James

[quote name='Morpheus']Saudi Arabia is our ally, so I don't really see what you're getting at. The only reason we aren't using our bases there is because they won't help hurt the muslim world.[/quote] [color=#334366]The reason they didn't allow the use of their bases is because they're worried about an uprising. Believe me, their goals are not at all related to humanitarianism, lol. Saudi Arabia is only an ally of necessity. If the US ever achieves energy independence, Saudi Arabia will have lost most of its economy and will no longer have any support from anyone. Thus, the closer that point gets, the closer the regime there gets to extinction.[/color]

[color=#334366]I'm definitely not pro-Bush as such, but I think (and have always felt) that the war was the right thing to do. The intelligence on Iraq was largely wrong, but there are still many unanswered questions there. The main thing is, Iraq's weapon and ammunition stockpiles had been recorded during the 1990's and a large percentage of that is still unaccounted for. If Iraq had destroyed those stockpiles (as it claimed), then it would have been able to provide evidence of that -- either the UN would have been able to interview those who oversaw the destruction, or they'd have been able to visit the relevant sites where the weapons were destroyed. So ultimately, the pressure was not on the UN or the US to find weapons. It was on Iraq to clarify outstanding weapons records. Let's be really clear about that from the start. In regard to it being worthwhile or not...I'd say yes, it's worth it. The recent elections (and their apparent success, with both high turnout and low violence) is all the evidence I need at this point. And [i]that[/i] was the primary reason why I supported the military action, even though there were other reasons (both legal and geopolitical). When you see pictures of people laughing and celebrating due to the fact that they're finally voting in a nation that has been oppressive for so many decades...well, I don't know how you can not view it as a great thing. Of course there are hurdles, disagreements and problems. But we are seeing the birth of a democracy in the center of the Middle East. And that's a tremendously good thing, for the Iraqi people and the entire world. There's very strong evidence that oppression breeds extremism and terrorism (in our own countries we know that ignorance breeds biggotry and hate for example), so removing the root causes is incredibly important.[/color]

[color=#334366]Basically, I doubt that playing mod will get you banned or anything -- unless there were some extreme case, which is rare. But to put it simply, it [i]isn't[/i] usually helpful. It often makes the job more difficult for staff. I understand that members want to help and that's fine, but the best way to help is to lead by example -- to post great quality posts and threads and to guide discussion back on track when it starts veering off course. That is the absolute best thing that any member can do to help OtakuBoards and to support staff.[/color]

[QUOTE=Charles]That is what is wrong with homosexuality; its vulnerability. It's so easy to exploit that even children on an Internet message board can bend it to their own shallow agendas. [/QUOTE] [color=#334366]Agreed. But moreover, why do we need to constantly raise this topic? Very few people are going to change their opinions based on an Internet message board. People's opinions change based on far more fundamental things -- particularly their own experiences. Generally, I think people come to their conclusions in a variety of ways...message boards are often just a way for people to sound off. As Charles said, it's all too easy to forget that there are [i]real people[/i] involved in this issue; living, breathing people. It's all too easy to drag such a debate into the mud and turn it into an exercise in grandstanding. Lately Otaku Lounge has had some great threads with some unique twists. Rather than simply dredging up "controversial" threads for the purpose of arguing and grandstanding, why don't we try to do something more interesting with this forum? At the very least, let's go for a few months without this discussion, so that newer members in the future have the benefit of joining in, without us constantly retreading the same ground with existing members. Edit: Raping angels? Geeze. Gotta love painting everyone with an extreme brush.[/color]

[QUOTE=Dagger IX1]This is the way I see it. Member, unlike mods, have the ability to rescue crappy threads. As a moderator, if I see a horrible thread, I have to close it. Members can actually save such threads by making positive, thoughtful contributions to them (assuming that though the level of quality established by the original poster may be questionable, the topic itself isn't totally inane). [/QUOTE] [color=#334366]Actually, I really love it when Moderators save threads that may otherwise be questionable in quality. At times if I think a thread idea is good (but with poor execution or whatever), I'll edit the thread title (to improve spelling and so on) and then I'll add my own post. I did this in the Mario vs Sonic thread in Play It, which seemed doomed for closure early on. I thought I'd take it and make something quality out of it. So where possible, I think that's a really good route to take.[/color]

