Within a day is understating it a bit; in gg’s heyday we got some episodes out within hours of them airing and occasionally beat out the public raws.
I think for most of us fansubbing stopped being about the anime at some point along the way - I personally kept subbing for a few years after I last watched a show, and then continued to develop Aegisub for a few more years after that - but basically everyone got into it because we wanted to make it so that shows could be watched. The first few things I worked on would simply not have subs at all if I didn’t step up and do the work, and I can’t imagine I every would have gotten into subbing if that wasn’t the case.
There’s still room for better-than-the-official-release subs, but the simple fact is that most fansubs never were that, and most viewers never wanted that in the first place. There’s no longer a reason for kinda slow subs translated by a college student who’s taken a few years of Japanese classes to exist, and that’s what most of the scene was.
I think for most of us fansubbing stopped being about the anime at some point along the way - I personally kept subbing for a few years after I last watched a show, and then continued to develop Aegisub for a few more years after that - but basically everyone got into it because we wanted to make it so that shows could be watched. The first few things I worked on would simply not have subs at all if I didn’t step up and do the work, and I can’t imagine I every would have gotten into subbing if that wasn’t the case.
There’s still room for better-than-the-official-release subs, but the simple fact is that most fansubs never were that, and most viewers never wanted that in the first place. There’s no longer a reason for kinda slow subs translated by a college student who’s taken a few years of Japanese classes to exist, and that’s what most of the scene was.