[Ledgem]

Everything that felix has said so far pretty much echoes my thoughts.

Originally Posted by Archon_Wing

If I were to speculate, there is a tendency to make redundant threads that clog up the forum. If you look at general, the same (frequently crappy-- insert moe debate here) topic gets recycled often. There is also a huge tendency for certain undesirable topics (typically shipping) that devolve without fail into pointless shitfests where people flame each other.

It's true that redundant threads would likely arise. That's a problem that other parts of the forum suffer from, as well, and I figured that it might have been one of the big reasons behind having this restriction (although I'd like to hear it from whichever staff member(s) implemented it for verification).

But "clog up the forum"? Are we pressed for disk space, or is the creation of new threads doing something terrible to the database system? If so, then this is completely necessary. If not, I don't see why this is a problem in moderation. Consider the reason why we dislike clutter: it generally interferes with other conversations (spam threads pushing other valid discussions to the second or later pages of a forum) or splinters conversation (redundant threads). If a thread is old and isn't receiving much traffic, neither redundant or spam threads (which moderators can handle) will be interfering with anything. If anything, they're keeping activity alive.

On the other hand, while the restrictions on the forums probably help to keep healthy discussions going when a forum receives tremendous activity, it seems to me that they're stifling activity on older series. This is a discussion forum, after all - aren't all rules and operations done in order to facilitate discussion?

Originally Posted by Archon_Wing

I don't necessarily agree with whatever the reason is or the fact this system exists, but I can see that there a number of legitimate reasons (one including just being too painful to try and moderate)

In theory, opening up the older forums as a free-for-all for thread discussion might create more moderator work. All the same, it seems to me that having all new thread requests going through moderators also generates a fair amount of work. And to be honest, if the moderators are not receiving tons of requests for new threads every day, then that's a worrying sign in itself.

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

I think every sub-forum ought to have at least one general discussion thread. Perhaps that's true now, if it wasn't true at the time SR was released. The shows I watch never achieve the popularity level required for a sub-forum, with the exception of Madoka.

Would this help with your issue, Ledgem?

While I think it would help, I don't foresee it going as far as I would hope.

We all use the forums, so think to yourself: when you see a thread with even 15 pages' worth of discussion, what is your initial reaction? I'll tell you that personally, I feel a bit put off. It means that there's probably a long, on-going conversation, and I don't want to read through everything from the beginning to join in. Alternately (and what I frequently observe), it means that there are fragmented conversations occurring side-by-side in one thread, unrelated to each other, with occasional replies that are completely unrelated from passer-byers.

I'm a bit obsessive-compulsive, so I understand the desire to keep the forums clean, organized, and orderly. These threads are anything but orderly. They're a chaotic mess that all too frequently devolves into what I like to think of as a comment heap, instead of a real discussion.

Originally Posted by Triple_R

Maybe there should be a certain cutoff point, after which an anime series subforum is made open to new threads without needing to persuade a Moderator to post them?

I like this idea. Still, before anything is changed, I'd be interested to know what the reasoning is for having things remain as they are.