solidbatman Posted March 7, 2016 Share Posted March 7, 2016 Now I know many of you are reading that title and either saying, "Bats, there are already histories of Fuwanovel written by other members! What makes yours any different?" History is history after all. I have wanted to do this many times, and right now is a good time I think. Fuwanovel has a ton of new members, members that are post-Aaeru, post- Vax, post- Ryoji, post- torrents. Fuwanovel today is vastly different than what it was just 2 short years ago. I have been browsing the dankest of visual novel websites, Fuwanovel, for 3.5ish years now. I feel I am an a unique position to tell the story of Fuwanovel as I see it. Many of you know that I used to be a global moderator. Even less of you likely know that I also used to be a site administrator. For that reason, I got to see many of the changes happening to Fuwanovel behind closed doors. I was a part of some of the decision making that led Fuwanovel to where it is now. So, this post will be all about that jazz. This post will not be white washed. It will not be some Fuwa Propaganda. I have made many mistakes in my time on Fuwanovel, and in my eyes, so have other people. Please do not report this post, or censor it because you think I am insulting people. I am keeping this as respectful as possible. Now that the breading of this historical sandwich is in place, how about a little background as to why I joined Fuwanovel. Back when I joined, on November 20th, 2012, I had read but two VNs. Katawa Shoujo and Analogue: A Hate Story. Analogue was what got the ball rolling, and after an RPGFan.com suggestion, I decided to read Ever17. I found a particular site that offered VN downloads, however they were multi-part .rar files. Screw that. I am a lazy solidbatman who wants one download and one only. So, I continued my search, found Fuwanovel, and downloaded Ever17 from the old front page. If you are very new, and don't know what Fuwanovel used to be, let me explain. Fuwanovel, until somewhat recently, offered pre-patched torrents of visual novels. These were portable, download and play VNs with minimal effort required from the user. Aaeru's goal was to make playing VNs as easy as possible, and this was well before Steam VNs were even a blip on the radar really. Sure, one or two existed like Analogue, but it was nothing compared to what we have now. These pre-patched VNs did not always work, but generally, results were fine. Back to me now, I did not actually join Fuwanovel upon downloading Ever17. That did not come until I was enjoying Ever17, and downloaded Never7 to follow up with. Unfortunately, Never7 had a sound issue, and I was unable to solve it on my own. So, I joined the Fuwanovel forums in what I still think is the best introduction post ever written. At the time, I was planning on just messing around a little bit, getting my help for Never7, and moving on. Instead, I found a helpful, extremely friendly, tight knit community eager to spread their love of visual novels to anyone willing to listen. I was still friendly back then too. I quickly took part in anime discussions, gaming discussions, and generally helping people out whenever possible. Fuwanovel was a baby still, only being formed in August 2012, and was just gaining its footing. To this day, I still have not sought help for my Never7 problem on Fuwanovel. I eventually found my way into Steve's teamspeak server, and with his encouragement, I finished Clannad. Early on, I actually was friends with Steve, and enjoyed talking to him. This was before either of us were moderators. We had many a good discussion about various anime and VNs, and I quickly learned that in his teamspeak, no link was a the only kind of safe link. He also learned of my distaste for sexualized lolis, and was constantly posting things to trip me up into looking at one. Much fun was had on his Teamspeak, and eventually Tay popped in to ask us if we wished to become moderators. This may have also been around the time as the IRC room AMApocolypse. Snotsuku, a resident troll, decided to intice everyone into spamming the forums with AMA threads. Oddly enough, this marked my early encounter with Zakamutt, as he and Kendjin both were slapped on the wrists for their actions and Snow faced a temporary ban. I do remember helping Tay and Ryoji sort that mess out (it resulted in a dedicated IRC thread, and the beginnings of the Games and Chatter board) but again, I don't remember if I was a moderator yet. Notable members that become moderators with me were Steve, Down, and Luch. Luch, while quiet, helped many people with technical issues resulting from downloads on Fuwanovel. Down is Down and is still what I consider the gold standard for how a moderator should handle himself on a large forum. Steve and I, well, our relationship began crumbling at this time. We both had very very different ideas on how Fuwanovel should move forward. If memory serves, on of the first messy staff arguments was over a NSFW loli image being posted. Another early argument was over whether or not the forums should have links to pirated localized VNs. The loli debate pitted Steve and Aaeru against Ryoji and I. Ryoji and I were similar in that we were crass, loud, filled with profanity. Steve was... Steve. Condescending, and the type to put his fingers in his ears and go, "Not listening!" His walls of texts failed to address issues raised, which only served to make Ryoji and I even angrier. Aaeru just did not seem to understand at times what was going on, or was too