The Current Fuwa

[Kaguya]

So, here we are. It's been over a year since I joined the fuwa forums and over 8 months since I became a mod. The community is growing and a lot happened since I first joined, but I feel like I have much more to say now than I did when I first made that "my thoughts and opinions on fuwanovel" thread.

 

Frankly, we are doing great. Every day we get more members, and the activity in the forums keep increasing. I remember a time where Aaeru had to make a topic asking how to make things more lively in the forums because of how little movement we were having, lol.

 

Some people complain about the drama and conflict that's been happening now, but seriously, it hasn't increased at all. We've always had the same amount of conflict- from all sorts of heated copyright controversy when Aaeru was still around, the bloody drama happening when the forum policies had to be decided and a lot of serious discussion over small matters like AMApocalypse (which were just 4 threads, actually) and silly stuff like Lolipocalypse. This reminds me of the discussion over the banner and all of that.

 

We've had problems with spammers (me being one of them in the past~) and all sorts of other small and petty discussions that just seem ridiculous when I look back. Remember fuwaide? That really brings back memories

 

The drama is still the same. It's just that since there are more people around, more people get to watch what happens as well. I can say from being here since a long time and investing countless hours on fuwanovel that all is the same as it has been. Two or three loldoramas on random threads are par the course. Problems with specific members are also the usual, except since Tay laid out the rule enforcement system, we spend a few hours dealing with those problems instead of several days.

 

This is a lot:

I remember times when we had, usually, 40 people looking at the site. Hell, there was even a day where I was the only member logged in- which has been screenshoted and posted somewhere on G&C, if you're brave enough to search for it~

 

The forums are cleaner than they used to be. Quite honestly, that's just a fact. The same amount of drama, inside and outside fuwa, secret or not, is still happening since a time where there were much less members than there are now. We were more laid back in the past, where you could put your threads wherever you wanted and all sorts of derailing would happen. Since we've grown bigger, we've been getting slightly stricter over time, though. In fact, I remember some great members leaving because "this place is too serious now".

 

Fuwa is, however, changing. It's changing every day, whenever a new member enters here. So the question I'd like to pose for all of you- what do you want fuwa to be? Are we about friendliness? Is our main aspect offering VNs? Should we just be a cool place for people to gather to and talk about their hobbies?

 

If you are a new member reading this- what did you like about this place? What motivated you to enter the forums?

 

What fuwa will become depends on all of you together. It doesn't matter what grand plans we might have if the community is going a different way. We've went through a lot and we will still pass through much- some time in the future, I'll look back at this post and fondly remember the "logo changing dorama" as a somewhat funny incident.

 

I wish you all a good night. I could start talking about the grand scheme of things, but I'll just go play some VNs now. Gotta finish Bloody Rondo <3

[Darklord Rooke]

Fuwa – doing little to achieve its goal and don’t even try to argue otherwise. You don’t seem to have a credible plan outside of ‘expand the fanbase through piracy’. I hear Tay has some good plans, I hope the staff are giving him much help...

 

Relatively clean forums but regular abuse still a part of the community. Aaeru intended this to be a toxic free community, people interpreted that to mean a toxic free forum but this includes endorsed IRC channels, PMs and other communication services promoted in the community. Like TS. 

 

Still quite small but everyone throws around the word ‘massive’ and ‘big.’ Lemma, a community of OELVN creators, has over 4 times the members.

[Tatsujin]

I wanted a new home away from BBT. Lately BBT's staff and members enjoy bashing things around unlike how it used to be when BoxTorrents existed. I'm just voicing my opinion out.

Fuwa is easier to hang out around. People are not dicks and there's a common ground to come together and agree on or disagree on. Forums constantly being posted by different people. Hmm ... that is it!

[Fiddle]

If you are a new member reading this- what did you like about this place? What motivated you to enter the forums?

I joined the forums for a translation project, so I was disregarding the actual quality of the forums in doing so. However, in my experience thus far, I've found the forums to be of overall good quality. All forums are going to attract trolls, so there's no need to fret about that. The ratio of good members to less-than-polite members is a favorable one, in comparison to forums I've frequented in the past.

 

How many members is a desirable quantity is subjective. I like forums to be small enough that I recognize those who are about as active as I, but it should also be big enough that there's a constant stream of discussion to enjoy. Fuwa's current state generally accords with my predilections, so I don't mind if the balance shifts toward a little fewer or a little more members. But it seems that everybody likes the recent increase in activity, so that's great.

[CruelN1N1]

I joined a week ago, but i'm really liking this forums so far, get it going guys

[Shinycloud]

just joined a few days back because i found this place very awesome

[babiker]

Fuwa is Fuwawesome.

Enough said

But seriously, comparing it to the average internet site, I'd give it a 4/5. No, its not perfect, but it's pretty darn close

[arakura]

For me, the reason I joined and still stick around was the friendliness. I had never found such a nice and awesome group of lolicons in my life! And the others are just as good too! If this place loses its friendliness, that will be the death of Fuwanovel, I believe. (That sounds a little cold to say, so I'll add that I dont think we're even close to that point yet xD). I prefer relaxed forums more, probably, but I understand the necessity for some strictness. You do what needs to be done, so good job.

[Kimanor]

This is a place I've come to like, and the more people who join this place the better, and that includes google and bing.

[Zalor]

Fuwa has certainly grown. I joined around a year and a half ago and to me it doesn't feel like a lot changed (this is good). I still love the community like when I was new here, everybody is still civil. The only thing I feel kind of nostalgic for was Ryoji's discussions of anime. That guy has been watching anime for decades, and so I loved hearing his perspective on newer and older anime. Also regarding Fuwa's growth, I really like how much more active the forums are now. That is definitely a plus.  

