Debate Should BJP shut down forums?

I'll post this here in the debate section because as of right now this is simply a debatable item. If I get enough people behind me I'll go ahead and request to move this into the forums section. I can see this lighting some fires so I apologize to BB ahead of time for any DC she has to perform.

SO!

I've been put putting around this little place here for a little over a year and I've noticed several things:

#1: This is a nice place whose purpose is to post threads regarding your favorite anime, manga or otherwise japanese tailored discussions.

#2: There are many, many forums with even more tenuous links to said purpose.

#3: Many of these forums are inactive and are just taking up space or (possibly) drawing undesireables to our little community.

So should BJP "trim the fat"? Should we inactivate several forums that deviate from the original purpose of the site or are problematic?

I'll start this by going through the list of forums in the top bar and rattle off my own opinions of each and the reasons behind my opinion.

Everythig under the boards.jp pull down is site based utilities and should be fine to stay. The same goes for Subbed and New. They're useful tools for the boards and help us to find new and improved threads and forums.

Anime and Manga- Everything here pertains to the exact purpose of here as well. So I suppose those are untouchable.

Art- forum appears tenuous until you realize that her sub forums are all anime/manga related => Art would be a keeper.

Book- We already have a manga forum and most of the Books listed under this premise are American based- not really Japanese. If Books is to be kept it should be moderated to pertain to novels of japanese origin, yes? Otherwise bye bye Books.

Comics - We already have a Manga Forum. There's no real need for this. Comics would go.

Creative Writing - If the said posts are of Japanese relation or Fanfiction based upon Anime/Manga or similar I see no reason to shut this down.

Movies - I would say that this forum would be a great forum to post up reviews and critiques of Movies based out of Japan such as Ringu or Ju-On, to list a few. However, its become a forum to ramble on about Hollywood based movies. Do we really need that here on .jp? Movies would be bye bye.

Music - Most of the forums under this title are Japanese/Anime/Manga related. Music is Kosher.

Television - Technically this forum is more about American/European based Television shows than it is about Japanese based shows. Despite one of my favorite threads being listed under this forum (Name that Cartoon), technically this really isn't very J-oriented. My heart says keep Name that Cartoon, but the practicality of my argument says throw it away.

Comp - Techincally this has almost nothing to do with Japan, but like the boards.jp tag, provides a useful tool for those who want to do J-oriented things with thier computers (watching/creating fan subs, AMV's) and also provides a nice place for us to post up our PC problems so we could fix the very means by which we access these boards. Comp would stay.

Games - The forums here are almost 100% J-Oriented. Even though there is a smattering of American based games in here it's 90% Japan. Seeing as Videogames are an invention streamlined by the Japanese this forum is a necessity here on the boards.

Hosted - I'm not going to touch this with a ten foot pole. I don't know what it does or why it's on here, but 100% of the forums here are J-Oriented.

Celebrations - I think this and several other forums under this title could be clumped together into one general forum. The number of posts per day is reletively low and it would be easier to manage by Mods.

Food - Really just a waste of space. No one posts here anymore. Good idea, but when the meals are generally American/European based it's detractive to the whole Boards.jp mentality.

Humor - This is a real cr*p chute. Most of the links here aren't amusing at all and is the second largest source of spam I see in these boards. If you can't integrate your humor into any of the other forums or the larger, General forum, then maybe you shouldn't post it.

Recreation - This is the spam forum and should be re-labled 'General' if not removed completely. I've talked with a few people and they seem to view it as more of a headache than anything. Who is Asian? Who cares. How to prevent getting the flu? Amusing but unnecessary. Killer Move? Wth? Short Bus, How much do you like being here, Flash Fodder, reasons why you called in sick? These are all unnecessary (and a little dumb, admittedly) and are not J-Oriented. Thumbs down to this guy, even though I do post here regularly.

Toys and Models - The only real forum for posting ANYTHING under that heading is Pinky Street. So unless you own this argumentively cute doll or wish to talk about them you don't post under Toys and Models. ...Well it is Japanese based so my own argument dictates that this one is a keeper, though I would recommend expanding it to include other models, statues and toys with Japanese Origins.

Travel - No one's posted much here ever in the last year. There are a grand total of 16 user based posts and two of them have been locked. An Eighth of the posts in the forum were sealed. Even though I post my trip around the world here this place is rather unnecessary. Though I would be sad to see it go (where else am I going to be able to ramble about my trip around the globe) my own argument dictates this forum's destruction. Besides, its mod recently got banned, so only Smods are laying down the law here. Could be merged into a General Forum.