timid to jump into the bloodbath. I was extremely disrespectful in those arguments, and absolutely should have carried myself better. Tay came in, reached something of a compromise that was begrudgingly accepted by both sides. Arguments between Steve, and I continued over everything. Spam posts, loli images, piracy. It was a mess. Again, my anger typically got the best of me, and Tay, or another moderator would swoop in and attempt to resolve the situation. I stopped going to Steve's TS and began hanging out on the IRC chat room. It was there the birth of Kaguya was witnessed. From spammer to global mod. Not before getting banned from the IRC for abusing frodo the bot. Kaguya was a crazy spammer. We even caught him liking his own posts to boost his reputation. Baby Kaguya just did not give a fuck, and that was part of his appeal to some I suppose. I don't recall if Nosebleed ever hung out in the irc room. He can let you know if he did. Regardless, some shapign up happened and suddenly boom, global mod. Now something interesting happened somewhere in that time frame that resulted in me being promoted to an admin. Ryoji left Fuwanovel after basically shaping the forums. I don't think it would be wise to really get into the specifics, but it was not really a good situation. I volunteered to take on the admin spot, while in the back of my mind knowing it would be a temporary promotion. The first thing I did was finally clamp down on sexualized loli images, and pirated links on the forums. This once again led me to bump heads with Steve and Aaeru. It took me an entire day of arguing with Steve on his TS before he finally agreed to put any sexualized loli images in spoilers and label them NSFW. He also agreed to keep them only in his loli thread. It was exhausting arguing with Steve. Things were going somewhat smoothly, until Fuwapocolypse 1 happened. Aaeru kind of vanished around the same time, causing a massive headache for poor Tay. I found myself completely useless in the situation. I believe the problem was that Aaeru had pirated the forum software, and it finally caught up to use with a take down. Tay managed to raise some funds, and we purchased the legit copy that we use today. Nayleen was a huge help around that time, so I stepped down right about the same time he became an admin. I decided I no longer wanted to be staff for Fwuanovel. My constant fighting had helped nothing, and I just wanted to be done. At this time, the original Fuwanovel blog, VisualNovelAer was sort of dead I think. There was the random post now and again, but it was dead and social media outreach was smallish. Aaeru's disappearance left Tay high and dry, and then came the second Fuwapocolypse. At issue was the fact Tay had been threatened with legal action. With Aaeru completely vanished, IP holders went after Tay for being in charge of the site. This resulted in Tay having to lay low for a while and severely limit his itneractions with the site. Cybersteel took over hosting the server and Steve became admin. That was a disaster. Steve asked me to come back onto the staff to balance it out a bit I guess. I reluctantly agreed, only to find the same old issues at play. Steve was unwilling to listen to anyone but his little echo chamber, which infuriated me, leading me to go off again and again before finally asking to be relieved of my mod powers. It took 3 hours of arguing with Steve just to get off the mod team. -End Part I- I will work on this more, adding more detail as I find some older posts with some of this action, and remember things better. For example, Grisaia and Clannad getting western releases caused some issues, and so did the final Loli Battle (which resulted in Steve finally leaving Fuwanovel and Sanah becoming the new defender of Fuwa Lolis ) The rebirth of the blog, the birth of FuwaReviews, the death of torrents, and social media stuff will be covered in Part 2 when I do it. Also look forward to irc explosions, Original Ren's appearance, and other more member centric focused stuff. Maybe I'll even get into Aaeru nearly killing Fuwanovel for good. Was kind of swept under the rug for various, good reasons. I have made my fair share of mistakes with Fuwanovel. I've been too adversarial at times, disrespectful, and just mean. I fully admit a lot of my strong language is uncalled for. I also admit that I think of plenty of people on Fuwanovel as entitled, ignorant, fools with too many ideals and not enough practicality. I am also aware that many of you likely feel the same way about me. I'm fine with that. I can dish it out, and I can take it. Kawasumi, Gibberish, Fred the Barber and 16 others 19 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Sands Entertainment Posted March 7, 2016 Share Posted March 7, 2016 May the gods be forever in your favor! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaguya Posted March 7, 2016 Share Posted March 7, 2016 Yay, I got my own part <3 Man, those were the days. Fuwa was the first forum I participated in actively, and back then I could just go on posting about absolutely nothing forever. I still remember you did give me that Legendary Spammer title before I got to 500 posts - thanks for it, by the way (even though you removed it a day later ) At times you've been a pain, but nowdays I'm mostly happy you're around, as I think about just any member I talked to in 2013. Oh, I never did get banned from IRC, by the way. If it happened, it lasted for a pretty short time... After frodo I did still pop up a lot there, after all. I complained the bot was gone for like, 2 weeks Looking forward to the rest. LiquidShu and Black Sands Entertainment 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
