Can we please get some elaboration in here?

[godix]

Does it matter?

Not really. Most competent people realize this forum is just a giant circle jerk among friends. I mean does anyone really need to write "I'm putting this person because they are my friend" behind most of their posts?

...not to say there aren't legitimate recommendations, but let's be honest here people.

That's one of the most cynical and yet entirely accurate things I've seen posted on the org from someone other than me.

[jasper-isis]

So are you going to just sit back and defer to that mentality, or will you actually do something to make things better?

All in all, most the voters will be the lurkers who never posted or come to these forums (I wonder if they even go to this particular sub-forum).

I hope that some of them do wander in here eventually. And I would hope that when they do, they'd find something more than just topics full of lists and a load of cynicism.


Some people around here are always complaining that the rest of the community "doesn't understand" what makes a really good AMV or whatnot. Well, this is your chance to point out to them exactly what makes certain AMVs great. Nobody's gonna be convinced one way or another if you don't even try to give a reason.

Phade used to call this forum "Shameless VCA Promotions," and nobody was allowed to promote just their own videos. If circle jerking is the reality today, then it's practically the same thing as self-promotion. There's nothing shameless in recommending videos that you truly like, but if there's going to be a lack of discussion in the process then once again, it might as well be the same thing. It's up to you to actually help make this forum (and this entire community) useful.

If you don't want to help out, that's your call, but don't come around lamenting the state of the community when you've chosen to lounge around in cynicism instead of at least trying to improve things.

[godix]

So are you going to just sit back and defer to that mentality, or will you actually do something to make things better?

Of course I won't just sit back and defer to that mentality. Instead I'll actively try to use that mentality to win Most Helpful.

[jasper-isis]

Mark my word, the day you actually defeat that mentality is the day that I will willingly abuse my admin powers and hand you Most Helpful.

(j/k... kind of...)

[Ingow]

Actually I spent the whole day going through my backup DVDs of 2008 AMVs, making lists, posting in the threads and giving a bit of a personal comment about almost every video. It felt pretty good trying to care about the VCAs in some way again.

Writing longer reviews can really break your back though, I noticed that for some categories I just had to make a URL dump out of it because things started repeating and I didn't want to copypaste and apart from that I added videos that I myself didn't enjoy that much but gave them enough credit to think that others might wanna know about them and probably would vote for them. But for those I just couldn't say that much about them of course.

Mainly what I noticed was that there was a first swarm of replies and links and then everyone just added "x2" "x3" "x4" without themselves adding any other recommendations of their own. That's ok I guess but 80% of the thread? Huh. I think we have more than just 20 videos qualified and deserving of an award.

Also so far I didn't really spot any discussions.

[jasper-isis]

Actually I spent the whole day going through my backup DVDs of 2008 AMVs, making lists, posting in the threads and giving a bit of a personal comment about almost every video. It felt pretty good trying to care about the VCAs in some way again.

Writing longer reviews can really break your back though, I noticed that for some categories I just had to make a URL dump out of it because things started repeating and I didn't want to copypaste and apart from that I added videos that I myself didn't enjoy that much but gave them enough credit to think that others might wanna know about them and probably would vote for them. But for those I just couldn't say that much about them of course.

I had noticed that in some of the threads, you posted a brief comment after each one of your recommendations. That's entirely cool in my book. To someone who's overwhelmed by all of the links provided, your comments will help decide which videos are worth spending the time to download. I'm not saying that there should be a full-blown critique and discussion on each and every recommendation, just that it would be more useful to others if we're able to provide some rationale for our choices.

[Knowname]

Not really. Most competent people realize this forum is just a giant circle jerk among friends. I mean does anyone really need to write "I'm putting this person because they are my friend" behind most of their posts?

...not to say there aren't legitimate recommendations, but let's be honest here people.

Hey! I actually spend 16 hours a day here watching videos (and god damn when they get streamed I am gonna die...) I don't just pull chains.

(has said for a while, there are TOO MANY CATEGORIES!!)

but what Angel says is true, in the end it'll come down to the lurkers (mostly) and the popular choice, but still, lets not turn into animenfo here and just accept the best opinions... god damn I hate animenfo... yet I still use it ^.^ *sob*

[8bit_samurai]

Maybe chivalry isn't dead...

[Pwolf]

I couldn't agree more Jasper, and Chang. For someone like myself, I'm not going to go through a million pages of circle jerking and download each video. I don't have the time and I'd rather be doing something else other then watching videos... unfortunately, that really makes it hard since there are some good videos out there I haven't seen and I probably never will by the time voting starts...

So, it would be nice if people could explain their choices. I'm not going to vote for my friends just because they happen to be my friends and someone else listed their name. and i hope people do the same for me, i don't want to be nominated for anything if i don't deserve it (if i'm nominated for most helpful or editor of the year again, i'm going to kill something)... tell me why I should vote for a particular video or person. Why do they deserve your nomination?

[Knowname]

if you see chang and jasper's suggestions as similar than o.0 but whatever (I saw them as exact opposites).

anyway the reason I see adding comments to your suggestions as being pointless because we don't all see videos in the same way. Besides nobody ever reads them, they're like video info pages. Have no baring on the subject really. I like to read info pages AFTER I watch the video, just like how I judge animes, I look at the rating (say at animenfo) and the summary, then the reviews AFTER when I can agree or disagree with them.

I've learned that when appraising something you should look at how much it would depreciate what is there. Whoever thought qcs were a good idea should be given a swift beating with the baka stick. It ends up doing more harm than good imo (the top 100 is now a joke...) and I feel the same way about comments for the most part. Putting comments in there will ultimately devalue ppl's opinions. The person may not be very literate (or just lazy) but he/ she HAZ an opinion.

Let's not turn into animenfo and be the one that rejects people's unique opinions. Yeah I hate Animenfo with a passion and I now make stupid reviews on there just to see how many will pass..

I couldn't agree more Jasper, and Chang. For someone like myself, I'm not going to go through a million pages of circle jerking and download each video. I don't have the time and I'd rather be doing something else other then watching videos... unfortunately, that really makes it hard since there are some good videos out there I haven't seen and I probably never will by the time voting starts...

if time is your problem than I suggest streaming as your answer, not comments.

also I suggest you watch a few videos... at least JUST the finalists. If not that your just complaining to complain right?? I mean what good would it do? we aren't you, nobody can tell you what you definitively will like. I mean, say you STILL aren't satisfied say if this time next year we have streaming. You don't want take the 5 minutes out of your day to watch every video on the pretense. Isn't that ALWAYS gonna be the problem?? Ppl's opinions are generally their opinions and if they went through the effort of putting comments they would exaggerate certain points (maybe not an exaggeration from their viewpoint though). You have to see that the end would be the same.