Debate Should BJP shut down forums?

Absolutely not. Having been on both sides of the curtain, mod and user, I can say with definitivity that boards.jp has benefitted from becoming a more general forum, both on the moderation end, and the user end. It's easier to moderate more specific forums, and it's more interesting to see a lot of variation in the boards. It's less focused than it was 4 years ago, for certain. But why is that a bad thing? People crave discussion, they desire to talk about more than just one subject. Sure, we could all join other forums focused on other things, but why? Certainly, BJP has become better for its expansion. I wasn't around for its earlier days, but that's irrelevant. The users have shown through use which forums should exist and which should not.

That's for hosted forums only. Full forums don't exist under that rule. If you look through the hosted category, three forums fall under the inactive ruling, and one is closed. These I'm all for merging with the general anime forum.

I believe forums should be trimmed on basis of use only. If it becomes too busy, it should be split into more specifics. If it's too quiet, it's not very necessary. Certainly, many of the forums you've said should be closed have proven to be widely enjoyed and accepted. Luvweaver has definately hit a key. Removing forums simply because they don't relate to Japan is like tearing apart a community. In fact, it is almost discriminating.

Actually I find it rather interesting and wonder where it'll go. Certainly I disagree with the idea behind it, but I enjoy a good discussion.

EDIT: Also, what would you have done with the threads in the removed forums? They can't just cease to exist, it's BJP history, so what would you have done with them?

Also, removing the Recreation forum? Before it existed, all posts of that sort went under the anime forum, I saw this thanks to www.archive.org. Would you say that's a better idea?

 

That's all I'll say about that.

~W

 

Okay. I'm going to keep this short and simple.

You just can't absolutely have one forum based on ONE particular subject, because that would be boring and a waste to people's lives and time.

It's great that you're realizing that the forums are pretty much not all J-oriented, but if they were JUST that, and nothing else, then it would be REALLY absolutely boring.

I'm not around here as much as I would like to be-- but hey, that's all I gotta say.

Why would this subject even be brought up in the first place...?? If the administrators think that anything should be changed about the forum-- I'm sure that they would of already.

 

I'm only going to say this one more time, and them I'm going to ignore future posts regarding this.

...That's right. Ignore!

Oooh~

With that said I'm moving on.

Hrm, the idea was to condense all the non-anime related posts into one larger general forum. The anime related ones would maintain thier own respective forums while we took all the clutter and set it aside. However as Bloodberry put it this has already been tried once before and it was a mess to take care of. As of yet I can't come up with any other suitable alternatives. I'm plumb tapped out.

Really boring like how these forums were ran over a year ago, M2A? Like how they were ran for several years?

On a side note it's interesting to note that the more Senior members who submit thier arguments here don't seem to lash out quite as much to this idea as some of the more Junior peeps. Despite thier posts I think that says alot.

Just a little something to toss out there.

~W

 

I mentioned it too. Anyway, to remove the forums that bring forth such interesting discussions, Debate for one, Psychology, Philosophy, of course it would hurt the forums. It would be stupid to squander discussion because it's not "related enough to Japan." BJP is of course a Japan oriented site, but that doesn't mean it has to focus entirely on Japan no matter what. You'll notice in that same rule you quoted, Cloud also said it has been relaxed somewhat. The reason for this is simply to engender discussion. What is a forum, without activity and discussion?

Sadly I wasn't here until it was already boards.jp (though I thought it was still M2A for months afterward) but if you look back through older threads, you can put a timeline to various things, and you'll notice a great deal of this stuff was indeed done during the M2A times.

You mention M2A being more interesting than BJP... it's the people that make a forum, not the name or the focus. Almost everyone who has left since then has left because of someone, not something.

In regards to senior members not lashing out... I think that's simply maturity speaking, and not so much what you think. However, I don't think anyone's "lashed out" as badly as you've implied. Certainly every single other person has disagreed.

Really though, just because a site has become more general in focus, does that mean it's bad? In the last 24 hours, 12 threads have updated, and only 4, 5 if you stretch it, are posts in that "Japan-related" topic. Would you have us wipe out 2/3rds of the discussion around here for the sake of "being more Japan-related"?

Also, I don't believe you answered my earlier questions, since you focused on only one sentence I posted.

 

Just because it's ".jp" doesn't mean everything has to strictly "japanese".

Even though Boards.jp as a whole tends towards Japanese culture, most of it's members are of western origins. I can assure you that if you decide on closing those proposed forums, the activity here will be considerably decreased. I would say that for some 4000-5000 members here, it is quieter than one would have hoped... we want to up this place, not down it. Let it be...