Chinese - China is not Japan. I understand many guys with Chinese origins would dig a forum like this, however it's not J-oriented at all. That and no one seems to post there much anymore, not since September. Chinese => Bye bye.

Current Affairs - Not really based upon J-Affairs. Whatever comes up in the news get posted up here. Ja ne, CA.

Debates - How about the irony of this? Unless it's J-related debates this is another moot forum, despite the amount of activity it recieves. I'm posting in the very forum I'm petitioning to trim down.

NOTES ABOUT CA & DEBATES: These are two forums I would really hate to see go despite my argument. Both of them are culturally, socially and mentally enriching forums that help bring together new and different ideas for people to share. Both of them are very similar to one another and both of them produce alot of good despite the heavy Moderating that is required to maintain them. Since they add to the diversity, cultural knowledge of the users on this board I would petition to keep these two. They do more good than harm.

Japanese - Thumbs up.

Languages and Culture - Not J-Oriented, though culturally diversifying. My stance on this forum is exactly the same as the CA and Debates.

Philosophy - Could be benificial to the users in the same way as Debates and CA, but mostly seems to fall short of that mark. This would be an Admin toss up.

Psychology - Another iffy Forum by definition. Most of these posts could be merged into a General forum.

Baseball - No one posts here. This place is dead.

Soccer - Euro/South American/rest of the globe Football seems to be a pretty popular forum and is used often by the likes of Teddz and Cloud. My argument demands the removal of this thread, but it's really also an Admin decision.

Sports - Good idea, bad implementation. Not J-oriented at all. Bai Bai sports-kun.

System - This is gold. All of these forums are good for the health of the boards.

OKIES!

That's my opinions on the matter. 90% of Rec should probably go because it's spam central. We could fuse it into a General forum and even that would have to be trimmed down and moderated to help keep people from going crazy.

Boards.jp for Japan! That's my stance.

So go on, let the debates begin. As of right now this is simpy my opinion and not an official request to change anything. If enough people rise up beside me (or even the right ONE person) then I'll go ahead and ask to move this over to Forum requests.

~W

 

Absolutely not. No way nu uh no. BJP is fine the way it is. Sure, there isn't a lot of Anime and Manga discussion in the Recreation forum, because you can talk about anything. I think we can get rid of those two inactive b oards that are inactive, Voltron and Eirtaku. Maybe we can delete those two, but I say keep everything else.


EDIT: Ragnarok won't like this thread I think.

Ragnarok: "What!!? Change my BJP!?!?!? NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!"

 

NO....IF you think about it we dont have many people that post in Anime Or General anime forums any more. Like right now on the front page there are probaly 3 or 4 links that have to deal with anime the others probaly deal with Current Affairs and stuff like that. if i could screenshot i would and post it up ACtuly Let me post the front page thats on so far i think we should keep BJP the way it is Plus None of These Extra Threads are harming us in anyway
Oh! My Goddess New Ah! My Goddess [Airin... (37) wertitis 12-02-05 04:43 PM
Celebrations It's your Birthday Shijin... (13) Eternal-Blaze 12-02-05 04:42 PM
Recreation Those poor X-BOX's... (27) Shijin 12-02-05 04:33 PM
Debate Should BJP shut down foru... (1) Shijin 12-02-05 04:27 PM
Anime Little game! Wanna play?^... (757) Shen 12-02-05 12:41 PM
Soccer Racism in football...agai... (5) Shen 12-02-05 12:36 PM
Music Best Anime OST or Music C... (4) Senbotsu 12-02-05 12:07 PM
Recreation How to prevent getting th... (23) me_dreaming_zzz 12-02-05 10:17 AM
Anime worst or best anime/manga... (1) Alucard21 12-02-05 09:35 AM
Television Name that Cartoon. (383) FireDragon_16 12-02-05 08:31 AM
Movies Movie Lines (4) Nightmare 12-02-05 07:20 AM
Tomita Princess Knight LP (1) Cloud 12-02-05 05:28 AM
News First Podcast Added (30) Cloud 12-02-05 05:25 AM
Star Wars Game-What kind of Jedi ar... (30) Ragnarok 12-01-05 10:13 PM
Azumanga Daioh Azumanga daioh staff, fam... (2) Izzy 12-01-05 07:46 PM

See Four things and im sure those non related to anime threads get removed we gunna lose hundreds of post but that doesnt reallt matter =)

 

I say no. If we trim a lot of the forums not related to Japan, we are taking out chances to socialize. Less socializing = more strangers = less personality shown in posts due to people not knowing others well = a lack of interest.

These extra forums are what allow us to get to know each other better. Taking them away takes a large portion of us away. And I'm sure a change this big would make a lot of members leave.

