New Methods for Organizing the Boards

Discussion in 'Help Desk' started by BakaMattSu, Aug 22, 2003.

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  1. BakaMattSu

    BakaMattSu ^__^
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    Ser, The problem with cataloguing so many items by general descriptors is that it begins to become very hard for new users (and old alike) to know where to put something.

    Hypothetical situation:
    "Hmm, I want to post something about Vampires fighting against Angels in that Digimon episode I saw last night."

    Should this go in the Vampires board, the Anime with Wings, or the Magic section? Oh wait...I'm not sure...maybe it was based on that CLAMP manga volume?

    There's a reason we have a general board called "Anime". If we go board crazy, it does feel complete, but it gets very clunky trying to navigate.

    But I digress...

    I have a suggestion, but not a solution.

    Mangatoanime is currently organized by three overruling categories, "A to G", "H to P", "Q to Z". In other words, the board is organized in an alphabetic fashion.

    Everything is dropped together - it doesn't matter if it's off-topic anime/manga non-related stuff (Misc, Comics, Music), board related (Newbies, Announcments) or specific Anime series (Sailor Moon, Bebop, Gundam) or completely off-base content (RPGs).

    So here's a test of wit and design open to all members. If you had to organize the existing board forums in some way, how would you do it?

    If someone comes up with a very good organizational plan, we may even adopt it (the bonus being that a more organized M2A may open the door for expanding all the forums that have been requested lately)...

    So then...let's hear some sorts?
     
    #1
    BakaMattSu, Aug 22, 2003
  2. Osaka

    Osaka New Member

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    by Authors(of manga/anime)?

    off topic stuff would go by itself.
     
    #2
    Osaka, Aug 23, 2003
  3. Ciel

    Ciel Unoa Freak
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    authors would be confusing because I don't know them myself ><
    but the 'Anime with Wings' was crazy and so was the Magic .. but the 'Vampire Anime' I was serious about.. but then there are tons of anime with vampires in it, even if they are not the main characters.
    but at the moment I can't think of another way then the scroll down menu. I mean the forum menu could be blank, and all someone nees to do is type in the name of the anime, and bingo I'm at its forum, but we have that anyways as well.

    we could
    take Gundam and Nadesico and Eva and Macross and place them in a 'Mecha' forum with subforums titled 'Eva' 'Gundam' 'Nadesico' 'Macross'
    (even though Nadesico could be marked as satire too)

    take CLAMP.. does .. it doesnt have subforums does it?

    take Digi Charat, Excel Saga and FLCL and create a 'Hilarious Anime' forum with subforums..

    but doing that would cause confusion because it would be a two step process to get into your forum. someone would be looking for SMJ going in 'Hilarious' but finding it in 'Mecha'...or 'OutNumbered Loved Guy' along with Tenchi.

    so its good the way it is. and I went overboard. ^__^
     
    #3
    Ciel, Aug 24, 2003
  4. Cloud

    Cloud Administrator
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    I vote we go for something like these Anime genres:

    http://directory.google.com/Top/Arts/Animation/Anime/Genres/

    Children's
    Comedy
    Drama
    Fantasy
    Magical Girl
    Martial Arts
    Mecha
    Occult
    Romance
    Science Fiction
    Sentai
    Sports
    Steampunk

    Fitting them into genres is the hard bit!

    There's also Manga genres:

    http://directory.google.com/Top/Arts/Comics/Manga/Genres/

    Here's one suggestion (preliminary, please feel free to disagree as I put some forums into a Google suggested genre and I don't know anything about some of the series listed):

    PHP:
    Comedy
    | Excel Saga                    |
    |     FLCL                          |
    |     Love Hina                     |
    |     Ranma 1/2                     |
    |     Saber Marionette              |
    |     Tenchi Muyo                   |
    |     Trigun                        |

    Fantasy
    | CLAMP                         |
    |     Fruits Basket                 |
    |     Fushigi / Ayashi              |
    |     Inu-Yasha                     |
    |     Sailor Moon                   |
    |     Slayers Universe              |
    |     Square Enix                   |

    Martial Arts
    | Dragonball Z                  |
    |     Rurouni Kenshin               |

    Science Fiction
    | Battle Of The Planets         |
    |     Cowboy Bebop                  |
    |     Gundam                        |
    |     Macross / Robotech            |
    |     Nadesico                      |
    |     Neon Genesis Evangelion       |
    |     Transformers                  |
    |     Voltron                       |

    Admin
    | Administration                |
    |     Newbies                       |
    |     News                          |
    |     Polls                         |
    |     Reviews                       |
    |     Support / Suggestions         |
    |     Wastebasket                   |

    General
    | Anime                         |
    |     Announcements / Celebrations  |
    |     Art / Design                  |
    |     Comics                        |
    |     Debates                       |
    |     Eirtaku                       |
    |     Fiction / Writing             |
    |     Japanese                      |
    |     Manga                         |
    |     Miscellaneous                 |
    |     Movies                        |
    |     Music                         |
    |     Otaku Tech                    |
    |     Video Games                   |

