Dattebayo Feedback Forum, Volume 7
2008/04/23
Welcome to the 7th edition of Dattebayo's Feedback Forum, otherwise known as the "lafnear is graduating soon and is nearly out of homework to do" edition. Below I've attempted to answer some more of our semi-frequently asked questions.
Do you really read all the messages you receive?
Yes. Several staff members look at each and every message that we receive. However, I personally tend to skim through certain messages. Long rants with no return email address listed, or with an obviously fake email address listed, don't deserve my full attention, as I'm not wasting my time carefully reading a message from someone who has not given me the opportunity to respond. Also, I tend to skip anything written in barely understandable English (whether it is because the writer is not a native English speaker or, more often, because the message is written in the type of "txtspk" that is only intelligible to people born after 1985).
I just read Feedback Forum Volume 6. How do you put up with so much negative feedback?
Despite what people think, none of us really take the negative feedback personally. It does not make us angry, and generally we laugh at it.
Why didn't you respond to my message?
DB receives several hundred to several thousand messages a day. We read these messages in our spare time, and contrary to popular belief, we do have lives, so there's no way we can respond to each and every message. Generally, I do not respond to messages unless they ask a specific question (other than, "Can you respond to this message so that I know you got it?"), or make a specific criticism about DB that I wish to dispute.
If you asked a question and still did not receive a response, there are several other potential reasons. One, your question is answered elsewhere on the site. The reason we have the FAQ and the howto page is so we don't have to answer the same questions again and again. Sometimes if I am feeling patient I will respond to these people by pointing out the page on which the information they requested can be found, but that is not always the case. Another possibility is that you failed to include your email address or the email address you included didn't work. Obviously I cannot respond to your message unless you include a valid, working email address. It is understandable that some people wish to give us their "spam" email accounts, however if you are seriously interested in a reply it is important that you visit this mailbox and confirm that it is not full or suspended before you write again complaining that we never responded to your message.
As an aside, I have sent 2739 personal replies to people's feedback since I started answering it in February 2005, so plenty of people do get responses.
What's with all the jokes? I thought you took internet seriously!/I thought you were professionals? You don't act very professionally! Don't you care about your professional reputation?
You thought wrong. There is a beautiful concept called irony that everyone who is confused about taking the internet seriously needs to learn about. We do not act like professionals because we are not professionals.
Can you do another forum where fans can send in their responses?
No. I am glad all of you enjoyed it so much, however, it was considerably less enjoyable for us. We received several thousand responses and it literally took me 6 hours to sort through them all. Some of them were funny but the majority of them were not and it was an extremely painful experience. Having the feedback system flooded with fan responses also annoyed the hell out of the other staff members. We will not be doing it again.
How many people are in Dattebayo?
Despite strange rumors that we have a staff of 600, there are actually about a dozen active staff members at any given time. People do work when they can and disappear when real life demands it. If you watch the credits in the opening, you can see who has worked on any given episode.
I would like to convert your files to a different format, can you help me?
No. DB cannot stop you from converting our files to another format for your own personal use (yet), however this is not a supported use of our files and we will not help you do it. Figure it out on your own.
Do you like Naruto/Bleach?
This varies by staff member, however most of the staff enjoys one or both of the shows. timecop claims to enjoy neither and works on them for some mysterious reason of his own. Possibly he is planning to take over the world with Narutard power.
What software do you use for subbing? Where can I get it?
Everything we use for subbing is available for free via the internets. Some of the applications we use are SubStation Alpha, Aegisub, VirtualDub, and TextSub.
I've found that your files play well with (random player and/or codec), you should suggest them to people who are having trouble playing your episodes.
First of all, let me extend a warm thanks to all the people who have written in suggesting that we recommend VLC to play our files. VLC has been listed on our howto page as a recommended player since we have had a howto page, probably for years at this point. You can stop writing in thanking us for taking your suggestion. You had nothing to do with it.
To everyone else, we are happy that you've found a player/codec that works well with our files. If you'd like to spread the word on your own and help people who are having issues with our episodes out of the kindness of your heart, by all means feel free, however we have reasons for the recommendations we have and we don't plan on changing them.
I heard your troll ep had a virus/spyware/malware, you are horrible people who have sunk to a entirely new low, how could you possibly do such a thing?!
None of our troll episodes have ever contained a virus or anything else malicious. I suspect this rumor may have stemmed from several sources:
1. People who have downloaded episodes tagged with [DB] from other sources have
reported that these episodes are infected with malware. These files are often
released before our actual episodes have come out, are not ours, and do not
originate from us. To avoid this happening to you, simply don't download episodes
tagged with [DB] from other websites.
2. Some people reported that the Bleach 166 HDTV troll crashed their systems. This
is entirely possible, however the file did not have malicious content and was not
capable of causing permanent damage to anyone's computer.
3. When several hundred thousand people download a file, it's likely that due to
simple coincidence, one of those people will become infected with a virus around
the same time. When this happens, it is certainly more convenient to blame DB than to
admit that one was googling "kitten dick girls" and clicked on the wrong link, and
then to run around the internet screaming about how DB gave one a virus to cover
up one's disappointment in the lack of kitten dick girls.
To reiterate, no DB troll has ever contained any sort of malware and never will.
Help! I was banned, can you unban me?
Not with that information, no. First of all, you need to specify whether you were banned from our IRC channel, or from our website/tracker. Actually, if you are banned from our IRC channel, you don't need to bother writing, as IRC bans expire after two hours. This means that there is a 99% chance that you will have already been unbanned before anyone sees your message.
Approximate 75% of people who write to us asking to be unbanned from our website are not actually banned. To quote from one of our FAQs, "If you really are banned, you won't be able to see the site, read this FAQ, or leave us feedback. So if you're reading this, you're lucky enough to be not banned. For now, anyway." Just because you get an error message when trying to access our bittorrent page does not mean you are banned.
Amazingly, most people who are clever enough to realize they are banned and then write a message via a proxy or from a friend's computer are not clever enough to include their IP address in their request to be unbanned. There is no way to look up your ban or remove it without the banned IP address.
Finally, if you manage to actually be banned, find a way to send us a message, and remember to include your IP, you will not be unbanned unless you come up with a reasonable excuse for why you did whatever got you banned, or at least an apology. "You assholes banned me for no reason" does not qualify.
This Feedback Forum wasn't as funny as the previous one, what gives?
Every time I write a Feedback Forum where I actually answer people's questions, I get this complaint. However, when I write ones where I mock people's ridiculous messages, I get complaints that I am "mean" and am not actually answering anyone's questions. I can't make everyone happy all of the time.