The sidebar says
This community is the place to discuss and ask questions about anime, anime news, and related topics
Emphasis mine. Episode discussions are created here constantly, so what’s the problem with linking a full legal episode of an anime?
The idea that if it was a trailer it would be fine is ridiculous
For context for others, OP posted a link to Slay the Gods Episode 1 which is a Chinese ONA series. In that post I removed, I replied before removal:
This seems like it is a full episode of a series. It isn’t really suited for this community which is more focused on news/clips/discussion. I am going to remove it, but if you want to create a discussion thread about the series you are welcome to do so.
This might be more suited to a community dedicated to the series (I don’t know if it exists in the fediverse or not).
This is the first instance of this happening, so I will be updating the rules about this going forward.
I understand that I didn’t explicitly have any kind of rule against posting links to publicly, legally available full episodes, so I will be clarifying that going forward soon when I get a chance (on mobile atm).
This community is really intended to be geared towards discussion/clips/news than sharing full-length episodes like that. Additionally, the episode was originally released almost two months ago, so it isn’t particularly timely (unless there is some wonky release stuff I am not aware of). However, I admit that this kind of thing was merely an intention on my behalf rather than something that all of us in the fediverse huddled together and decided collectively. So, I am open to feedback (such as this thread) on this kind of thing. In general, when I haven’t made rules about something, I tend to default back to what would have been allowed in the anime subreddit because they have had years of history to work through all the edge cases that can arise from rules.
I would be more open to posts of full episodes that are legally available if it was part of some kind of community effort. Say, for example, that OP wanted to organize a group to watch this series together and discuss it (like a rewatch in the subreddit). Then, there could be some kind of schedule and an episode post would get made each day/week/whatever and the discussion among members of this community could happen in that post.
I’m probably not going to watch anything hosted on YouTube (I blocked it completely a while back), but I don’t think it’s a big deal if someone links the first episode of something that’s legit freely available (i.e. not pirated) as long as they’re not being spammy about it.
Edit: to expand on that, we’re not exactly getting flooded with posts and that kind of restriction from reddit is more because of volume than anything, I think.
I’m not a mod of course, but I think posting full episode links would overshadow the bot discussion posts. We have those for a reason. At least for seasonal stuff.
Alright, popping back in here after a busy day and wanted to thank everybody for their input. I will do some thinking on it.
In the meantime, considering the feedback here, I will not be adding rules against posting full-length, legally accessible episodes to this community. As I see it, there are a couple different acceptable reasons to post these:
- Posting episodes to discuss them when they have recently aired
This would essentially be in place of a normal discussion thread created by the bot. The bot doesn’t let users request episode discussion threads that aired more than 30 days prior, so a similar rule should apply to full episodes posted to discuss that episode. Note that if you do this, let me know so that I can make sure these threads get included in the wiki of episode discussion threads.
- Posting an episode of an older (> 30 days) series that has finished airing in order to foster discussion of the series/genre/staff/visuals/etc.
This would be similar to a recommendation thread (or a Watch This! thread from the subreddit). The basic rule here is that in addition to simply posting the link, a user would need to include some other content to contextualize or explain why they are posting the episode. This could be either in the post body or as a top level comment.
- Posting an episode as part of an organized rewatch.
I have on my to-do list over the year-end holiday season to write up rules and guidance on organizing rewatches. If you want an already written guide, here is the subreddit wiki’s page on them. Basically, it would be a user-led effort to gather a group of interested parties to all watch through a series together. If a series that was being rewatched had full, legally accessible episodes, then those could serve as the rewatch threads.
So, with this set of guidelines @sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al, I welcome you to resubmit the episode you posted. I just ask two things:
- That you make the title more informative/relevant rather than the autogenerated wall of kanji that most people in this community can’t read.
- That you also write up a bit about the show and why you are posting it to line up with the #2 point above. It doesn’t need to be long, but just something more than simply the link so that people know what they are watching and why you wanted to share it.
Hopefully this can serve as a middle ground that allows posting of full-length episodes that are legally accessible as well as fostering discussion and community involvement.
This discussion has also made me realize that, despite them being listed on AniList, the bot wasn’t tracking any shows marked as Chinese origin on AniList. I will rectify this going forward. I have stated before that any show with an AniList or MAL page is fair game for this community, and I will make sure that the bot follows those rules to the best of my ability.
Thanks for helping me find this little hiccup with the bot!
I’m glad common sense prevailed. It was literally a case of hey I saw something new, let’s post it to the biggest anime community on the Fediverse and see if anyone else is interested or has watched it and that got shut down. The emphasis should be on community rather than rigid rules or bot posts.
The emphasis should be on community rather than rigid rules or bot posts.
That’s one thing I like about this community (and instance). I noticed that community members are generally nicer to each other; I’m guessing it’s because we share a common interest. Our moderators are pretty swell too.
I was going to say “it’s not anime (i.e. from Japan)” but the sidebar rules specifically mention allowing “donghua” which would be Chinese animation, which is what this is.
The 3 reviews on MAL were overall positive, with comments along the lines of “started strong, but weak finish” “wrong emphases in the writing” “good visuals, animation and music” with a pretty good score of 8.02 from 712 users, which is a tiny sample by MAL standards, which are usually in the 10,000s - 100,000s of users for seasonal shows.
Apparently it’s over with the last episode 15 having aired on October 2nd, so there is the timeliness thing.
I’d say let it be posted, but the OP should put in some effort and try to sell us on why they think this is worth watching…
The first 5 episodes might be worth watching since MAL users took the effort to post a couple of comments on them, but dropped off after that.
Without any knowledge about this whatsoever, I’m guessing it’ll be like Ninja Kamui (strong start, great visuals, but lack of depth in concept, and ugh that writing…)
the sidebar rules specifically mention allowing “donghua”
Getting into what is or isn’t anime can be thorny sometimes. The rule of thumb I follow, which I have mentioned in the past, is that if a show/movie has either a MAL or AniList page, then it is relevant enough for this community. AniList includes donghua in their database, including this show, so it is fine to post about.
What this discussion has made me realize though, is that the bot wasn’t tracking donghua like it does anime. The AniList api includes it, but I was filtering to just the JP shows. So, I will be removing that filter going forward. I apologize retroactively to all the donghua fans out there that didn’t have a place to talk about it.