solidbatman Posted March 7, 2016 Author Share Posted March 7, 2016 8 minutes ago, Kaguya said: Yay, I got my own part <3 Man, those were the days. Fuwa was the first forum I participated in actively, and back then I could just go on posting about absolutely nothing forever. I still remember you did give me that Legendary Spammer title before I got to 500 posts - thanks for it, by the way (even though you removed it a day later ) Oh, I never did get banned from IRC, by the way. If it happened, it lasted for a pretty short time... After frodo I did still pop up a lot there, after all. I complained the bot was gone for like, 2 weeks At times you've been a pain, but nowdays I'm mostly happy you're around, as I think about just any member I talked to in 2013. Looking forward to the rest. huh, I could of sworn Kuu banned you after you kept bombing everyone with frodo. I remember Legendary Spammer. I got axed because we didnt want everyone suddenly asking for a custom title. Kaguya 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eclipsed Posted March 7, 2016 Share Posted March 7, 2016 Tbh I think everyone here's an entitled, ignorant fool ('cept Kaguya-hime) but I still love y'all (well, most everybody) Tiag sucks Kaguya 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaguya Posted March 7, 2016 Share Posted March 7, 2016 6 minutes ago, solidbatman said: huh, I could of sworn Kuu banned you after you kept bombing everyone with frodo. I remember Legendary Spammer. I got axed because we didnt want everyone suddenly asking for a custom title. They might have, I kinda remember something like that happening, though it didn't last for more than a day. I'd ask Kuu, but I have no clue how to talk to them or if they'd even remember it 4 minutes ago, Eclipsed said: Tbh I think everyone here's an entitled, ignorant fool ('cept Kaguya-hime) but I still love y'all (well, most everybody) Tiag sucks Highlighted for everyone who asked me how to become a BM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OriginalRen Posted March 7, 2016 Share Posted March 7, 2016 Wow, I guess this means I basically need to post my 2 year reflection now, because it's an excellent pickup from your story before I arrived. kingdomcome 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred the Barber Posted March 7, 2016 Share Posted March 7, 2016 That intro thread, though. I can hardly believe that's the same solidbatman, but I guess 3.5 years is a pretty long time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Poltroon Posted March 7, 2016 Share Posted March 7, 2016 Was looking forward to -vision. Waiting for more. 23 minutes ago, Eclipsed said: Tbh I think everyone here's an entitled, ignorant fool ('cept Kaguya-hime) but I still love y'all (well, most everybody) Tiag sucks I do agree. @Tiagfvarela is certainly a member of inferior caliber. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nosebleed Posted March 7, 2016 Share Posted March 7, 2016 Expected a shitpost, actually got a nice detailed story. 4/10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Funyarinpa Posted March 7, 2016 Share Posted March 7, 2016 1 hour ago, solidbatman said: I believe the problem was that Aaeru had pirated the forum software I was like "sweet, some Fuwahistory I'd gotten foggy on" then I reached this part... MY FUCKING SIDES MY. FUCKING. SIDES. Oh my fucking god that's so in character Amazing post BTW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
solidbatman Posted March 7, 2016 Author Share Posted March 7, 2016 22 minutes ago, Fred the Barber said: That intro thread, though. I can hardly believe that's the same solidbatman, but I guess 3.5 years is a pretty long time. I used to be nice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Down Posted March 7, 2016 Share Posted March 7, 2016 Y'know, I should have written something like that earlier. I used to have a much clearer picture of the timeline of events on fuwanovel since I joined but now it's all blurry and I can't remember what happened when. Oh well. It's not like I got any hot takes on fuwahistory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
solidbatman Posted March 7, 2016 Author Share Posted March 7, 2016 5 minutes ago, Down said: Y'know, I should have written something like that earlier. I used to have a much clearer picture of the timeline of events on fuwanovel since I joined but now it's all blurry and I can't remember what happened when. Oh well. It's not like I got any hot takes on fuwahistory. You've survived. I think you might be the longest serving global mod now? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eclipsed Posted March 7, 2016 Share Posted March 7, 2016 On 10/19/2015 at 8:14 PM, Eclipsed said: Can u explain " I used to be a mod, then an admin, then a member, then a mod, then a member, then banned, then a member, and now I am a FuwaReviewer" in detail, the highs and lows and reasonings for progressing through each phase of your Fuwevolution in Professor Rooke / OriginalRen, an Original Biography essay format Sooo part 2 will cover from the time you got Banned to your transition to FuwaReviewer right Some additional comments on your Fuwanovel perspective You used to be 'nice'? Lies, that's like saying Okami used to not be a troll!!! So Steve and Ryoji are like the Madara and Hashirama huh, sounds like that was a pretty epic battle b/w the old no-longer-here folks Down's the mod 'gold standard' huh... . I guess. He needs some more love, Following him now Aaeru's vanishment possibly linked to 'cos pirated forum software(?). Y'know, that's like, 999/ZeroEscape-tier level of revelation. Damn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
