So long as it wouldn't be as cliquey as HongFire's, I'm up for us experimenting with the idea. But I was never a big fan of HongFire's Japanese subforum because it was very cliquey. Then again, HongFire in its entirety is a very cliquey and divisive community, so perhaps their problems need not necessarily be our problems too. Again, I'm up for experimenting with the idea: it's easy for chompy to make and it's just as easy for him to delete, so he really has nothing to lose by granting your request as far as I can tell.
ようこそ！Bienvenue! Suggestions for an International FAQ
- Thread starter Sakunyuusha
- Start date
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I'm not requesting anything. I for one don't need or even want a Japanese speaking forum. It's just an idea regarding the agenda of how to help members understand the AO forum and its system and encourage them to participate and contribute to the community.
I understand how you mean a Japanese room could be cliquey. The Japanese are infamous for their mob mentality. Maybe it's not a good idea at all. When Japanese members start posting, it is possible the AO forum may face a new legal problem-copyright problem. Highly possible the Japanese paysites know the existence of this place. So far they have been tolerant with us but who knows if they would see Japanese members break the surface and post their copyrighted material even more vehemently. Probably it's better and safer for AO that Japanese members keep lurking and posting only occasional thank-you's.:distressed:
I wasn't even thinking of the 2chan culture, but you're so very right (about how cliquey they can be).
I was thinking more of the cliques which I remember existing on HongFire. It's been years, so I don't remember the specific details and don't want to unintentionally fabricate fictitious events, but I can at least tell you this with confidence: I specifically remember that there was a voiced sentiment for two different "Official Japanese Chat Thread" threads. I don't remember which group was pushing for it or if it ever happened. I just remember that the advanced speakers felt that the noobs' writing was too hard to read (because it was all in kana and with zero kanji; and it also had a lot of grammatical errors) whereas the noobs felt that the advanced speakers' posts were also too hard to read (because of their proficient use of kanji and advanced grammar). On the surface, this isn't such a big deal, but iirc there was an underlying tension between the two different groups or cliques, if you will. iirc the advanced speakers felt that the noobs were derailing their conversations whereas the noobs felt that the advanced speakers were shutting them out of the conversations intentionally.
Obviously this would be a non-issue for a forum or subforum dedicated to native speakers of Japanese.
As far as legal issues are concerned, that's an entirely different discussion, but if I were chompy and if I had the time and the contacts that I'd need to pull it off, I would try to contact the guy who runs 4chan. Obviously that guy is well-known to the hentai industry. It would be beneficial to chompy to know how it is that 4chan has avoided being shut down despite:
(a) its failure to reveal the identities of person who post links to illegally-uploaded licensed materials, and
(b) its failure to restrict visitors to the site from sharing such materials in the first place.
4chan welcomes sharing materials illegally, preserves the anonymity of its members, and is internationally known. There's got to be something.
I was thinking more of the cliques which I remember existing on HongFire. It's been years, so I don't remember the specific details and don't want to unintentionally fabricate fictitious events, but I can at least tell you this with confidence: I specifically remember that there was a voiced sentiment for two different "Official Japanese Chat Thread" threads. I don't remember which group was pushing for it or if it ever happened. I just remember that the advanced speakers felt that the noobs' writing was too hard to read (because it was all in kana and with zero kanji; and it also had a lot of grammatical errors) whereas the noobs felt that the advanced speakers' posts were also too hard to read (because of their proficient use of kanji and advanced grammar). On the surface, this isn't such a big deal, but iirc there was an underlying tension between the two different groups or cliques, if you will. iirc the advanced speakers felt that the noobs were derailing their conversations whereas the noobs felt that the advanced speakers were shutting them out of the conversations intentionally.
Obviously this would be a non-issue for a forum or subforum dedicated to native speakers of Japanese.
As far as legal issues are concerned, that's an entirely different discussion, but if I were chompy and if I had the time and the contacts that I'd need to pull it off, I would try to contact the guy who runs 4chan. Obviously that guy is well-known to the hentai industry. It would be beneficial to chompy to know how it is that 4chan has avoided being shut down despite:
(a) its failure to reveal the identities of person who post links to illegally-uploaded licensed materials, and
(b) its failure to restrict visitors to the site from sharing such materials in the first place.
4chan welcomes sharing materials illegally, preserves the anonymity of its members, and is internationally known. There's got to be something.
Ah, is that the clique you mean? I think that problem could be easily handled since we have competent mods and admin. We could have a Japanese speaking forum where Japanese and non-Japanese members, noobs and advanced speakers would get along well. It's a matter of administrating a forum, not of a Japanese forum itself, isn't it?
mod and user (hehe...)...
reg a Japanese language thread I have a conflicting opinion. On one hand I think it would be an improvement for A-O, on the other hand I fear that we could get a site within a site and that many Japanese members would stop posting in normal threads but start so in this special thread. And we would need some more Japanese language mods...
about that bold one dont add it its a waste of time and space and not useful at all, Im sure of it cuz almost all the filipino's understand the english language... even underage can navigate and understand any english based site unlike any other country....
Derailed
Anyway, I think a japanese language sub-forum is a very different thing from what Sakunyuusha was suggesting. Are we also going to have chinese, korean, vietnamese, french, german, italian, and greek sub-forums?
It's all greek to me. LOL
I think the thread has gone somewhat off track. Are we abandoning the original concept? (See above quote.) If so, I can delete my "Welcome" post/thread. There was one suggestion posted by guy for how to say 'welcome' in japanese.
