This is because you don't have privileged access to China's "prestige" dramas exclusively targeted for its domestic…
You know that even if a drama is marketed exclusively for the Chinese market with no official English translation, it is still listed and available internationally through unofficial sources (such as torrents or streaming websites), right?
Almost all Chinese drama information on MDL comes from Chinese websites like Douban and Baidu, and there are plenty of Chinese editors contributing. So foreigners can find out about these drama quite easily.
Additionally, by using a VPN, you can easily set your computer's location to China, bypassing geo-blocking and accessing the drama. Nowadays, you can even generate highly accurate English subtitles automatically using AI programs like Whisper or machine-translate existing Chinese subtitles.
So, what you're saying doesn’t make much sense, honestly. We're not in the 1980s anymore, everything is accessible everywhere these days.
I agree that China is producing too much business/romance drama most of which are mediocre. If only their drama market was more open to other genre and less censored we could get a lot of gems like "Reset" or "Better days".
It sucks that China is producing so few gripping drama like this. Plenty of mediocre business/romance shit, literally every months, but few interesting thriller like this.
If you liked this, I highly recommend the US movie "Source code", similar story but happens in a train not a bus.
This is unlikely to air anytime soon, unless they sell it to a foreign network and avoid airing it in China. However, they’ve only been doing this with low-profile BL dramas, so I don’t have high hopes for this one considering it is very popular with high profile actors.
I keep reading this argument and... MDL counts, reddit counts, even a profile in a forum about teapot lovers counts…
What an unpleasant answer. My initial post was civil, after all.
The issue here is that the "effort" you are requiring is something many users physically cannot meet because they do not use post-based websites. Even if they are willing to join your Discord, read and agree to your rules, etc., they will never have two old, active accounts on post-based websites.
Requiring people to create two "social" (or similar) accounts and actively post on both for several months, something they have zero interest in if they did not have those accounts to begin with, just to potentially watch the drama with subtitles several month after is, in my opinion, unreasonable.
I understand you are doing this for free and don’t owe anything to users, but I am free to criticize this policy of excessively gatekeeping subtitles. You are entitled to your rules, and I am entitled to my opinion.
I knew you would ban me, which is why I replied here on MDL and not on Discord. I actually kinda expected your would answer aggressively like this. ;)
Thankfully, a kind person sent me the subtitles, so I will not need your Discord anymore.
I keep reading this argument and... MDL counts, reddit counts, even a profile in a forum about teapot lovers counts…
You just rejected me due to "not enough visible activity."
Not everyone is active on post-based websites. Because according to your requirements (having timestamped activity), only post-based websites such as SNS or forums can satisfy it. Finding one account was already difficult, so finding two is nearly impossible, especially when those accounts need to be active for a long time, and demonstrate constant visible activity.
Many people of different age groups and cultural backgrounds watch dramas; not everyone has interest spending their time posting online. Except commenting on MDL, I have zero interest in posting stuff online. So I am screwed I guess.
I understand you're doing this to prevent your subtitles from being reposted on sites like Dramacool, but based on what I’ve seen on your Discord, you seem to strictly enforce these requirements without applying much flexibility. As a result, many people had to watch this drama raw. Where is the fansub spirit of sharing? Users having to wait 7 days to be rejected.
This is quite sad honestly. Drama-Otaku is nowhere as strict as that yet it works fine.
As a French person, it was painful to watch. They are pretty much using every French cliché you can think of and painting a very romanticized version of France that feels totally artificial. Also, too many pastel colors! (But sadly, every Chinese show seems to have this issue.)
I am really disgusted with the debuting group… Seriously, the worst outcome possible. Daeul? Xin Che? Shihuan? No Linq Qi, Sungmin, Yoo Jun?
I am so angry right now. The resulting group is pathetic, thanks to the pay-to-win votes. I enjoyed the show (until the final) a lot, but I will surely not follow this pathetic group. I feel it will be short-lived anyway, like pretty much all IQIYI groups before.
The same goes for Project 7, the group is not good either.
I’m going to wait for Boys Planet 2, hopefully for a group I can stan, where more than 2/3 are talented and where having a rich family doesn’t let you buy votes to bypass actually talented trainees.
Almost all Chinese drama information on MDL comes from Chinese websites like Douban and Baidu, and there are plenty of Chinese editors contributing. So foreigners can find out about these drama quite easily.
Additionally, by using a VPN, you can easily set your computer's location to China, bypassing geo-blocking and accessing the drama. Nowadays, you can even generate highly accurate English subtitles automatically using AI programs like Whisper or machine-translate existing Chinese subtitles.
So, what you're saying doesn’t make much sense, honestly. We're not in the 1980s anymore, everything is accessible everywhere these days.
I agree that China is producing too much business/romance drama most of which are mediocre. If only their drama market was more open to other genre and less censored we could get a lot of gems like "Reset" or "Better days".
If you liked this, I highly recommend the US movie "Source code", similar story but happens in a train not a bus.
The issue here is that the "effort" you are requiring is something many users physically cannot meet because they do not use post-based websites. Even if they are willing to join your Discord, read and agree to your rules, etc., they will never have two old, active accounts on post-based websites.
Requiring people to create two "social" (or similar) accounts and actively post on both for several months, something they have zero interest in if they did not have those accounts to begin with, just to potentially watch the drama with subtitles several month after is, in my opinion, unreasonable.
I understand you are doing this for free and don’t owe anything to users, but I am free to criticize this policy of excessively gatekeeping subtitles. You are entitled to your rules, and I am entitled to my opinion.
I knew you would ban me, which is why I replied here on MDL and not on Discord. I actually kinda expected your would answer aggressively like this. ;)
Thankfully, a kind person sent me the subtitles, so I will not need your Discord anymore.
Not everyone is active on post-based websites. Because according to your requirements (having timestamped activity), only post-based websites such as SNS or forums can satisfy it. Finding one account was already difficult, so finding two is nearly impossible, especially when those accounts need to be active for a long time, and demonstrate constant visible activity.
Many people of different age groups and cultural backgrounds watch dramas; not everyone has interest spending their time posting online. Except commenting on MDL, I have zero interest in posting stuff online. So I am screwed I guess.
I understand you're doing this to prevent your subtitles from being reposted on sites like Dramacool, but based on what I’ve seen on your Discord, you seem to strictly enforce these requirements without applying much flexibility. As a result, many people had to watch this drama raw. Where is the fansub spirit of sharing? Users having to wait 7 days to be rejected.
This is quite sad honestly. Drama-Otaku is nowhere as strict as that yet it works fine.
They are pretty much using every French cliché you can think of and painting a very romanticized version of France that feels totally artificial.
Also, too many pastel colors! (But sadly, every Chinese show seems to have this issue.)
The vibe of the previous thailand season was completely different than the old chinese ones. And really not in a good way.
Plot is weak and not convinced by the actors. I'll drop it.
The flop its getting is deserved.
I am so angry right now. The resulting group is pathetic, thanks to the pay-to-win votes.
I enjoyed the show (until the final) a lot, but I will surely not follow this pathetic group. I feel it will be short-lived anyway, like pretty much all IQIYI groups before.
The same goes for Project 7, the group is not good either.
I’m going to wait for Boys Planet 2, hopefully for a group I can stan, where more than 2/3 are talented and where having a rich family doesn’t let you buy votes to bypass actually talented trainees.
Farewell Polarix.