Quote:
Originally Posted by relentlessflame
Given the low level of interest (and that most of the specific conversations happened a long time in the past, so don't make sense to respond to now), it should be okay to have consolidated discussion. (Remember that the vast majority of series on this site have consolidated threads in the first place, so that is generally the norm.)
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I have a thought about this. The activity drops off when a series completes for obvious reasons, but how much of it has to do with the fact that those forums are locked down? Speaking for myself, at least, I tend to view replies to my subscribed threads from older series only if I'm fairly bored and have the time. They're the lowest priority for me. The reason is because most of those replies aren't really discussions at all. People drop a comment, and then they don't return to see if there's further discussion.
Why are people "comment bombing" instead of having an actual discussion? I suspect it's because we're restricting comments to specific threads. That these threads already have a history of posts that may be months or years old is off-putting to newcomers, and their comments are likely to go unnoticed. And why should people pay attention to them? They may have a really fascinating take or discussion point on a series, but if it's filed under a thread called "general discussion" then who's going to know that a wonderfully insightful discussion topic was formed if they can't see the title?
I raised this issue a few months ago (my displeasure with threads being treated like sub-forums), so much of this might sound familiar. I really dislike the culture of writing a post and then never returning to a thread, though, and I strongly blame the lack of free thread creation for it. The staff response thus far has been that new threads can be requested, but this is also harmful. This is a forum where people come on their free time. Good on those who have put in their requests, but I can tell you that I've considered making requests before and then never did, because it felt like too much effort for something that could too easily be rejected, and that might take a while to be accepted. You're asking people to propose something, justify it, and then follow up on it - for
anime discussion? Sounds more like something you'd expect when asking the local town government to make some changes.
My conclusions may be wrong, and that's fine. I'd just ask that we openly consider how the restrictive policies may be affecting forum activity, and think about whether the restrictions are doing more harm than what they're in place to guard against.