Proposal: New Threads on Commencement

[Rethice]

Hi all,

Now it goes without saying that AnimeSuki has an amazing layout, with the subforum section making episodic discussion easily accessible so you can discuss and read about the media without worrying about spoilers or having to hunt through discussion of previous episodes.

Now, I'm fully aware that it is impossible to give a subforum to every airing anime, and only those with the most active discussion get their own subforum. This is perfectly reasonable, but I feel there might be something more we can do to clean up the discussion for the anime that do not get their own subforum.

One of the biggest struggles some people tend to have is wading through a few dozen pages of "speculation" and comments like "I'm looking forward to this." that are rather unhelpful for any sort of discussion of any kind. Now, I don't see an issue in having this speculation threads, but is it possible to suggest a new thread be created and the old one locked once an anime has commenced airing? This way there is a need for only two threads

The Pros:

- Easier access for discussion of the less popular anime.
- A much cleaner presentation of the discussion

The Cons:

- The time required to create the new threads and lock the old ones
- The less popular anime taking up two threads instead of just one, taking up more space.

[monster]

Maybe when a moderator moves a thread from the Upcoming Series forum to the Current Series forum, he/she could place a link in the first post of the thread pointing to the latest post in that thread at the time of the move. That way, people who were not keeping up with the thread could just use that link to jump to the spot when people are beginning to discuss the show as it airs.

[relentlessflame]

My general observation over the years is that most posters hardly even read the post above theirs, never mind going back and reading through an entire conversation before participating. But that notwithstanding, I'm not sure how splitting the thread, or even putting a pointer, helps with the issue of spoilers since any sort of speculation or comment that hints or reveals any future content in an anime thread is expressly forbidden. Any post that makes a comment like "I'm looking forward to when they animate <blah blah blah> scene from the novel/manga" should be deleted and the poster warned/infracted/banned. So I guess I need a bit of a better understanding of what the problem this would solve would be, other than I suppose it's somewhat useful to have a "chapter list" so you can jump through a long thread if you wanted to look back.

[felix]

It's not that most posters don't do that. But most posters in a non-threaded system, or a system lacking any sort of (visible) voting on posts, feel the effort in reading previous 10 pages is worthless—and lets face it, there's a lot of "conversation" going on (which would be better had on some irc channel anyway, forums just turn 1-liners into walls of text proportionate to one's ego) so very often it is actually not worth your time reading.

Second @monster's idea.

[relentlessflame]

Well, I'm not necessarily talking about reading 10 pages back. Many posters don't even read one post back. Often the mods will post a warning in the thread, and it isn't two posts later that someone disregards the very same warning (and it's not that it wasn't there at the time when they started posting).

Originally Posted by felix

It's not that most posters don't do that. But most posters in a non-threaded system, or a system lacking any sort of (visible) voting on posts, feel the effort in reading previous 10 pages is worthless

So what you're saying is actually that most posters here don't do that.

I'm still not sure that I see the problem that would be solved here.

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

I'm still not sure that I see the problem that would be solved here.

I have some sympathy with the OP here, though I'm not sure there's much that can be done about it. Threads about series that are derived from popular manga or employ popular seiyuu can often have page upon page of useless comments expressing members' (1) anticipation of the series; (2) whining about whether the manga will be authentically represented; (3) whining about whether seiyuu X is the right performer for a role; and, (4) general whining about the director, studio, etc. Some series threads I've read have a dozen pages of comments before even one episode of the series has been aired. I generally just read the top of every other page in cases like this until I come to the discussion of the actual anime. It's annoying, but not worth instituting a new policy over.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

I generally just read the top of every other page in cases like this until I come to the discussion of the actual anime. It's annoying, but not worth instituting a new policy over.

Well, I guess this is just the part that I didn't realize. If we implemented such a feature, would a lot of people actually use it? Like I said, I was under the impression -- perhaps mistaken -- that a lot of people didn't read back in threads and wouldn't do it even if it were made easy. But if a lot of people do this, or would do this if it were made easy, then perhaps it's worth considering.

[felix]

Depends. It's not like people don't like reading interesting posts, or participating in a meaningful debate. It's just that they don't like reading 100 useless ones to get to them. So yes, we don't most of the time, but it's not like we wouldn't given different circumstances. If you implement a system that doesn't highlight said posts (like say all you do is point to some arbitrary post in the timeline), it's kind of useless IMO. Like Seiji, I have no problem reading threads miles long, or backtracking, it just gets very dull when all you see is back and forth whining, and in my case the whole fans shitting themselvs over complete nonsense and the whole fanclub/shipping style of posts.

