Darklord Rooke

Hyperbole.
 
 
Visual novels are a medium and has nothing to do with the Otaku culture. If you’re thinking it’s your job to make ‘Japanese visual novels’ popular, then you’ve got it wrong, that’s only part of the goal.
 
Visual novels are a specific type of story based game, similar to others which have taken off in the West. Interactive fiction, for example, has exploded in recent years with the Walking Dead cited as the end product of this resurgence. Gamebook Adventures was so successful some media outlets termed IF the ‘future of novels’. And a small, indie VN by Christine Love recently netted 32,000 sales, which is significant.
 
There are 70,000 people on VNDB, that’s more than the number of people who raised 4 million dollars for the next Planescape Torment game. It is a decent industry with the potential of far more growth than you expect.
 
Fuwa’s goal is to recognise this and to strive to make Visual Novels popular. It isn’t Fuwa’s goal to say ‘Fuck it, too hard’ before the fight’s even begun. Your vision is one I reject, btw.
 
 
The "everyone must be committed 100%" part of your argument is a strawman. It's a named logical fallacy. Nobody's arguing this.
 
Furthermore people realise things take time, that's not the issue. The issue is you guys thinking doing nothing but providing a piracy site and a place to chat is all Fuwa should be doing. I am VERY happy Tay realises this is not the case, and I am VERY happy that the site is in HIS hands regarding where it goes, and not the other members of the staff. Speaking of which, what was everybody doing when Steve was practically in charge? I'd love to hear what you were all planning at this point in time. I'm sure SB would love to chip in here regarding the grand vision you were all headed towards.
 
Tay's very limited in time. Extremely so. And yet he's doing more for the site than anybody else here. 
 
 
A strawman argument. Another one.  However if you feel it’s easier for you to argue an IMAGINED argument, knock yourself out. And if you feel your IMAGINED argument is disrespectful... what are we supposed to do about that?
 
I said the STAFF should be for the above goal and I stand by it. Nobody said anything about everybody working towards said goal.
 
 
That’s not where Tay is taking things and it’s now his site to direct, but let’s discuss the old Fuwa. The Fuwa which was hated by the entire VN community, the Fuwa which couldn’t get any members and  the Fuwa which had an underlying anti-copyright agenda. Is this the Fuwa you hold so highly?
 
Tay’s got a plan to move Fuwa forward. I am HOPING he has the support of the staff in this.
 
 
Staff are, by definition, working for an organisation. Tay is leading this organisation with a vision, I am hoping the staff are on board and not hindering the process in any way.
 
 
Accessible does not equal popular, as I keep saying you're only doing half the job. Furthermore piracy is but ONE way to make VNs more popular, maybe the process will be sped up a little if you stop thinking piracy is the be all and end all.
 
 
Strawman and logical fallacy.
 
TL;DR: Your argument is full of logical fallacies. Tay's the one dictating where this site is now headed, and it's no longer headed towards a future where piracy and friendliness is the be all and end all. If you have a problem with that, tough. It's Tay's site to lead. While the staff is volunteer you knew this when you signed up for it. If you have a problem with the workload, then nobody is forcing you to do anything. Furthermore, the word 'staff' means a person working for a particular organisation, if there's anyone among you who is not fully on board where Tay is taking things, and are hindering the process, then you're harming the site. I'd consider that.

Suggestions. Not a question you really should be asking, you should know what needs doing tbh.
 
 
Friendliness? Not a bad goal for how a community BEHAVES towards each other, but building a community which is "all about friendliness?" Please. A community which has no purpose won't survive long. "A cool place to talk about our hobbies?" While Aaeru wanted to create a non-toxic atmosphere for the community, I believe the purpose of the community is emblazoned on the logo at the top of the page. This doesn't mean the forum will lose the friendly atmosphere you guys value so much, it does mean that some work should be going on behind the scenes instead of relaxing on laurels and thinking "Wow, we are doing great." Because you're not, and I'm plenty eager to discuss that point with you in detail.
 
