Stage48 Feedback & Suggestions VI

It's just a delusion, since we have nothing else to do around here. Everyone has been saying AKB48 was dying (since before Acchan graduated probably) and, ironically, it has outlasted most of the fans, forums and translation groups that were created on its sake. It might be about to outlast its biggest English forum as well

 

S48 got me into AKB, and it's death will probably get me out. As well as probably 40% of the people on the forum. It's the /only/ place for me with consistent English info on these groups.

And, not even just that. Like someone else said, there's a lot of history here. Since I'm such a new fan, its nice to be able to go back to posts from 2008 and see fans' in the moment reactions to news.

 

I agree with those against splitting or getting rid of historical posts.

All that is really needed is a bit of planning rather than just reacting. I.e. instead of waiting until things expire and then dealing with them actually sort things out, possibly with a donation drive, in advance.

 

I am glad everything is running again.

Also, thanks to everyone that made efforts to continue this place / save the wiki etc.

Tapatalk を使用して私の D6503 から送信

 

Migrate the wiki first and then take the forum if you can. Waffle didn't leave any means of contacting him even after last year's fiasco. He has not used his twitter in a year. Migrate, have 2 admins who have each other's skype or smth and hold a donation drive for the new forum asap.

 

While there is room for improvement and things that needs debating, i'm sure that the Admin staff will take up this issue, to prevent it happening again.

From @Stage48:
"
stage48‏@stage48
There was a problem with domain name, they stopped allowing PayPal (our payment method) so it didn't auto renew should be up in 15 mins
"

So there was an autorenew set, but terms of the provider had changed and Paypal was no longer an payment option.

Also, keep in mind, that while it is frustrating, especially in this current SSK period, that Staff and Technical staff of Stage48 is dedicated people, but they do have lives as well and can't always be reached in an instant, due to Real life and other commitments sometimes.

This is not an commercial enterprise with 24/7 monitoring and troubleshooting.... it's an Community made by fans, for fans.

But yes... it was frustrating... especially the timing of it... but think about above, when venting the frustration

/Expdk

 

There's both a personal and objective take on this issue that has been occuring for years now.

the lack of information is harming the correct use of this place. It's not like we're demanding an everyday presence here. Kyobu left, HRP left. It's up to them to leave the fandom, and the fandom continue. However, to have left the fandom but still having a status important enough to have the whole fandom tied on his ability to pay the server is harmful. We have discussed this already, and we're still having the same trouble again. It's not tolerable. It's not seeking to take over his autority; it's about serving the community. We donate for this forum to live, so newcomer can get information etc. If Stage48 doesn't work, we lose opportunity for newcomer to get hook on this fandom.

i've seen "he is the boss and there's nothing you can do about it" argument. And i think it's a big problem. I think what makes Stage48 alive is this community that has been self-running through their daily updates on thread etc. And when i see the update banner from "tsubasa wa iranai" and the sousenkyo from last year still up, than we still haven't talk about the like option, the rank option, or other feature that have never been brought to the table, i think we fail to give this community what it deserve. Is it because of time, motivation? Same argument; you have the right to leave the fandom or have a low pace update, but you must take responsability and find people who are willing to give a little bit of their time to run the place. This is not about power, this is about how you run a community. There's so much people active here, why should we be dependant of someone who hasn't been there for years?

I believe that we can't really replace Stage48 by another forum. The only option we have is to give ownership to someone willing to make things go forward, or migrate to another server. If we lose the data from Stage48, people won't automatically sign for the new one, because they lose their landmarks: the forum where they consult daily. Stage48 is different from tumblr or Twitter. Here you can write lengthy post, you can take your time. We can't afford to lose 10 years of forum history just because we can't pay the bill in time. That's why the selfish "if you're not satisfied with Stage48, create your own forum" argument doesn't work. No one can replace Stage48 history in people's mind.

So here's the deal :
- Find a way to contact Waffle directly and ask for a direct talk on Discord, IRchat, or even here on stage48 so we can settle both views parties once and for all.
- If he doesn't answer (he's alive since he has payed for 2018) then like Angela Merkel said, we should take care of our fate ourselves and try to migrate the server to another host so we aren't dependant to someone who is not here anymore
- Not only we do that, but we give functionality to people who are willing to give time to stage48, and are reachable through social network etc. If he knows about forum tools and quality of life, it's a big plus.
- Same for Studio48 or Wiki48, we should clear things up about who can update, which website is independant, etc. Instead of relying on one person, we should let the community auto run itself like Reddit. Having mods of course to check if everything is in order.

We must work in order to be a better community.

 

Waffle is the OWNER and the only person who can talk and do business with the server host. And frankly, there is not anything you, me, or anyone else can do about that. Period. At least until such a time he either hands over ownership, or adds someone else as point of contact with the forum's host.

As for migrating, we can't without Waffle. You are talking of taking the forum data from Dreamhost and moving it to another host. How you gonna do that, when Dreamhost will deal with ONLY Waffle........ And it would be illegal to take the forum rips people have done in this recent crisis and setup a mirror site with said rips, without express permission from the owner, Mr. Waffle.

 

There is a legal difference between exporting for backup, and using said backup to clone the site elsewhere. You can't migrate, legally, without Waffle's participation. Does not matter who the admins are. It matters who the owner is/are.

And on twitter a lot of people say a lot of things they know absolutely nothing about. I don't see the point or need for you to throw that bit in there.

 

The person talking about scams... I still don't know why he hasn't been banned from here though. He was just salty/jealous, imo.

This.
If we lose Stage, we lose a whole community.

While I follow many users on Twitter and Tumblr, Stage is something else.

The whole situation reminds me of the Jpopmusic forum.
It was, back in the day, the biggest Jpop community online.
When it died (for whatever reason), they created Jpop Central, but it was just not the same.
Many people just didn't bother in creating a new account and they just went to those other forums (AHS for Ayu, H!O for H!P, Stage for AKB, etc.).
I made good friends in that forum and I had no way of contacting them when it went down, so it's kinda sad.
I just don't want the same to happen here.

Sure, Waffle is the owner of S48, but even though he tweeted yesterday about the issue (the PayPal thing), he hasn't been HERE since April 9th. That's almost two whole months.
If he's done with the fandom, fine, but I don't think he should let this die out spite or whatever.

 

Baton pass is the best and most respectful option, and it's what should have been done, in my opinion, since he graduated of idols and started to lack disponibility to run (or, at least, pay for) the forum. I completely respect Waffle's decision and am thankful for his efforts until now, but this incident showed that there are several people interested in keeping this forum alive and have more time and are also willing to pay money for that. For now we shouldn't have more problems, but it's not something to keep brushing off.

 

I started a new thread for all talk about the downtime here: http://stage48.net/forum/index.php?threads/regarding-the-recent-downtime.19372/. It contains information that should at least dispel some of the misinformation out there and give everyone a sense of how the forum is and has been operating for a while if you're interested. I can't move the posts that are already here over there because the timestamps would supplant my OP, but let's keep any further posts here just normal suggestions for now.

 

Something like that should go in the Stage48 Post Dump tbh.

 

I'll move it

 

If we just had the 49th single senbatsu sousenkyou last night, then why is the 45th single banner (last year's) still up there? Umm...

 

@ryandtw you just need to catch up with some news...

 

I wish Wiki48 contained categories of members' birth years, birth months, possibly zodiacs, agencies, etc…

 

Ah sorry. I didn't notice it…