I'm going to be blatantly annoyed here.
Because it continues to irk me and I absolutely need to rant about it:
WHY WOULD YOU ASK FOR CREDIT FOR FINDING SOMETHING?
I do think if there's one major way Arashi fandom has affected me, it's on the subject of crediting for media shared on the Internet. In the digital age, it's far too easy to just take and not give. And since anyone with enough perseverance can find what they need to, it's even easier to not credit. I've seen rininjapan get all worked up about the subject of asking for credit in the Arashi fandom, and how none of the selfish stealing-money-from-Johnny's bitches can ask for credit since they didn't actually take the photos/sing/whatever, but let's see if I can't set the groundlines for what - in my opinion - constitutes as fair.
If you were explicitly involved in the process in which said media became digitalized - whether it's ripping, encoding, or scanning - then yes, you can ask for credit. If it's a subtitled video or a translated written piece, and you were the one who translated/hardcoded it - yes, you can ask for credit. Even if all you did was *gasp* buy the actual photos/CD that someone else helped you scan/rip to put online, go ahead and ask for credit. After all, it's your physical object paid for with your hard-earned money that underwent the process of being used and potentially broken or beaten up so that everyone could enjoy it. (It should go without saying that fanart/fan graphics/fanfiction, as the creation of the creator, no matter how little work went into it, deserve credit. No one else even deserves to ask for credit in that situation, especially not for sharing the fanart/fanfiction/graphics to everyone else.)
But if you can lay claim to none of the above, then in my estimation, you're no better than a glory-seeking ass who tries to pop up in every picture and claim fame for it.
Yes, I understand it can take a while to find things. And that perhaps you're saving us from wasting the same amount of time you did in searching for it. But honestly, when you ask for credit for EVERY. SINGLE. LITTLE. THING. - even a video posted by the official label on YouTube, of all things, like in this post, then no. You're just crazy. Anyone can find something as public as that. Why do you get to ask for credit just because you linked to it? If I were posting the embedded video in my forum signature, why should I have to credit you for it just because you saw it and posted it in someplace that I saw before I went to the YouTube page to check?
Even better yet, though... HOW DO YOU ASK FOR CREDIT EVEN AS YOU'RE ASKING FOR SOMETHING TO BE UPLOADED?
Those "screencaps" that you want credit for finding and rehosting aren't even that high-quality. In fact, they're literally shots of the show as it was airing on a television that was obviously not yours. You can even see the light reflecting on the television frame and the scan lines. Trying to lay even the barest claim to such a thing is pure stupidity.
Lastly - yes, it can be annoying when your work is usurped by someone. But honestly, when you browse on the Internet, you do it out of fun. You do it for your enjoyment. Or perhaps you're researching - and in this case the subject just happens to be something you enjoy. It might have been inevitable that you would find it. Is there anything wrong with merely sharing it out of love for the fandom without asking for credit for something you'd have done regardless?
On one hand, yes. Perhaps I am jaded by this because I have been an AAA fan since they debuted. Your so-called "old/hard to find" pictures, I saw years ago, between my own Internet searches and being a part of the A'dAA forum. The pictures of them when they first debuted, I saw on the actual site. I even have a Photobucket album for the profile pictures that I saved off the site - from BLOOD on FIRE to where I stopped in 2007 at AROUND/Red Soul. But I've been around since 2005, so I can understand if someone who only came in in 2008 didn't see these pictures.
But on the other hand, in one of your (locked) updates, you even asked for credit for finding a fansite that had pictures of AAA at Otakon. Perhaps this is awe-inspiring to newer fans so they see the need to credit because they are too stupid to use Google and would never have found it otherwise. Really? Credit for finding a fansite? You didn't even compile the pictures or go to much hard work finding the pictures, you just want credit for finding the fansite that did. I'm going to stand by my statement that the people who actually credit you for this are morons. Just as much as you are for wanting credit for it.
Taking Arashi fandom as an example - I don't begrudge SNG or arashi_yuuki or crystalove87 their requests for credit because they actually scanned it. Certainly, they don't own the copyright to the images, but there was work done in giving us high-quality images.
And then there's jesychan, who posts all over the You&J and Arashi comms with scans, only asks that you credit the various sources where she found them. And she posts a lot of good-quality scans - such that I see various fangraphics crediting her with as much reverence as yuckie_chan got. If she can do it, why can't others? Do you really want that much to be known as a big-name fan? I've seen big-name fans in the AAA fandom, especially seeing how small it is, and with each time I see the "credit for finding" I can only think how petty you are.
I'm not saying that you can't ask for credit for things that are honestly hard to find - even if I disagree with the motive behind your asking for credit. I'm just saying that this need to be credited has gone to the point of lacking any sort of sanity or sense.
Am I honestly crazy for thinking so? Or is the AAA LJ fandom as ridiculous as I think it's grown to be?
If the people I am annoyed at read this and come in saying that they do it because the other person made them protective - well then, all I have to say is that you didn't actually read the post. If you can't bother to understand what I'm saying before arguing, then there is no way we can talk.