If the last page has some interesting stuff posted, you usually go back a few pages for some other goodies. If you just walk into walls of text from 2-3 posters you just don't care. Some people just tread certain threads like a circus (particularly when they "hate (everything about) it, but must watch it"). Unless I'm bored I don't even bother these days with threads like that; useless expendeture of time and energy.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by felix

If you implement a system that doesn't highlight said posts (like say all you do is point to some arbitrary post in the timeline), it's kind of useless IMO.

But the only thing that was being proposed is splitting the pre-series discussion from the actual series discussion that started with episode 1, and the alternative was put a pointer in the opening post to where the actual episode starts. What you appear to be talking about is something else entirely, which isn't on-topic to this thread (and IIRC, was discussed previously with the decision to not implement).

[felix]

No, I'm just telling you it wouldn't be of much help. It's not that hard to go page, page, page until you start seing spoiler tags with Ep1 on them. For anyone who would be reading older posts it would not be useful. Unless you highlight a whole bunch of posts (manually, linking, or otherwise) there's very little point and probably just results in more of a bother since it would mean a moderator would create the first post in the current section, which would mean (a) you break up previous discussion already going on (b) the initial post is just this things with a bunch of rules and lots blah-blah text nobody reads.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by felix

No, I'm just telling you it wouldn't be of much help.

Well, thanks for your opinion. If anyone else feels differently, they are welcome to post too.

[Rethice]

I agree with Monster's proposed idea, it's a much easier middle ground to what I was recommending. At that point, it's more of a harmless convenience that would help a lot of people.

I'm aware not everyone reads what other people has to say before going on with their own opinions - it's an age-old issue with fan forums, but that doesn't include everyone. I, for one enjoy reading what other people have to say in reaction to a series, wether it be positive or negative - I mean why else would we even have episodic discussion in the first place?

I'm not worried about spoilers, since most of the time people are good about those anyway, for me it's a "fast forward to the good part" button where instead of people talking about how good or bad this show is going to be, I can actually find out how "good or bad" it is, and get right into the reactive discussion.

Though I predict only about half of the community would make use of the link once the existence becomes discovered, I think it wouldn't hurt to have - doesn't take long to do and the benefits much outweigh the cons, unlike my original suggestion which probably involved too much effort.

[CrowKenobi]

One thing I'd like to confirm is that the "Go to first new post" feature is being used, but a different thread reading option is wanted instead?

[monster]

Originally Posted by CrowKenobi

One thing I'd like to confirm is that the "Go to first new post" feature is being used, but a different thread reading option is wanted instead?

That feature doesn't really work for someone who wants to go back in a series thread but doesn't want to go through all the pre-show airing posts, which is what I think Rethice is talking about.

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

I was under the impression -- perhaps mistaken -- that a lot of people didn't read back in threads and wouldn't do it even if it were made easy. But if a lot of people do this, or would do this if it were made easy, then perhaps it's worth considering.

I don't think it's as much an issue with reading back in threads. Most of the time I don't read the material that people posted before a show begins for the reasons I outlined above. Once the show airs, if it catches my interest, I'll start reading the thread where the discussions about the actual telecast begins. That's pretty much true for me regardless of when I start watching the series. If I start watching a show mid-stream, I'll usually go back and review what people said about the earlier episodes while I catch up.

Hell, I've even re-read substantial chunks of discussions from shows that have come and gone, often when I'm watching a show for a second time. I've can certainly recall re-reading the threads for Dennou Coil, Moribito, Noein, Kurenai, Welcome to the NHK!, and Black Lagoon, just to name a few.

Just weird that way, I guess.

[hyl]

Originally Posted by monster

That feature doesn't really work for someone who wants to go back in a series thread but doesn't want to go through all the pre-show airing posts, which is what I think Rethice is talking about.

But sometimes, reading those are also quite interesting. Like for example if it was an adaption, there would probably some speculations about what story path that anime would take.

[monster]

Originally Posted by hyl

But sometimes, reading those are also quite interesting. Like for example if it was an adaption, there would probably some speculations about what story path that anime would take.

You can do that now; just start from page 1.