What should you be doing? Information about Visual Novels... and visual novel type games are scattered across the web. If you want to hear news about visual novels, a person may have to frequent many different places on the internet. The first goal you guys should be working on is to deliver a quality INFORMATION SERVICE, a servive which would be of interest to the members of the community. That means news and information regarding Japanese visual novels development, and english visual novel development. Maybe even hosted reviews. This will in no way impact the friendly nature of the site you guys seem to value so highly, but it will deliver a much valued service to your community and will begin to cement Fuwa's place on the internet. I believe you guys had begun to do this a while ago, but the blog has died and so has the FB site.
 
Because visual novel communities exists in small pockets here and there, Fuwa should be working on becoming the main hub for visual novel type games. When you are the main hub, it will be easier to progress towards the goal which is emblazoned on the banner.

Suggestions. Not a question you really should be asking, you should know what needs doing tbh.
 
 
Friendliness? Not a bad goal for how a community BEHAVES towards each other, but building a community which is "all about friendliness?" Please. A community which has no purpose won't survive long. "A cool place to talk about our hobbies?" While Aaeru wanted to create a non-toxic atmosphere for the community, I believe the purpose of the community is emblazoned on the logo at the top of the page. This doesn't mean the forum will lose the friendly atmosphere you guys value so much, it does mean that some work should be going on behind the scenes instead of relaxing on laurels and thinking "Wow, we are doing great." Because you're not, and I'm plenty eager to discuss that point with you in detail.
 
What should you be doing? Information about Visual Novels... and visual novel type games are scattered across the web. If you want to hear news about visual novels, a person may have to frequent many different places on the internet. The first goal you guys should be working on is to deliver a quality INFORMATION SERVICE, a servive which would be of interest to the members of the community. That means news and information regarding Japanese visual novels development, and english visual novel development. Maybe even hosted reviews. This will in no way impact the friendly nature of the site you guys seem to value so highly, but it will deliver a much valued service to your community and will begin to cement Fuwa's place on the internet. I believe you guys had begun to do this a while ago, but the blog has died and so has the FB site.
 
Because visual novel communities exists in small pockets here and there, Fuwa should be working on becoming the main hub for visual novel type games. When you are the main hub, it will be easier to progress towards the goal which is emblazoned on the banner.

This is probably why the western touhou community has reached out to more people (especially online) while they both started out at the same place. It just enjoys a wider stream of incoming content across multiple mediums. That and everyone is on the same page. There can't be flagship VN (maybe Katawa Shoujo is the scout frigate), there isn't even a group of 10 flagship vns.
 
Putting that aside, what content should fans make or come together to make, and share? The precedent is all there in other fanbases such as touhou, anime, and MLP. Art, Music remixes, Card/Board games, Youtube MAD's, Cosplay, Fanfiction,  etc. (particularly the bold ones)
There's a definite lack of the above content, and a place to share it on this forum. To be honest, I had a vague feeling that something was different (their being oddly nothing to do), but only did I put my finger on it. In any case, content which is creatable by individuals is going to see a lot more creation than content that needs an entire group's dedicated effort.
 
I think there's a bit of a disconnect between being a fan of VN's and wanting to make VNs. It's not the most natural "fan content" to make, and yet people point to it like it almost is. To put it another way, it's like urging people who want to celebrate Harry Potter to work on writing their own fantasy book with wizards.
 
I didn't know you were up to date in that circle. Neat. I've been thinking about taking a dip into what OELVN has: it's always interesting familiarizing oneself with a community that revolves around creative production has to offer.

