Signal-to-Noise
October 19, 2008
Something bothers me about the otakucube (YES I AM GOING TO POPULARIZE THIS TERM TO DESCRIBE A BLOG COMMUNITY CENTERED ON OTAKU PURSUITS. SOMEHOW).
No, it’s not the personalities this time. That one is enough for a lot of rants.
What bothers me the most is the amount of quality, better known as the signal-to-noise ratio. It’s pretty apparent when I take a look at the aggregators.
Now, this should not even be a problem, given the nature of blogging, new media, and who’s behind it, since it is assumed that new media will have a very low signal-to-noise ratio.
Unfortunately, the otakucube is considered counterculture, and thus, cannot suffer from a low signal-to-noise ratio. (COUNTERCULTURE = BAD) A low signal-to-noise ratio hurts counterculture movements by depicting the movement as disorganized and fractured.
And that is what the otakucube has become. While the news side (and by news, I mean episode summaries and releases and con reports and the like) is at least on par with traditional media in terms of credibility (amazing, considering the nature of new media), we can do better on the OP/ED side. When our most famous personalities are either obnoxious, self-centered individuals, people who dress up the prevailing public opnions as respectable, people who adopt tabloid-style reporting, or people who just want to see people get a rise, that says a lot about the movement.
We don’t need charlatans, trolls, and people who are more interested in their own agendas (and no, I don’t think Danny Choo is included in this list), we need people who are highly passionate who can keep a cool head and are willing to present the otakucube as somewhat decent. We’re already being looked at funny in all aspects. We can’t afford any more setbacks.
PS: I sure wish Cameron Probert would come back. And IKnight and jpmeyer to write moar. And Hinano to maybe tone it down a little. And for more time to find better writers.
PPS: I AM NOT BITCHING ABOUT DANNY CHOO. DANNO CHOO IS A COOL GUY, EH, NOT AFRAID TO DRESS UP AS A STORMTROOPER IN JAPAN AND WHATNOT.
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1.
zzeroparticle | October 19, 2008 at 9:28 am
OP/ED as in the music stuff, right? That’s one of the biggest areas that can be improved on since anime music already gets little coverage and the amount of coverage that it does get mostly falls under the realm of OP/EDs. I’m really hoping to improve this area somewhat with my commentaries, though it does feel like a losing battle at times since there’s so much to cover and so few people to actually cover it.
2.
lelangir | October 19, 2008 at 10:43 am
I think “sphere” will always dominate the ota-vernacular…
I think in search of #9 said he got a huge full time reporter job a few months ago, don’t think we’ll be seeing much of him…
I didn’t know otakudom was counterculture. I guess when I think of “counter”, images of loud mobs and raised fists come to mind…”sub” is what probably fits what I picture it as. Probably taking your post too seriously, it’s difficult to say whether or not the “otaku” is becoming a transnational thing (the meaning of the word itself at that), so there lies the foundation upon which you have to debate about what constitutes a [sub/proto/counter/etc.]culture.
Once OH! starts posting, I think it will be an extremely good blog in terms of content, since Riex said that it won’t do any episodic posts.
3. THAT Animeblog - MDR TB: self-fulfilling prophecy | December 8, 2008 at 1:36 am
[...] There are other times when discerning “signal” vis-à-vis “noise” proves more difficult – drm’s words need reinvestigation[3]: Unfortunately, the otakucube is considered [...]