/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>42628346
damn that sucks
there is a lot of historical data there that you can't find anywhere else
lots of works that have been released and weren't uploaded anywhere and aren't sold anymore but were preserved in that database

Thanks, I'll seed the sukebei torrent

I get the feeling doujinshi is slowly dying.
All the good artists seem to have moved on to better things and now there are hordes of Chinese and Koreans shitty up the place with the same gachashit artstyle.

>>42628838
If anything there's more artists releasing works
Back then you'd have scanners going "please support the artist if you can", and now that there's a means to support them (digital, skeb, etc), they don't bother
Sometimes chinks reupload but then they splatter everything in watermarks and/or upload chinese translations only

>>42628882
Yeah, if anything, scanlation is dying rather than doujinshi themselves. Maybe that's why they get that impression.

>>42628902
>>42628882
>>42628838
Just learn Chinese

>>42629040
Shut up pooh

>>42629040
Does this involve balloon making?

>>42629040
No thanks

>>42629112
Too lewd

>>42628838
it's a broader symptom of doujin culture dying, people just don't make derivative works as much as they did, partly because of lack of interest but also because of the host series decline in quality

>>42630036
There is also a lot of competition with dlsite, pixiv, narou, or even mobage, etc.
During the golden time of doujinshi markets there was much less media competition.

>>42630036
>>42633183
I would argue a general increase in commercialization of niche media for personalized consumption has made it both more plentiful, while also normalizing a commercial transaction as part of the purpose of making such derivative works.

In other words, doujin culture is an expression that thrived where the desire to express is present, but a taboo is applied to (egregious) commercialization in derivative products.

I actually see this more as a boon in the raw artistic sense, but for art as an IRL scene and stuff like east asian doujin cons, I do see this as an active threat to the established order. Not that this is new in particular.

>>42637600
Basically, fantia, dlsite, patreon, etc. are increasingly the actual nexus of fanart - or really fan media in general - as a concept.

I'm seeing stuff that never would have existed under the doujin system, or at most would have been a one-off thing that would have been too niche to warrant anything but self interest. But for those looking for a space among "true" or "pure" artists, or really a space in the meatspace sense at all, I think that ship has already sailed.

I really do wonder what happened with the site though. The site went down with the admin (tenetan) saying "The site migrating services again, hope to have it back up within a day or two." and then nothing. He's not dead as months later he was favouriting stuff on twitter. It didn't seem like he was losing interest in it either. Pretty weird. I wonder if he lost everything and was too embarrassed to admit it, even though clearly that would be a mistake as other people were keeping backups and he could have gotten assistance.

>>42629040
I can read both jap and chinese, there's really too little anime style content to justify learning chinese if that's your only goal. Japanese is definitely worth it though
I disagree with the assertion that doujinshis are dying too, there's more coming out now than ever before if you're willing to support artists

I have no experience with websites other than html and css so doing it personally would take time, but I really wish one day, that a site where you can browse said api dump is made in case the site does not go online again.

Seriously, what was the site owner thinking? He woke up and decided to commit digital book burning and then ignore everyone for months?
I think this act equates to physical burning in it's effect because, information on doujinshi is so scarce, and scans too, probably every single scan in total is not nearing the amount of doujinshi that have ever been made. It is difficult to obtain information on such a medium to begin with, small amount of copies and only personally given at a specific location, makes losing this website one of the largest losses of art-related information to happen in years. Just the fact so many people dedicated their hours to cataloging this ephemeral medium, for it to all be gone is nauseating.
I was already pissed at geocities (and yaplog, sakura, early jap webhosts) closing off forever - internet otaku culture started there and, if they were still online today, let you experience precious history for yourself, but clearly history is not important to selfish people (the owners of said sites)
There is a dump of geocities.jp on archive.org online since 2018 but no one has made it browsable, it's just big tarballs, and not all of the site, but it's a miracle they announced the shutdown a month before, for the american version of geocities closed without warning.

This is a great example of things to come. EVERYTHING NOT SAVED WILL BE LOST.

>>42630036
It's also because artists have ways to release their things outside of doujin convents. Hell even ZUN started publishing games on Steam.
Also Covid situation did not helped - 2020 was pretty much void year for doujin conventions and even after that there's plenty of restrictions that people don't want to bother with, especially that again they have viable publishing platforms online.
There will be still old guards and people enjoying Doujin culture for what it is but for most it's just pointless.

