[Opinion] The Closure of Hello!Online

  May 26, 2016

In case you haven’t heard – arguably the (most?) popular tracker for Idol related video / audio content has been made inactive as of a few hours ago.

So if you’re wondering why that episode of AKBingo hasn’t finished downloading yet after you left it overnight, now you know.

Below is the official post from haku regarding the closure

Shutting down Hello!Online Tracker

SOURCEAs probably the most of you know a lot of bittorrent sites around the world have problems to run their services due to new laws and pinch against their server halls. I have always stood up for filesharing but time have come where I have to decide what is best for my family. Therefor I have decided to leave my position and close Hello!Online Tracker for good.

While the staff at AKB48WrapUp definitely does not approve the act of sharing of any kind of illegal / pirated content, it is an irrefutable fact that the existence of the Tracker has opened up doors to a lot of newcomers that overtime, turn into fans that bring contributions to the fandom – ranging from just a quick translation of members’ Social Media posts to subbing an entire season of Majisuka Gakuen.

Honestly speaking – if said tracker was not there to begin with, I doubt that this site will exist in the first place.

That KinSuma Special ( 120106 AKB48 KinSuma Special.mp4 ) roped me into the fandom and 4 years later –although not as active as before– I’m still here.

We guess that we’re just a little worried, now that the fandom has lost one of the biggest “entrance points” – one that is very crucial to the continuation of the International fandom, specially with Youtube now blocking 48G related contents to specific countries.

Hello!Online is an entity that most of us have taken for granted, and is one that will be very hard to replace.

Just like member graduations – we’ll have to grit our teeth and deal with it in our own ways.

But in a way, unlike member graduations, I can’t foresee that we’ll have a replacement anytime soon.

What are your thoughts in this matter?

Do you think you can still continue being an idol fan without having access to the weekly idol programs / Live on Demands ( LODs )?

Will you reach out a little bit deeper into your pocket and shell out some cash to get the packaged TV show boxes just to be able to get your 48g fix?

Chime in below on the comments section!