[color=#334366]Just to point something out on the wireless front; PSP and DS share the same Wi-Fi capability. If anything, DS has the superior wireless function. Why? Because DS has [i]two[/i] wireless standards: Wi-Fi and Nintendo's own proprietary system. As far as I know, PSP exclusively uses Wi-Fi. In any case, both of these systems will perform the same when it comes to wireless capability. The only difference is that Wi-Fi useage will drain the battery so, with PSP if you are using Wi-Fi all the time, your battery life will be further limited. This is obviously not such a significant problem on DS. In regard to breakability...I'm hoping that Sony fixes some of PSP's design issues when it comes out here. Kutagari's statements don't lead me to believe that they will, but [i]hopefully[/i] they will. If not, PSP is unnecessary shooting itself in the foot. lol[/color]

[color=#334366]I am not concerned about competition; if you love spam boards, I wholeheartedly encourage you to post your spam there and to save your quality posts for OtakuBoards. That way, you can enjoy a wide variety of forums and we can maintain great quality. ^_^[/color]

[color=#334366]Ethnic discrimination is still a huge problem around the world, just as much as sexual/gender/religious discrimination. America has seemingly become very politically correct within the last few years, but in doing so, I think it's almost reinforced inequality. It reminds me of a South Park episode that dealt with the nurse who has a fetus on the side of her head. lol The town held a giant festival and everyone wore fetuses on their heads. They thought that it was a sign of solidarity and that they were pleasing her -- by going to the extreme. Instead, they were just calling more attention to the fact that she was different. She didn't even notice any difference when things were "normal" -- when people just treated her like a human being, first and foremost. But when they got ridiculously politically correct, it seemed as though they were taking what made her different and making it the focus, rather than emphasizing the similarities between themselves and her. Maybe that's not the best example, but...I seem to see that now and again, especially on U.S. television. lol Actually, this reminds me of something. There is a teacher/doctor in the United States and I'm forgetting her name right now, but she has been running a program for many years, which is based on teaching about racism. I can't even remember the name of the course (it was so long ago that I saw the documentary about her), but I'll try to describe what it's like. In the documentary, she held a class as a teacher. In the middle of the class, sitting on the floor, were all the people with blue eyes. Surrounding them, sitting on chairs, were people with brown eyes and brown skin. The entire "lesson" was somewhat like a lecture, with occasional class participation -- the class being the people sitting on the floor. The teacher would then interact with the class as a racist person might interact with someone of another race -- the blue eyed adults were belittled and treated as though they were unintelligent. It wasn't particularly harsh, it was more of a subtle psychological thing. But by the end, just about all of the blue-eyed students were in tears. They had [i]never[/i] experienced such treatment, based on their eye colour. In the 1960's and 70's, this teacher did the same thing with young students in her elementary school classes. Some days, she would put preference on the brown-eyed students. All blue-eyed students were not allowed to do certain fun activities, or they were given certain restrictions and differing treatments. In this documentary, she held up drawings from those children. On the "blue-eyed days", those kids' drawings reflected their sadness and pain. On the "brown-eyed days", they were happy and bright once again. So, this is the type of experience that those in the majority (who have never experienced prejudice based on their race/gender/sexuality/etc) really should have. I think it would be a huge eye-opener. I just wish that for one day, everyone in the "majority" were able to experience a dose of this. I think that would change many attitudes.[/color]

[color=#334366]I really hope that this RPG keeps going; it seems to have stalled momentarily. I recommend PMing the particpants with reminders, Patronus. It's a bit annoying, but it may remind them if they've forgotten. It'd be cool to get to the next chapter, I'm interested to see what you guys have planned.[/color]

[color=#334366]I had played my cousins' Atari system and found it to be fun. I think that was my first real experience with video games. But I wasn't particularly enthralled by Atari's games, although that may have changed if I'd owned one. I really began to take a bigger interest in gaming with Game & Watch. When I was in kinder (and when I began school for the first time), several friends had these units and they had become quite popular among young kids. I remember playing a two-player version on a bus one day, as we were going on a school excursion (field trip). But it wasn't until later in that year (and into first grade) that I played NES for the first time. NES is what really compelled me. And there's one game that did it; Super Mario Bros. That was my very first experience on NES and I remember that I had played it at a friend's birthday party. As soon as I got home I raved about it to my parents (and considering that I was about 5 years old, they probably had no idea what I was talking about). But, sure enough, they bought me a NES as a surprise. And that really got me going. Ever since, I've had a special place in my heart for Nintendo, but particularly for Mario -- I grew up with Mario and Zelda and the characters from those franchises have therefore become a huge part of my childhood and my life as a whole. So I can definitely see what Miyamoto means when he says "the Mario generation". I definitely feel as though Mario defined my youth, more than any other source of entertainment or popular culture.[/color]

