08-31-2023, 04:58 PM
Hello, if you've read my introduction, you'll know who I am.
This post has been adapted from the original announcement on The MyGrailWatch Blog.
May glory be to God in all things. When things weren’t looking so well last year and shit was coming from every direction, it’s only through God’s unceasing grace that we can come to you today. Even if you can’t see how at that moment, all things work together. And it is solely through Him that I have the means to run this website. If you don't have much time, it is a place for figure collectors and anime enthusiasts to gather and discuss the hobby we love.
From the start, MGW was meant to be a service that people could use to buy figures and not talk about them. As we develop and deploy services, buying figures remain our focus. Our Impressions and Hot Takes, also exist for that reason. Our focus was very much on our beloved subject. It was a foregone conclusion that politics and off-topic content would be excluded. The world was crazy before our founding and five years later, it’s just as crazy. I consider the decision to exclude off-topic content to be a good one. This is partially why The AnimeFigure Club exists.
For me, one or two power-tripping moderators have soured forums. In general, they are like big fish in little ponds; they can do whatever they please with impunity. I want to give a shout-out to ImageMagick forums; they’re awesome. To not go on a tagent, there’s a reason why places like Twitter, Reddit, and Facebook have supplanted them. Social media is like the ocean in comparison. But the shiny conveniences of social media are outweighed by their drawbacks. From privacy invasions to treating your devices as agents to collect data on you, manipulating you based on the data collected, profiteering off said data. We also have advertiser-focused policies such as discrimination against anime-related content whether they be suggestive, adult, or innocuous (GIRLS und PANZER). A single account sounds great on paper, but then we have automatic banning and shadow banning, along with actions tied to conjured words such as “ghosting” and “deboosting.” Those are four different actions that result in the same outcome, you are fucked. There are many more issues and one could argue that such policies are necessary once you operate “at scale.” Ultimately, you do not matter as an individual user. If you did, they wouldn’t treat you like garbage. But you do matter, granted, more to some people than others. Coming back to the start, maybe small, focused communities aren’t so bad. And if they were run by mature adults, it would be even better.
Again, MyGrailWatch was meant to be a place where people would not talk about figures but buy them. The AnimeFigure Club contrasts and thus compliments MGW, being that it is a place designed for people to talk about figures. As leader of MGW, I want everyone who uses our services to be happy. This long-winded introduction is now complete. Since you are already here, register if you haven't and let’s have fun discussing figures and related topics.
This post has been adapted from the original announcement on The MyGrailWatch Blog.
May glory be to God in all things. When things weren’t looking so well last year and shit was coming from every direction, it’s only through God’s unceasing grace that we can come to you today. Even if you can’t see how at that moment, all things work together. And it is solely through Him that I have the means to run this website. If you don't have much time, it is a place for figure collectors and anime enthusiasts to gather and discuss the hobby we love.
From the start, MGW was meant to be a service that people could use to buy figures and not talk about them. As we develop and deploy services, buying figures remain our focus. Our Impressions and Hot Takes, also exist for that reason. Our focus was very much on our beloved subject. It was a foregone conclusion that politics and off-topic content would be excluded. The world was crazy before our founding and five years later, it’s just as crazy. I consider the decision to exclude off-topic content to be a good one. This is partially why The AnimeFigure Club exists.
For me, one or two power-tripping moderators have soured forums. In general, they are like big fish in little ponds; they can do whatever they please with impunity. I want to give a shout-out to ImageMagick forums; they’re awesome. To not go on a tagent, there’s a reason why places like Twitter, Reddit, and Facebook have supplanted them. Social media is like the ocean in comparison. But the shiny conveniences of social media are outweighed by their drawbacks. From privacy invasions to treating your devices as agents to collect data on you, manipulating you based on the data collected, profiteering off said data. We also have advertiser-focused policies such as discrimination against anime-related content whether they be suggestive, adult, or innocuous (GIRLS und PANZER). A single account sounds great on paper, but then we have automatic banning and shadow banning, along with actions tied to conjured words such as “ghosting” and “deboosting.” Those are four different actions that result in the same outcome, you are fucked. There are many more issues and one could argue that such policies are necessary once you operate “at scale.” Ultimately, you do not matter as an individual user. If you did, they wouldn’t treat you like garbage. But you do matter, granted, more to some people than others. Coming back to the start, maybe small, focused communities aren’t so bad. And if they were run by mature adults, it would be even better.
Again, MyGrailWatch was meant to be a place where people would not talk about figures but buy them. The AnimeFigure Club contrasts and thus compliments MGW, being that it is a place designed for people to talk about figures. As leader of MGW, I want everyone who uses our services to be happy. This long-winded introduction is now complete. Since you are already here, register if you haven't and let’s have fun discussing figures and related topics.