I was thinking about putting that in the Humor forum, but I didn't know how funny people would take it so I just put it in Recreation.

 

Japanese Philosophers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Japanese_philosophers

History of Japanese Psychology
http://www.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/psy/psychoHP/history/english/timetab.html

There's a task for you, do some research and make some threads in these forums that are oriented to Japan.



P.S.: Here's a little forum at boards.ie to spice things up a bit, it's all about mustard:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=457

 

And the great That Guy! comes to defend his forums, as is to be expected.

But alas, homework is for the birds. My stance here isn't to make all threads J-oriented. No, it is to point out that there are many that are not and to throw out the question 'Do we need them?' This is a debate forum, not a forum to petition changes about the boards. If you find that any of my statements ring too true then it is not my responsibilty to correct those errors, it would be the responsibility of the moderator, yes?

Ah, but I'm coming across as an *sshole, and that's not my goal. I didn't create this intending to ruffle any feathers, though it seems that it's inevitable, especially from the standpoint of the mods who's forums I'm bringing to light. I'm not trying to make enemies, I'm just trying to bring some facts to light.

Still I must stand by what I have written and what I have said above.

...and mention that mustard is indeed very yummy.

~W

 

Wants wrong with American-based books?

Manga doesn't cover western comics.

Why not? A lot of people love movies.

I think I'm missing the point that "Everything must be J-oriented".

How many complaints about management of those particular forums are there from moderators?

I thought the mentality of boards.jp was to discuss namely anime/manga but open to anything else under the moon. Though I don't know, I liked it more as M2A and think the motto they chose is misleading.

One man's trash is another man's treasure. Just because YOU don't find them amusing means that we should get rid of them all inspite of the fact that there is more than likely someone else out there that finds them funny? Kind of selfish, aren't you?

The J-Oriented thing is getting worn raw, drop it already. They were brought here with EVERYONE knowing that they were NOT J-Oriented. They shouldn't be sacked because people go "I'm JUST realizing these don't relate to Japan". If you don't like what's posted there, don't read it. You're not forced to.

rec·re·a·tion Audio pronunciation of "recreation" ( P ) Pronunciation Key (rkr-shn)
n.

Refreshment of one's mind or body after work through activity that amuses or stimulates; play.

The name sounds fine to me.

Go ahead, get rid of it... leaves more for people to post the "headaches", as you and the "people you've spoken to" refer to it, to post.

Go ahead, get rid of it... leaves more for people to post the "headaches", as you and the "people you've spoken to" refer to it, to post.

Arugment that everything needs to be Japan oriented => Bye bye.

Well then you tell us what's going on in Japan. Make sure to post it in "General" since we won't have this anymore.

What if we debated in Japanese on Western topics? Would that make you happy? (Don't mean to get sarcastic, but your repetitive argument that's moot in itself and has been for ages is getting really annoying).

Not enough Japanese in this forum. Let's get rid of it on basic principle. (A joke of course).

Germany FTW.

And you complain NOW about the "headaches" it cuases?

Because the only Japanese sports are Sumo Wrestling and running through styrofoam doors. Merge with soccer and baseball I say but, again, leave it alone. I swear, I'm gonna start calling racism on you.

Sorry if I am coming off as an ***hole as well, but the "facts you're bringing to light" are ones that I'm sure have been mostly and clearly evident to the staff here for quite some time. They're not blind and they're not incompetent. If something needs to be removed, they'll deal with it. It's really not your place to say "Okay, we need to get rid of this, this and this.".

 

My frustration showed though there, sorry wertitis.. What I should have said was that it would be interesting for us to make more topics in these forums that related to Japan. Such as topics about Japanese philosophers in the philosophy forum, jokes that came from Japan in the Humour forum, more Japanese food recipes in the Food forum, etc. I'll work on some myself to add to my forums.

Also, we could lose the forums and threads that do not relate to Japan but people are going to end up posting more topics and threads that do not relate to Japan. It would be very difficult to implement a policy like this, since a lot of moderators do not have the time to constantly monitor to this extent. Not impossible, though. Do you know of any other message board that successfully told members to only post topics relating to the theme? How did it turn out for that forum? Should we try this with a few forums on Boards.jp and see how it turns out - then if it is successful then try it for the whole message board?

Also.. we could delete forums that have the capacity of leading to topics that aren't related to Japan, but historically we've never been THAT strict We're a community of people who like Japan, but there is still diversity among us, and people need an outlet to share that diversity. They are free to here unless it harms others.

