AnimeSuki Forums

Hiroi Sekai · 2013-01-21, 04:51

This is just a suggestion as I realize how much work would be required of the admins/mods should it go through, but I would like to request an organization of threads, mainly in the "General" forums, like General Chat and General Anime.

Too many threads very closely resemble each other, and I feel like I'm often at a standstill deciding which to post my opinion in.

For example, there are a lot of "A ____ a Day" threads popping up as of late, and trying to determine which to even follow along in is getting cumbersome. I've got a picture of someone reaching out to help another. Do I post this is the "An Aww A Day", "A Motivational Post a Day", "News Stories" or another thread along those lines?

Movies and sports seems to be another topic that has a ton of different threads, but no generalization. With absolutely no disrespect for those who respect each of these topics, I believe we could efficiently talk of such in general threads regarding such matters. Something like a General Sports threads and a Movies thread. This is why the reply system exists, in my opinion.

I'm not sure, is this possible and even realistic? It has been left like this for a while, so I'm assuming it's not causing problems, and it's not for me either. I'd just like to see a more organized section when I go topic searching; that's how I find the inspiration to post more. I have found myself posting much less in the General Chat forum as of late, as I don't wish to scrub through pages and pages of these new linear/unexpansive topics to find the ones that promote intriguing conversation. Absolutely nothing wrong with fun topics, I love 'em. However, I think some great topics are being shoved far down into obscurity when I believe a little organization can bring life back to them.

I hope I'm not being ridiculous here and am willing to hear what the other members think. It's a community after all; I'm just one of the members who wishes to express a personal opinion.

Thanks in advance.

Ledgem · 2013-01-24, 11:23

I'm not a huge fan of the "A ___ a day" type of threads, either. When we had one or two it was fine, but copycats sure have become popular. They don't foster discussion - they're pretty much designed to be commentary dumps. Isn't that what sites like Tumblr are for? (Note: I don't use Tumblr, I may be misunderstanding how it works.)

I also dislike the idea of creating very general threads and shoveling all conversations into them. You end up getting many conversations running concurrently within the same thread. As the thread grows (and grows, and grows) it becomes very intimidating for people to enter the discussion. Those who do aren't going to read through all of the previous posts, either; they'll come in and dump a reply or an opinion. Again, it doesn't do much to foster discussion.

I view threads as conversations, and I sort of wish that they would auto-lock after a few months of nobody posting in them. There are some types of threads and discussions where that would be harmful, but in most cases it isn't. Consider the people who dredge up old threads with years of inactivity, and re-light the discussion: the conversations that took place at the start of the thread are totally unrelated to those going on at present. In some threads you can even find three cases of different activity, spaced years apart, with different participants in each case. It's not a system without flaws, but are the flaws worse than alternatives?

Either way, for your case, papermario, I'd say to just post wherever you think it fits best. If you're looking to start an actual conversation, you could even create your own thread if the topic is close to others but not a perfect fit.

**monir** · 2013-01-24, 12:21

Couple of good views on how to manage topic and discussion. Any other takes? It's a shame this topic isn't generating much interest. Come on people!

Hiroi Sekai · 2013-01-24, 20:52

Glad to see I'm not thinking ridiculous requests here.

What's done is done- these threads have pages of discussion and killing them entirely is just not right. What I might wish to request is a global sticky (or at least one in the General forums) informing members about such matters.

"Please post any news in the 'News Thread' [hyperlink for easy access] instead of creating new topics for them."

"Please refrain from creating threads of which are similar or applicable to an existing thread [An ___ a Day as examples would be one].

Just stuff like that so our first pages aren't flooded with these insanely similar topics.

Oh, and if there's just one more thing I'd request, it's to please have an official singular movie thread. A place to talk about upcoming films and post trailers/discussion. If the people wish to have a separate topic for upcoming/existing television series then that would be okay, but even those could be merged into a "The Media Thread" or something like that.

Thanks for your consideration, everyone. Appreciate it.

escimo · 2013-01-25, 15:25

I have to agree with Ledgem on combining the threads. I'm not a huge fan of the idea in case of threads which have a valid reason to exist. Making general threads wouldn't ease the confusion but increase it. However I do think General Chat could use some organizing. As there seems to be quite a few topics about movies, politics, news and Japanese culture, language etc. for example, my suggestion would be to see what general topics have the largest amounts of threads and to create a sub-forums for those topics and I suppose a dump for A *whatever* a day topics could be created as well.

There are also a few threads in General Chat I'd rather see moved to Fan Creations, Rate That Signature/Avatar and Photographs threads to be exact. I don't really see the point in them being in General Chat since Fan Creations exists.

Hiroi Sekai · 2013-01-27, 01:12

At the very least, we need a general movie thread, a generalized "A ___ a Day" thing, and a stronger note to members that extremely singular threads die in about 2 pages at most. If you're going to ask one question, there's a thread for that that's stickied.

I would personally love to see the General Chat regain some organization.

Hooves · 2013-01-29, 19:59

Organize things by making it more complex. It works well enough to not get pages sent back as quickly as a batter hitting homerun.

