How important are DDLs to you?


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Tell us how you feel about the anime DDLs, do you:

  • I need the DDLs, (I don't/can't torrent).

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I use the DDLs, but only because they are here, I don't need them.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I don't use DDLs, I just use the torrent links (from FTV).

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I don't use the torrents or DDLs, I'm here for the community.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I don't use the torrents/DDLs, I'm here for the info (screens etc).

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    0

Maiku_Ando

-sama
Staff member
Leader Council
This is just to see how the use of the site has changed, do you use the DDLs because its convienient or do you need the DDLs because you don't torrent? or is it that your not here for files at all, and maybe come here for anime info or the community? Or maybe your here because the screencaps and info help you decide what to watch?

Please do try to fit your answer to one of the questions in the poll, but you can also reply if you have more to say. FTV has stats ofcourse, but its nice to get real answers too.
 
While torrents are good and all, Im a little gun-shy over usning a torrent provider and a site since... well I heard stories about them. Witch is why I tend to use DDLs. Although I do also come here for the community since I did make some good friends here and all.
tongue.gif
 
Well I'v been using torrents for quite a while already so that my main source of things... I come here cause of the community, since I really believe this is one of the more awesome forum communities, and I also tend to use this as a sort of info source in the sense of how people are enjoying things. Look at anime-access for example and how shallow the "reviews" are over there compared to normal posts here XD
I do use the occasional DDL here since unlike with torrent activated i can browse and download at the same time.
Roughly speaking I can do without them, but I do prefer it to torrents.
 
None the choices directly apply to me, but the closest would likely be: I don't use the torrents or DDLs, I'm here for the community.

I don't really use much of the links here since other DDLs (e.g. Megupload, Fileserve) tend to provide faster services, at least for me that is. In addition, I also torrent, which this site doesn't really provide a strong/organized enough database for my taste (compared to that of nyaa or TokyoTosho).

In terms of the DDLs however, I would keep them if they were considered being removed. Not just speaking in terms of site traffic, but also the fact that not every one torrents (or has access to them). DDLs tend to be more reliable in the long-run over torrents. Of course, we could revive the anime request thread a little then I guess...and create a more organized list (looks back on my "planned project" that never got off the ground).

Frankly speaking, I mainly use the forums here since I've found the community here to be more tightly close knit and friendlier than most other sites (e.g. Anime News Network, Animesuki, etc...). While the community has certainly shrunk considerably over the past 6-7 years I've been here along with the activity, it's still enjoyable as is despite the decreased number of active members.

I also generally find the community here to be more refined and composed than most other sites, which is something I tend to enjoy.

@Maiku_Ando: You should probably advertise this on the front page to get a better set of results. Most people answering will be the select few that regularly browse the forums.
 
QUOTE (doofus123 @ Dec 01 2011, 03:13 AM)Very important because I don't torrent.same here, I need to DDL when I want to watch anime that have higher quality images and many action scenes in 720p or 1080p using a HDTV... eveything else I usually stream in my PC monitor, but I come to FTV mainly for the community
wink.gif

 
Back in college, I couldn't torrent AT ALL. Not so important not, though I still prefer DDL over torrents for a variety of reasons in many cases. One of the reasons would be the short life of torrents.
 
The reason I found FTV is, because I was looking for anime information and recommendations. ANN is a good source of information, but I wanted to see what other people think are good shows. And thats how i landed on FTV. Back then The melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya was recommended on the front page, I looked at the screenshots, read the recommendation written underneath, looked at the forum comments and decided to give the show a try. I kept coming back to FTV more frequently and in the end I stayed, because I liked the forum.

I never really used the DDL, although I think it is a nice service for a lot of people. For a time I used it too when my dorm banned torrents. Thanks Daft!!!
 
QUOTE (warita200 @ Dec 05 2011, 11:34 PM)Glad I could help. Did you expect very different results Ando?

Partly yes.

As this poll is of course within the forum, I had expected it to have a bias towards the 'community' answers - which it has (31%), I was also expecting answers 2-5 to be way above answer 1, which would mean the ddls were not the main reason for being here, however the result is currently 54% vs 45%, which is fairly even. I had also suspected - like Kit said, that the torrent links are just not used, maybe as a last resort but generially ignored, as they are not organsised in an ideal way.

So part of my theory was right, yet I'm also wrong about the DDL's significance, which is interesting, I had expected most ddl use to be simply out of convienience as its right there, but its not as much as I had expected.