    Role Playing Games
    | RPG Angels Versus Demons      |
    |     RPG Anime High School         |
    |     RPG Anime League              |
    |     RPG Archives                  |
    |     RPG Battle For Serisa         |
    |     RPG General                   |
    |     RPG Heroes Of Arian           |
    |     RPG Inferior Saga / Anime d20 |
    |     RPG Into The Wind             |
    |     RPG Sailor Moon Eternity      |
    |     RPG Trigun Returns            |

    J.
    --
     
    #4
    Cloud, Aug 25, 2003
  5. Sebastien

    Sebastien Guest

    Personally, I like the way the Forums are now. The only category I see here that could actually get a few more forums is "Martial Arts". By the way, I think Trigun goes into Fantasy or Science Fiction. I don't know much about the anime either but I still do know it doesn't go in Comedy.

    In Science Fiction as you can see, more than half are Robot Animes, so you might as well create a "Mecha" Category.

    And CLAMP goes into General. It's an Anime Studio which creates various animes, it can't fit into any category other than "General".

    Other than that, this new possible Order seems fine enough. I still think it should remain the way it is now, though.

    - DS
     
    #5
    Sebastien, Aug 25, 2003
  6. DrunkLeprachaun

    DrunkLeprachaun Tetsu Oushi

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    I think as it is now is fine. I don't really like Cloud's suggestion because it's too indefinate as to which anime fall into which categories, most of the anime there are boards for could be bundled into a couple of the categories, and I don't think it'd be terribly newbie friendly. So unless somone comes up with something ingenious, I think it should remain as is for the time being.
     
    #6
    DrunkLeprachaun, Aug 25, 2003
  7. ~ Zack ~

    ~ Zack ~ Guest

    I have to agree, that I think it's fine the way it is (even though most of the anime I watch don't have forums :p). Albeit Cloud's is a good decision, as Drunk pointed out, could be kind of tricky for people to remember what goes where and could get confused (there's a lot of people here that are confused easily, like me).
     
    #7
    ~ Zack ~, Aug 25, 2003
  8. Jaken

    Jaken Coin Locker Baby

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    I agree too. Its better the way it is now. Dont change it!
     
    #8
    Jaken, Aug 26, 2003
  9. BakaMattSu

    BakaMattSu ^__^
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    Exactly why I started the thread. Any geniuses out there?

    Cloud's idea does have that big gaping genre-crossing/bending anime problem, I agree...
     
    #9
    BakaMattSu, Aug 26, 2003
  10. Tanuki

    Tanuki the wizzard of oz

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    i didn't think there was a problem either. (other than the fact i haven't seen any of the animes with their own forum.:p )

    Maybe you could divide the anime section into features, OVA's and TV series?. i guess this could maybe cause confusion too with animes that had series made into a feature, like ah my godess etc. maybe some form of cross-referencing would be in order?
    This could possibly work better than the current design, cause it seems there's alot of specific forums that don't really get used much, and the actual anime forum seems half dead!. I guess there'd have to be some sort of explaination in the newbie forum for those who don't know what OVA's are etc.


    or maybe you could divide them up by the period they were made in?. ie 1980's 90's etc. and maybe have a 'anime classics' section for newbies. i guess this one has more problems in that lots of ppl probably wouldn't know when particular anime's were made. and that some like macross would fit into several. i could also see a big fight over what constitutes a 'classic'.:D
    no matter what anyone comes up with i think there's going to be lots of problems.


    i think a 'classics' forum of some sort might be good though, cause there are alot of them out there that ppl forget and never seem to get discussed, like akira gits wing of honeamise etc.... just my 2 cents anyway.

    maybe the simplest option is best... browse other anime forums, and if you find any with better organisation, steal it!:D
     
    #10
    Tanuki, Aug 26, 2003
  11. Bloodberry

    Bloodberry Bloody Berry
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    the genre method could be a hit or miss thing. especially if it combines elements for different genres. like magic knight rayearth. it has the clamp catagory there. it has fantasy, shojo. mecha. so it could go in a number of catagories.

    maybe, keep the anime ones with the normal drop down like now, and take everything that ISN't anime and move into a seperate drop down listing. then, manga get's it's own, either by series name, or author name, with a general for those who aren't sure what goes where type of thing. then, a misc drop down that would have debates, otaku tech, comics, newbies and that in it. non anime/manga stuff.
    soo, somthing like: anime A to G, h to p, q to z, manga, Misc.

    or something like that. it would add 2 more drop downs, but would organize out a bit more.
     
    #11
    Bloodberry, Aug 26, 2003
  12. Nakoruru

    Nakoruru New Member

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    Ok, this is what I think, it's probably stupid, but here it is anyways. Oh, and BloodBerry, I'm sorry for copying what you think, it's just that I was about to post, but I had to stall because my sis needed the comp, but here's what I think.

