@Mikey
There isn’t really a need to take it so seriously on your end given that this means pretty much nothing - it’s still just a fucking anime listing site, to start, and that was just a tacked on half-joke (I.e. he’s a nice guy but he roots for Duke/the Yankees/the Patriots/whatever) at the tail end of a paragraph where I was
praising you - but I’ll give you an in-depth explanation if you want to say you don’t understand what’s wrong with it.
I’m going to keep calling Anilist shit because I hate what it represents. A modern UI doesn’t make up for horrible moderation that has rules that ostensibly try to keep people who like certain kinds of anime out of their community. Given I’m in one of those de facto blackballed fandoms and many of my friends from MAL who went there got driven out by their needlessly oppressive rules about what you’re allowed to use to present yourself, damn straight I hate that site. Why would I like or respect a place that thumbs their nose at fans like me and says “We don’t want
your kind here” - especially when that’s not a problem on the ground level community as much as a problem with the ones who write the rules at the very top?
You can all sit here and make me out as the big bad elitist all you like, but I stand where I have always stood, back all those years ago and to this day. Disrespect and feelings of superiority aren’t mutually inclusive. Anilist’s brand - as created by their own staff with their rulesets and enforcement of as much - represents something I very much do hate when you look at it from that perspective.
Especially since it applies to me and mine in this case, probably moreso than anyone else here.
But more than anything? You need to look at MAL/AL like a sports rivalry. It can definitely assume greater meaning when looked at from a perspective that accounts for all of the little nuances in either site’s community, but at the end of the day it’s still just two competing anime listing sites. MAL is UNC, AL is Duke. State versus Private. So on and so forth. One has outdated infrastructure but is for everyone, the other has modern infrastructure but is only for the select group with approved interests in anime. Only they can stay active in its community, and the rest will unceremoniously be mod sniped out if they make themselves too known. Or in more extreme cases on AL - like my group, fans of Harem&Ecchi anime - just listing your stuff and otherwise keeping your head down will still invite that sort of exclusion from up top because precedent shows me they’re
that proactive against certain types of anime fans. Our same fanbase has no issue being able to participate pretty much unopposed on MAL, though. This is not a coincidence.
Just as with sports clubs, the way any given community is run will lead it to represent something, especially if they’re in competition with one another for activity. In this case, AL ended up choosing the path of being the baddies. As I hate what they chose to represent, I will hate them for what they represent. You’ll have to just deal with that ¯*(ツ)*/¯ Exclusion based on superficial bullshit tends to evoke that type of response from those being excluded.
And before anyone tries to make it out like I was a problem member there since I tend to be a problem member here, my AL ban count is 0 and I hate their staff. My ban count on MAL is 7 and here it’s 6. I don’t dislike either site’s staff, and in MAL’s case I even like them. My problem was that I liked the wrong shit, just like my friends who tried being active there and got treated worse in spite of being non-confrontational people. Yes, the reason I have no bans on AL is relative lack of activity. Yes, my activity there is non-existent because I bailed when it became clear “my kind” wasn’t welcome there.
Fuck Anilist. Here’s hoping MAL beats the shit out of them in the World Series of anime listing sites or whatever, if something like that ever happens.
If you want to keep using it and haven’t dealt with them/dealt with them
yet, feel free. That matters little since it’s not a ground level community issue, it’s an issue with the ones vetting who’s allowed to participate, and if you fall into the type of anime fan they consider acceptable, the site infrastructure is both more stable and up-to-date than MAL’s. But I’m going to hate AL, and I’ll hate them based on their own choices.