Ledgem · 2013-01-31, 17:27

I'll just share a bit more of my opinions on this... I think that "general" threads are fine for non-discussion types of threads. For example, we have the general questions thread (in the general chat forum), and we have an anime series identification thread (in the general anime forum, I believe). These are threads where someone is asking a question and they receive a reply or two. Sometimes there are a flurry of replies that build on each other, but it doesn't go beyond that: the thread's purpose is purely to answer questions, not to discuss them. It prevents a bunch of questions that would not have fostered discussion. They work well for those purposes.

When it comes to talking about movies, sports, and so on, it's a bit different. The movie threads that I've seen usually reach two to three pages of discussion; it goes well beyond announcing movie information (which could be gleaned from other places on the internet, anyhow). Since this is an anime forum and not a general entertainment forum, it's up to the staff if they would want to create a movie subforum; same with creating a sports sub-forum. Forcing all of those conversations into a single thread seems like it would be a real mess, though.

Suomi · 2013-02-02, 01:05

Just in relation to the "A ___ a day" threads: Can we please either group them somehow or put a limit on them? Sort of like we have a "No more 'rate this' threads" and "No More x vs x threads" rule...

NoemiChan · 2013-02-02, 01:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Illusore

Just in relation to the "A ___ a day" threads: Can we please either group them somehow or put a limit on them? Sort of like we have a "No more 'rate this' threads" and "No More x vs x threads" rule...

Agree. Except for A Laugh a Day which has a lot of visits compared to any "A ____ a Day" thread, better merge them to one single thread like " What a Day!"

2013-01-24, 11:23	Link #2
Ledgem Love Yourself Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Northeast USA Age: 38	I'm not a huge fan of the "A ___ a day" type of threads, either. When we had one or two it was fine, but copycats sure have become popular. They don't foster discussion - they're pretty much designed to be commentary dumps. Isn't that what sites like Tumblr are for? (Note: I don't use Tumblr, I may be misunderstanding how it works.) I also dislike the idea of creating very general threads and shoveling all conversations into them. You end up getting many conversations running concurrently within the same thread. As the thread grows (and grows, and grows) it becomes very intimidating for people to enter the discussion. Those who do aren't going to read through all of the previous posts, either; they'll come in and dump a reply or an opinion. Again, it doesn't do much to foster discussion. I view threads as conversations, and I sort of wish that they would auto-lock after a few months of nobody posting in them. There are some types of threads and discussions where that would be harmful, but in most cases it isn't. Consider the people who dredge up old threads with years of inactivity, and re-light the discussion: the conversations that took place at the start of the thread are totally unrelated to those going on at present. In some threads you can even find three cases of different activity, spaced years apart, with different participants in each case. It's not a system without flaws, but are the flaws worse than alternatives? Either way, for your case, papermario, I'd say to just post wherever you think it fits best. If you're looking to start an actual conversation, you could even create your own thread if the topic is close to others but not a perfect fit. __________________

2013-01-31, 17:27	Link #8
Ledgem Love Yourself Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Northeast USA Age: 38	I'll just share a bit more of my opinions on this... I think that "general" threads are fine for non-discussion types of threads. For example, we have the general questions thread (in the general chat forum), and we have an anime series identification thread (in the general anime forum, I believe). These are threads where someone is asking a question and they receive a reply or two. Sometimes there are a flurry of replies that build on each other, but it doesn't go beyond that: the thread's purpose is purely to answer questions, not to discuss them. It prevents a bunch of questions that would not have fostered discussion. They work well for those purposes. When it comes to talking about movies, sports, and so on, it's a bit different. The movie threads that I've seen usually reach two to three pages of discussion; it goes well beyond announcing movie information (which could be gleaned from other places on the internet, anyhow). Since this is an anime forum and not a general entertainment forum, it's up to the staff if they would want to create a movie subforum; same with creating a sports sub-forum. Forcing all of those conversations into a single thread seems like it would be a real mess, though. __________________

2013-02-02, 01:05	Link #9
Suomi Kaiba Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: David Tennant's bedroom in the TARDIS	Just in relation to the "A ___ a day" threads: Can we please either group them somehow or put a limit on them? Sort of like we have a "No more 'rate this' threads" and "No More x vs x threads" rule... __________________

2013-01-25, 15:25	Link #5
escimo Paparazzi Join Date: Mar 2008 Age: 41	I have to agree with Ledgem on combining the threads. I'm not a huge fan of the idea in case of threads which have a valid reason to exist. Making general threads wouldn't ease the confusion but increase it. However I do think General Chat could use some organizing. As there seems to be quite a few topics about movies, politics, news and Japanese culture, language etc. for example, my suggestion would be to see what general topics have the largest amounts of threads and to create a sub-forums for those topics and I suppose a dump for A whatever a day topics could be created as well. There are also a few threads in General Chat I'd rather see moved to Fan Creations, Rate That Signature/Avatar and Photographs threads to be exact. I don't really see the point in them being in General Chat since Fan Creations exists.