And whoever dares bring down Chinese forum is certainly looking for trouble

- Shen

 

God, somehow I knew you would say something related to that. As for removing the Rec forum, I say nay. That place is where I flee when you guys outsmart me with confusing anime that I've never heard of. It's my home away from my homepage. Please don't make poor 'ol Shijin homeless...

 

The threads in the shut down forums would simply be put out ot pasture like in the other shud down forums. The posts would still be able to be viewed and they would still count towards the user. If we trim down the rec forum and control what gets posted in there then it would be manageable. Of course as a result board traffic would go down, however I don't see this as a downside. Boards.jp would specialize in anime and the posts that do occur would be relevant to such. Your time wouldn't be wasted sifting through posts such as "Do you ride the Short Bus" or "World War III".

Cloud stated that in SOME cases the rule had been RELAXED, not recinded. I left that out because it appears to apply mainly to such topics like the current events or BB's precious Debates forum.

...Aaaaand finally, Rags, are you telling me that most of the people who have been posting here aren't very mature? That's not a very nice thing to say. It was an objective view pointing out the reactions of those who have seen both sides of BJP/M2A. To be quite frank I was looking to see what THIER responses would be. I know that all the newer guys including those with the same seniority as myself would be opposed to such a change- the newer, more spammy BJP is all they know and what they've fallen in love with. Who wants to change that?

I was looking to see the reaction of those who've been here for more than a few years and see thier point of view on the matter. They're the only ones who can really give the informed opinion. They've seen both sides of the wall. I'm a little dissapointed that more of them didn't turn out, but such is the way of the boards.

Don't worry Shijin, no one's going to make you homeless, and who want's an angry Chinese guy chasing after them? Not I. Since the cat's already out of the bag (about why I put this up) I rest my case, that is unless I see a stimulating post by either a senior member (whose reactions I was looking for in the first place) or by one of us Jr. guys who has a new light or point of view to shed upon this topic.

Thanks to everyone who contributed/voted. :anime: This has been fun.

~W

 

Do me a favour. Look through every other anime forum you can find. Out of all the well-established ones, tell me how many are totally focused on anime and nothing more, tell me how many have -nothing- apart from anime discussions. The facts are simple, BJP expanded into a more general forum. If you don't like that, you're not forced to stay, and you're not in charge, so you can't change it yourself.

Also, it takes less than a second to skim past an undesireable topic. Hardly any time to waste.

Not my call to make, but certainly there's no point in nitpicking over it.

No indeed. Read a bit more carefully. Everyone here has been mature enough not to flame or get angry about it.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't wish to have seen the old days, but trying to force the boards back toward them isn't going to work. Like I say, it's the people that make a forum, not the content. You could trim away all the so-called "fat" that you want, you're just making an anorexic. BJP is not M2A, and most of the people that made M2A what it was aren't here. Simple as that.

And the thing is simply that most of them aren't here anymore. The ones that are are the moderators you've shown (almost) contempt for, earlier in this thread. Everyone else has long since left, for their own reasons. Boards.jp has always lacked a strong memberbase, made up instead by so many temporaries.

I'm not sure what the purpose of this even was, I don't think you could have expected a very different turnout. Still, an interesting discussion.

 

So, to kinda put the final nail in the coffin: leave BJP the way it is. BJP is getting new members every day, new topics to discuss, etc. So really, there's no reason to change something good right?

 

I think its a good idea.

I mean lets not go back to the original ways things use to be. That would be foolish.. But one could look at a lot of the forums and say.. "hey we gave them a shot. Most of them are extreemly low traffic to none at all, how about remove them or replace them with other Ideas"...

Either way this thread has come up with some good ideas.. and has harmed nothing.. so why not dicuss possible ideas to make this better..

 

In direct response to wertitis's first post.

Back in the day, before B.jp became what it is, it was mangatoanime.com (that url stillworks btw). Back then, it was much more focused. THen, there was a huge makeover and all these uneccasary forums were added.

While I do support the "trimming of excess fat," I don't support your plan.

 

I think that's pretty straight-forward. I second that. BJP is perfectly fine the way it is.

 

I don't believe they should as well. It gives the site variety. It gives something everyone can enjoy, from computers, to RPG's, to video games, etc. BJP has really bloomed and I believe it is because of the variety of forums we offer. So no, keep it the way it is.

 

leave the site as it is, if people have a prob with how the site is then they should bugger off and find another site.
If someone comes to this web page then they have to respect the way it is run.

 

When I first joined, it was dead. Than I came back from alot of school work and some life issues and I have become more active as of now. I want to be on with a bunch of users who post from time to time. Its a bit more active this place can survive.