Upon return to the States from a mission trip in Ecuador, it has come to my realization that CultureQuote has been running headlong down a path that has taken us where I did not originally intend to go.
Due to a multitude of reasons, I am placing a suspension on the development of the entertainment video part of the site. When I started my blog last March, I did not intend to have a largely developed video section due to many factors, including unintended infringement and legal issues. I only wanted to share what shows I had found interesting while pursuing advancement in language level.
After the two week trip with little to no Internet connectivity I was granted time to ponder over what is truly important. During this, I realized that I must prioritize more. Too much time has escaped me since the time consuming development of–and, at times, obsession over–CultureQuote has dominated my priorities. The entire CultureQuote team is now in the thick of their collegiate studies and has to devote much time to building their foundations from which to launch successful and fulfilling careers. It has been overdue to switch our studies to the top of our list, so I am actively encouraging the team to take a break from CultureQuote and only post when they have down time. Time is a precious commodity that I dare say no one has enough of and it is of the utmost importance to use it wisely.
Once I reconnected and set my personal affairs straight, I set to check the site and see what new developments have surfaced. To my despair I came back to a bucket load of spam comments accompanied by emails lashing out at the team for not double checking to see if video links still worked or were for the right episodes (among other not-so-friendly topics). It is hard to want to continue to upload and link videos when we get loads of depreciating messages and unfair to the team to ask them to ignore and power through these rude comments. I understand that most of the community is thoughtful and does not intend to offend, but to those few “bad apples” out there I ask that you please think of the repercussions before trolling web developers that attempt to bring you what you want and consume.
At this point, we get many requests for new shows that many of us have often never heard of. The list is beginning to get unbearably long and with only the handful of us trying to keep up, we can no longer maintain a quick enough pace. None of us receive any compensation for our time, neither monetary or otherwise, which puts a strain on us as we have to maintain other means to make a living. We are all unpaid volunteers and all ads on this site come from embedded ads that WordPress, Dailymotion, and other subber sites have requested. Not a single cent comes as a reward for our diligence and effort.
There are many other minor reasons that added to our decision. Just as a little recap, we will not take down any video content unless requested to by a third party and will not be adding any new episodes or shows. We will, however, continue to write and develop the many other sections of the site. The team has come to the conclusion that we want to make this site more personal and blog-like as originally intended and will switch our focus to writing articles and sharing our explorations and findings.
I extend my deepest apologies if this has offended any of you. I never would have dreamt that CultureQuote would get thousands of daily views and I thank all our visitors for helping make the site successful. The team has come to this decision after much debate and we understand if you wish to leave the CultureQuote community.
Let us not end this on a dour note. The best thing about culture is that there are many sides and attributes to it. There is no finite end to what can be learned. There is no banner that marks the finish line. That is what makes the world diverse and worth exploring. That experience is what we wish to share and encourage discussion of.
“Culture is the sum of all forms of art. Of love and of thought, which, in the course of centuries, have enabled man to be less enslaved.” – André Malraux
Best Regards,
Dani & the CultureQuote Team
CultureQuote 