My thoughts and impressions about fuwanovel until now

[Kaguya]

So- I’ve been here for about one month and a half now, and I thought it’d be nice to say what I thought of fuwan until now.

I’ll begin with the “main” focus (I really don’t like the term “main” here, still I couldn’t find any better one) which is VN distribution.

If we’re only talking about numbers, fuwanovel certainly has less VNs than you can find on other places- I myself have about 10-20 VNs on my pc which you can’t find here. However, whenever I can I try to download stuff from here- This is most probably due to the fact that while I’m certainly a VN fan, I’m also a noob with computers, and often installing patches, extra stories and such lead to mistakes which I can’t quite understand.

I think it’s incredibly good that you guys usually put pre-patched stuff, which helps quite a lot some people who don’t have knowledge about pcs in general. While I can use daemon tools and I don’t end up having beginner mistakes (problem with locale, files set to read-only, etc.) It still proves hard to me to install patches with confusing instructions and mostly sloppy and hard to understand writing.

I’ll go straight to my impressions on tech support now- And I have to say I had errors with stuff from fuwanovel 3 times until now- And all of them weren’t common errors. Yet in all of the three times, in less than 5 hours I got a solution. (Thanks Zakamutt, Mephisto, Kendjin and Luch for helping by the way). This really left a good impression, as I already had to experience waiting for days for help with errors and often not even getting it, leading me to delete the VN from my pc without even reading it. Overall, I have a great impression on fuwan help with VN issues until now.

I don’t have much to say about fuwanovel’s position on copyright in general- I couldn’t agree more with it. While I could argue about why here, you guys already did such a great job in defending your position that I really have nothing to say- It’d be pretty much a repetition of arguments I’ve heard from other members, so I really won’t bother.

I’ll say a bit about the people as well- to me this is undoubtedly the best point of fuwan until now. People are actually friendly towards each other, and I don’t have to constantly worry about getting crap whenever I say something. It’s a sad truth, but in most places I’ve seen that talk about visual novels (or arguably, internet in general) have a really bad atmosphere. People seem to love hating, and that bothers me to no end. I usually don’t feel like I can say “I like this” without getting poisonous feedback from a great number of people- And having people who like the same things answering them in a poisonous way as well.

You can definitely argue about fuwanovel being small- I’ve only really talked with 10-20 members, and these talks mostly happened on the IRC, and I can say that compared to most VN related sites, fuwan doesn’t seem to have all that much activity- However, I can also say that even if there aren’t much people talking at all, the benefits of having no haters are certainly worth it. And even non-serious, silly stuff like a cup noodles thread can get surprisingly enjoying if there’s no one trying to ruin the fun.

I’ve found myself laughing at nonsensical conversations with members I didn’t knew all that well (My first line to solidbatman was something amongst the lines of “You shall be my imouto from now on!” since he greeted me with “welcome back, onii-chan”) without having to worry about being treated in a bad manner by people there. I could probably keep talking by hours about the IRC interactions I had- like the nicknaming trend I created, kuu and ryouuuuu-sempai unparalled Osu skills, the yuri story I’m making about fuwanovel (actually, thanks for the feedback. The next chapter is probably coming out this week), Archer (Kendjin) grief with frodo’s death and a lot more I’m not going to write here.

This also applies to serious conversations. Even when talking about polemic stuff, people are always nice and respectful towards each other, which I personally think it’s great. Even when someone makes a mistake, there’s just and educated warning with no bad intentions explaining the error. This is the biggest reason of my activity on the forums, since if I ever screw up, I’m sure I won’t get a load of insults from everyone.

This is also why I can believe that whenever I talk to a member I’m yet to know, I’m going to have an amiable chat, instead of hatred spam. And also the reason I encourage every other newcomer like me to try and talk to people here. You’ll definitely not regret it XD

Gah, I somehow feel like I’m making propaganda now. Uuuh… That’s not my intention, though…

Anyway! This is my honest impression of fuwanovel until now. While it may be incomplete, it touches on every major point I wanted to talk about- And I can say that I’m really glad of taking part on the forums now

I seriously hope fuwan grows, and that it never loses its friendly atmosphere. I really like the forums now, and seeing people work hard for spreading Visual Novels is really a pleasure. I also hope someday I can take part of this as well.

Thanks for all the members that showed me how fun it can be to be part of this.

[Sovereign]

Agree.

Totally.