[GetterEmperor]

I find fuwa to be a pretty cool place where people are fun and friendly. I've really enjoyed my time here.

[Monmon]

I joined fuwa because of.....Majikoi thread.

I`m not kidding by the way, but now i rarely post in that thread.

[zhurai]

Frankly, we are doing great. Every day we get more members, and the activity in the forums keep increasing. I remember a time where Aaeru had to make a topic asking how to make things more lively in the forums because of how little movement we were having, lol.

https://forums.fuwanovel.net/index.php?/topic/1322-how-to-liven-up-the-chatter/

 

wwwwwwwwwwwww

 

 

We've had problems with spammers (me being one of them in the past~) and all sorts of other small and petty discussions that just seem ridiculous when I look back. Remember fuwaide? That really brings back memories

 

Oh yes the IRC Chat days. the stats by ThatPlayer actually made it into a competition too (Lewy, Zaka, and you) wwwwwwwww

 

 

 

Not that I'm too active nowadays until like.. less than a week ago, so I don't know the current state of things (general gist though probably)~

 

 

Fuwa has certainly grown. I joined around a year and a half ago and to me it doesn't feel like a lot changed (this is good). I still love the community like when I was new here, everybody is still civil. The only thing I feel kind of nostalgic for was Ryoji's discussions of anime. That guy has been watching anime for decades, and so I loved hearing his perspective on newer and older anime. Also regarding Fuwa's growth, I really like how much more active the forums are now. That is definitely a plus.  

Ryoji vs Eldin was funny

[Shinycloud]

This is a place I've come to like, and the more people who join this place the better, and that includes google and bing.

just for curiosity, why google and bing are here?

[zhurai]

just for curiosity, why google and bing are here?

google is everywhere

bing's on the side there watching

 

Also technically they *are* here.  Google/Bing Spiders that is

 

Jokes aside I have no clue what he meant

[Darklord Rooke]

https://forums.fuwanovel.net/index.php?/topic/1322-how-to-liven-up-the-chatter/

 

wwwwwwwwwwwww

 

There's a reason Fuwanovel struggled to get any traction in those days. Not sure you really want to go into it, though.

[crunchytaco]

That sounds promising. I'm glad I'm witnessing something's maturation period into something great. Couldn't be happier with seeing that it's Fuwanovels'.

 

Let's all get together in this thread and take another photo of our names at the bottom. 

[zhurai]

There's a reason Fuwanovel struggled to get any traction in those days. Not sure you really want to go into it, though.

Oh I know. I sometimes just like finding old links that people are too lazy to find (but reference)

[Cyrillej1]

Fuwa is, however, changing. It's changing every day, whenever a new member enters here. So the question I'd like to pose for all of you- what do you want fuwa to be? Are we about friendliness? Is our main aspect offering VNs? Should we just be a cool place for people to gather to and talk about their hobbies?

 

If you are a new member reading this- what did you like about this place? What motivated you to enter the forums?

At first, I mostly joined to try getting involved with projects, so I could use what I learned from my jp studies and help out. But the friendly/helpful community is definitely what keeps me coming back to the forums. It's a nice place to meet and mingle with others with similar interests of VNs/games, so I enjoy that the most . It's also a great place to find information regarding VNs and such.  And to me, the forums seem very clean/organized compared to other places I've been to.

[Darklord Rooke]

Suggestions. Not a question you really should be asking, you should know what needs doing tbh.

 

Fuwa is, however, changing. It's changing every day, whenever a new member enters here. So the question I'd like to pose for all of you- what do you want fuwa to be? Are we about friendliness? Is our main aspect offering VNs? Should we just be a cool place for people to gather to and talk about their hobbies?

 

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.

[OriginalRen]

I like entertaining people, putting a smile on their face, and drawing them away from problems in life, be it on here or personally. Hopefully through that entertainment I draw a crowd which finds this site and gains an interest in visual novels and Japanese culture. Simple as that.

 

The same reason why I teach English to Japanese students: to share my love of something with the rest of the world in hopes they enjoy it as much as I do.

[solidbatman]

I would respond in full detail, but I might get threatened with a temporary ban (seems to be quite popular these days for dissent). Let's just say things aren't as rosey as you make them out to be Kaguya. 

[Darklord Rooke]

I am hoping the staff are offering Tay their full support. I've heard some of Tay's plans and let me just say I am incredibly hyped for Tay's vision of this site moving forward (long term)

 

EDIT: Which brings me to my next point. Why are you guys asking for opinions regarding what the site should be when Tay already has a 6 month plan moving forward?

[Rose]

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.

[Zakamutt]

Reply to Rooke:

 

He isn't really asking for opinions, it's just the usual "fuwa is great" vs "fuwa has massive problams plzfix" thread where the yaysayars and naysayers collide like lovely little matter/antimatter pairs and explode. I mean, in your first post in this thread you completely closed off any discussion about piracy bringing people in. Positions, eh? I suppose it -has- been debated ad nauseum, and I can understand not wanting to get into it again, but there are more... polite ways to put it.

 

Well, enough of that. Let's get constructive and try projects, since that's what you want. You interested in writing news posts for the blog, Rooke? I'm going to be back on the vnaer job soon enough (just got home yestoday), but I get lazy at times and don't cover, say, an OELVN I really should have (see: icebound, sunrider etc.)

 

Up for grabs... it would be nice to do a recap post for the month, but so damn much happened I get pretty discouraged, not to mention it being old news from my perspective. Could collab since I remember most of it at least.

 

Note: I don't exactly have the authority to add you as an author or anything, but what the hell. Anyone want to get into it? Do a writeup, run it by Tay or me or whatever.

 

In retrospect I might want to make a thread on this, but I should probably talk to Tay before I make this more official lol.