State of the Union

Hello, everyone! Thanks for joining the site. With so many new people around here, we thought it important to take a moment and share an update with you all about the site, why it was created, and how we want it to evolve.


[Where we're at]
We had originally planned to configure the server and bootstrap the community slowly as things began to take life, but were completely blown away by huge amount of interest in the site and were caught rather unprepared to handle the sudden flurry of activity. As such, we'd like you to please consider the site in its current form as a "beta" of sorts.
So, what does that mean? Well, simply put it means that well run things fairly loosely over the next few weeks until we have published official rules and guidelines. For example, the default Hit and Run restrictions have been relaxed, and we are still running in open sign-up mode. Once the rules are posted the site settings will be adjusted to match. However, in the interim this doesn't mean that the site is the Wild West - please be respectful of your fellow users and the site itself. Any behavior that can generally be considered as "poor" will not be tolerated.


[Why we're here]
The site was founded by a group of users who shared a common love of Japanese TV but were disillusioned with the state of it being shared online. To begin with, there simply isn't as much content available as one would like. What is available is often locked off behind gatekept communities, and what isn't must be found through ad-riddled download sites of dubious reputation.
We thought it be great if the community was opened up and Japanese entertainment was as readily available for fans to enjoy as other genres already are, and decided to try and do something about it.
It is our hope to keep the site focused on TV and Movies. Having said that, we understand that technically Anime can be considered a part of Japanese TV, but Anime is a huge and unique domain unto itself that is already served by a rich and well established community and we're mildly concerned that it may not fit in well with the community we are trying to create. However, we're always open to feedback and have created a poll to gauge community feeling about this.


[What's to come]
What can you expect to see in the coming weeks? Order.

As you've surely already noticed, the firehose pumping the raw life-blood into the site is quite unruly and the TS files it delivers aren't very amenable to sharing in the format they’re delivered in (that is to say, filled with CMs and bulky in size). This will be resolved in two parts. The first is by creating an "encoder corps" that will be responsible for providing regular encodes of popular shows to the site. The second is to create a definition of "popular" to direct the encoders efforts towards shows the community wants. How will we do that? By following the very definition of the word and let the community decide. We hope to have a group of community representatives that are up-to-date with the latest in Japanese TV keep the community informed of new, upcoming shows and posting polls to gather feedback from the users about which should be handled by the encoder corps. Of course, there will always be one-off shows and specials that you may want - for these we expect that the community will speak up and make a request.
What makes the firehose so unruly is the sheer volume of shows being pushed through it. In order to keep that under control, and to reduce random, low-quality encodes from flooding the site, any regular shows that the encoding corps has picked up will likely be removed from the firehose. This will ensure that the firehose has enough bandwidth to deliver shows quickly, and still allows the community direct access to any niche shows that may not have been picked up by the encoders.

In addition to the roles already mentioned, we're also planning for a few others, such as editors who will be responsible for keeping the TMDB metadata about the core shows that the community has selected (the ones the encoders are working on) up-to-date, or moderators to keep a watchful eye on things and ensure the smooth operation of the site.

As mentioned previously, we will also be posting rules and guidelines in the coming weeks, and are always open to feedback and ideas about how to improve the site and enrich the community.


Welcome! We're happy to see you and hope to enjoy these shows together!