Be careful what you wish for: F*cked Gaijin Down for Exceeded Bandwidth

The forum for “FGs” or those non-Japanese in Japan who feel like they don’t quite fit in, has been down for the past 24 hours or so, giving the following error message:

Bandwidth Limit Exceeded
The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to the site owner reaching his/her bandwidth limit. Please try again later.
Apache/1.3.33 Server at www.fuckedgaijin.com Port 80

Now, in theory, this is the problem I wish we had. But, as Simonworld so sagely points out, the more popular a site gets, the more costly it is to maintain (especially a forum site like theirs). Maintaining a large and growing audience may in fact only be possible if you are taking in a good chunk of revenue from the site. Otherwise it’s a drain on both your time and your wallet.

As for the FG site itself, I have some mixed feelings. I was actually gearing up to write a scathing review of the site that blamed it for a) reinforcing negative stereotypes about Japan and b) showcasing the main posters’ insecurities and bad attitudes. Nevertheless, it was a good source of insider info about Japan from a different perspective, and it had some good features (Random Gaijin Pic of the Day being chief among them). I think we’ll all be watching to see what develops.

5 thoughts on “Be careful what you wish for: F*cked Gaijin Down for Exceeded Bandwidth”

  1. —–As for the FG… I was actually gearing up to write a scathing review of the site that blamed it for …. showcasing the main posters’ insecurities and bad attitudes.—

    Oh, pleeeease. I looooove it when you talk dirty to me.

  2. Were you going to ask for comments from the forum owner or the main contributors?

    Actually if you take the time to check out the site, it is mainly a news site with postings of news articles that FG’s find interesting. Usually the bad stereotypical comments get shot down in flames.. Well I try to at least.

    Sure there are a heap of insecurities and bad attitudes, but hey, walk out your front door and it is not that much different.

  3. It looks like I didn’t have to ask..

    Taro: I meant except for you, of course! Hehe…

    I apologize for the personal attack — it’s just that the articles you guys pick out for the front page almost always fall into two categories: “Setup for talking about how corrupt the Japanese government/system is” and “Weird Japanese inventions that go to show how weird and fetishistic the Japanese are”. There’s nothing wrong with pointing out the deficiencies in a system, but to do nothing but attack Japan for it’s deficiencies smacks of FGs who are in the “Japan Sucks” stage of culture shock. And from what I’ve seen, the comments do little but back up what you seem to be implying.

    And Gomi: What you say is true, but am I to expect nothing more of a website than what I’d get if I talked to a random person on the street? Maybe so. But I’d rather not if I don’t have to.

  4. “but am I to expect nothing more of a website than what I’d get if I talked to a random person on the street? Maybe so. But I’d rather not if I don’t have to.”

    Perhaps if FG was a website. But FG is NOT a website with a select few deciding what the “face” of the site is and what it represents. Its’ not even a website with a forum attatched to it. But the fact is that FG is ONLY a message board and as such is the sum of its parts.

    Consider FG to be the local tavern where people gather to air their gripes, confusions and angsts in a world that sometimes doesn’t like them. It’s a place to go to in order to talk to someone with the same mental frame of reference and culture.
    It’s a place to laugh, cry, talk, scream, complain, express and listen.
    So if you look at it that way, you’d want to talk to the regulars who are always around.

  5. I think you have a nice site here and a lot of the articles about Japan would fit in with the kind of content which gets posted on the FG forums. There is no explicit editorial on FG as far as I know; the main page is made up of articles posted in the Tokyo Tech, Media Fix and F*cked News forums. Nothing posted in Gaijin Ghetto/Jobs/Hook-Up/Tatami etc makes it to the Main Page although some do appear in the Hot Topics box.
    I’m as guilty as anyone for posting idiosyncratic news on FG but I often enjoy the absurd tone in which some things get reported as much as the news itself. I found the site, however when I was googling for information I needed for work and I ended up finding a lot of links/information buried in the sites archives. I tend to see the Main Page as an entertainment while, now and again, something genuinely useful pops up or somebody stops by to ask a question and the experienced hands (not necessarily the oldest members) usually take the time to answer seriously.
    Hope you can stop by when (if) we get up and running again

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