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cyth · 2015-10-14, 18:45

Preamble

Older shows, once they're done airing, have to make way for newly released shows. In a matter of just a couple of years, shows are all but forgotten, with newer generations of fans focusing more on the shows they started out with. Active discussions work in their favor, whereas older shows have existing threads where they've been discussed to death. People looking for anime discussions are therefore incentivized to watch and discuss newer shows.

On AnimeSuki forums in particular, trying to restart an anime discussion as a curious new fan, or even as an older fan trying to relive the experience, forum rules state you do that in existing series threads or subforums. Duplicate threads are forbidden.

If there's interest to rekindle discussions, shouldn't discussing them be encouraged more systemically? Certain topics, for example piracy debates or dub debates, get recycled every few years. Moderators leave what are essentially duplicate threads alone because there's value to restart discussions with new participants at hand, fresh perspectives and years worth of new developments.

I'd argue it's the same for discussing anime. New fans, new fandom perspectives, new shows that build the surrounding ecosystem for discussion.

Proposal

What is a rewatch? A rewatch is an activity of watching older anime shows by old series fans or curious fans alike. I'd like to introduce a new subforum dedicated to rewatch threads, in which people could discuss anime on an agreed upon watching schedule. The rules of discussion would all be predetermined.

Now, I know what you're thinking. This subforum would essentially be home to a bunch of duplicate threads that probably wouldn't generate much discussion in comparison to original ones. Moreover, the resulting threads would negatively impact on search engine indexing. Read on about its organization and what are potential countermeasures against these two issues.

Example

I've recently rediscovered Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~, a TV anime from 2009 that I want to discuss. I could maybe post a rewatch thread on Reddit and possibly see it downvoted to oblivion, or I come to AnimeSuki and make a new thread in the rewatch subforum, asking people to watch it with me. I would do this by following these steps:

1. Open up a new rewatch proposal thread in the rewatch subforum with the show's title and rewatch period information.

2. In post body, type up basic series information and your rewatch thread preferences, such as rewatch scheduling, whether spoilers are allowed, whether discussing other media in the franchise is allowed etc.

3. Before publishing the new thread, set up a poll with two options which other users will cast their votes on to express interest. Basically, the same as I did in this thread.

Say 10 users apply for the rewatch in a matter of two weeks, then the OP is allowed to proceed with the discussion, either in the same thread or in a newly created one, with the current one getting deleted by the moderators or pruned sometime later.

Say 30 users apply for the rewatch in the same period, then each episode gets its own episode thread per scheduling preferences.

Say the thread doesn't get the minimum required users, it gets deleted or pruned after a certain period of time, with no rewatch allowed until another rewatch thread proposal is successful.

4. The rewatch starts if approved by moderators/rules of the rewatch subforum as per agreed upon scheduling, which users can coordinate in the original rewatch proposal thread.

5. When the rewatch schedule ends, the thread gets merged with the original discussion thread in Older series subforum, or in case of rewatch episode threads into original episode discussion threads in their respective anime series subforums. This way we prevent there being duplicate discussions forever.

Recommendations

If this proposal grabs your attention, read on. Negative impact on search engine indexing could be dealt with by preventing search engine bots access to the subforum or setting up a robots.txt. This means that rewatch threads won't be visible on Google. We don't need Google for them anyway and we protect AnimeSuki's PageRank.

As for the visibility of these threads, of course people will have to check out the rewatch forum to know what people want to rewatch and discuss anew. Other than that, moderators could put up periodic forum-wide announcements, giving further attention to certain rewatch threads that are taking off. This is just an extension to the proposal, nothing binding, of course.

I think this could be a feature that's fairly unique in fandom, a subforum that's basically a Kickstarter for discussing older shows. Thoughts? Possible adjustments to the proposed model? Thank you.

2015-10-14, 18:45	Link #1
cyth Banned Join Date: Dec 2006 Age: 38	Rewatch subforum Preamble Older shows, once they're done airing, have to make way for newly released shows. In a matter of just a couple of years, shows are all but forgotten, with newer generations of fans focusing more on the shows they started out with. Active discussions work in their favor, whereas older shows have existing threads where they've been discussed to death. People looking for anime discussions are therefore incentivized to watch and discuss newer shows. On AnimeSuki forums in particular, trying to restart an anime discussion as a curious new fan, or even as an older fan trying to relive the experience, forum rules state you do that in existing series threads or subforums. Duplicate threads are forbidden. If there's interest to rekindle discussions, shouldn't discussing them be encouraged more systemically? Certain topics, for example piracy debates or dub debates, get recycled every few years. Moderators leave what are essentially duplicate threads alone because there's value to restart discussions with new participants at hand, fresh perspectives and years worth of new developments. I'd argue it's the same for discussing anime. New fans, new fandom perspectives, new shows that build the surrounding ecosystem for discussion. Proposal What is a rewatch? A rewatch is an activity of watching older anime shows by old series fans or curious fans alike. I'd like to introduce a new subforum dedicated to rewatch threads, in which people could discuss anime on an agreed upon watching schedule. The rules of discussion would all be predetermined. Now, I know what you're thinking. This subforum would essentially be home to a bunch of duplicate threads that probably wouldn't generate much discussion in comparison to original ones. Moreover, the resulting threads would negatively impact on search engine indexing. Read on about its organization and what are potential countermeasures against these two issues. Example I've recently rediscovered Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~, a TV anime from 2009 that I want to discuss. I could maybe post a rewatch thread on Reddit and possibly see it downvoted to oblivion, or I come to AnimeSuki and make a new thread in the rewatch subforum, asking people to watch it with me. I would do this by following these steps: 1. Open up a new rewatch proposal thread in the rewatch subforum with the show's title and rewatch period information. 2. In post body, type up basic series information and your rewatch thread preferences, such as rewatch scheduling, whether spoilers are allowed, whether discussing other media in the franchise is allowed etc. 3. Before publishing the new thread, set up a poll with two options which other users will cast their votes on to express interest. Basically, the same as I did in this thread. Say 10 users apply for the rewatch in a matter of two weeks, then the OP is allowed to proceed with the discussion, either in the same thread or in a newly created one, with the current one getting deleted by the moderators or pruned sometime later. Say 30 users apply for the rewatch in the same period, then each episode gets its own episode thread per scheduling preferences. Say the thread doesn't get the minimum required users, it gets deleted or pruned after a certain period of time, with no rewatch allowed until another rewatch thread proposal is successful. 4. The rewatch starts if approved by moderators/rules of the rewatch subforum as per agreed upon scheduling, which users can coordinate in the original rewatch proposal thread. 5. When the rewatch schedule ends, the thread gets merged with the original discussion thread in Older series subforum, or in case of rewatch episode threads into original episode discussion threads in their respective anime series subforums. This way we prevent there being duplicate discussions forever. Recommendations If this proposal grabs your attention, read on. Negative impact on search engine indexing could be dealt with by preventing search engine bots access to the subforum or setting up a robots.txt. This means that rewatch threads won't be visible on Google. We don't need Google for them anyway and we protect AnimeSuki's PageRank. As for the visibility of these threads, of course people will have to check out the rewatch forum to know what people want to rewatch and discuss anew. Other than that, moderators could put up periodic forum-wide announcements, giving further attention to certain rewatch threads that are taking off. This is just an extension to the proposal, nothing binding, of course. I think this could be a feature that's fairly unique in fandom, a subforum that's basically a Kickstarter for discussing older shows. Thoughts? Possible adjustments to the proposed model? Thank you.