[Admin] Google Sucks; Possible End of Twitter Translation

Google has inexplicably disabled the e-mail account I used for this blog, and attempts to have them restore the account or at least explain WHY they deleted it have failed. It was an account used solely for things related to this silly little translation blog, so I have no idea what terms of service I supposedly violated. Let this be another lesson in why you should never trust that "the cloud" will safely store all your information! It was just a relatively minor account that they disabled for me, but I am now backing up my primary Google account to other places in case they decide to disable that one for no reason!

So if you e-mailed me recently or left a comment and didn't get a response, that would be the reason why.

I have set up a new e-mail account at Hotmail and should be receiving comment notifications and such again now.

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In Hirasawa-related news, he has made some statements on Twitter that make me question whether I should keep translating selected Tweets as I have been. I think it's good to share some of his tweets in English since many fans don't read Japanese, but I don't want to do anything that seems to go directly against his wishes. So I'm going to mull this over a bit longer and then share his statements here, along with my decision.

"Observing Hirasawa for 50,000 Seconds" VIDEO STREAMING EVENT!

Mr. Hirasawa has recently reached 50,000 followers on Twitter! YAY!

In celebration thereof, he announced that he will be streaming 50,000 seconds of live footage on Ustream sometime in the future. (That's nearly 14 hours of video!!!) It sounds like he'll break up those 50,000 seconds into smaller chunks lasting a few minutes or maybe more. He will announce the start of a stream, and apparently each "episode" will be viewable for a limited time after for people who couldn't tune in while it was live. He claims he will announce the start of a stream clearly on Twitter and has scolded everyone for not trusting him to actually do so. ;)

I have no idea what he'll be showing, but it would be really cool to just watch him while he works. Maybe we'll even get to see his cats? I wouldn't be surprised if he just puts the camera on the yogurt he's making or on a plant he's growing and leaves it like that for a few hours for maximum trolling. But I hope it will be fun!

If you'd like to bookmark it, he's made a new Ustream channel for this event called Hirasawa監視5万秒 (aka "Observing Hirasawa for 50,000 Seconds"). There's also an older Ustream channel here, though I guess they'll be using the new 50,000 Seconds one for the upcoming videos.

I'll let you know when more information becomes available. (I'm also making a new tag called "event: livestream" for posts related to this.)

Twitter in Translation: Has Twitter Outlived its Purpose? Edition

Today, Mr. Hirasawa brought up the idea of making his Twitter account private, so that only people he allows to will be able to read it. It sounds like he's investigating whether he can make his account private or whether he'd have to make a new account altogether, and what a "locked" account entails.

In response to the general cry of despair and questions about what prompted this desire for privacy, he wrote: ( about how having 50,000 followers makes him uncomfortable, and how he hates people taking his words out of context. )

...

I am not sure what he's referring to. Was there some particular incident that brought all this up? Is he simply tired of people making fun of him or taking him out of context on NicoNico or Youtube or Twitter or 2ch or Pixiv or blogs? He's a public persona and does get talked about a lot.

These statements also made me wonder whether I should keep translating Mr. Hirasawa's tweets here. ( Read more... )

If he does make his account private, I will not publicly translate his tweets anymore.

I think I will try to translate more of his older tweets, but take more care to make sure that the risk of something being taken out of context is minimized. Perhaps friends-locking those translations would be one step I could take.

If you have any thoughts on the matter, I would really appreciate your input.