Russia is watching

Very interesting. We had a visitor from Russia tonight, and it wasn't a bot. For the life of me, I can't imagine what someone from Russia would be doing on an ASJ fanfiction site. Then again, we had someone from China on the site awhile ago. Perhaps international hackers get bored and troll around the internet for fun.
Well, there is plenty for them to read here.  

A few years back, I followed an advertising link and ordered Season 2 of Alias Smith & Jones. Even as I did so, I wondered if I was being incredibly foolish, putting my credit card information out there to who-knows-who or where. Well, a few weeks later, I actually received Season 2. It was shipped from China, and the discs were copies of shows that had been aired. Maybe the person who made these bootleg copies actually got interested in the show and discovered the fanfic sites.

That's interesting, RosieAnnie. It may be there is interest in the shows. Westerns seem to be very popular worldwide. I don't believe the shows have been distributed legally in China, so maybe it is Black Market. I don't know about Russia. Did the copies you received have any logos in the corners to indicate who was airing them? Or do you think the copies were of shows aired in a different country, sent to China, and re-copied?

I know that after the Russian Revolution, that people in the USSR would get copies of western countries' films and then copy them, send the films back claiming they were never shown, so they wouldn't have to pay royalties. Apparently, the government was in on this practice. Some of the old silent movies long thought lost have shown up years later in the form of illegal copies from countries behind the Iron Curtain. For example, Eddie Cantor's Whoopee, early sound era, long thought missing, was found in an Eastern Bloc Country.

It would certainly be fun if someone from China or Russia contributed to the site. Oh, and we also had someone from the Middle East a number of months ago.

It is interesting to hear about the folks from various countries who have visited the site. Another possibility - I wonder if there could be regular forum visitors whose business sometimes takes them to foreign countries. If so, they may have visited the forum during a business trip.

BeeJay, there's no such indication on the DVDs. They look like pirated copies. I think Sister Grace may be right; somebody was travelling and checked in during their trip.

Hi Folks,
 
I may be able to help.  Most of my mediation work is international and political.  I travel and sort out fights for a living.  If they build it, I will come... and the world is always falling out about something or other.  

Mind you, I'm not there right now...

It is kind of amazing what wide interest there is. I'm sure I'm far from the only AS&J fan fic writer to have had momentary readers from places like Japan, India, Belgium, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Bermuda, Denmark, Bolivia, Poland, and Turkey. And the semi-regulars from France, Canada and the Czech Republic.And then there are the regulars from the UK, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, and Sweden. As long as my latest story has turned out to be, it's a wonder that anyone comes back at all, especially those for whom English is not their native language. I wonder how many of the momentary readers are actually AS&J fans and how many are just randomly browsing? What other countries have you heard from?
HW

We do get a wide assortment of countries reading our stories. Fanfiction.net tells you what countries are reading and I've wondered if some of them were military folks stationed around the world reading fun stories. I've had the following countries reading my stories: Pakistan, Norway, Slovakia, Spain, Colombia, Belgium, Hong Kong, Japan, Belgium, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Denmark, France, Canada, Czech Republic, UK, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, and Sweden.

Oh, good point about the military people, Penski. Or foreign service etc. But you never know.
HW