Champ213

I have been a staff member for, I don't know, 5 years or more, and I can tell you, we have tried a LOT to resolve this issue. On occassion we have done literally hours of detective work to find out who was reposting stuff from here. If we were succesful we banned that user - and it took them 3 minutes to make a new account. I know that this is a frustrating issue for uploaders, but there really is only so much we can do. Also, the expectations differe a lot from uploader to uploader. - Some don't want their uploads to be reposted - at all. The only way to ensure that is to only share with people you personally know and trust. This is obviously a subjective thing, and if you are consequential the number of people you share with shouldn't be more than about, say, two dozen. Personally I couldn't think of more than 10 people I would share stuff with online if I want to make really sure that it never leaks. A public forum just isn't a good place for that. I don't advertise my download in a place where 100s of people can see it, if I only want to share it with 10 people to begin with. That's why we stopped the "MH Exclusive" thing. If everybody only shared their uploads with their select clique of friends, the DL section would soon become useless. Don't forget that it may, and most likely will, also hit you at some point: you may see a release posted that you really really want, but the uploader doesn't know you enough to share it with you - how would you feel? - Some people just want to be sure they receive credit for their uploads. Well, some reposters have the courtesy to do so. But uploads spread in branches, so after the second or third repost the credit is usually lost. Also, you can also find download links directly via search engines. One solution here: include your name in the filename, or put a text titled "Ripped by [email protected]" into the zip file or even the ID3 tags of the mp3. Sure, that can be removed, but many people don't bother. - Some people just want to receive thanks and/or comments for their uploads. There are technical solutions like "post for link" or "thanks for link". We had the "thanks for link"-option at some point, but it caused heavy lag on the server and had to be removed. That was a different forum software though. I am not sure if we can implement it here, but I can look into it. "Post for link" is usually a huge spam machine that I would like to avoid if possible. But I will look into it too, and if there's a huge demand for it, we might consider it. However neither of these prevent stuff from being reposted. It may make it slightly more easier to find people who repost, but only if they are dumb enough to use the same usernames. After being banned the first time, they usually don't. - Some people just want reposters to re-upload the stuff. I fall into that category. I know stuff is going to get spread, but at least the reposters could do the community a favor by creating mirror links. Finding jrock releases older than 2 years has almost become impossible, because people just repost the same link over and over again. I like fitear's idea of using a password that the reposters are unlikely to re-use. I also noticed if I take down my link after a day and replace it with a different one, the reposters are usually too lazy to come back and steal that one too and will simply re-upload it themselves. - Some people want to get notified if something gets reposted. I'm sorry, but I really don't know how we could enforce that. And even if the first reposter would do it, once it gets reposted from there, there is even less we can do. Again, if anyone has any ideas that we havn't tried so far, bring them on! And maybe we can hope that all the Blogspots etc. will eventually realize that they shoot themselves in the foot if they don't respect the rules the uploaders have laid out. Because if more and more people stop uploading out of frustration they have less to repost. And everyone else will also suffer because they get less music, even if they haven't done anything wrong.

I think Zess and Saku pretty much said most of what I feel about this issue. We have tried different measures and none of them really worked. Banning leechers or people who repost stuff? They'll just make a new account. Restricted forums for "trusted" VIP users? The stuff got spread anyway. PM for link? I'm sorry, but if you are just going to share with a small bunch of people that you know and trust personally, why post it on a public forum? Just secretly share it with them and be done with it. Publicly advertising a file but then only giving it to a very select bunch is a key for drama. The only option really is to go completely private, kick-out 99% of the users, make the forum applications/invite only, and make the restrictions so harsh that even some people who posted in this thread probably wouldn't make the cut. And this isn't something that MH wants to be. I mean, if you have any concrete and practical suggestions that we haven't tried already, feel free to make them, and we will consider them. Finally I should mention that it also works the other way around: stuff from jpopsuki and other places gets reposted here too. Most people find it convienent not having to check half a dozen different places to catch every upload they may be interested in.