solidbatman Posted March 7, 2016 Author Share Posted March 7, 2016 6 minutes ago, Eclipsed said: Sooo part 2 will cover from the time you got Banned to your transition to FuwaReviewer right Some additional comments on your Fuwanovel perspective You used to be 'nice'? Lies, that's like saying Okami used to not be a troll!!! So Steve and Ryoji are like the Madara and Hashirama huh, sounds like that was a pretty epic battle b/w the old no-longer-here folks Down's the mod 'gold standard' huh... . I guess. He needs some more love, Following him now Aaeru's vanishment possibly linked to 'cos pirated forum software(?). Y'know, that's like, 999/ZeroEscape-tier level of revelation. Damn. psh I think I was banned while I was a FuwaReviewer, but yeah, I'll get into some of the more gritty details eventually. As for Aaeru, I think she just got tired of it all tbh. She didnt vanish like, right away, but she wasn't helpful at all when the site went down and was nearly unreachable. Then she vanished and rumor has it that she tried to get the site shut down by reporting it for pornographic content to the server host. That is completely unconfirmed, but there was some speculation on the staff that this was the case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Down Posted March 7, 2016 Share Posted March 7, 2016 9 minutes ago, solidbatman said: You've survived. I think you might be the longest serving global mod now? Beato has been around longer than me. Although she's a bit different from global mods, I guess technically now she does other stuff for the sites than mod tasks. But yeah otherwise I managed to not die, piss off Tay or get pissed off/bored by this site. Some of those are definitely not easy to achieve. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark_blade64 Posted March 7, 2016 Share Posted March 7, 2016 I will always hold my opinion above all else, still I never thought that I'm right or wrong in what I believe cuz my opinion is subjective, as a matter of fact while my opinion might differ from many things solidbatman has said in the past or in the visual novels reviews I actually don't dislike him. In fact although sometimes I feel like there is so much rambling in the fuwanovel over which visual novel is better than the other, people trashing each other tastes and stuff. I like it more when people is having fun rather than discussing all the time. Although If everyone had the same tastes it would be pretty booring honestly and sometimes without people bashing things there wouldn't be never room for improvement. (Btw If someone feel like pointing out how bad is my writing skills in english feel free to do so, although It won't help me a bit. My english is beyond repair ma'am!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darklord Rooke Posted March 7, 2016 Share Posted March 7, 2016 2 hours ago, solidbatman said: I also admit that I think of plenty of people on Fuwanovel as entitled, ignorant, fools with too many ideals and not enough practicality. I am also aware that many of you likely feel the same way about me. I'd wager good money that when people think of 'Bats', none of those characteristics spring to mind. Especially not 'idealistic.' 'A perpetually drunk, salty Bat-villain' possibly. But definitely not an 'entitled fool' . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nayleen Posted March 7, 2016 Share Posted March 7, 2016 Perpetually drunk sounds like my kinda guy. Heck, we could be friends even. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LiquidShu Posted March 7, 2016 Share Posted March 7, 2016 Really enjoying the FuwaHistory posts, especially this one! LOL'd a few times while reading this. For the record I've never seen you as a meanie Bats Though we've haven't had much communication. --- Time for a FuwaNovel History textbook? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zakamutt Posted March 7, 2016 Share Posted March 7, 2016 Wow, a "perspective" post that is not shit in one way or another (because it's actually just a FuwaHistory post) lel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
solidbatman Posted March 8, 2016 Author Share Posted March 8, 2016 27 minutes ago, Zakamutt said: Wow, a "perspective" post that is not shit in one way or another (because it's actually just a FuwaHistory post) lel Its just what I saw Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zalor Posted March 8, 2016 Share Posted March 8, 2016 Thanks for doing this Bats! I hope my post (like a week ago) partly motivated you to do this. Its always nice to see people's reflections on the past. And you certainly played a fairly important role in this community in the 3 odd years you've been active. Also, Quote Maybe I'll even get into Aaeru nearly killing Fuwanovel for good. Please elaborate on this. I generally find all things concerning Aaeru fairly interesting as she has always been fairly enigmatic to me. Funyarinpa, solidbatman and babiker 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingdomcome Posted March 8, 2016 Share Posted March 8, 2016 It sounds like this could be political campaign, voting for a mod that stands for what you want. Glad you stayed and not Steve, for a certain reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.