 

whats the big deal about getting rid of forums that arent even being used anymore?

i say that if we're going to snip certain forume, we should have a system where forums are deleted if they havent been used in X amount of months(years?)... i dunno what would be a reasonable amount of time to consider a forum dead....meh the mods can handle that ^_^

 

They do have a system as of that. IF theres no post or no new threads then that forum is decided inactive and then closed off. THree months is the deadline from what i remember

 

As someone who has been a member of M2A, followed by Boards.Jp since August 2001, I have only one thing to say:

No.

Why on earth should we limit ourselves if we had enough threads in the forums you propose getting rid of to start them in the first place?

I think that since this debate is based solely on you vs. the rest of B.JP, and solely on personal opinions, there's not much real point in continuing it.

Should you wish to create forums in which your Japan-only rules are a reality, I suggest Proboards or something of the sort.

 

Except that over three quarters of the ones he's suggesting we get rid of are active, and at least half of them have times when they are OVERLY active.

 

Ah wert, but you see this is an American... err I mean English Speaking Peoples board. Although it is Boards Japan or whatever and that does seem to indicate that this board would have more content on Japan. Maybe we can have some sort of Japan Week or something. Just a suggestion.

Oooo like Martin Luther and his 95 theses. He wanted to stir up reform by pointing something out... well we know how that worked out.

 

[cracks knuckles] I love a good debate.

That's exactly it. The whole point of this debate is about trimming down non-anime/manga/japanese related forums. That's my entire argument. Frankly it IS my place to post up whatever I feel like in the debate forum for the general critique of all parties. Not once have I called anyone blind or incompetent. In fact it appears to me that you're simply trying to goad me into an argument. Racist? HAH! Bring it on.

I agree entirely. There's nothing wrong with trying to steer any forums back towards a Japanese base. Frankly I was surprised how easily you were able to get lists relationg both topics to Japan. It seemed like you had them stashed away waiting for just the right moment to pull them out.

Frankly Nazi Moderating all forums would be a hassle upon all parts. I don't think it would be sucessful at all. There's a reason why you don't see very much of it now-a-days.

Debates is one of the best features about this entire board. It gives this place some where to spread ideas and enrich the people. Its one of the few forums that people get smarter by going in and out of. I'm glad Cloud let you guys keep this one, as heavily moderated as it is.

Perhaps, but my argument in this debate is to trim threads solely because they do not pertain to Japan.

That's the whole point of a debate. To share ideas and discuss them with one another.



I love all the reactions I'm getting. Remember kids, this is only a hypothetical debate. Take it all with a grain of salt. I'm still unconvinced. Bloodberry's the only one who has the argument that's going anywhere. Snipping non-Japanese based threads would drastically alter how these boards are, I agree, but would it really kill them or change the base crowd around?

~W

 

LEts make a point. How many threads a day do you see have to do with Japenese STuff i would say about 10-15 things. lets say we remove those useless forums you talk about. There arnt very many post everyday probaly just around 20-30 things are posted daily here. if we removed all those forums this place will be dull and alot of people will stop comming
I doubt IT will change the crowd. Currently i saw a board with 42000+(Yes Forty two Thousand no not Forty two hundred Forty two Tousand) Members but i will not name it That board also talks about anime AND ALOT ALOTTT OF PEOPLE THERE POST.
WE may have over 3000 people here but how many of those 3000 people post? most of the people just make names and never post.
And we have More Specific Forums for the anime we talk about they just have a general forum but they only have like 5 or 6 main Anime forums

 

You'll find those everywhere. Another forum I go to has over 2,500 members and only 10-15 different people have posted within the last month.

 

Perhaps...

We only need to keep the boards up to date, searching for the latest anime, i.e. the new ones at Animax. For example, I don't see Vandread, Wolf's Rain...

and I do post here once in a while , even if not as often as I used to.

About some of the "problematic" forums, I don't have much problem with the fun ones (i.e. recreation), because, even if scarse, bjp has evolved into a community. Shutting down these forums would be like tearing the community apart.

Anyway I do think the debates forum is a grey area, I really don't know if it has done any good to the forums.

 

i don't know about just deleting forums, but i think the boards could use some condensing, for example, for the amount of posting that goes on in the comics, manga, books forums, i see no reason why they couldn't be condensed into a 'general' print media forum or something. no conversation would be lost, the boards would just be easier to navigate etc.
or for another example, do we really need separate forums for j-rock & j-pop?
meh... my 2 cents.
*edit*. one thing i would really like to see is a return to the 'reviews' section (what happened to that anyway), one where anyone and everyone could just stick up a review... but that's for another thread.

 

When a forum becomes dead Cloud or BMS close it. There is some that should be closed now but I think it more fine the way it is compared to Japan rated only.