Sorry for going a bit off-topic, but since you linked this here.... has anyone here ever bought something from the Under Ground Music shop? I stumbled across that page a while ago and even back then it looked kinda neglected. But it has all those demotapes of those old Matina bands for download in much better quality than those old rips floating around, so that's really tempting... I made an account back then and proceeded to checkout, where it asked me to pay via credit card or WebMoney. Now, getting some prepaid online credit card is not that difficult, but I wonder if buying there actually still works, or if Kisaki will just keep my money and no downloads are ever to be seen, lol.

Only the taxes, the rate is 19%, no administrative fees. So if I buy a couple of CDs and it costs an overall of 50 Euro, I pay around 10 Euro import taxes.

Maybe it's a german thing. It's being sent to your nearest custom office, where you have to show the invoice and open it for the officials to see, just like you would in a normal customs inspection when entering a country. And, as has been pointed out, writing "gift" on the package will not always work either. My last package from Brand X was labeled "gift" (I didn't even ask them to, they did it on their own). Rest assured, it still got stuck in customs, I had to go collect it, and pay. Even declaring lower value doesn't always help. Because it's not unlikely that the customs officials simply won't believe it, especially if it doesn't have very detailed papers attached outside of the package (usually in a small plastic bag that can be seperately opened) and looks like a commercial package. When I get a notice from customs to collect something, that's the usual explanation: "Missing documentation on the package" - even when the value is clearly declared on the outside. They simply don't take it at face value. That's why you have to bring in the invoice/paypal recipe - to prove how much you actually paid for it. So I stopped asking shops to declare lower value - doesn't work, never has for me at least, if the package looks remotely commercial the local customs will most likely stop it and either cite you in, or have you pay the taxes on delivery. And the if the package was to get lost, it's only insured by the declared value, so I may as well have it as the actual value. But yeah, I don't mind paying the taxes as such. If I already paid so much to have it shipped to me, I may as well pay a few more Euro and be done with it. But my time is more valuable. I'd pay all the custom taxes they want, if they would just always deliver it to my damn house, lol.

I would think so too. Of course paying customs is annoying and I had to do it often enough myself, but you can hardly blame Closetchild for following due procedure and claim that they do it because they "hate overseas costumers". That's just ridicolous. If they hated overseas costumers, they would just stop shipping overseas. It's not like they have to. Most other vk indies shops do not offer overseas shipping, so I'm guessing it's more trouble than it's worth for them. Personally I find it much more annoying that in 80% of the time my package gets stuck in customs, I have to go and collect it myself to show the invoice and open the package and stuff. The customs office is at the outskirts of the city and with the wait time I usually spend 2-3 hours just to get my damn package. Not the ones from Closetchild though, they usually get delivered to my door and I can pay the customs here, which is much more convenient. Not sure why that it, but I assume the packages are thoroughly labeled, with all necessary papers attached at the outside of the package, so I don't have to show up myself to hand in the invoice and I appreaciate that. So yeah, paying the taxes bothers me not nearly as much as all the hours wasted sitting in trains and waiting halls to collect my stuff.

How odd.......

Actually the only bands with both Kisaki and Riku were Phantasmagoria and Lin. Kisaki's 2398356 other bands and projects were without Riku. I liked Riku but I like Sui even more so.... good for me, I guess. To me Lin could never really reach Phantasmagoria and Megaromania could never really reach Metis Gretel, but I hope the new lineup will reinvigorate things.

I'm hoping for good things. And it's great to see Sui back.

The GHOST one: http://www.puresound.co.jp/script/detail.php?id=102000634001 The Ayabie one: http://www.puresound.co.jp/script/detail.php?id=102000553

Meh, I'm still not really feeling it. With a lineup like that I had hoped for more. May try to get this single if I have the money to spare, but it's not really a priority right now.