More than 90% of the communities i joined people just thrash you to a new level. Fuwanovel is different, look at my english, i know it's bad, but the in a few replies i got a "Your english is fine, so don't worry about it too much" from solidbatman. Fuwa is not my first international community forum, so i was kinda afraid of the usual thrash talk like "Go learn english your dumbass" since it happened a lot.

I really liked joining the forum, i got lots of VNs to read/play, tons of tips and even a "since you played X, try Y". That is really great for me, because i don't really know how to look for similar VNs or where to find them other than vndb. Everyone is polite and friendly, you can just jump into a topicand give your reply without fear. Fuwanovel might be my first community where the administrators are not rude.

My RL friends don't like VNs, animes or mangas, so i'm trully happy for finding fuwanovel and being able to join this wonderful community. I don't post much, but, i always read the forum.

So, thanks for this great community guys, especially admins and moderators. It's not easy to look after a forum, i worked for 1 year in brazial Travian forum, so i know what i'm talking about.

[Kaguya]

So, thanks for this great community guys, especially admins and moderators. It's not easy to look after a forum, i worked for 1 year in brazial Travian forum, so i know what i'm talking about.

Ooooh! you're from brazil as well, huh. We're on the same boat.

[Steve]

I'm glad you like it here.

I like to think about fuwan forums as an oasis in the desert of English VN community.

It is small community but it is completely different from most of other big websites.

You can ask for recommendations, you can voice your opinion if you want something translated, you can talk about stuff you like and dislike and you will not be hated like you would in other communities.

About the game collection, there should be almost all fan translations.

The games you don't see are probably licensed works such as works from Mangagamer, JAST.

Those games would put fuwanovel in danger because those are western companies publishing the games and they care about the western market (where fuwanovel would be direct free competition). Most of Japanese VN companies have no plans for any English translation or release of their game to this market so it is not worth to them to have any lawsuits and stuff to forbid this free sharing of their games in western market. They might actually be more happy that the games are pre-patched to English because no Japanese will take use of this service.

Well that all is just theories but what is sure that MG and JAST would be very pissed if their games would show up here.

PS: Fuwanovel is also the biggest Mare Fanclub within non-japanese VN readers xD Everyone here loves Mare so much xD

[Kaguya]

Indeed, Mare is my waifu. She's just so cute

[solidbatman]

I'm glad you guys feel welcome here. When I joined, what kept me coming back was just how friendly it was. Especially for a forum dealing more in the otaku culture. Past experiences had kept me away as people were too passionate in a bad way. So I'm happy that the same warmness and friendliness is still standing out to new members. And I want to thank everyone for continuing the friendly atmosphere of this forum. It's a pleasure to be here and you guys make it that way. Except for Lewycool. I'll never forgive him for the Platinum Disco Incident of 2013

[Lewycool]

I tired to help you with errors to :P/>/> but I fell asleep doing so....

Anyways I agree with your points kagaya. The forums i've been on arn't as friendly as you would see them here. But that also differs on the size of the community.

Fuwanovel to me is a site which allows people with the same love for VN's, either to talk about them or to recommend VN's they love too. And also this website is 'dedicated to sharing fan translated visual novels' which brings more and more people due to wanting and sharing what their interested in.

The 'people' who are either staff or admin are also friendly and would always help someone in need, it could be fixing a problem or helping them become comfordent (active) with the use of positivity.

The members are just as great in every way with there helpfulness and their responses are also enjoyable to read

The IRC is a bonus because you can interact with people on the forums that you wouldn't do if there wasn't one.

I don't know if its just my selfishness but, I wouldn't want this community to become to big. Because for example MAL was a website for anime/manga and that became big and look at that, their are people hating on each other for unnecessary reasons. And hate is never a good thing.

[Lewycool]

I'm glad you guys feel welcome here. When I joined, what kept me coming back was just how friendly it was. Especially for a forum dealing more in the otaku culture. Past experiences had kept me away as people were too passionate in a bad way. So I'm happy that the same warmness and friendliness is still standing out to new members. And I want to thank everyone for continuing the friendly atmosphere of this forum. It's a pleasure to be here and you guys make it that way. Except for Lewycool. I'll never forgive him for the Platinum Disco Incident of 2013 ;)/>

It will go down in history my friend

[Kaguya]

I don't know if its just my selfishness but, I wouldn't want this community to become to big. Because for example MAL was a website for anime/manga and that became big and look at that, their are people hating on each other for unnecessary reasons. And hate is never a good thing.

