An acknowledgement of my biases, an apology, and a proposal for improvements

Article, Website — By Dark_Sage on May 6, 2012 11:29 pm

This post was written by Dark_Sage. He is Dark_Sage.

I did not mean to cause any harm with my reviews, but it appears I have irreparably damaged the reputations of several fansub groups. Allow me to present a heartfelt apology.

I’m so sorry

My Bad

It appears that I am biased against bad releases. This has resulted in very harsh (but very fair!) criticism of my review process.

I had previously based my reviews upon the FAPS (Fansubbing Accepted Principles & Standards) system, but it appears that I have been far too subjective with my use of this system. No longer will I create posts that people can use to inform their decisions of which fansub groups to watch releases from. Offering my own opinion is hurtful to people’s feelings and biased.

In my attempts to make up for the use of my brain (which I point to as the number one thing that influenced my subjectivity), I have decided to move toward a fully objective fansub review system.

New Process

I will no longer critique grammar or spelling mistakes. Some people argue that we should spell words phonetically, which means spelling and grammar do not have a consensus for being correct and are therefore not objective. Obviously, this means that good phrasing and context-matching critiques will also be avoided. Furthermore, not everyone watching anime speaks English. It seems a bit xenophobic to focus on English-language reviews, so I will simply not bother talking about English at all. Instead, I have decided to institute a better system.

Introducing the COCK system.

Consistently

Objective

Criticism

&

Kindliness

As the name implies, objectivity and kindliness will be the key focus of my reviews going forward.

Replacing the “Visuals” section will be a screenshot of MyAnimeList reviews.

You can see how many people approved a release and judge the quality of that group’s version from there. When I learn how to use Photoshop, I will be taking out the number of people who disapprove so that the bias of their negative opinions will not influence the score. The only number seen will be that of how many people approved of a release, and that’s objective because it’s a number.

0 approvals = Good luck! You’re almost there!
1-10 approvals = Aww yeah! You are great! High five!
11-30 approvals = You guys are super cool. I bet you have lots of friends!
31-50 approvals = WOW! You must have a cool IRC channel!
51+ approvals = OH MY GOSHERS. You are A+!! That means you are all Awesome!!

Replacing the “Script” section will be a screenshot of Nyaa download count that a group has. Again, objectivity comes from numbers, so I can’t be biased here.

0 downloads = Yeah, you can do it! A-
1-1000 downloads = Whoa, you’re doing pretty great. Your subs are fantastic! A
1001+ downloads = Happiness and love! Good for you, friends, these are A+ subs!

A Heartfelt Apology

To all groups whose members I have offended with my harsh statements, I offer my sincerest apologies. Clearly, I was unfairly burdening you with my expectations of quality releases. My assumptions that you were anime fans who wanted to put effort into your subs to make them the best you could were clearly unfounded. Because you are providing a free service, I have no right to criticize your masterpieces and I hope you can all forgive me.

Again, I most humbly apologize.

In Conclusion

By removing all thought from the fansub review process, I will be able to meet the lofty standard of objectivity. And by focusing solely on the positives of releases, nobody will have to feel accountable for their own failure. I apologize to all the groups that I have offended in my 1.25 years of fansub reviewing. But with this new system, I feel that I will finally be able to review your releases in the manner that you want.

After all, placating fansubbers should be my primary focus. Sorry for not realizing this earlier.