Feedback: Social Groups

[Daniel E.]

Originally Posted by NoSanninWa

I think that the social groups are only good for character fanclubs since their membership requirement will help prevent shipping. Anything else should be done in a thread instead.

I think it can help writers too.

As I said in another thread, writing threads are always buried rather quickly in Fan Creations; This of course leads to many writers to simply forget about the place and leave for good. New people comes along and the whole thing simply repeats again.

In this case, the social group could work as a sticky thread of sorts, where all interested members can join at any given point in time, without having to worry about their threads being forgotten by the masses.

[Terrestrial Dream]

I just have a question, would a social group created for bashing one specific character *cough* Suzaku *cough* be a bad idea? I am not planning but just an idea that I had.

[NightWish]

Originally Posted by Terrestrial Dream

... a bad idea?

Yes, a bad idea. Any sort of bashing just generates animosity, keep things positive please.

[Terrestrial Dream]

Originally Posted by NightWish

Yes, a bad idea. Any sort of bashing just generates animosity, keep things positive please.

Alright it was just an idea anyway, though if you had allowed it, oh the fun I could have .

[Sorrow-K]

So some of the ideas for groups are ones dedicated purely to bashing or praising...

You know, I personally don't think it's healthy for community ethos if you have a place where only one type of opinion on a matter is acceptable.

[felix]

It's not like if you take them away you are replacing it with anything or something better. I don't know if how you phrased is really exactly how you meant it, but there's nothing wrong with places where those who have no liking to the matter have no say in it's discussion.

I won't speak for SG here but the general idea is that if you have a Politics groups for example you do not want to be poluted by opinions of 12-yearolds, which would be the case if a thread gets created, since threads have the 'come and post in me' feel to some people.

[Terrestrial Dream]

Originally Posted by Sorrow-K

So some of the ideas for groups are ones dedicated purely to bashing or praising...

You know, I personally don't think it's healthy for community ethos if you have a place where only one type of opinion on a matter is acceptable.

And some of the ideas are to spread news and info on anime genre, which is one of my idea on the mecha fan social group (though I don't think it will have large success) . Also my idea to bash character was a joke anyway, I knew that mods will never accept the idea but I just tried to see if they would just in case and it does set nice little precedent.

[Sorrow-K]

Originally Posted by Terrestrial Dream

And some of the ideas are to spread news and info on anime genre, which is one of my idea on the mecha fan social group (though I don't think it will have large success) . Also my idea to bash character was a joke anyway, I knew that mods will never accept the idea but I just tried to see if they would just in case and it does set nice little precedent.

And here's my problem with the entire social group set up as it stands. If you replace "fan" with "discussion" or something that implies you don't necessarily have to be fervent loyalist/defendant to take part, but merely an enthusiast or someone who wants to take part in the discussion, the entire thing becomes a million times more legitimate, in my opinion. But then it's just serving the same purpose as the forums, but with far less power and flexibility.

Right now most social groups just come off as circle jerk central. Most of the "conversation" (if you can call it that) is inane and brainless. Sure, some of the social clubs, like the Digital Photography one, are showing their worth, but again I'd say there's nothing they're doing that can't be done on the forums. But some of the others, like the Feito-chan Alliance, are just a complete mess. The social groups need to find their niche purpose in the community, but if that turns out to be "a place where we can masturbate together without fear of reprisal", I'd hope the mods are bringing their role, at the very least, or even their existence, into question.

[NoSanninWa]

Originally Posted by Sorrow-K

The social groups need to find their niche purpose in the community, but if that turns out to be "a place where we can masturbate together without fear of reprisal", I'd hope the mods are bringing their role, at the very least, or even their existence, into question.

I don't think that is a bad purpose. Many times in the past of AnimeSuki we've had people who want to "masturbate together without fear of reprisal" as you say. Until now we've had to shut such stuff down. Since folk really want to do that, I think it is nice that we can finally provide the a private place for their masturbation since its just icky to have to see that in public.

We all know there's nothing wrong with masturbation in private and these social groups provide that privacy to keep them from spooking the livestock.

