On blogging, Owen S, and the ABC
March 27th, 2008 by Shirukii
Accurate representation of Owen’s anime counterpart…
…only because I couldn’t find an anime stylized Kim Jong-il , Hu Jintao or Fidel/Raul Castro.
I believe if you look back on this blog’s one and a half years of archives, you’ll be hard pressed to find anything that would pass as so called “blog dorama”. There’s a good reason for that, I think it’s stupid. Spontaneous discussion about whether episodic blogs are better than editorial blogs or whether fansubs are the cancer killing the anime industry is worn out and rsults in nothing except rehashed arguments and resentment among bloggers and readers alike.
However, shit is hitting the fan a little closer to home this time, this isn’t about some generalized rant about the anime community in general, this time, it’s personal.
I’m sure most of you out there have at least heard of the ABC, the Anime Blogging Collective. It’s a group of bloggers within the already niche market of anime blogging that gets together once in a while and collaborates to voice their opinions on various topics. Last fall they did one on Ef -a tale of memories- and during the winter there were a string of “12 Days of Christmas”-like posts. I was invited to the ABC by Owen S, author of Cruel Angel Theses, and was told to jump in on the posts whenever I felt I had something to offer, no obligations aside from that.
Here’s where the problems began, as the topics came and went, I found myself with little to add. During the string of Ef posts, I was planning on playing Devil’s Advocate and going against the slew of posts praising it, but much of what I was going to say was already touched upon some way or another, so I passed. Then came Christmas and the “12 days of” posts. The only way I would have been able to keep that schedule was to resort to posts that were little more than pictures and a one liner, I hate doing that, so again, I passed.
And so recently, Owen issued what amounted to more or less an order, to the members of the ABC:
In case you’re one of those wondering why you’re receiving e-mails all
of a sudden: The ABC actually has a Google Group. And we actually use
it for discussions. I just used my overlord Hitler haxing powers to
make it so that you’re sent a digest e-mail everyday, and being kept
up to date as to what’s happening.I’m just slightly disillusioned that a few people I asked, or who
asked to join this group then proceeded to never join in the
discussion about what the next joint blogging should be. I did specify
a “no obligations” stance when inviting and all, but… if you have
time to make a blog post participating in minimal discussion shouldn’t
be a difficult thing.Also, it takes less time to type out a reply than it does to watch an
episode of anime, so if you have time for your blog or an episode
you’ve got time for The ABC’s Google Group. Period. The logic here is
infallible. I dare you to refute it.
I’ll take you up on that dare Owen.
YOU, of all people, should know that your last paragraph is far cry from the truth. As one of the few anime bloggers that could compete with me for the title of “Most tl;dr blog”, you can’t honestly believe your so called logic. A typical summary post here takes anywhere from 1.5-2 hours, NOT including the time it takes to actually watch the episode, and although they’re rare, an editorial post like this one can take up to four hours to properly research and construct. Added to the fact that by the time I find some spare hours to add to joint discussions, only to find my thoughts on the subject copy pasta’d a good number of times, my motivation to contribute is less than stellar.
I understand that you’ve managed to gather some exceptional bloggers under your rule, and disregarding the slight exclusionary and elitist nature of the ABC, it’s a neat idea to concentrate our efforts. But you’re letting it get to your head, forcing bloggers to write pretty much guarantees you a half assed result. And pulling shit like this isn’t going to help your cause. Varied opinions and free discussion are the bare minimums for interesting discussion on the vast tubes of the internet, the ABC is no exception.
~ Shirukii ~
17 Responses to “On blogging, Owen S, and the ABC”
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I agree; that’s pretty stupid.
From what I gather, that guy is really blowing things way out of proportion; the quoted announcement was worded pretty ridiculously and you can certainly feel those negative vibes. The “no obligations” statement should have warranted a complete lack of bitching from the owner, but it seems not.
Blogging should be about articulating thoughts, providing informative posts, or whatever other positive personal reasons; as such, it’s self-defeating when people make such statements that contradict that notion with a feeling of animosity.
Nothing good ever comes out of forcing somebody to post something that’s a good read, especially when you have the ignorant claim that “it shouldn’t take much time to write something up as such”. I just don’t see the logic in that.
Well, I honestly don’t know much about it seeing as I’ve never been to the ABC or even visited that guy’s blog, so this is just my superficial take on it.
“And pulling shit like this isn’t going to help your cause.”
The link that’s in there just directs to that video game post of yours again, was that a copy paste boo boo? :p
“I was planning on playing Devil’s Advocate and going against the slew of posts praising it, but much of what I was going to say was already touched upon some way or another, so I passed.”
Hah, I didn’t like ef, posted as such in several places, and promptly got flamed. I found it both amusing and aggravating at the same time.
Oh, oh, how dare this Owen-part-unicorn beast!!!
Wow. Just…..how do I respond? Oh, I got one…
Brutus at Athens’ Academia to a lecture hall: “Quid facire vir bonus si tyrannus libertatem civium auferit?”
Literally: What is a good man to do if a tyrant steals the freedom of the citizens?
You could always assassinate this Owen kid, you know =x
This really is a lot of stress I do not need to have right now…
I thought my anime blogging world would be a happy place. Hobbies are supposed to be relaxing things, aren’t they?
Blogging is something that we bloggers put a lot of time and effort into doing. It isn’t as easy as it originally seemed, most of us can agree to that, especially with time dragging on and reflecting on our old posts to learn how to improve ourselves. But when you work on something you like to do, it’s worth it ^^.
normally a lurker here
i’m with you, this is unacceptable
it’s like an admin or mod who’s abusing his power on a forum, people wouldn’t put up with that there, they’d just leave
quitting blogging obviously isn’t the solution, but maybe you should consider leaving the abc? if enough of you revolt it’s sure to make owen question his methods, or the group may just crumble altogether
just my 0.02
lol. Whoever owen is, I bet he lives with his mother and blogs 24/7.
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At the end of the day, you guys are writing about cartoons.
Entertainment. Things that we enjoy.
Why get all up in arms about it? People are going to like what they want, and dislike what they want, but at the end of the day, we’re arguing about CARTOONS. Worse yet, it seems like we’re arguing ABOUT ARGUING about cartoons. xD
This is severely cutting into my time for watching said cartoons, so I’ma go rewatch the last ep of CLANNAD and squee warmfuzzies some more.
@Michael: Nagisa does not die next episode -_- That was the preview for KyoAni’s sequel (or rather, continuation) Clannad ~After Story~. This was what everyone wanted in order to effectively display the whole story, instead of shoving the entirety of it into the expect last 3 / 4 episodes of this season.
@Greggo: That’s such a lame way of describing it xD
Isn’t there a Kim Jungle statue shot at the end of Dokuro-chan?
Wow, that is dumb. Why would you want to feel like you were forced to write? Internet drama…. /sigh.
Greggo’s right. As has been said countless times, the worst part about anime fandom are the fans.
dear tj-han, what’s with the unicorn thing?
Conflict between my second and third favorite anime bloggers?!
Noooooooooo!!
On a more serious note, has Owen responded to this in any way?
I hate you and all of ABC.
Screw you and your little charade, you lied to us all! Do it again and I will throw you under a tank. You make Noe sad.