WHY WOULD YOU ASK FOR CREDIT FOR FINDING SOMETHING?
I do think if there's one major way Arashi fandom has affected me, it's on the subject of crediting for media shared on the Internet. In the digital age, it's far too easy to just take and not give. And since anyone with enough perseverance can find what they need to, it's even easier to not credit. I've seen rininjapan get all worked up about the subject of asking for credit in the Arashi fandom, and how none of the selfish stealing-money-from-Johnny's bitches can ask for credit since they didn't actually take the photos/sing/whatever, but let's see if I can't set the groundlines for what - in my opinion - constitutes as fair.
If you were explicitly involved in the process in which said media became digitalized - whether it's ripping, encoding, or scanning - then yes, you can ask for credit. If it's a subtitled video or a translated written piece, and you were the one who translated/hardcoded it - yes, you can ask for credit. Even if all you did was *gasp* buy the actual photos/CD that someone else helped you scan/rip to put online, go ahead and ask for credit. After all, it's your physical object paid for with your hard-earned money that underwent the process of being used and potentially broken or beaten up so that everyone could enjoy it. (It should go without saying that fanart/fan graphics/fanfiction, as the creation of the creator, no matter how little work went into it, deserve credit. No one else even deserves to ask for credit in that situation, especially not for sharing the fanart/fanfiction/graphics to everyone else.)
But if you can lay claim to none of the above, then in my estimation, you're no better than a glory-seeking ass who tries to pop up in every picture and claim fame for it.
Yes, I understand it can take a while to find things. And that perhaps you're saving us from wasting the same amount of time you did in searching for it. But honestly, when you ask for credit for EVERY. SINGLE. LITTLE. THING. - even a video posted by the official label on YouTube, of all things, like in this post, then no. You're just crazy. Anyone can find something as public as that. Why do you get to ask for credit just because you linked to it? If I were posting the embedded video in my forum signature, why should I have to credit you for it just because you saw it and posted it in someplace that I saw before I went to the YouTube page to check?
Even better yet, though... HOW DO YOU ASK FOR CREDIT EVEN AS YOU'RE ASKING FOR SOMETHING TO BE UPLOADED?
Those "screencaps" that you want credit for finding and rehosting aren't even that high-quality. In fact, they're literally shots of the show as it was airing on a television that was obviously not yours. You can even see the light reflecting on the television frame and the scan lines. Trying to lay even the barest claim to such a thing is pure stupidity.
Lastly - yes, it can be annoying when your work is usurped by someone. But honestly, when you browse on the Internet, you do it out of fun. You do it for your enjoyment. Or perhaps you're researching - and in this case the subject just happens to be something you enjoy. It might have been inevitable that you would find it. Is there anything wrong with merely sharing it out of love for the fandom without asking for credit for something you'd have done regardless?
On one hand, yes. Perhaps I am jaded by this because I have been an AAA fan since they debuted. Your so-called "old/hard to find" pictures, I saw years ago, between my own Internet searches and being a part of the A'dAA forum. The pictures of them when they first debuted, I saw on the actual site. I even have a Photobucket album for the profile pictures that I saved off the site - from BLOOD on FIRE to where I stopped in 2007 at AROUND/Red Soul. But I've been around since 2005, so I can understand if someone who only came in in 2008 didn't see these pictures.
But on the other hand, in one of your (locked) updates, you even asked for credit for finding a fansite that had pictures of AAA at Otakon. Perhaps this is awe-inspiring to newer fans so they see the need to credit because they are too stupid to use Google and would never have found it otherwise. Really? Credit for finding a fansite? You didn't even compile the pictures or go to much hard work finding the pictures, you just want credit for finding the fansite that did. I'm going to stand by my statement that the people who actually credit you for this are morons. Just as much as you are for wanting credit for it.
Taking Arashi fandom as an example - I don't begrudge SNG or arashi_yuuki or crystalove87 their requests for credit because they actually scanned it. Certainly, they don't own the copyright to the images, but there was work done in giving us high-quality images.
And then there's jesychan, who posts all over the You&J and Arashi comms with scans, only asks that you credit the various sources where she found them. And she posts a lot of good-quality scans - such that I see various fangraphics crediting her with as much reverence as yuckie_chan got. If she can do it, why can't others? Do you really want that much to be known as a big-name fan? I've seen big-name fans in the AAA fandom, especially seeing how small it is, and with each time I see the "credit for finding" I can only think how petty you are.
I'm not saying that you can't ask for credit for things that are honestly hard to find - even if I disagree with the motive behind your asking for credit. I'm just saying that this need to be credited has gone to the point of lacking any sort of sanity or sense.
Am I honestly crazy for thinking so? Or is the AAA LJ fandom as ridiculous as I think it's grown to be?
If the people I am annoyed at read this and come in saying that they do it because the other person made them protective - well then, all I have to say is that you didn't actually read the post. If you can't bother to understand what I'm saying before arguing, then there is no way we can talk.