Why does AS host moe contest threads??

[Reckoner]

I'm not trying to rile up anyone, but I really have to ask this seriously... Why?

I just don't see the point in having a thread, which while having some discussion, mostly consists of spam and chatroom like comments. The forum is essentially acting as a source of advertising for some offsite based contest, which I thought it didn't support, as well as turning a blind eye to a thread in its modding with how loose the conversation in it really is. It really is by no means a bastion of constructive conversation on this forum, and I really cannot understand its purpose on this forum when it mostly consists of people spamming their vote picks over and over again.

Now the most similar threads in nature I can think of are favorite character polls on AS for various subforums, but these threads at least promote more constructive conversation as it allows people to talk about why they found so and so the best character in their respective series, as well as simply the fact that it is actually a poll on the forum and not on some other website...

Is there a reason AS permits such threads to exist? And if so, why does it seem to conflict with so many of the ideals that the forum supposedly stands for in the first place?

[relentlessflame]

You probably know that I'm not personally a big fan of these sorts of tournaments or the sorts of discussion they generally engender. However, this is a topic that a lot of people visiting this forum are interested in, regardless of my own (or your own) feelings on the matter. Before we allowed these threads to be created, this sort of campaigning and discussion was spread all over the whole forum, so the decision was made to allow for a single thread for each tournament where this tournament-related discussion may occur. This gave people who want to discuss these events a place to do so that will limit the impact for those who wish to not be bothered or accosted about it. These are perceived by some to be events for the entire anime community, and many people consider this their anime community "home base", so I think there is at least some logic behind people wishing to discuss it here even if the actual votes occur on a different site. (But I will say that I think there would be some limits to where it makes sense to host the discussion here.)

Now as for the "low quality" of the discussion... the moderation staff will, as always, respond to any reports of posts that break the rules, so I would certainly encourage those who follow these sorts of threads and wish to improve the quality of the discussion to report posts that either don't contribute to the discussion, attack other members, make use of retort images, or whatever else. The mods don't necessarily visit every thread, even in composite, so we're counting on reports to help us spot problems. I'll take this thread as a sort of report, but it's more useful to receive reports about specific posts causing specific problems that can be dealt with more objectively.


I don't want this thread to become a fight between people who like these sorts of tournaments and those who don't, because this too will only result in low-quality discussion and no constructive solutions. If the thread goes in that direction, it'll be locked. Instead, I think we are open to constructive suggestions on what steps could be taken to improve the discussion in these sorts of threads, while still allowing people to have fun and enjoy the "healthy competition".

[Archon_Wing]

The natural rapidfire pace of those discussions cannot easily be controlled. It's like any live competition event with play by play reactions from people. I assume that's where most of the fun comes from. It also branches very heavily into whatever disagreements may happen.

I wonder if it would be better if a mod created these threads and outlined rules to specific to those threads in the first post. Yes, all threads are implicitly supposed to follow the forum rules, but it's a bit too easy to get carried away. There's a boilerplate already but it really doesn't outline that much. It is my feeling that being more detailed is better than less. I really want to know what's acceptable and what's not.

I'd almost like it if certain warnings/guidelines were somehow attached to the top of every page of said threads. Some forums do this to certain threads, because it's just really easy to forget. Or maybe confine it to its own subforum, but that would be a very extreme last resort.

But I understand if there's no desire to clamp down; since it's effectively a containment thread already. On the other hand there is a good reason why threads in series subforums have to be requested.

Edit: Also, what is quality discussion anyways? Yes no flaming should be the no brainer, but what else?

[felix]

There's no problem with the threads. It's the entire section of General Anime that's at fault. At least as far as I'm concerned anyway. Those threads are just the top offenders in a sea of noisy barely-relevant/re-hashed threads. If anything at least they're very well defined. There's no point in patching up a dead horse...

But anyway. We don't have spam/off-topic forum here (thank god!) nor a game forum, and there's nowhere else they could go either. If the whole idea of having a contest forum ever gets greenlit they could go there. So yeah just wait patiently... another 50 yeas. xD

Originally Posted by Archon_Wing

Edit: Also, what is quality discussion anyways? Yes no flaming should be the no brainer, but what else?

I say with 100% confidence: conversation. Anything that results in a friendly exchange of thoughts and ideas is good discussionm; nothing else needed. Threads that just produce lists, even if it's people expressing their (favorite) opinion on it, are often useless. Anyone can just make a list of all the things not only he likes but other (might) like. You, me... anyone, could make a list of all the favorite characters or favorite shows for the entire community, we don't need to host a thread to get that list (there's very little meaning in the list too). The innovation is in hearing ideas you couldn't have thought about yourself, by participating in "dialog" and debates. Divergence and convergence of different thoughts produces new ideas. We all think rought in a single linear fashion so it takes more then one to do it.

Unfortunetly this means good discussion is (often) synonymous with "bad" discussion. Ironic.

[CrowKenobi]

Originally Posted by Archon_Wing

I wonder if it would be better if a mod created these threads and outlined rules to specific to those threads in the first post.

A mod doesn't need to, since those that create the threads already know to include the forum saimoe rules in the first post:

Best Moe ISML J-Saimoe

[Archon_Wing]

Ah, I see they were authorized by the site already. Thanks.