Oh definitely not, I love a good argument. Unfortunately I've had the same one plenty of times with people on here, and nobody's come up with a logical argument to back their position. That was my exasperation. If you have, then hit me with it. Do keep in mind that to make VNs popular you need a product to begin with, so if your goal is to spread VNs you need to ensure the health of the industry WHILE spreading the fanbase. And I'm saying this as a hard-core supporter of a game genre which was dead for 10 years or more. Trust me when I say that being a supporter of a dead industry sucked balls. We did keep spreading games though, they were just very old ones. Mostly. It only revived when tens of thousands of fans chucked fistfuls of money at developers, which is the sort of thing you need to encourage to keep an industry alive.
 
So in short, popularity means big fanbase + industry, and while piracy increases the fanbase I can't see any evidence that there's much more money going into the industry than 10 years ago. Maybe with Steam things are changing, but that's hardly Fuwa's doing.
 
 
I can cover OELVNs, but I can't do Japanese news. I don't speak Japanese and most news comes from Japanese news sites.
 
Also, Tay has a plan to revamp the blog. And he's scouting people from lemma, and from other places. I may have thrown a certain person's name at him over and over and over... I should apologise for nagging btw. But don't worry, Tay's got some plans for it.

The obvious problem in why visual novels can't gain that much traction is the language barrier. I joined this website due to Tay's post about learning Japanese since I figured that would be a pretty cool thing to do. I think if another thing like that happened, in which we had people working together to learn Japanese, that would open up a lot more possibilities for the future. 
 
There actually is a basically fuwanovel skype chat related to learning japanese (we started out as a group to all play the same game so we could talk about it, but that didn't end up so well. Worked for a few weeks, but real life commitments and different reading speeds kind of made things weird. Also motivation about the game in question too I guess. There has been quite some success in talking about games we've mutually played/encourages each other to play though) 
 
Obviously we talk about the language as well and work together to answer each other's questions, which is the true benefit. We're not so experienced to be able to know everything, but we're pretty damn good at figuring things out. 
 
tl;dr: fuwanovel japanese learning stuffs, maybe english learning stuffs too? 

Suggestions. Not a question you really should be asking, you should know what needs doing tbh.
 
 
Friendliness? Not a bad goal for how a community BEHAVES towards each other, but building a community which is "all about friendliness?" Please. A community which has no purpose won't survive long. "A cool place to talk about our hobbies?" While Aaeru wanted to create a non-toxic atmosphere for the community, I believe the purpose of the community is emblazoned on the logo at the top of the page. This doesn't mean the forum will lose the friendly atmosphere you guys value so much, it does mean that some work should be going on behind the scenes instead of relaxing on laurels and thinking "Wow, we are doing great." Because you're not, and I'm plenty eager to discuss that point with you in detail.
 
What should you be doing? Information about Visual Novels... and visual novel type games are scattered across the web. If you want to hear news about visual novels, a person may have to frequent many different places on the internet. The first goal you guys should be working on is to deliver a quality INFORMATION SERVICE, a servive which would be of interest to the members of the community. That means news and information regarding Japanese visual novels development, and english visual novel development. Maybe even hosted reviews. This will in no way impact the friendly nature of the site you guys seem to value so highly, but it will deliver a much valued service to your community and will begin to cement Fuwa's place on the internet. I believe you guys had begun to do this a while ago, but the blog has died and so has the FB site.
 
Because visual novel communities exists in small pockets here and there, Fuwa should be working on becoming the main hub for visual novel type games. When you are the main hub, it will be easier to progress towards the goal which is emblazoned on the banner.

Suggestions. Not a question you really should be asking, you should know what needs doing tbh.
 
 
Friendliness? Not a bad goal for how a community BEHAVES towards each other, but building a community which is "all about friendliness?" Please. A community which has no purpose won't survive long. "A cool place to talk about our hobbies?" While Aaeru wanted to create a non-toxic atmosphere for the community, I believe the purpose of the community is emblazoned on the logo at the top of the page. This doesn't mean the forum will lose the friendly atmosphere you guys value so much, it does mean that some work should be going on behind the scenes instead of relaxing on laurels and thinking "Wow, we are doing great." Because you're not, and I'm plenty eager to discuss that point with you in detail.
 
