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"little things that I've said and done, I'm so sorry I was blind"
2002-04-15 00:35:01
Wow.
193 messages and counting about the H vids.
It was under 100 when I went to sleep.
EK: Of course, you are correct that essentially the nature of ths website and many others entail house rules. We are all Phade's guests and he has done a fantastic job of putting the website together. If H vids were not allowed direct links from day one I don't think this argument would have arisen, it would have been accepted as making sense and being the wished of the site owner.
In any case, after all the arguing, Phade said the most important thing of all and the only thing that is required to be said:
"There will be no domino effect. If people have a problem with violence or anything else, I will say "get over it". Sex, on the other hand, is one of the most powerful forces in human nature. Innocence, imho, is also the most precious thing on the planet. I will do this miniscule little thing to hopefully help preserve a tiny piece of innocence for someone. You may think it is a sappy cruisade, well tough, you can "get over it". Case closed."
Phade is upholding his own beliefs on the content of the website and that's very cool. I admit that I was a little curious about whether the changes were due to 'public pressure' (not really the right word, but you understand what I mean) or whatever you'd want to call it, but it's good that it was Phade's opinion all along.
Phade: you're doing a really great job with this site and it's good to see you continue to mould the site into the place you want it to be. I've been/am an active member on lots of websites but on amv.org (underneath the superficial newbie bashing) there's a really good community that's different from any others I've seen on the net. I don't think I need examples of this, you just have to read people's journals to get a sense of the interaction going on here.
Talking of which, I'm going to get back to normal journal discussion. Yey!
Marco's back! and with a ring on his finger. I must admit that I got a little shy when he told me "my parents and cristina's parents loved your video ^__^" but I'm glad they enjoyed it.
I'm definitely going to try my hardest to make it over to the States to visit this summer. I have a good friend who lives near Boston and the idea is to get a car and bum around the east coast. With any luck this will also involve going to AWA *fingers crossed* so I may see you guys there. I hope I can, it would be great to say hello ^_^
In any case, I'm going to be making 2 videos for AWA - one for the expo and one for the dance competition. It would be fantastic to go to the con and see my videos. I need to save up ^_^
I think today's going to be a good day for amvs. FLCL, prepare yourself for dissection....
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2002-04-14 17:06:45
I still don't know whether I should make my last rant private. Again. I don't think I will, as it was a necessary venting of personal opinion - people can interpret it however they feel.
To focus the issue on what this means to the org though, I do have something to add.
From a website administrator's point of view I can fully appreciate the complications of directing access to material that is unsuitable for minors. From a creator's point of view, I think it's a shame that there are such limits on creativity.
A necessary evil, I suppose.
I've always been of the opinion that there is a right to freedom of expression provided it doesn't incite hatred or violence. My opinions on the censorship of consenting acts of sex are straight forward: I don't think there should be any... but just because that is my personal opinion doesn't mean that it won't cause a great deal of offense to others (and also cause certain legal problems in some situations ^^;;)
EK: I can completely understand the situation that has presented itself with your video. Taking, for example, a song which has a very specific socio-political message that relates to real contemporary events and matching the song to make a video based on the essence of the words and not their original context is a difficult situation.
As an amv creator, I know that I'd be compelled to make the video to my vision of the song. However, I can see the opinion now:
"Do you have no sympathy for XYZ? As a <insert nationality/reilgion> I found your <insert politically charged song here> video to be degrading and offensive."
No amount of disclaimers can really defend against that and I can completely understand wanting to avoid such a result. I still think it's a shame, but that's the way it is. Under such circumstances I guess it will just be a creator's choice to continue to display it publically despite potential adversity.
Getting back to the current issue on the org
Xenodrake's comments on a few recent sexually explicit amvs may have been based on a personal judgement on the content of the videos but it has raised an important issue about the need for the site to have some kind of responsibility for it's own content. Phade is acting with caution and I can appreciate that. As has been said, you can never be too safe.
Unfortunately it's not a particularly black and white issue - censorship of any kind never has been and it never will be a clear-cut thing. With the rules being set for pornographic/sexually explicit material, questions are hence raised about violent material. It's very problematic but I'm sure what needs to be done will be done.
As for those who would claim that there isn't a problem and that Xenodrake is just being a party pooper, well, if it didn't happen now it would happen later... it's good to get this issue discussed before it actually becomes a problem.
In principle I still think it's a shame that there won't be a direct link for pfs and everything will have to operate on a permissions per-user basis but at the same time I can understand how such things can have adverse effects, especially on the integrity of the site which should be the most important thing to maintain.
There's nothing stopping PFS or any other H vid from being included in the database, which is a very good thing, and the creator can still choose their own availability of the video on their own website.
I still can't say I really like this kind of nannying but I guess that's the way the world works. Sometimes I think the blanket can be wrapped around us too tight, but obviously when it comes down to it, this isn't about restricting the freedom of an amv creator or even stopping the ability for someone to see the video, it's about maintaining the integrity of the site which is the most important thing for the community to exist harmoniously.
I'll still have my personal opinions on the boundaries set by society on censorship of sex but as long as this site is in the public domain and is free for everyone to access and enjoy then the policies and practices of the site should reflect the protections designated by society.
I guess emailing the author for access to the vid is the amv equivalent of putting the dirty magazines on the top shelf :P -
"I wanna be loved by you, just you... and nobody else but you. I wanna be loved by you, alone. Boop boop-e-doo.".