[color=#334366]I just don't think that anarchy is an appropriate natural state for a human society. Even the most basic tribes and colonies in different parts of the world have some sort of heirarchy and social organization. Even completely unintelligent and simplistic [i]insects[/i] have a stable organization. In that case you could argue that they have no actual leader as such...but remember, they are all drones who don't think and who simply do what they are biologically programmed to do. Humans are different. We have different opinions/philosophies/lifestyles/etc... This alone makes anarchy impossible. I think that human beings are really built for a society and there are many other species that have heirarchies within their own societies, as a way of maintaining some semblance of control (and therefore, stability, allowing for safety and perpetuation of the species). I think it's understandable that teenagers would like the concept of anarchy (because teenagers are naturally rebellious or whatever), but in all seriousness, I think it just demonstrates a lack of understanding as to a) why our societies function and b) why anarchy really can't work, if only due to human nature.[/color]

[color=#334366]I agree about Freddy vs Jason (from the little I've seen). My impression wasn't at all that it was a horror movie. I came away with the sense that it was more or less a goofy comedy. Not really my thing, but from what I've seen of it, I wouldn't necessarily even begin to class it as "horror", as such. I tend to agree with HC as well. There are quite a lot of great psychological thrillers out there and it's a genre that seems to continue to do well (both in quality and financial success). Rosemary's Baby is one of my favourite movies, in the sense that it's about paranoia and claustrophobia...and it's not scary in a slasher-sense, you know? That's the kind of film I like. I also liked Mothman Prophecies. It wasn't really horrific, but it had a wonderful atmosphere and it was somewhat creepy. That kind of movie -- the kind that gets under your skin rather than slamming a mallet over your head -- is what I'm personally interested in.[/color]

[color=#334366]You're right about the PM rule thing. This thread reminded me of it, is all. In fact, Justin and I had discussed it quite a while ago, but it has yet to be implemented. But this is something we can make as a priority for the new version. As I said earlier though, I won't be putting the suggested measure in place (no threads for New Members). My sentiments pretty much echo yours, in terms of concerns. I think there are other ways we can approach the situation.[/color]

[color=#334366]Ju-On = The Grudge. And as far as I know, it's made by a different creator (the guy who created the film version of Ring is Hideo Nakata). In regard to Tim Burton, I don't really find any of his films actually scary. In an odd way, the "horrific" imagery and settings are very endearing and lighthearted. I love the way that Burton's films deal with death, with a sense of magic and fun. I think his films are all very childish in that way, in the sense that children can often handle the macabre better than adults.[/color]

[color=#334366]I hate to add insult to injury, but this is also in the wrong forum. It really belongs in either Play It or PC/Mac. Poor Who. V_V Edit: Erm, I came here to close the thread but noticed Panda had closed it at the same time. So it had to be re-closed. Oops, sorry about that.[/color]

[color=#334366]Tony also introduced me to this group, as we were having a pretty lengthy discussion about music (I think Tony was trying to find stuff he knew about that he felt would appeal to me, based on my description of what kind of music I like). So Tony sent me a few MP3s. Well, two. The first was Horror Head, which I loved...and the second was Lillies Dying. Horror Head just sounded highly refreshing to me. It was almost like 80's pop, with some rock elements thrown in. A pretty unique track and I was definitely intrigued. I also love Lillies Dying, because the lyrics are just so wonderful. It's a song I'd listen to on the way to school, to make me feel positive before entering class. Fantastic track. Other than that, I have a few other tracks by the group, some of which I really like (uh...*thinks*...You Don't Know comes to mind). And then there are some on other albums that I don't like too much. But I'm not really familiar with Cuckoo. I'll have to check that out.[/color]

[color=#334366]I would tend to seperate aliens and mythical creatures. Mythical creatures are often based on legend and (of course) mythology. And those two things are human inventions. So, I would tend to have a healthy skepticism about such things. But aliens are different. Do I believe the famers who claim to have been probed by aliens? Not really. But do I feel that there is a possibility of actual intelligent life other than our own? Yep, I do. I think there's a massive chance of it. The fact that we exist ourselves (and that there are other bodies in space with similar properties to Earth) leads me to feel that there's probably a good chance of something being out there. However, this doesn't mean that there is, or that they have visited Earth. There are some seperate questions there, in my mind. In terms of sightings...eh. I don't think any of them are true, but they're kind of silly/fun (unless you obsess about them of course). Overall, although I am skeptical about some things...I like that there is a sense of magic in the world. It's nice to imagine some of these things and to forget your skepticism now and then (ie: children and Santa Claus).[/color]