What should you be doing? Information about Visual Novels... and visual novel type games are scattered across the web. If you want to hear news about visual novels, a person may have to frequent many different places on the internet. The first goal you guys should be working on is to deliver a quality INFORMATION SERVICE, a servive which would be of interest to the members of the community. That means news and information regarding Japanese visual novels development, and english visual novel development. Maybe even hosted reviews. This will in no way impact the friendly nature of the site you guys seem to value so highly, but it will deliver a much valued service to your community and will begin to cement Fuwa's place on the internet. I believe you guys had begun to do this a while ago, but the blog has died and so has the FB site.
 
Because visual novel communities exists in small pockets here and there, Fuwa should be working on becoming the main hub for visual novel type games. When you are the main hub, it will be easier to progress towards the goal which is emblazoned on the banner.

To turn Fuwa into "a cool place to talk about our hobbies" would make no sense at all, I came here mostly because I wanted to talk about VNs, but what really caught my interest in this place was it's goal. Piracy aside, Fuwa contribution is basically existing to host discussions and talks, it's great and all but it doesn't seem to accomplish much. Basically, I believe that there's a lack of content to actually make visual novels popular.

Suggestions. Not a question you really should be asking, you should know what needs doing tbh.
 
 
Friendliness? Not a bad goal for how a community BEHAVES towards each other, but building a community which is "all about friendliness?" Please. A community which has no purpose won't survive long. "A cool place to talk about our hobbies?" While Aaeru wanted to create a non-toxic atmosphere for the community, I believe the purpose of the community is emblazoned on the logo at the top of the page. This doesn't mean the forum will lose the friendly atmosphere you guys value so much, it does mean that some work should be going on behind the scenes instead of relaxing on laurels and thinking "Wow, we are doing great." Because you're not, and I'm plenty eager to discuss that point with you in detail.
 
What should you be doing? Information about Visual Novels... and visual novel type games are scattered across the web. If you want to hear news about visual novels, a person may have to frequent many different places on the internet. The first goal you guys should be working on is to deliver a quality INFORMATION SERVICE, a servive which would be of interest to the members of the community. That means news and information regarding Japanese visual novels development, and english visual novel development. Maybe even hosted reviews. This will in no way impact the friendly nature of the site you guys seem to value so highly, but it will deliver a much valued service to your community and will begin to cement Fuwa's place on the internet. I believe you guys had begun to do this a while ago, but the blog has died and so has the FB site.
 
Because visual novel communities exists in small pockets here and there, Fuwa should be working on becoming the main hub for visual novel type games. When you are the main hub, it will be easier to progress towards the goal which is emblazoned on the banner.

I believe I've found an exciting new VN on Steam, just let me check if it "qualifies."
 
VNDB requires 3 things to be present before a game is classified a "Visual Novel." Firstly, the game needs to use the novel narrative. Secondly, the story needs to continue uninterrupted for a significant length, and lastly it needs to conform to either the ADV or NVL style.
 
Well HAPPY DAYS because "Vlad the Impaler" qualifies on all fronts. Isn't that just awesome! So without further ado, let me introduce everybody to this new visual novel on Steam.
 

 

 
 

This topic has been a bit of circle jerk for obvious reasons, but I'm not entirely sure why everyone thinks that this will have no effect. 
 
One of the major causes of piracy is lack of a legal method to obtain the material in question.
 
Another major cause is that the price tag is some obnoxious amount. 
 
If the Japanese government is going to be providing legal methods to obtain such material, and going to make it actually affordable, then this IS going to affect piracy.
 
I'm not saying that is going to "stop" piracy or anything like that, but I would be very surprised if it won't at least curb the growth, if not outright eliminate some piracy sites.  

Oh for the love of...
 
