There are these people who do stuff they don’t like. I don’t get it.

It’s one thing when you just have to do something to survive, even if you hate it (like working some shitty job), but apparently for some people online hobbies are like that too. Yesterday, in response to my earlier post, I was told “you and Xythar have this idea that fansubbing can be compared to like passive entertainment. But that’s you – other people treated it like a job.”

I still have a problem understanding how that works. Why would you do it if you didn’t like it? It’s not like a masked guy (with a Russian accent) is standing there next to you, holding a gun to your head, forcing you… It’s not even a strict commitment – over the years I’ve seen a good bunch of people just disappear from Rizon suddenly. I guess they just had enough. You can do that anytime freely, but you don’t even have to go that far. You can just call it quits, and still stick around for the community. Sure some people might hate you for it, but I doubt anyone would go as far as to harass (and then there is /ignore for that).

Apparently, at some point it becomes a habit they can’t break out of, which is also something I have trouble understanding. I was never the kind to easily get addicted to stuff long-term. While I did get hooked on games (etc) in the past to the level that some would consider crazy, but as soon as I felt that something was getting in the way of other parts of my life, I’d just stop.

On the other hand, I see this kind of self-torturing addiction in the real world on a daily basis: Japanese are a prime example of it. They keep doing stuff they hate, because they’re just too afraid to break away for whatever reason – “I may never find a job again”, “people would hate me for it”, “I’d get branded a quitter” and so on. They ganbaru all day towards some goal unknown even to them, in hopes it gets better sometime along the way. It might be just that I’m a global man, but I have no issues with just moving on if something doesn’t work out.

Of course it’s still a different story when it’s about a paying, secure job. I can kinda understand why someone would stick with that even if it was a pain in the ass. But fansubbing is online, without any commitments or returns. That’s beyond me.

Also, considering that even after years I can stick around without going bitter and hate all of it, I think that I’m doing it right.