    Like put all the anime into one forum, like in the RPG thread.
    Anime----> A-G
    \___H-P
    \___Q-Z

    So all the anime goes into a certain thread. As in the RPG thread, then you pick the beginning letter of the anime through another letter, and it will lead to all the anime with the letter. So it would be like one huge thread, then the A-G and stuff are sub threads, and the actually anime is a smaller sub thread, confusing huh?

    Anime A-G---BOTP, CLAMP, Cowboy Bebop, Dragon Ball Z, Excel Saga, FLCL, Fruits Basket, Fushigi/Ayashi, Gundam.

    Anime H-P---Inu-Yasha, ect...

    So that will save space and be more organized.(I'm sorry if I forgot any anime in the A-G catagory.)

    Then make a Misc forum.
    Misc----->General(General as in the one we have now)
    \___Movie
    \___Debates
    \___Japanese
    \___Music
    \___News
    \___Otaku tech
    \___Reviews

    Then make a Art/Manga forum
    Art/Manga----->Art/Design
    \____Comics
    \____Fiction/Writing
    \____Manga

    Then make a Video Game/RPG forum
    Video Games/Rpg----->Video Game
    \____RPG
    \____Square Enix

    Then make a Other forum
    Other----->Suggestion/Support
    \___Polls
    \___Annuncements/Celebrations

    Ok, that's what I think, I hope it helps. Also, I based this on the RPG's new way of organizing that forum, so if you want to get to knwo more of what I am talking about, go look in the RPG forum. I think this is a good way, but that's just me.:sweat: :dizzy2: :glazed: :anime: :D
     
    #12
    Nakoruru, Aug 26, 2003
  13. Legato666

    Legato666 New Member

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    Not bad true tsukasa.Im sure it has it problems but it could be worked out.And if not the layout we have now is fine.
     
    #13
    Legato666, Aug 26, 2003
  14. Cloud

    Cloud Administrator
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    There is a big cross-genre problem in anime, so sorting by title (as is) is probably still the best... It took me a while to figure out where Trigun and Excel Saga went due to cross-genres, and the list I gave was nowhere near perfect (just a first, pretty poor!, attempt) - but it shows just how difficult it is to pigeonhole stuff. Genres would be nice, but I see now that it would be impossible.

    We can probably still group forums as sections get busier, e.g. RPG has sprouted a sub-category and I'd imagine that the same may happen to other forums in future.

    But please, don't let my pessimism stop you, come up with more ideas!
     
    #14
    Cloud, Aug 27, 2003
  15. Dredz

    Dredz Clown With A Frown

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    Don't feel the boards are big enough to be categorised any other way, to be honest.

    This way seems to work as well as any other system I could think of for this size of BB.
     
    #15
    Dredz, Aug 28, 2003
  16. Quistis

    Quistis New Member

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    I have been asking myself if I should sugest this idea I had. I think it is kinda dumb, but I might as well say it. I mean, its not like it would be a bad thing to give out an idea.

    Well I dont know if this would work, but maybe you chould sort out some of the anime by looking at them all and seeing if some of the shows have anything in common like um, the same artisit makes that show and this show, so then we chould put them together and make a thread with the artists name. Or find something else that some anime shows have in common but not using genre as the thing in common.

    I dont know if this is a completely stupid idea but I just wanted to say it. So um, ya, that is my idea :shy3:
     
    #16
    Quistis, Aug 28, 2003
  17. ~ Zack ~

    ~ Zack ~ Guest

    I believe that artists thing was already suggested and, I think, shot down. Not much of a good idea because not every fan knows what artist does what manga/anime. The only things that, I think, could really work that shows could have in common are either genre or first letter of the title. Though as I think I might've said before, heh, I don't really mind the way things are set up now 'sides that most of the anime I've never seen or don't like.
     
    #17
    ~ Zack ~, Aug 29, 2003
  18. Quistis

    Quistis New Member

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    I was using it as an example. I think there chould possibly be things in common other then genre and title. I mean, look at CLAMP it is a thread that holds a buch of anime and it was based on something in common. I dont know:shy3: I was just saying my idea. BMS, and Cloud asked and I said my thought.
     
    #18
    Quistis, Aug 29, 2003
  19. Bloodberry

    Bloodberry Bloody Berry
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    it was actually shot down due to how difficult it would be to catagorize if the genre/artist(studio)/author wasn't known for certain.
    tho i agree, it WOULD be a good way to do it, it's just not as easily down is all *^-^*
     
    #19
    Bloodberry, Aug 29, 2003
  20. Nakoruru

    Nakoruru New Member

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    Just pack all the anime by letters, and leave everything else, more space, more organized, more forums, it's perfect!
     
    #20
    Nakoruru, Aug 29, 2003
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