Who the hell am I kidding? You don't leave Fuwanovel. For all that is good in this world, you can't leave Fuwanovel. Once you're stuck here you're stuck in a pit of molasses; a fly on a spider's web (cut me slack on that analogy, it wasn't easy). Try as I might, I can't walk away from this website. My trigger finger is itching to fire off some new projects I have sitting in the wings, and who the hell is going to showcase those projects with all the newbies joining the site and roaming the land? There are so many people I enjoy working with on this site that I would feel awful if I left. Still, quietly coming back is just not like me; I've always been about grand presentations I guess. I woke up in the middle of the night sweating for crying out loud to type this message because I felt there was something missing in my life, and I realize now that no matter how much negativity affects us at times, at the end of the day we are the same people. This place will always be a home to me with the same positive energy I know and love. That sounds pathetic, I know, but it's the truth folks. I've said it already, and I'll say it again:
 
We are a family. We are one messed up family mind you who sometimes want to rip each other's faces off, but you're damn right we are a family.

With that being said, let me start by saying a few words regarding the mess surrounding my desire to leave Fuwanovel. It's a simple step-by-step process you see, one that I hope will shed light on a few things:
 
Step 1 - I messed up, and trolls got to me personally.
There is no step 2.
 
And that's it. I am extremely thankful for everyone that went out of their own way to encourage me to keep at it and assist me in some personal matters. I am also grateful to those who are continuing to do so.
 
Done. No more on that. Now, while I would love to spam this thread with all of the ideas I have in store and jump right back into the swing of things, there are a few loose ends I need to take care of beforehand. Dealing with those in the next day or so will come next. Still, I can give you something, and in that regard, I need the community's help, so please read on!
 

 
Ren's Project Mascots
 
I have decided to elect 2 new mascots to represent my projects on the Fuwanovel site and beyond (YouTube, Mixcloud, etc.). While most people use original characters for this kind of work, I wanted to choose characters that I think represent the idea behind my project development quite well. I originally got this idea when thinking of the famous Japanese blogger Danny Choo, who uses his own original character, Mirai Suenaga, as his iconic representation. As a fun fact, did you know she has her own airline service, as well as the fame of being Japan's official mascot for tourism in 2013? In addition, she is the same girl featured in Yuzusoft's Dracu-riot! background images and posters. Still, while I never expect to be as popular as him, I do think having some sort of theme to my projects will help establish a "personality" for what I do around the internet. These candidates (as some of you may have been aware of beforehand) are the following individuals:
 
Hatsune Miku
 

 
and
 
Jakuzure Nonon
 

 
The reason I chose these 2 girl's to be mascots for all the projects I do is because I believe they represent how I view things when it comes to making projects. Miku is a producer, a developer, and a music creator who sort of represents how I myself am a  creator of projects (to a much lesser extent). Nonon is a performer (marching bands anyone?), so I thought what better person to use than her to showcase how I like to "put on a show" for the community. Plus, I am madly in love with her heh. Now, before you say to yourself how I have totally gone off the deep end, at least here me out.
 
I need artists!
 
I will of course be willing to pay you for the time you spend in doing this little project for me, but in short, I need good artists who are able to draw these characters effectively. I would like to have these girl's be meshed into single pieces of artwork (aka together), as well as drawn with unique flair and costumes/poses for my projects. If you are at all interested in helping me out in this endeavor, please, please, please PM me as I would A. love to see what you can do, and B. love your help. If you have any questions, let me know as well. Thanks guys!
 
And with that, I end this post. Thank you again everyone, and I hope you can welcome me back one last time.

Sorry Kendjin, I'll be the one closing this thread.
 
First off I apologize for being absent when this turned into chaos. I was incredibly sleep deprived, I could not think clearly and I shouldn't have opened this thread when my brain couldn't function 100%. Thank you Rooke for telling me to go to sleep, I genuinely needed it.
Now that I've slept over 12 hours and I've cooled off my head, I feel like I'm able to properly write something again. Sadly this post is going to be the last one in the thread.
Again, sorry for not being a proper staff member and trying to do my job while not in the best mental conditions, that was a big flaw on my part and I do regret it and I hope some of you at least forgive me.
 