>>42642231
>He woke up and decided to commit digital book burning and then ignore everyone for months?
You're reading a sense of intention and action here, where this was likely an unintentional consequence of inaction. Just saying.
Without too much speculation, the likely scenario is that doujinshi.org was simply no longer a high enough priority in their life to do much more than what they saw as vital housekeeping; the update activity reflects that. This led to them failing to take the steps required to prevent a catastrophic failure of the site, and relative radio silence after that. My guess is they are just going through enough shit in their life, internal or external, that they are not confident in their ability to retake that responsibility, and lack anyone they trust to just turn it all over under the doujinshi.org domain with little-to-no-questions asked.
Anecdotally I host some things some people on /jp/ undoubtedly use daily, and while I try to decentralize there are some things that would just indefinitely stop working if I couldn't be arsed and respond to automated alerts, manually check, or run out of money. Likely within a few months. And in the cases of services, the only people I actually trust to hand it over to coincidentally have taken on other such projects before and risk burnout themselves.
Pardon the blog, but it irks when someone can run a service asking nothing of the average user for nearly a decade, but the moment it needs maintenance or the owner doesn't want to support it from their own pocket people act like they are being antagonistic.

>This is a great example of things to come. EVERYTHING NOT SAVED WILL BE LOST.
ding ding ding
Biggest thing I push for is for decentralized archives where some power user neckbeard with a NAS or beefy PC can set it and forget it. If there is something that a larger audience can do to help, that would be it.

>admin is a europoor
>site goes down around when shit hit the fan in ukraine
ohnonono

>>42645765
i hope he is okay

>>42643457
>where this was likely an unintentional consequence of inaction.
My initial disappointment made me ignore this side entirely. It makes more sense given it was entirely managed by one person. I hope the owner figures something out eventually. Until then I am grateful someone even saved a copy and decided to make a torrent out of it. On the "saving whatever is online" part, archive.org is doing it since forever, but I feel IPFS could grow in popularity due to the short lifetime of most things that are online.

>>42647002
Thanks for the understanding

>>42642620
>2020 was pretty much void year for doujin conventions and even after that there's plenty of restrictions that people don't want to bother with
Does anyone have any experience with these? I'm looking at going to an event in april, and it seems like tickets are sold online a month in advance.
Based on tweets by the organizers, they probably sold out within a couple of minutes last time. And this next event will only be bigger.
So I have to rely on what is essentially a lottery, or my flight there will be wasted.

I remember just a few years ago when you could line up and buy tickets at the door for smaller events.

>>42650854
Which event? They should have a website explaining it.

>>42657185
VGGC.
They don't say it yet, but the sister event at the same venue says it'll be online only. And the last time the even was held, they went through livepocket.

>>42628346
>Someone created an SQL database as well.
And I just learned how to use sql

>>42637797
>But for those looking for a space among "true" or "pure" artists, or really a space in the meatspace sense at all, I think that ship has already sailed
Maybe you know what cpyld give an advanue for that .

>>42643457
Well msybey we should take this as never trusting anything without a team of people and plenty of redundancy.

>>42647002
>archive.org is doing it since forever,
Irc
Not 100% of geocities was backed up there

>>42665368
If you're an artist you can make your own group and just advertise it with your art.
If you're not, you either join a group made by an artist you find complementary, or just don't. If you do not actually make and contribute to art yourself the community would not really be for you, just like comiket isn't really about the vast majority of people who show up.

>>42665396
Congrats you've discovered the entire section of the economy that falls under "X as a service."

Sorry for being a bit ornery, but if anyone is actually learning that as a lesson from this it must truly be their first time this happened. That is effective what dlsite, patreon, fantia, etc. are to artists and why they have value.
I don't think you are considering the practical cost - even just taking passive time out of people's life - to achieve that. There are some VERY valuable services that achieve that for free, but in my experience these are also services some people are willing to monetarily support indefinitely with actual money as well.
The short answer is that it is actually on you (along with every other person who sees it, individually) to organize and realize such a thing, and for most people that is asking for too much even assuming they have the ability to create and not just criticize, so the conversation grinds to a halt once the opportunity for action is made evident and you (along with every other person who sees it, individually) do not take it.

>>42628346