talk about derailing later. Yes, it's being hidden because it's spam. You know what we don't want in serious threads? Users having to scroll through pages and pages of shitty memes to discuss what they want. Now, I love shitty memes. We have a place for them, it's the coliseum of chatter. Other forums? No thank you. Doesn't matter who does it or how wholesome it is. If someone posted a cute kitten caption here it'd be hidden just the same. 
    As for removing posts of people being rude assholes, yes, we do that. We will continue to do that. Friendliness has always been fuwanovel's main thing. You don't like it? Fair enough. You might want to check out other communities instead, then. I don't mean it in a bad way, it's just not what fuwa is about. Being "PC" and making a friendly environment for VN fans is the most important thing for us. So is strict moderation of serious posts. There are a lot of other communities where you can freely do whatever you want. This isn't one of them. 100% serious question, if the main things about fuwa are big points of criticism to you, why are you even here? Do you want to torture yourself? 
    "I can't count the number of times I've seen the topic of "gay/trans protagonist in an even gayer/transier adventure"
    Hey, here's some shitty memeing. Can't really resist it can you? It's ok though. 
    As for a last thing, we assume HMN and folk are generally memeing because you are generally memeing. We do look over your posts though. 
  13. Like
    Zenophilious got a reaction from finiteHP in All-Ages or 17 and below Visual Novels you would like/add 18+ Content to   
    Oh, yeah, definitely.  IIRC, Lilith even says to Setsuna that they could bang at the end of her route, and it kinda ticked me off, since it was like rubbing salt in the wound.  Don't tease h in an all-ages game, it's not fair  (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
  14. Like
    Zenophilious got a reaction from Dergonu in All-Ages or 17 and below Visual Novels you would like/add 18+ Content to   
    Oh, yeah, definitely.  IIRC, Lilith even says to Setsuna that they could bang at the end of her route, and it kinda ticked me off, since it was like rubbing salt in the wound.  Don't tease h in an all-ages game, it's not fair  (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
  15. Like
    Zenophilious got a reaction from Kenshin_sama in Gamecube recommendations   
    I second the recommendations for Wind Waker and Twilight Princess.  They're both amazing Zelda games, and absolutely worth experiencing at least once.
  16. Like
    Zenophilious got a reaction from Andromis in Gamecube recommendations   
    I second the recommendations for Wind Waker and Twilight Princess.  They're both amazing Zelda games, and absolutely worth experiencing at least once.
  17. Like
    Zenophilious got a reaction from mitchhamilton in Gamecube recommendations   
    I second the recommendations for Wind Waker and Twilight Princess.  They're both amazing Zelda games, and absolutely worth experiencing at least once.
  18. Like
    Zenophilious got a reaction from akaritan in Recommend me a book!   
    Not exactly classic lit, but I always like to suggest Catch-22.
  19. Like
    Zenophilious got a reaction from Plk_Lesiak in NekoNyan, New Localization Company from Saku Saku Translation Team   
    Yep, I was wrong on that one.  I went back and checked, and he was referring to SakuSaku itself, not translation in general.
    If you actually go back and read what I said, I said those mistakes sounded like ones that someone with a subpar grasp on English would make, not that Akerou is incapable of properly understanding English.
    That would be understandable if it was one of a few errors, except that the rest of the script is riddled with them.
    I never claimed that native speakers were inherent gods of the English language.  Most people I know that struggle with it are native speakers, in fact.  However, I don't think anyone is going to claim that non-native speakers don't tend to struggle with certain parts of the language more than the average native speaker.
    The saying, if it's the one that means "to make no progress despite making an effort", is actually "spinning our wheels".  Searching google with "spinning on our wheels" only really comes up with results for "spinning our wheels".  The only results that appear when searching for results containing the exact phrase "spinning on our wheels" are blogs, and I wouldn't trust the average blogger to know good grammar or the proper usage of idioms.
    Uh...I specifically noted that there wasn't any proof he was directly responsible for any of those lines.  That doesn't make it any less incorrect or awful-sounding.  You can't just swap in synonyms and have sayings still be correct.
    Let's face it, he was the lead translator on both SakuSaku and Hoshimemo, and both releases weren't all that good.  Hell, you even admitted that SakuSaku's release wasn't that great.  It's not that absurd to look at both releases and think that the people they have in common, which we know to be at least Akerou and you, might be the cause.  Was it just a fluke that both TLs were mediocre?
  20. Like
    Zenophilious got a reaction from Dergonu in NekoNyan, New Localization Company from Saku Saku Translation Team   
    Yep, I was wrong on that one.  I went back and checked, and he was referring to SakuSaku itself, not translation in general.
    If you actually go back and read what I said, I said those mistakes sounded like ones that someone with a subpar grasp on English would make, not that Akerou is incapable of properly understanding English.
    That would be understandable if it was one of a few errors, except that the rest of the script is riddled with them.
    I never claimed that native speakers were inherent gods of the English language.  Most people I know that struggle with it are native speakers, in fact.  However, I don't think anyone is going to claim that non-native speakers don't tend to struggle with certain parts of the language more than the average native speaker.
    The saying, if it's the one that means "to make no progress despite making an effort", is actually "spinning our wheels".  Searching google with "spinning on our wheels" only really comes up with results for "spinning our wheels".  The only results that appear when searching for results containing the exact phrase "spinning on our wheels" are blogs, and I wouldn't trust the average blogger to know good grammar or the proper usage of idioms.
    Uh...I specifically noted that there wasn't any proof he was directly responsible for any of those lines.  That doesn't make it any less incorrect or awful-sounding.  You can't just swap in synonyms and have sayings still be correct.