Now onto the issue at hand.
 
What this thread made me realize is that I shouldn't have made it in the first place.
 
I made this thread with a goal in mind: get people to suggest ways to improve the contest and get them to tell me what they thought was good or bad about the rules.
That was really the only thing that I wanted to know.
 
Because the goal of this thread in my mind was to work with you guys. This contest is for Fuwanovel, and while staff are in charge and could do whatever they want and you would just have to accept ir or leave, you guys are part of Fuwanovel and it didn't feel right for me as the person in charge if I didn't hear what you guys thought. I tried giving you a voice so the contest could be more fun and what did that result in? People started arguing and dividing into groups and the thread ended up being about bashing against each other rather than discussing what could be done to improve what was supposed to be a fun contest.
 
Now I never expected this thread to be peaceful, as a staff member I am painfully aware that you can never please everyone. But while some may think the solution is just go with your gut, I tried to be a bit more broad and see what you could come up with as the users who participated. Maybe it was naive of me, maybe i'm just not cut for the job, but I tried. I honestly tried my best to even give the minority a voice.
I tried listening to everyone's opinions before, during and after the contest. Just in hopes of maybe improving what me and Tay had initially planned. But sadly it seems that it won't go that way. No matter how hard I try it's clear to me that there'll never be one time where we can't have a discussion about the initial issue at hand instead of attacking each other.
 
As a moderator I accept being bashed, I accepted it as part of the job and with this contest, the first time where I asked to be in charge of a Fuwanovel event, I fully realized that I'll never be able to please everyone, that is even if i'm able to please the majority, that there'll always be people to diminish the work i tried putting into it. And you know that's fine, I'm still here, I'll still do my job and listen to everyone's voices during the next contests. But let me tell you that I will not make the mistake of trying to open one of these threads again.
 
I'm trying guys. I really am trying to listen to everyone and suggesting a solution that can be the best of both worlds. But it's just not working anymore.
 
This thread just made me realize one thing: I should have sticked with the set of rules I originally planned.
 
And that's how it's going to be in future contests.
 
I honeslty appreciate some useful opinions that were brought up initially. I'm sorry that I was too sleep deprived and couldn't properly reply to them, just know that I've re-read this whole thread and appreciate what you said and will keep it in mind.
As for the people who started attacking others, I'm sorry I couldn't do a good enough job to please you that you had to be so upset.
 
I agree with batman when he said this contest was supposed to be for fun, that was indeed my intention as well, I wanted people to enjoy making banners with the stuff they liked and proudly show them off regardless of artistic skill, yet it turned into a factions battle in the end because everything in Fuwa seems to turn like that nowadays.
 
All this fighting at one point just made me want to give up and hand this contest to someone else because I didn't feel capable of handling it properly, because I felt like I was ruining it in some way and letting everyone down and it felt like crap. But after cooling off I still sticked with what I've started and I'll go with it until the end unless it gets so painful I can't deal with it anymore. I hope it'll never get to that point, I hope that with this post maybe we can all appreciate that this is just a contest for fun and not a war and thus future contests will be more peaceful.
 
I don't want to make this post more redundant than it needs to be so i'll just sum up how contests will be from now on (since that was supposed to be the issue at first):
I will not ban any characters from the contest, this is creativity oppression and I will not change my personal stead against it. I'm sorry to those who don't like lolis, to those who think that shouldn't represent Fuwa, to those who just think that's plain wrong. I will not go back on this.
The voting will remain single vote as I addressed in the OP after editing it. I realized that trying to change this just turned the whole thing into a bigger mess and I shouldn't have suggested it in the first place.
 