When putting this against resource use, the DDLs ofcourse require the most (large storage space and bandwidth, dedicated servers etc) and second is the forum - large database for the users and all the posts. The least resource intensive parts are everything else (the main site, pulse etc). DDLs are also the most risky in terms of potential complaints.

These results combined with the site's stats and the bandwidth charts etc all help to understand the site and how it 'lives', something which I think is inportant as I'm getting more involved in things. Thanks everyone for your answers.
 
I see. I cant speak for the others, but back in the old day before i started streaming instead of downloading, I used the torrent links on FTV occationally.

I wouldnt say it is pointless to offer torrent links. The reason why so few people clicked that option on is because another answer had higher priority. If I could, I would have clicked on 3 answers, but since that wasnt possible, I had to make a choice, which in my case was community.


Are you planning any changes on the basis of the results?
 
Well when I first came here I was just using the DDLs, and that was before I became a member here. After that I was still using the DDLs but by using the Scheduler for most of the times. Now-a-days if a series isn't hosted here I tend to wonder around the interwebs just to find the series I was looking for.

In any case the DDLs were the one reason I signed up at first, but then I liked hanging around with some of the people on this community. Granted some came and went, but that is normal in the ways of real life and the interwebs.
tongue.gif
 
QUOTE (Kit-Tsukasa @ Dec 01 2011, 07:13 AM) None the choices directly apply to me, but the closest would likely be: I don't use the torrents or DDLs, I'm here for the community.

Frankly speaking, I mainly use the forums here since I've found the community here to be more tightly close knit and friendlier than most other sites (e.g. Anime News Network, Animesuki, etc...). While the community has certainly shrunk considerably over the past 6-7 years I've been here along with the activity, it's still enjoyable as is despite the decreased number of active members.

I also generally find the community here to be more refined and composed than most other sites, which is something I tend to enjoy.
What Kit said earlier applies to me as well. I've been here for the community and it certainly has decreased in numbers considerably over the years but the community still exists to this day. Plus, I just don't download from FTV, I think I've gotten a few episodes from here via DDL from the past but my anime source is usually from mIRC and some obscure ones from anime download-dedicated sites, such as animetake.
wink.gif
 
Looks like you missed a category.. "Use both equally" that would be, whatever is convenient at the time. Me, I really like the scheduler.. but, mostly, I am here, when I am, for the community.
 
I tend to avoid torrents because of IP tracking. Can't really trust them in that sense. The DDL's were nice to avoid this issue.

Perhaps using storage and file delivery services (e.g. megaupload, fileserve, etc...) would be an alternative.

Thanks
 
I think I'm actually not much different there - if I answer about my habits now, then I'm here for a mixture of the main site, pulse and the forum, I don't tend to use the DDLs much.

But back when I joined, I was a heavy user of DDLs, and the scheduler was allways full - I even remember a discussion with Daft asking how many can be put in the queue, as I actually managed to make it scroll off the page lol. I did torrent back then, but the most important thing for me was how the site helped me find the next show to watch - the sceenshots - because you can see the characters - and the reccommended / related animes.

As for changes, I don't really know, theres certainly lots of ideas and some have potential big changes in there, like moving away from DDLs and just using Pulse (so like some of the animes are now - without and actual DDL link basically). This would make it a lot easier if/when AnimeSuki drop their torrent listings, as if we wanted to keep the DDLs beyond that, we'd need to connect the Pulse system to also do DDLs - which at present it dosn't do, so that would need some work. As it stands right now, the DDLs still use AnimeSuki's torrent feed, so it would just stop if they axed there listings.

I partially got round that problem on MATV as the sub groups add their content into the site directly, and I worte a manual system to add in things. But at the same time, manually adding in every episode/file would not be an ideal long term solution on FTV (and I don't think it actually has a manual system), so the best way would be to use Pulse to do it, and/or create a path for the content in MATV from the sub groups to be brought into FTV as well - but that wouldn't bring in everything, although it certainly has the ability to give the anime req thread some super powers ('Can I have X?' -> Copy/paste torrent link -> 'Heres your ddl link, it will be auto ready in a bit' -> leaves the site to torrent it and make a ddl itself). Think 'MU' but insted of uploading the file, you just give it the url of the torrent on Nyaa / TT, and it does the rest for you, MATV already does that.

Either way its going to mean some more code writing :/

The other issue with the DDLs is that the anime companies seem to be closing in on Anime piracy now, just recently 30 people in Tokyo were arrested for using PD / share type tools. The DDLs shield you visitors from this, but it makes the site a big target. I'm starting to wonder if the danger level is getting to high to keep running DDLs (on both sites).

Note - Discussion of the Scheduler issue has been moved to this thread.
 
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