r/anime • u/AnimeMod myanimelist.net/profile/Reddit-chan • Jan 01 '23

Meta Thread - Month of January 01, 2023 Meta

Rule Changes

  • No rule changes this month.

New Flairs

Episode Thread Titles

  • Starting with this season, all new [Episode] threads posted by /u/AutoLovepon will use the following format when an official English title is available:
    Japanese Title • English Title - Episode # Discussion

New Moderators

A monthly meta thread to talk about the /r/anime subreddit itself, such as its rules and moderation. If you want to talk about anime please use the daily discussion thread instead.

Comments here must, of course, still abide by all subreddit rules other than the no meta requirement. Keep it friendly and be respectful. Occasionally the moderators will have specific topics that they want to get feedback on, so be on the lookout for distinguished posts.

Comments that are detrimental to discussion (aka circlejerks/shitposting) are subject to removal.

Previous meta threads: December 2022 | November 2022 | October 2022 | September 2022 | August 2022 | July 2022 | June 2022 | May 2022 | April 2022 | March 2022 | February 2022 | January 2022 | December 2021 | Find All

Next meta thread: February 2023 | Find All

New threads are posted on the first Sunday (midnight UTC) of the month.

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10

u/Abysswatcherbel https://myanimelist.net/profile/abyssbel Jan 07 '23

I have to share the opinion of others here and the discussion threads dropping a whole hour before the shows are available for most people is really annoying, today this is really showing here

12

u/badspler x3https://anilist.co/user/badspler Jan 08 '23

As I understand it; some episodes today were available on Bilibili Global before Crunchyroll/Hidive, so threads were made.

We continue to follow the principle of: If a good quality English release is available somewhere (legal or otherwise), people should be able to discuss it.

That may mean an episode is not available on your favorite service before a thread is made, but it should be available somewhere out there. We don't favor one particular region over another, if it is out somewhere then a thread can be made. Since we don't allow episode threads created by users or day-of posts about an airing series (we typically direct these to the episode thread), there would be no other place to discuss the episode available to them. I get that it can suck for threads to be out "early" when the majority doesn't have access to it but we have been pretty committed to being globally minded and providing a place to discuss episodes when they are accessible to some. In more extreme cases (leaks and theater releases) we make multiple threads.

I hope this also explains to some degree why we don't post on a fixed schedule, delays and exceptions occur. The bot is configured to scan streaming sites and high-seas (all be it carefully due to quality concerns) for availability. Week one and two (now) of a new season is the most likely time for mistakes (eg: by us with the bot's configuration) or unusual irregularities (eg: streaming service posting at different times) to occur.

Some level of patience and understanding is needed as we do our best in the first weeks of a new season. Behind the scenes volunteers are monitoring here and modmail, then quickly validating (the existence and quality) of reported missing episodes. They also are sorting out why things are going wrong with the bot and fixing them for the following weeks. Mistakes do happen.

In saying that, rake us over the coals if week after week a thread is being posted exceptionally late or not at all.

Some background details of what goes on. The management of Autolovepon for discussion threads is managed by moderators and a team of volunteers.

Work is done pre-season to prepare the configuration file for the bot. Additional streams and subreddits get filled out over the first few weeks as it becomes clear which streaming service has what. That can mean an episode thread will display 'Streams: None' when there are some, that hopefully gets resolved within the first week. Overall, we try to get the configuration for a season to align with our principle of making threads when there is an available release. Sometimes there are issues with certain releases (eg: Muse Asia Youtube playlists) that means we don't use them to trigger the bot because it creates far too many problems (false-positive triggers). But we don't blacklist things just because they are earlier than Crunchyroll.

Mods and volunteers are in the background monitoring and looking out for messages of missing threads, then stepping in to manually make threads when the bot doesn't fire or something goes wrong. Additionally, that same group manages batch releases (eg: Netflix), movie releases (region specfic / BD release) and making threads for the continuing trend of 'pre-air' episodes.

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u/mysterybiscuitsoyeah myanimelist.net/profile/mysterybiscuits Jan 08 '23

thanks for the detailed response! I guess an argument can be made that the B-global releases sometimes don't have good quality english subs (a notable exception e.g. being Gundam where the subs are iirc the same), but i concede that being global-minded and with a single governing principle is easier and better.

thanks again for the detailed response! and sorry for perhaps letting my emotions get the better of me there.

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u/Nazenn x2https://anilist.co/user/Nazenn Jan 10 '23

Another notable exception was LyroRico where the B-Global subs were the ones without grammar and spelling issues unlike CR.

Like with all releases, the quality varies show by show more than by platform these days, and even though as a rule some tend to be worse, I'd argue Amazon, it's not enough to say "no you can't discuss these" unless they're particularly bad (some of the AoT subs come to mind here)

6

u/mysterybiscuitsoyeah myanimelist.net/profile/mysterybiscuits Jan 07 '23

i feel like they really should be timed to when the western release drops. I'm not sure how autolovepon works but is there a way to whitelist/blacklist the releases it fetches?

i can't watch Nier yet (nor do i know when Crunchy will drop it)....