Nya-chan Production wrote:You have some valid points, but I still think you misunderstand me - people come here for downloads these days and when they don't get them they get pissed as well. What about that?
That's the "What's a site without content?" argument. You see it all over the place with scanlations. People download anything and everything, throw it on their site, and when the scanlators complain they say "If I deleted it, no one would come here. What's a site without content?" And so the scanlators boycot that jerk and encourage all of their fans to do the same. Some fans continue to visit the blacklisted sites because they *do* have a ton of content. But they do it in secret and if they admit to it, they get a lot of flack from fans who respect the people creating scanlations for them. To make the comparison easier to understand, imagine you have a forum where people share scanlations. The creators upload them on their own. But when they get a C&D letter and decide to stop distributing their projects on the net, they suddenly realize they can't delete the links in their posts on that forum. Because the forum has locked those posts specifically so the scanlators can't change their mind and delete the links at a later time. They do this because people visit that forum to get those links, and what's a site without content? It's a public relations disaster for the "content-filled" site and a call to arms for supporters of that particular scanlation group.
Now, I admit that I'm not current with the amv community on the tube. The last time I looked deeply over there, they were all uplaoding org vids and claiming credit for them, or uploading org vids with a different song attached so they can claim credit. When I search for vids there now, I assume half the people I find didn't actually edit the vids they're sharing. But I hear there are plenty of legitimate and good editors over there, with a community of fans attached and eager for their next projects. There must be, or the org wouldn't even consider trying to draw them in. It will only take one of those popular editors to complain - and for the org to defend itself with the "What's a site without content?" argument - and you have your own PR disaster. All that will accomplish is to give the amv community on the tube ammunition to use against the org. Not only is the forum a hostile elitist environment, but the guys in charge consider getting their hands on content more important than the individuals who create that content.
Besides, all the popular vids on the org already get uploaded to the tube as soon as they come out. If all people want is a huge mass of content, they'll go to the tube. Content can't be what draws people to the org because we can't compete with the shere numbers at the tube. Content, shere quantity, is not the org's selling point. What sells the org is the fact that we don't delete the audio, we don't blank out the anime, we offer high quality downloads and previews, we don't have intrusive ads right there on the amv screen (as far as I know), we have guides and lists and a forum full of experienced editors, our focus is exclusively on amvs so there's no wading through full anime episodes and live action vids to find the amvs, etc etc.
The org has way too many good and unique features for it to *need* to rely on content-alone in order to get visitors. Especially if that content is maintained at the expense of the editors who create it.