The only thing that I am also aware and that I will change, and you can have my word on it, the theme will be strictly enforced in the next contest. I will make sure that only entries that prove they are created with the theme in mind will go through to the voting phase.
And yes batman the winner from a previous contest will not be able to participate in the contest that immediately follows, that was one rule I set intially as well.
 
I hope this post may please some of you, I know it won't please all of you, but it's just the best I can do right now. Thank you for reading all of it.

Just wanted to say that I very much appreciate you guys taking on this project. It's the project I'm most looking forward to, and I'll be cheering you on all the way. Good luck, and I hope you guys are having fun doing it :3

Tay. Many thanks for this!!!
Oh I love you so much right now.
 
Whenever I updated the Violet Hill thread I was always uneasy cause I knew that my update would be buried in miliseconds under 50 posts of idle VN chat. XD
Separating projects (both FTL and OELVN) is a very helpful move for us VN developers/Translators who want a little more attention and a dedicated space to recruit and ask for feedback.
 
Many thanks for this. In behalf of my team, we really appreciate it!

A big thanks to everybody who suggested ways we can better support this forum. I heard three requests over and over in the general feedback thread and in private:
We need a separate "Projects" board for launched projects (for organization's sake, and because with the other fan TL discussion it's easy for projects to get buried) Project managers need more control (software control) over a launched project's thread Something like a tagging system (or something similar) which could highlight updates to a project would be beneficial  
 
I think all of those things are great ideas. Here's what I plan to do:
I'll be rolling out a new "Ongoing Projects" forum (which will separate and contain all the Fan TL/OELVN projects which have launched) today or tomorrow Part of the reason for a separate forum is because it will make it easier for me to empower project managers and give them more software control over their threads Tagging functionality (or something similar) and additional control will be implemented as soon as IPBoard launches their upcoming big update and I can gauge how badly it'll break the forums ; )  
 
Thank you for all of your hard work. Please don't be afraid to speak up in the future and let us know what you need.

I think 6 is awesome and I won't be switching. Sorry peeps.
 
It doesn't matter if it wins or not, it's about honesty and staying true to your beliefs. If it doesn't win then it's fine, the people will have spoken and I will accept the result with a smile. There will be a smile on my face because I know that I stayed consistent with my beliefs... and also because I'll have cursed those who voted against it with the annoying trend of having your pants keep falling down whenever you talk with members of the opposite sex.
 
Have a pleasant day people

I think 6 is awesome and I won't be switching. Sorry peeps.
 
It doesn't matter if it wins or not, it's about honesty and staying true to your beliefs. If it doesn't win then it's fine, the people will have spoken and I will accept the result with a smile. There will be a smile on my face because I know that I stayed consistent with my beliefs... and also because I'll have cursed those who voted against it with the annoying trend of having your pants keep falling down whenever you talk with members of the opposite sex.
 
Have a pleasant day people

I think 6 is awesome and I won't be switching. Sorry peeps.
 
It doesn't matter if it wins or not, it's about honesty and staying true to your beliefs. If it doesn't win then it's fine, the people will have spoken and I will accept the result with a smile. There will be a smile on my face because I know that I stayed consistent with my beliefs... and also because I'll have cursed those who voted against it with the annoying trend of having your pants keep falling down whenever you talk with members of the opposite sex.
 
Have a pleasant day people

I think 6 is awesome and I won't be switching. Sorry peeps.
 
It doesn't matter if it wins or not, it's about honesty and staying true to your beliefs. If it doesn't win then it's fine, the people will have spoken and I will accept the result with a smile. There will be a smile on my face because I know that I stayed consistent with my beliefs... and also because I'll have cursed those who voted against it with the annoying trend of having your pants keep falling down whenever you talk with members of the opposite sex.
 
Have a pleasant day people

First things first, I listened to both episodes in the middle of the night, while being hungover and cold. You two got me started today, thank you for that.
 
That said, I couldn't agree more with Ren on his reply to Steve's post.
 
