Blundering in via lian with a more general question about documenting dojinshi on Fanlore (the template looks pretty damn awesome). I was wondering, have any Japanese fans expressed their opinion about information on their works ending up on this large, search engine-friendly site? And are there any guidelines for how much information should be included in entries about dojinshi, or rules about linking to circles' homepages?
The idea of putting details on specific dojinshi on Fanlore makes me think a bit because many Japanese fans used to be (and sometimes still are) very leery about putting any sort of information about their works somewhere where random people could stumble across it. Some still hide their circle's website from search engines etc. so that only people who bought a dojinshi and are thus definitely "in the know" about dojinshi culture could find the site's URL. People on the Japanese internet tend to be a lot more privacy-conscious than people on the English-language net, and fans even more so.
Of course fandom is becoming more visible in Japan as well, and the many people who now have their home base on sites like Pixiv are clearly less concerned about getting discovered. But I'm not convinced if that means people wouldn't instinctively frown upon a large, easily-found, and non-Japanese website apparently collecting information on individual dojinshi. Not sure about the situation right now, but I remember some Japanese manga/anime fans being extremely unhappy with the way English-language sites used scans and screenshots seemingly willy-nilly and linked to everything without asking. It was normal practice on the English-language net, but not done on the Japanese. Not that either the English- or Japanese-language net should have changed its practices, but there was an undeniable clash of values there.
NB, I'm not Japanese and only lurk in Japanese fandom, so I absolutely don't mean to speak for any people there. It's just that Fanlore doesn't seem to be known among Japanese fans right now. I have this vague concern that if someone who's very keen on hiding from search engines finds a Fanlore page for their dojinshi, Fanlore might end up getting the kind of reputation among Japanese fans that FH has over here. Given the OTW's international outreach goals, the idea of Fanlore getting tagged with the label of "yet another clueless foreigner-run site that may be cavalier about our information, avoid avoid" bothers me. I'm really curious what Japanese dojinshi authors think of Fanlore.
Please correct me if these concerns are unfounded. I'd really much prefer to talk about my dojinshi collection on Fanlore ;)
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The idea of putting details on specific dojinshi on Fanlore makes me think a bit because many Japanese fans used to be (and sometimes still are) very leery about putting any sort of information about their works somewhere where random people could stumble across it. Some still hide their circle's website from search engines etc. so that only people who bought a dojinshi and are thus definitely "in the know" about dojinshi culture could find the site's URL. People on the Japanese internet tend to be a lot more privacy-conscious than people on the English-language net, and fans even more so.
Of course fandom is becoming more visible in Japan as well, and the many people who now have their home base on sites like Pixiv are clearly less concerned about getting discovered. But I'm not convinced if that means people wouldn't instinctively frown upon a large, easily-found, and non-Japanese website apparently collecting information on individual dojinshi. Not sure about the situation right now, but I remember some Japanese manga/anime fans being extremely unhappy with the way English-language sites used scans and screenshots seemingly willy-nilly and linked to everything without asking. It was normal practice on the English-language net, but not done on the Japanese. Not that either the English- or Japanese-language net should have changed its practices, but there was an undeniable clash of values there.
NB, I'm not Japanese and only lurk in Japanese fandom, so I absolutely don't mean to speak for any people there. It's just that Fanlore doesn't seem to be known among Japanese fans right now. I have this vague concern that if someone who's very keen on hiding from search engines finds a Fanlore page for their dojinshi, Fanlore might end up getting the kind of reputation among Japanese fans that FH has over here. Given the OTW's international outreach goals, the idea of Fanlore getting tagged with the label of "yet another clueless foreigner-run site that may be cavalier about our information, avoid avoid" bothers me. I'm really curious what Japanese dojinshi authors think of Fanlore.
Please correct me if these concerns are unfounded. I'd really much prefer to talk about my dojinshi collection on Fanlore ;)