[VashTexan]

Well, there are likely millions of places to get free anime on the net, including anime to download, watch only, torrent, etc. Now I, and I'm sure plenty of other anime fans, have spent and continue to spend many hours, if not days searching for anime and anime sites to download from. I've found maybe a few hundred, and I'm sure others have found even more. It's a never-ending search for anime and it's hard to find what you want in any one place, even here (since most everything is hosted on megaupload or rapidshare, and, like most file hosting sites, delete files after a certain amount of time). Not to mention the extreme limitations without a premium account. It needs to be organized in some way to help anime fans.

So, now to the question: Can a shared index of anime be made, with links to anime download sites, and file hosting sites, available throughout the net, be made? It would technically be exactly like Wiki, except with an index of anime site/download links that can be added/modified/removed by all registered users with general approval. Everything could likely be organized in a data table (spreadsheet) that can be sorted first/second/third/etc. by what you want. Certainly not ALL the details would be submitted upfront, just the most sought for characteristics (dl vs. watch online, dl vs. torrent, etc.), with links for more details.

I'm sure it's possible to MAKE such a thing, but I"m really wondering how could it be safely distributed to anime fans. Were it made a site, just like almost any other site, it can be shutdown by authorities and reported by sticklers (ppl who stick to the rules, see Websters Dict.). Anime Stash is trying to do something like this with just user-submitted anime dl links, but the problem is not enough ppl look for all the anime at one time (>>files expire), and most ppl are leechers, leaving a small group of disgruntled, volunteer uploaders (forced to reupload hundreds of times) in their wake, especially because of sticklers clicking the "Report this file" link on the file hosting sites. "Anime That!" is trying to do the same thing with links only to online video hosting sites such as YouTube, Veoh, etc., but there are still sticklers reporting them and authorities finding the files.

The fact of the matter is that they're all way too public. The issue might come up that grouping all the contraband sites together will make it all the easier to be found and shutdown by authorities or be reported by sticklers. But then how do you host it? Distribute the data table/spreadsheet person to person (who could be a government agent)? I was thinking about making it a sort of private site (unlisted in searches anywhere) that only has links on one or two sites that seem secure enough, like this forum (although I know Arika doesn't seem to like links to any external sites). Maybe some sort of limitations as well, such as a certain number of valid posts (less than 1000) and/or a secret/coded password (which you have to figure out as an anime fan) that you need to access the site.

So could it work out in the end? Or should I just make a personal spreadsheet just for my lonesome self?

P.S. I know there have been several major P2P (Person to Person) [anime] file sharing operations before, but just about all of them have ended in disastrous failure, as far as I can tell from the wiki descriptions. This included virus, worm, and trojan breakouts throughout the network due to software security faults and the anonymity involved in the sharing, divulging private files (including police dossiers and personal medical files in some cases) onto the net. So P2P is not the best idea in that sense, although if the software and system were professionally designed (probably by a group of the best hackers and best non-windows/mac software designers in the world), it might just work.