The live limited single would cost you an arm and a leg: http://page8.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/h186049950 17,000 Yen starting bid, so even if it doesn't rise higher with proxy shipping fees and stuff you probably end up with likwe 200$ for a CD with 2 songs. XD

You are right, I just listened to the samples from the new mini-album for the first time: They are actually a lot more Luna-Sea-ish than the previous mini-album (I posted this here a while ago.) Naoto's voice is a bit deeper, but when he hits the high notes he totally sounds like Ryuichi too! In the video at 1:12 min, when he sings "zutto" - that's an A++ Ryuichi! XD

This is unexpected and wonderful <3

Any samples or teasers so far? Kinda curious about this....

Ooooh, I like this! I hope they'll release something before their inevitable disbandment in about 10 months.

They should just bring back L'eprica, dammit, that band was impeccable. But I guess I wouldn't mind a new band either.

Lol yeah, that's some label name.... Apparently they have quite the selection of strange/interesting bands though, like Not sure what I find more intriguing, the performance itself or the salaryman standing devoutly in front row. XD

Yeah, pretty much, you can check out some previews here: https://soundcloud.com/odorikorecords/film-6

Yeah, it only takes about 2 minutes to register an account, and it's free. I could upload the song, but I guess it would be better if you get it from there, I assume they get download statistics and see how many people downloaded their stuff. And you can get their other release really cheap there too.

So I saw Turisas yesterday and it was just as awesome as I hoped! Sadly no pictures because I don't have a smartphone and I'm not taking my 800€-camera to a metal concert. XD When I entered the area of the livehouse, vocalist Mathias Nygard, not yet in warpaint and stage gear, actually exited a neighbouring building and passed right in front of me and I had a total "OMG WFT IT'S WARLORD"-fangirl moment, lol. Pre-band was Starkill, who were pretty decent and tried their best to animate an audiance that obviously didn't come to see them most and foremost. I was standing at the back of the crowd, but I had an excellent view, because the room is pretty small and there's a small elevation in front of the sound engineer's table, so I was basically standing 25 cm above everyone in front of me. Suffice to say, the concert was really amazing. I was a bit concered that the band would be a bit burned-out, since the Cologne date was like their 8th concert in as many days, but that was definetely not the case. Mathias was very lively, making jokes and interacting with audience. After the first 2 songs he reminisced how they played the same location in 2006 and asked how many people had been there as well - only one guy in the audience stepped up. So for the rest of the evening Mathias would make the running joke that in 2006 that one guy was the only audience they had that night at all. On another occassion he asked the audience who had to go to work the next day (since it was a weekday) - the reaction was semi-loud as best, so Mathias was like "That's about half of you? What the fuck is this? Greece?" - the audience was highly amused, the band's greek-heritage bassist - not so much. XDD Highlight of the evening was probably the cover of "Rasputin", which made the whole room go crazy. The songs I personally enjoyed the most were "Holmgard an Beyond", "10 More Miles", "Battle Metal", "We Ride Together" and "Miklagard Overture", but in the end they were all pretty great. I posted the full tracklist in the folk metal thread, for anyone that cares.

In spoken japanese people will normally try to avoid using too many homophones when the intended meaning is not clear from the context. The large number of homophones is mostly due to a rather poor importing of chinese words - the chinese language already has a significant number of homophones, and the japanese made it even worse by getting rid of the tonal accents that didn't exist in their language, creating even more homophones. However, there are almost always alternatives, for example by using genuine japanese words instead of chinese ones. For example, you will rarely hear the word "sei" used in spoken japanese to indicate "life". People will usually use the word "inochi" instead. The reading "shi" on the other hand is so closely associated with the meaning "death", that people will normally not assume any of the more obscure meanings without good reason. (The other most common meaning of "shi", the number 4, has a commonly used alternative "yon", to avoid this inauspicious connection to the word "death".) So basically.... if the context doesn't indicate otherwise, people will assume the most common meaning of a homophone, like they would do in any other language. And in purely spoken language they will probably try to avoid confusing homophones by using alternative words.