    Let's face it, he was the lead translator on both SakuSaku and Hoshimemo, and both releases weren't all that good.  Hell, you even admitted that SakuSaku's release wasn't that great.  It's not that absurd to look at both releases and think that the people they have in common, which we know to be at least Akerou and you, might be the cause.  Was it just a fluke that both TLs were mediocre?
  21. Like
    Zenophilious got a reaction from Rin91 in NekoNyan, New Localization Company from Saku Saku Translation Team   
    Ehhh...the main translator of both SakuSaku and Hoshimemo's TLs (and now NekoNyan), Akerou (aka Christian Ehrmanntraut) has stated several times that one of the reasons he got into translation was to polish his English, which isn't his first language, as he's German.  That doesn't necessarily mean that everything he produces will be crap, but looking at several parts of Hoshimemo's TL, it makes a lot of sense.  Some of the strange phrases that Fred highlighted in his review, like "I relish in my memories", "spinning on our heels", and "stroke of sharpness", sound like things someone with a sub-par grasp on English would think makes sense.  People that haven't fully mastered a language tend to struggle with idioms, slang, and other parts of a language that are more complicated to learn than the easier, more logical parts, like grammar and sentence structure.
    Now, there's no way to prove that he translated those lines himself, or was even responsible for them at all, but I'd argue that signs like that should at least make people wary of anything they produce until they actually have a product out that people can evaluate.  If their translations are good, I'll be more than happy to buy their VNs, but I won't do so until they prove themselves.  I'll repeat what I said in the Sol Press thread: it's a good idea to wait for results before buying VNs from a newly-formed translation company.
  22. Like
    Zenophilious got a reaction from Infernoplex in NekoNyan, New Localization Company from Saku Saku Translation Team   
    Ehhh...the main translator of both SakuSaku and Hoshimemo's TLs (and now NekoNyan), Akerou (aka Christian Ehrmanntraut) has stated several times that one of the reasons he got into translation was to polish his English, which isn't his first language, as he's German.  That doesn't necessarily mean that everything he produces will be crap, but looking at several parts of Hoshimemo's TL, it makes a lot of sense.  Some of the strange phrases that Fred highlighted in his review, like "I relish in my memories", "spinning on our heels", and "stroke of sharpness", sound like things someone with a sub-par grasp on English would think makes sense.  People that haven't fully mastered a language tend to struggle with idioms, slang, and other parts of a language that are more complicated to learn than the easier, more logical parts, like grammar and sentence structure.
    Now, there's no way to prove that he translated those lines himself, or was even responsible for them at all, but I'd argue that signs like that should at least make people wary of anything they produce until they actually have a product out that people can evaluate.  If their translations are good, I'll be more than happy to buy their VNs, but I won't do so until they prove themselves.  I'll repeat what I said in the Sol Press thread: it's a good idea to wait for results before buying VNs from a newly-formed translation company.
  23. Like
    Zenophilious got a reaction from VirginSmasher in NekoNyan, New Localization Company from Saku Saku Translation Team   
    Ehhh...the main translator of both SakuSaku and Hoshimemo's TLs (and now NekoNyan), Akerou (aka Christian Ehrmanntraut) has stated several times that one of the reasons he got into translation was to polish his English, which isn't his first language, as he's German.  That doesn't necessarily mean that everything he produces will be crap, but looking at several parts of Hoshimemo's TL, it makes a lot of sense.  Some of the strange phrases that Fred highlighted in his review, like "I relish in my memories", "spinning on our heels", and "stroke of sharpness", sound like things someone with a sub-par grasp on English would think makes sense.  People that haven't fully mastered a language tend to struggle with idioms, slang, and other parts of a language that are more complicated to learn than the easier, more logical parts, like grammar and sentence structure.
    Now, there's no way to prove that he translated those lines himself, or was even responsible for them at all, but I'd argue that signs like that should at least make people wary of anything they produce until they actually have a product out that people can evaluate.  If their translations are good, I'll be more than happy to buy their VNs, but I won't do so until they prove themselves.  I'll repeat what I said in the Sol Press thread: it's a good idea to wait for results before buying VNs from a newly-formed translation company.
  24. Like
    Zenophilious got a reaction from Plk_Lesiak in NekoNyan, New Localization Company from Saku Saku Translation Team   
    Ehhh...the main translator of both SakuSaku and Hoshimemo's TLs (and now NekoNyan), Akerou (aka Christian Ehrmanntraut) has stated several times that one of the reasons he got into translation was to polish his English, which isn't his first language, as he's German.  That doesn't necessarily mean that everything he produces will be crap, but looking at several parts of Hoshimemo's TL, it makes a lot of sense.  Some of the strange phrases that Fred highlighted in his review, like "I relish in my memories", "spinning on our heels", and "stroke of sharpness", sound like things someone with a sub-par grasp on English would think makes sense.  People that haven't fully mastered a language tend to struggle with idioms, slang, and other parts of a language that are more complicated to learn than the easier, more logical parts, like grammar and sentence structure.
    Now, there's no way to prove that he translated those lines himself, or was even responsible for them at all, but I'd argue that signs like that should at least make people wary of anything they produce until they actually have a product out that people can evaluate.  If their translations are good, I'll be more than happy to buy their VNs, but I won't do so until they prove themselves.  I'll repeat what I said in the Sol Press thread: it's a good idea to wait for results before buying VNs from a newly-formed translation company.
  25. Like
    Zenophilious got a reaction from Dergonu in 18+ or All ages version? (No, it's not about Dies Irae)   
    I'm going to post this every day until you read it
     
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