The site is undergoing a paradigm shift from a full-blown pirate site trying to communicate - no, indoctrinate -, that all copyright is evil in the post-scarcity society, even going as far as bundling propaganda videos in the early torrents, to more of a community and informational site, where unofficial translations can find their home, but spreading information and being the "big", approachable site with all the easily accessible information should clearly be the focus.
 
People also either don't know or seem to have forgotten that Aaeru didn't just leave, but did so in a way that would have left the site to crash and burn if Taylor hadn't stepped up to save it. I've been one of the people stating "Fuwanovel and Aaeru saved my life", but at the same time I'm sad and bitter that she didn't even have the decency to hand over the site when she was growing tired of it.
 
Taylor is running the show in a fashion that doesn't contradict the general mission statement, just the non-sustainable pirate and anti-copyright propaganda machine that was Aaeru's original intention. Please try to be accepting of the imminent changes, because Fuwanovel will of course stay the same at its core, but improve in various ways; The sacrifices being made along the way are done for the sake of sustainability. The site can't walk the thin rope that is running a pirate site forever without some major changes anyways, and I'd rather the site and its community go the safe route than trying to cling to "the old way", whose founder, prophet and god left.
 
I think it's time that we worked on actually bettering the site instead of just keeping running in crisis mode. It's time to settle back in to keep improving as a site and community.
 
Quick edit, back on topic: I'm looking forward to the next pieces of Fuwa history, since that's the interesting stuff I mostly don't know about.

Unity was certainly a talking point of the podcast.  While unity has it uses, so does dissent (and Tay has acknowledged that also in the podcasts in his choice of moderators).  Being able to consider an issue from multiple perspectives is so valuable, we even have a term for it in business: diversity.  The best of both worlds is being able to unite to work towards a common goal, without losing the diversity of ideas that drives innovation and thoughtful discussion.
 
That said, I do find barefaced allusions to Aaeru as some sort of prophet in a cult--by her own followers--to be disconcerting.  Aaeru made many many enemies of people from all walks of life, even pirate communities.  I think it's worth reflecting on how she managed to make so many enemies given the relative moderateness of her actions compared to other thriving pirate communities.  Wherever she went Aaeru sowed division in the VN community, not unity.  Our viewpoints diverged so much in this respect that Aaeru once called me a "collectivist", which is ironic considering how much time I spend arguing with people.  If Fuwanovel is to grow and embrace the rest the VN community as whole, it can't cling to the divisive ideals which Aaeru championed in the past.

So I just finished this video. I've wanted to make videos for quite some time now, and after seeing Rens loyalty and passion to this site, i figured I'd make something for it too.

Of course, this is all just for laughs. Don't take anything here seriously
And if you have any sort of criticism, do NOT share it. I already have a (coach? teacher? Instructor?...Senpai? I dunno what you call it) for that.
 

 
And thanks for Ashadow for being very patient with me, and for answering all my questions and requests (Sugoi, Ash-senpai!). If you don't know him... wait, you DON'T KNOW HIM?!?! See here http://www.youtube.com/user/Ashadow700
 
ps: i think the title should be edited to have (video) in it...

For those of you who haven't had the chance to check out the podcast episodes as of late, take a look at the new series Tay and I have been working on recently in an effort to improve the community and listen to you, the people of Fuwanovel. The 2 episodes posted below are the beginning of the series - a preview into what we hope will be the format for many future episodes going forward. Being very similar to an "ask me anything" thread, Tay will do his very best to answer the many questions the community has in an effort to connect with the many members here on the site.
 
Fuwanovel is on the verge of change, and this is in my opinion a great leap forward, so feel free to tune in by clicking any of the links below, and we hope this helps answer many people's questions.
 
Man Behind the Curtain - Episode 2: Fuwanovel Unification and Concerns
 
And here is the 1st episode in case you happened to miss it:
 
Man Behind the Curtain - Episode 1: Fuwanovel Towards the Future
 
Thanks for listening!