We are not a mature people, us humans. Which is why, in Fate/Stay Night, when Shirou Emiya said “People die if they are killed”, weebs as a whole said, “Hey, that’s pretty fucking dumb. Let’s quote it incessantly for ten years or so.”
With that in mind, you can imagine my reaction when the reactions we started receiving turned out to be genuinely insightful and at times, wonderfully witty.
Here’s the thing, reactions were largely an experiment. The hypothesis was, when given a constraint to describe a series, will our community rise to the challenge and create something totally unique? We wanted them to work, but I don’t think anyone was certain of anything. I’m the kind of guy who generally just wants to make my friends laugh with the absolute minimum of effort. For this reason, I had no faith in you guys. You’ve proven me wrong, and I hate that. So we’re removing reactions.
Okay, I’m exaggerating — I do that sometimes (more on that later.) We’re actually improving reactions, but before I get to that, I’d like to share some of my personal favorites from the last couple days.
Making reactions shareable
When you take the time to condense greatness into 140 characters, you have a right to share that with others. We wanted to ensure that when you did share your reactions, they were worth looking at. Have a look at the new reactions permalink page.
Reactions, meet Libraries
When you share your library with someone, you’re sharing opinions. You’re saying, here’s what I’ve watched and what I thought of it. By pairing your reactions directly to your library entries, we make sharing your thoughts beyond a rating pretty seamless, that’s something I’m excited about.
Hey, there’s a foot in my mouth.
Although my lawyer and priest have advised that under no circumstances should I admit any fault for the things I’m certainly at fault for — I’ve decided to throw caution to the wind and forge ahead. Not so long ago (like, yesterday) I boldly claimed that nobody gave a shit about reviews.
That was a stupid choice of words. I’ll own that.
The entirety of people with the ability to see and understand human words were quick to point out that while reactions are great, that doesn’t necessarily mean there isn’t a place for reviews.
I agree.
Occasionally, I like to say things when I’m writing that are punchy and attention-grabbing, but a bit exaggerated. Sometimes I can be a real whore for attention, you see. My salacious writing inadvertently offended a handful of users who I’ve considered friends for quite a number of years now. These guys have poured hours into the reviews they’ve written, and they deserved at least a tip of the hat and some acknowledgement for taking the time contribute to our community.
I believe that there is a place on our platform for reviews — but that place isn’t shoved into a corner and ignored. The problems we’ve seen with review engagement aren’t exaggerated. Users on Kitsu, as a whole, truly aren’t reading long reviews. That’s a fault that lies with us, not those that are writing the reviews. This is something I’d like to at some point come back to, so that we can do it in a way that is rewarding for both the writers and the readers. Unfortunately, it isn’t something that’s currently on our roadmap for the near future. I can’t promise long-form reviews will ever return, but if they do — we’ll work closely alongside those that are passionate about it to ensure that this time we do it in a way that works.
To the avid writers and readers in our community, I’m sorry for making light of a situation that genuinely upset you. There’s nothing cool about that.
I realize this may literally be the first time this has happened on the internet, but hold your skepticism. I’ve waited to post this until after the drama on the feeds had died down. This isn’t damage control. There’s no ulterior motive here. I’m a dude who said a dumb thing and wants to genuinely apologize for saying the dumb thing.
See you jerks on the next one!