Obviously, when I say I want it to become big I expect it to do so while still keeping the friendly way.

Things would probably need to become a bit more strict if this was a really big community, so I dunno. I want it to grow and keep like this as well, I guess. It may not be very realistic, though.

[Sovereign]

Obviously, when I say I want it to become big I expect it to do so while still keeping the friendly way.

Things would probably need to become a bit more strict if this was a really big community, so I dunno. I want it to grow and keep like this as well, I guess. It may not be very realistic, though.

Yeap, that's the problem. With a bigger community, things WILL get out of control. Maybe not now, not tomorrow, but someday it will. On Travian forum, when i started as a moderator, we had like, 500 users, after the 50k, dude...i couldn't post stuff, it was just, Close, Move and Report. Most moderators started to post less and report more. People wanted lots of posts, but without anything good.

It was like:

Text wall

1st reply: Really?

2nd: Nice!

3rd: ...

4th: a usefull comment.

5th: shut up noob ^

With everything that is happening in Brazil, fuwa is my safehouse now :lol:/>

Some guys tried to burn down the City Hall here where i live.

[Kuu]

You're not going to yell at me for manning the IRC channel harshy?

[Kaguya]

You're not going to yell at me for manning the IRC channel harshy?

Nah, it's part of the fun.

[Ryoji]

Really makes me happy that everyone feels welcome here. I've been gone due to health reasons and it warms my heart that the forums have grown and are running so smoothly.

Awesome job guys!! I can't wait to get to know all the new members. I know I'm late n saying this but welcome to the forums.

[shcboomer]

Might as well chime in as well. I have been enjoying the community as well. I joined a few months back, and can safely say I don't regret it at all.

[alden_0023]

I've been here in the forums for a while, and though I am not posting much (well, not as much as others, you know who you are ), I am definately enjoying my stay here..

Fuwanovel is the first forum I have joined (and the only one that I have been active so far). I like how the people here are nice and fun to talk to.

I also like that though this is a supposed to be a VN community, it has transcended into being a community where people can talk about a lot of stuff without anyone disrespecting them.

It is also a joy to see the community growing. I actually see a lot of members that I haven't really talk to. I wish I can talk to you guys ^^

In the future, I hope that the community keeps growing and its members continue to become closer to each other ^^

[eclipsezero]

Yep, fantastic forum, definitely the most friendly one I have seen so far <3

[JeMhUnTeR]

yeah, I agree! haha, I remember joining here because I fell in love with the Koiken Otome opening. I went looking for English translations, and I ended up as its current project's editor and image editor muhahaha :bd

fuwanovel is a small community, which I think is a reason why it's easy to keep it friendly. No one but VN lovers would join this forum, so no random trolls lurking around. We all think as one, since we all love visual novels! I would have played shitty VNs if I haven't found this forum, and in a few months I'd stop playing. You guys are awesome T.T *sobs* lolwat

okay, my english feels rusty. I can't edit right now hahaha

[Steve]

We all think as one, since we all love visual novels!

Actually luckily we don't think as one, but instead have individual personalities and opinions from many minds of fuwan users.

Thinking as one (or more like following one idea of someone) is one of the causes of some communities being bad to newcomers who don't think just like they do (therefore not fitting the community).

Its like if we would all think like Aaeru. But we don't, we have things we agree on, we have things we disagree on - we are all individual people with their personal opinions and that makes the community much better than if we were "followers of Aaerus ideology". And even people who mostly disagree with that ideology are still welcome here, as long as they behave like people and not trolls and other forms of monsters.

[JeMhUnTeR]

Let's just all be Aaeru, then! I shall call you Stevaeeru!

Actually, yeah. I'll just take back what I said haha. We don't think as one!!~

lol sorry I really feel shit right now hahaha

[Steve]

Its fine, we all love Mare xD

[Guest]

the copyright articles in the FAQ are my own personal thoughts and not really anyone elses,

it's not fuwanovel's position, it's my position. there is no we, there is only I.