Anyway, I think a japanese language sub-forum is a very different thing from what Sakunyuusha was suggesting. Are we also going to have chinese, korean, vietnamese, french, german, italian, and greek sub-forums?
It's all greek to me. LOL
...as long as we do not have so many visitors using Latin language from somewhere inside Rome...
...being off topic, I know. To become serious again this thread had a very good start but has lost speed and contents as well. It is not helpful - I think - to have single posts with some translated sentences, what is important is the FAQ and what should it contain. Translations are the last tasks to do.
So we need suggestions about what should be mentioned in the FAQ and someone to collect them and put them into a script to have a base we can discuss and decide on our own, before chompy will be asked in the end to give his o.k...
...being off topic, I know. To become serious again this thread had a very good start but has lost speed and contents as well. It is not helpful - I think - to have single posts with some translated sentences, what is important is the FAQ and what should it contain. Translations are the last tasks to do.
So we need suggestions about what should be mentioned in the FAQ and someone to collect them and put them into a script to have a base we can discuss and decide on our own, before chompy will be asked in the end to give his o.k...
Task number one.
Thank you, redrooster. Yes. Exactly.
Task Number One. Post your suggestions for the content of the "Welcome" post. These suggestions will be compiled and editted here. After that, we can begin doing some translations, but right now we have nothing to translate, except the word "Welcome".
Thank you, redrooster. Yes. Exactly.
Task Number One. Post your suggestions for the content of the "Welcome" post. These suggestions will be compiled and editted here. After that, we can begin doing some translations, but right now we have nothing to translate, except the word "Welcome".
Re: separate sections for non-English discussions (eg: Japanese).
AO is an English site for Japanese interests, and I think it should stay that way. An occasional Japanese discussion is fine, but if you want to talk in Japanese, there are better places to do that. I'm not sure many Japanese would even get involved with AO if a Japanese-only subforum was created; the dynamic of discussions between username- and anonymous-style boards is just too different, and I think most Japanese would simply stick to 2ch. We'd simply end up with a few Japanese users, plus those of us who can speak Japanese, and that would become our AO Japanese clique.
That said, I think the FAQ should provide an introduction to AO, a quick tutorial on how to sign up, how to participate in discussions, how to manage an account (eg whether post count matters), and perhaps names of some volunteers who can handle non-English questions via PM in the event they're having trouble with English. That way if a non-English speaker wants to get involved with the forum, they don't have to feel intimidated.
Another way to think about it: try visiting a forum like copycat2u (if you can't read Chinese). What do you find frustrating about navigating the forum? What kind of information would help you find topics you're interested in, and would help you understand how to join in the discussion?
Re: 4chan and copyrighted material.
The reason 4chan hasn't been shut down is simply because their servers don't actually host copyrighted material. Almost all of it is linked to rapidshare/megaupload/etc. Therefore it has been the responsibility of copyright holders to file takedown notices directly with RS/MU/etc. And as long as users aren't careless about their HTTP-referrer headers, it's pretty difficult for filehosts like RS/MU to track down the referring website -- especially when threads on boards like /b/ expire at a very fast pace.
Torrents receive much more legal scrutiny because copyright holders can't file takedown notices (eg: there is no single server that hosts the files). Moreover, the high profile cases are with music and movies; hentai/VN/Japan-centric content is small fish, and most Japanese companies don't even sell their products outside of Japan for it to be worth their time/money to pursue heavy legal action.
AO is an English site for Japanese interests, and I think it should stay that way. An occasional Japanese discussion is fine, but if you want to talk in Japanese, there are better places to do that. I'm not sure many Japanese would even get involved with AO if a Japanese-only subforum was created; the dynamic of discussions between username- and anonymous-style boards is just too different, and I think most Japanese would simply stick to 2ch. We'd simply end up with a few Japanese users, plus those of us who can speak Japanese, and that would become our AO Japanese clique.
That said, I think the FAQ should provide an introduction to AO, a quick tutorial on how to sign up, how to participate in discussions, how to manage an account (eg whether post count matters), and perhaps names of some volunteers who can handle non-English questions via PM in the event they're having trouble with English. That way if a non-English speaker wants to get involved with the forum, they don't have to feel intimidated.
Another way to think about it: try visiting a forum like copycat2u (if you can't read Chinese). What do you find frustrating about navigating the forum? What kind of information would help you find topics you're interested in, and would help you understand how to join in the discussion?
Re: 4chan and copyrighted material.
The reason 4chan hasn't been shut down is simply because their servers don't actually host copyrighted material. Almost all of it is linked to rapidshare/megaupload/etc. Therefore it has been the responsibility of copyright holders to file takedown notices directly with RS/MU/etc. And as long as users aren't careless about their HTTP-referrer headers, it's pretty difficult for filehosts like RS/MU to track down the referring website -- especially when threads on boards like /b/ expire at a very fast pace.
Torrents receive much more legal scrutiny because copyright holders can't file takedown notices (eg: there is no single server that hosts the files). Moreover, the high profile cases are with music and movies; hentai/VN/Japan-centric content is small fish, and most Japanese companies don't even sell their products outside of Japan for it to be worth their time/money to pursue heavy legal action.
what the hell has happened to this excellent thread?
Seems as it went asleep very silently...
Please revive it, the idea generally is excellent and it would be a waste not to continue working on a "welcome page" as already thought about here.
Seems as it went asleep very silently...
Please revive it, the idea generally is excellent and it would be a waste not to continue working on a "welcome page" as already thought about here.