[Deathkillz]

Eww...I would prefer if the word is replaced with a euphemism such as fapping

But yea, they are doing it in private at least. Though it's up to the mods to decide whether to allow such a place in the first place but even so, I suspect a lot of the groups wil run out of steam sooner or later.

[Potatochobit]

EDIT: ok got it all taken care of

[xris]

I have no idea what it is you are asking for here. Could you please explain the meaning of your post, what are you talking about?

[Potatochobit]

no problems now, messed around with it some and invited some people.

question was about how notifications work and how non-member content is displayed.

BB IMG would be nice, but hyperlinks work fine and save space so I can see why its like that.

[Ledgem]

It's now been a few months since we had social groups. I figured I'd give an updated opinion on them.

To be honest, I'm disappointed with the way that social groups are turning out. I'd originally viewed them as a way to allow AnimeSuki users to connect with each other through similar interests and hobbies. Since this is an anime forum and an anime site, having anime-related social groups seemed redundant. For series that lacked their own forums, having social groups dedicated to certain characters makes enough sense. It seems that a number of social groups have appeared that are purely dedicated to broad series, many of which either have their own thread or their own forums (four examples that I can think of immediately are the Naruto group, the Vocaloid group, the Cardcaptor Sakura group, and the Aria group - I'm a member of the latter two). From a quick browse through the group listings, it seems like the vast majority are anime-related in ways that forum threads either could or already serving.

I'm curious as to how the groups are being viewed by the staff, then. Is it an unregulated, offshoot area for people to spam? Is it essentially the same as people making new threads? It seems that we'll be keeping this feature, so where do we see it going?

As a disclaimer, I'm making this post and I've voiced my disappointment merely as an opinion and out of curiosity, not because I feel that something needs to be done. The social groups concept is one ripped from social networking sites and does seem a bit strange to be had in a forum setting. There is no right or wrong way to implement these. Even if all of our groups were anime-related they would still serve the purpose of helping members to find other members with similarities.

[NightWish]

Originally Posted by Ledgem

I'm curious as to how the groups are being viewed by the staff, then.

We have not really had a chance to debate this fully yet, or rather none of us has had the motivation to raise the topic in order that we come up with a full policy for the groups.

Originally Posted by Ledgem

Is it an unregulated, offshoot area for people to spam?

Categorically not. Although it is possible, or dare say probable, that this is the impression one would take from them currently, it is not the intention. While "spamy" topics/groups will undoubtedly occur, we have no intention of promoting them because it will only detract from the overall quality.

Originally Posted by Ledgem

Is it essentially the same as people making new threads?

That is one possibility I suppose, but it is unclear, to me at least, what gap in the available threads they currently fill. You mention character specific group, that might be a good example. Why not use a real thread? Do the current forum sections not cover the areas required?

Originally Posted by Ledgem

It seems that we'll be keeping this feature, so where do we see it going?

Maybe, maybe not. I think we're still undecided, though once something has momentum it is less likely to be stopped unless it is going in completely the wrong direction. Good question though, and as I say we don't really know yet. I think one advantage of letting it grow organically before we start pruning is that the community get to have more input in guiding where they want it to go. The downside is that the result is somewhat wild and the general direction might be undesirable to the forum overall. Eventually we'll need to prune and tie-back, but I think we want to avoid killing it off before it has even started.

Yay for metaphors

[Aoie_Emesai]

I just noticed in the social group, that the creators has a new title right along with their names. Was this recently applied?

[NightWish]

Originally Posted by Aoie_Emesai

Was this recently applied?

Yes. I change it a while ago on a test system while correcting some other template errors, but forgot to enable it here. A thread about user titles reminded me. The idea was to avoid the having people achieve the same manually, which just has a number of drawbacks.

[KiNA]

Just wondering.. is it possible to rename group? Purely cosmetic, yes, but for the Sheryl's fanclub, I was never aware that she was designated as Galactic Fairy in the series back when I made the group hence the name Galaxy Goddess Fanclub

>_<!

[NightWish]

I've changed the name for you, but as the group's creator, do you not have access to the edit page? Does it not let you change the name? Hum.

[KiNA]

I see the option to change the description, yes.. but not Group name edit.. thus, the request.

Thanks.