When i first proposed the site at the beginning of last year, everyone was against it. Everyone. i stood against the entire VN community.

the argument against was that it does not achieve what it asserts to achieve and that it was immoral. my argument was that it was honest ("every1 who plays VNs is a pirate. including the TLers"), and secondly that the real problem japanese VNs suffer in the West is not piracy, it's audience (i.e. "there is none").

and at the time i was receiving some heavy criticism (if only it was criticism, it was just "ILL fucking rape you bitch!") mostly from people who were the most self-righteous, and FUCK was there a lot of people like that. A lot of people were outraged, and others found it entertaining. U get some ultra hypocrites like the guy who runs yande.re who accuses me of piracy (WHILE he runs yande.re and uploads hundreds of scans). lol

u have to imagine just over a year ago, there was no such thing as a VN community that doesnt share the same culture as 4chan. If u want to talk about VNs ur going to get called a faggot. No exceptions.

there was gemot (now overrun by trolls), VNDB (4chan culture), and /jp/. craneanime didn't even have forums yet. hongfire and nihonomaru for the occasional talk, and animesuki for the rare talk, but that was it. essentially if u want to talk VN, u have to go to 4chan. also if u share anything other than anime or manga, u are a faggot, bcuz those are approved and these aren't.

needless to say, at the time i grew very defensive. Then I spent about 4 months non-stop researching copyright and grew convinced that my intuition was right. (I was not always anti-copyright. I remember at the beginning of 2012 i was shouting at checkmate (who runs anime-sharing) for not removing JAST download links when Peter asked him to.)

it's difficult to explain it unless u have experienced being ostracized from a community. people look down on you like you are dirt. in response i desperately wanted to show people that what i stood for was good and right, for i had overwhelming evidence that it was. unfortunately the opinions were stacked very highly against me. It is a very sad feeling, but regardless i carried on anyway. that is why u see the copyright section on the FAQ. that is why people criticize me for being so verbose on the topic. it's because i was desperately trying to show people what i was doing was not wrong. but of course that worked against me because now i was being too preachy. in fact one of the main criticisms is that i merge copyright ideas too closely with the site. of course nowadays it is not. my ideas are mine. fuwan is fuwan. but even today u will still see this as an argument against fuwa. actually it's their only argument left so let them have it.

(actually it is wrong to say that it was only negative response. there was positive response too. a lot of ppl agreed with the direction of the site, they just disliked the execution)

At one point i found the attacks on me very distraught, and unjust. but nowadays i think im getting better. nowadays i keep my cool and keep a candid nature. dont take things too seriously, laugh at the world when it is ridiculous, etc (thanks to jeffrey tucker). not to mention that a lot of fan translators actually dont mind the site. they see it as honest. "yes we are pirates, yes i translate this game but i dont own it. yes i dont see reason y I have to look down on other fans bcuz they pirate".

but more importantly, it's because the world is changing. and fewer and fewer people accept intellectual "property" (actually most of the world's population does not accept your intellectual property. just ask India)

the pirate party has spread to over 60 countries in the world and has become the fastest growing political party.

In 2008, seven members of parliament from the ruling party in Sweden wrote a proposal calling for the complete decriminalization of filesharing; they wrote, "Decriminalizing all non-commercial file sharing and forcing the market to adapt is not just the best solution. It's the only solution. Unless we want an ever more extensive control of what citizens do on the Internet."[11]

the tides are turning. the teenagers of today was born connected to the net. and copyright to them is just some bullshit that the publishers had kept around from a bygone age. it is completely divorved from their world where every1 shares and every1 remixes and every1 sings. It makes absolutely no sense to them.

“We don’t want everything for free. We just want everything." - 15 y.o girl

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120322/15404918215/we-dont-want-everything-free-we-just-want-everything.shtml

that is why i say give it another 10, 20 years. more and more ppl will begin to understand that preventing 70% of the world's population from accessing the knowledge that they desperately need in order to prosper, is a BAD deal in order to pay your artist.

[Kaguya]

the copyright articles in the FAQ are my own personal thoughts and not really anyone elses,

it's not fuwanovel's position, it's my position. there is no we, there is only I.

I just found out you have a copyright article on FAQ .-.

Actually, I'm yet to talk to you mote than 10 lines or so, so this is the first time I learned clearly of some of your positions.

The "we" I talked about was because pretty much every member I talked to seem to support your position, but I guess I was being kind of generic there. Sorry.

PS: This seem to have gotten way more feedback than I thought. Somehow I'm kind of happy by it XD

[Guest]

nar dw, i didn't have any issue with that, it was more like me trying to blow off some steam from the past, it wasn't complaining about your post.

[Ryoji]

Actually luckily we don't think as one, but instead have individual personalities and opinions from many minds of fuwan users.

Yeah because if we all thought like Steve the Universe would implode

[shcboomer]

Yeah because if we all thought like Steve the Universe would implode :P/>

Well it would be filled with lolis, that's for sure.