2002-04-14 14:50:25
WARNING!!!! THIS JOURNAL ENTRY CONTAINS EXTREME DEPICTIONS OF PERSONAL OPINION THAT MAY OFFEND. DO NOT READ THIS JOURNAL ENTRY IF YOU ARE UNDER THE AGE OF 18
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No PFS for the masses.
:/
If that video isn't educational then I don't know what is.
Whether or not you think that anime porn should be hidden from the eyes of youngsters is up to you but I think that the restriction of links to hentai videos is a little hypocritical.
Should we also then limit the links to Ninja Scroll videos? If sex is so bad, then so is violence, right?
Funny that there seems to be no stipulation there.
So, why the double-standard? Easy... this isn't about whether we feel that kids shouldn't see this, it's about people being offended. It's instantly telling that the objection is to smut.. I mean, you can have as much violence as you like as long as nobody says any dirty words, right Mr Hat?
Heaven forbid if someone takes off their clothes.
I've read lots of posts about what kids should and shouldn't be able to easily download but there's a few things that could be considered.
1) The internet is jam packed full of porn. Tons of it. It covers the web like digital bukkake. If they don't get it here they can get it just as easily somewhere else.
2) At the moment there is no way of actually searching for hentai videos unless you know the titles, which makes it incredibly improbable that kids (or even adults) are searching the database for their hot anime chick fix.
So what's the fuss about? When put into perspective it makes the 'evils of PFS' or whatever seem like a drop in the ocean. I'm not saying that there shouldn't be a necessary disclaimer on a video that says that the video contains explicit sexual acts, but to remove the links of videos because someone who shouldn't see them could see them is just a bit extreme considering the reality of the situation.
If it's a matter of principle, then sure. I appreciate the opinion that just because the net if full of easily accessable porn doesn't mean that amv.org should be too. However, just limiting it to sex just sounds like prudishness rather than a logical approach to age-based censorship.
In any case, the removal of a video from distribution on the grounds that it might offend somebody who hasn't followed the disclaimer in the video information is a shame, in my humble opinion.
I appreciate Phade's position and I understand that it is cause for some concern but I personally think that a disclaimer is really al that's needed.
Of course, the perfect solution (in my mind) would be to make the links only appear to registered members who are old enough. It's just as good as the email option and it would be great to have member-only links on vids as an option anyway.
ACK... two serious journal enties in a row. Sorry folks, I'll get back to the silly musings about music and general chit-chat later ^^;;
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"Maybe I'm just too demanding/ Maybe I'm just like my father, too bold/ Maybe I'm just like my mother/ She's never satisfied/ Why do we scream at each other?/ This is what it sounds like when doves cry."
2002-04-12 16:17:22
I must admit, I'm certainly not guilt-free on the whole DBZ-newbie-bashing issue, but EK does have a very good point with her amvcomic (see dbz thread in video auggestions)
There is a certain amount of snobbery in the amv community. Admittedly there's justification for some displeasure at the amount of DBZ-linkin park videos, for instance, but snobbery is a different thing.
I don't see people on fanart forums making outright condemnations of people's work - maybe they do and I just haven't been to the right forums, but generally I find people to have much more tact and to be just generally more positive to beginners.
Are newbie amvs more derivative than newbie art? Are they less creative?
Maybe the reason is that amvs, unlike art, are primarily just entertainment and that many experienced amv makers/watchers are no longer entertained by "newbie" videos of a particular nature which leads to outright condemnation. It's very typical for people to criticise things that disappoint in terms of entertainment and this is a vice that isn't naturally common in fanart.
Yeah, that could be it. Our ability and desire to criticise (poor) visual entertainment in everyday life has influenced the way we react to all visual entertainment.
You'll find that many if not all DBZ amv-haters are also DBZ-haters too.
Perhaps also the reasonably strict boundaries offered by amvs as an artform leads to too many expectations of how the final result should be. Drawing, painting and so on is a plain canvas. AMVs are incredibly rigid in comparison so instead of newbie mav art looking like rough sketches, they look like dot-to-dot pictures.
Hmmmm, I think I've lost my train of thought a little. Sorry, no profound words here, just tired ramblings. We shouldn't really judge amvs with the same demands as other visual entertainment, though... but that doesn't mean we wont. -
"The didgeridoo original man with the dream/ I belive the Aborigine"
2002-04-12 10:21:00
It's friday... and you know what that means?
Comedy Links Day!!!!
Well, if you enojoyed the racist "christian" propaganda comic last week, and the Jesus is always there for you site I posted a few weeks back, you'll like this.
It seems someone thought that
http://members.aol.com/jesusimages/
was a caption competition ^o^
http://www.sortakinda.com/look/withyoualways.shtml
:D
In other news, in all my days looking at job decriptions, I've never seen one like this... http://www.dice.com/DandL/i/infobahn.018.html
Also, it seems the UK's territorial army are trying a new advertising approach.
http://www.getfitta.co.uk/
Shame they don't know swedish.... get means "goat" and fitta means erm:
http://www.notam02.no/~hcholm/altlang/ht/Swedish.html#f
Not only is training in the army a whole new experience, it appears that the death of the Queen Mother in the UK has spawned a new gaming craze (see page title):
http://www.ntlworld.com/data-feeds/editorial/microsites/queen_mother/reviews.html
Finally, I wonder if there are any popular blogs that are actually bots:
http://greengabbro.net/haveblogs.shtml
:D
JOURNAL: AbsoluteDestiny (Ian Roberts)
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