Link
8:44 PM, April 16th, 2008
ANN’s terribad community bothers me more than the site itself.

digitalboy
9:09 PM, April 16th, 2008
Actually my obsession with my blog’s traffic is directly proportional to how often I post : O am I doin it right?

Ryan A
11:14 PM, April 16th, 2008
When I hear editorial, I think of newspaper columns, which are vastly different from blog editorials for the fact that newspaper editorials are a small part of the delivery (one or a few bloggers vs hundreds of paper journalists).

Blog entries really _are_ _it_, they aren’t part of some uniformed standard of operation (the closest thing to it is the Nano or the Antenna, perhaps Technorati). Still there is a wide degree of freedom in blogs.

ANN is just a “news network” the editorials and reviews are side items to what it really does, news [and reference]. In other words, they can’t write whatever they want; they’ve lost some freedoms.

… we’re still free.

bluemist
11:15 PM, April 16th, 2008
Wow, ANN just opened a Pandora’s Box of double-standards and hypocrisy.

I mean, look at it from a simple perspective: If ANN reader audience is mostly (supposed to be) composed of US anime fans who buy original DVDs, how the heck would their readers even care to know what the latest episode of a US-unlicensed anime is all about? Why do they even bother giving coverage to the latest episodes from Japan which mainstream (non fansub-downloading) US anime fans won’t even see for the next few months, much worse, see at all?

TheBigN
12:21 PM, April 17th, 2008
More comments on the wordpress.com version of the site.

So now I’m wondering if ANN really thinks of itself as “just” a news network, with things like this. And if they don’t what does it mean for them, or for us that see it trying to expand on the role we paste for it?

omo
4:26 PM, April 17th, 2008
Personally I don’t really care what ANN does as long as it provides a service to the community. When they blunder and produce sub-par material, or if they leave out things you wish they would be doing, it just means someone can come in and do a better job.

I don’t really mind if they talk about fansubs one way or another. I think it’s silly that an industry reporting source have to refrain from talking about new shows just so people like bluemist can’t criticize them :)

But what I don’t get is what Ryan is saying. A news source can report news AND editorialize. Why should the two be held to the same standard when they are not the same thing? In fact, I see this as the way ANN approach news. It is fine because unlike traditional newspapers, on the internet you can pick and choose with more precision and just ignore all the LOL Answerman columns or whatever.

Cameron Probert
11:25 PM, April 17th, 2008
I know I’m expecting too much. *shrugs* But that said, I would like it to uphold the standards of professional journalism. But I can’t expect it to. Because like you said, it doesn’t need to. And people will still use it for that. Or in spite of that.

Jeff Lawson
2:55 AM, April 18th, 2008
Perhaps I’m missing the point of this entire brouhaha, given that I’ve always considered ANN more of an information portal than a traditional news outlet, but I want to pose a question nonetheless: if ANN is somehow taking a “fansubs are OK” position by providing previews of anime that has yet to be licensed for distribution outside of Japan, what of the now defunct Newtype USA, which filled its pages with similar previews and promotional material for unlicensed anime each and every month for five years?

Or did they eventually stop doing that?

omo
10:57 AM, April 18th, 2008
I haven’t looked in PiQ but I think the coverage is similar? At least one person said he was writing for PiQ about the new Spring anime season, so I presume so.

More pertinently, what of Bandai Visual? Why shouldn’t anime companies rely on the fans themselves to educate themselves about new shows? I think there’s no way we can fault any of these professional news services simply because they cover new shows that aren’t licensed.

But can we fault them for doing what bloggers do in covering new shows via raws and fansubs? I don’t think so.

wildarmsheero
12:44 AM, April 21st, 2008
>>As a factoid, the first anime entry in the database is Angel Links.

I’d also like to note that their second entry is Apocalypse Zero, just for lulz.