[QUOTE=MehrLicht]Rightfully so. There are so many holes in that movie that i just want to cry. The movie kills you...cus it does. You survive if you make a copy...cus you do. The girl can crawl out of a TV...cus its magic. Im growing very tired of the "cus it is" attitude writers today seem to have. [/QUOTE] [color=#334366]The movie kills you because it is cursed, it's Samara's way of punishing others due to her own suffering. You survive if you make a copy because you are perpetuating her hatred. She can crawl out of the TV because she is a ghost. Seriously, [i]most[/i] horror movies are based in some kind of fantasy or hyper-reality. If you start picking apart The Ring for plotholes, you've already missed the point. The Ring is an admirable remake of a groundbreaking Japanese horror film. It was groundbreaking for a number of reasons (not least of which being that it was the most successful Japanese movie ever made, in its home territory). But the tremendous influence that Ring has had on other films is noteable.[/color] [quote=Daermon_Nashabe]A great example of Japanese horror (Like my sister stated) is The Grude- Ju-on or its american counterpart beccause they both are just creepy like the Silent Hill games. The tension builds up on you then whammy. [/quote] [color=#334366]I think that Ju-On is an awful example of Japanese horror, lol. It came out riding the coat-tails of Ring (or Ringu, if you want to be arty about it). The concept is somewhat similar and the actual scares are [i]very[/i] heavily influenced by Ring. However, what interested me was that the American remake was significantly worse than the original Japanese version. It was identical except that it was [i]less scary[/i] and featured totally irrelevant plot interjections, which were apparently created to make the movie more interesting or something. But they failed to do so, they only made it more convoluted and silly. Not to say that Ju-On didn't have its merits; the Japanese version had some interesting moments and some genuinely frightening aspects. But...I wouldn't say that it's on par with Ring or most other Japanese horror films. I really recommend seeing both Ring and Ring 2 (Japanese versions) if you want to see where Ju-On was influenced.[/color]

[color=#334366]Donnie Darko is a lot like The Matrix in that respect, except that The Matrix presents most of what you need -- it's just not always easy to see, because there's so much of it. Come to think of it, the two movies also have some very similar themes. But yeah, Donnie Darko is one of my favourite films. Incredibly good story, some awesome metaphors and a pretty finely-tuned script. It's a movie that you can dig deeper and deeper into (although it isn't as deep as some films, it's certainly deeper and more thoughtful than many films out there). And of course, that's part of the appeal. Not to mention that Donnie Darko is a great "religious film", in terms of presenting God in a different way than traditional religion. So yeah. An absolutely great movie; the Director's Cut has been out here for a short while, so I'm wondering if I should pick that up or not. Maybe if I have some spare cash on me one day and I see it, it'll be an impulse buy. lol[/color]

[color=#331366]For me, Massive Attack is a bit hit-and-miss. I absolutely adore some of their stuff (Mezzanine is wonderful and Dissolved Girl is quite possibly my favourite track ever), while some of their other stuff doesn't interest me. A lot of their tracks on 100th Window, for example, don't really appeal to me. So yeah. I'm that way with many artists though. For instance, I really like The Chemical Brothers' album, Come With Us. But I'm not so fond of Surrender, even though it has a couple of tracks that I quite like.[/color]

[color=#334366]I'd have to agree with Weapon of Choice, it's just such a cool video. lol I think my favourite is probably Windowlicker, by Aphex Twin. It goes for about ten minutes and the first five minutes is just really stupid and funny. It also includes two very cool remixes of the song within the clip (as the clip is kind of like a story/movie) - oh how I wish they'd released those seperately. When you combine the homage to Michael Jackson (albeit a grotesque homage) and the really cool/funny combination of sexy bodies/grotesque faces, I think you have a classic. ~_^[/color]

[color=#334366]I think you're partly right, but let's not forget how spammy OB was in the past. All of these suggestions are made to keep people like yourself involved and to ward off people who seem to be the constant source of complaint from the majority of members (ie: people who post incoherent stuff that doesn't really add any value to the place). So at the very least, I think these suggestions are coming from the right mindset/intentions.[/color]

[QUOTE=Charles] [size=2][color=black]Agreed. Azure brought up a valid point. [i]But, [/i]as I said to him--it would be best if those people left. If people who would create awful threads are just regulated to creating awful posts--one problem is automatically eliminated. The other is as simple as pruning their posts. Although this site is active, I don't think it's active so much that moderators should find it much of a hassle to locate off-topic or incoherent threads within their forums.[/color][/size][/quote] [color=#811C3A]The thing is though, I think a lot of spam in threads may go unnoticed. I mean, it already does. And threads are as easy to prune as posts, if not easier (because I think generally someone is likely to generate more spam posts than threads - when you ban someone, you will usually see that thread to post ratio). But anyway, what I was going to say was that your idea about PMing the rules automatically is a great idea. Perhaps we should create a brief PM that all new members receive as a welcome message, which includes the relevant links and brief advice. All new members would also have PM pop-up by default, which they could later turn off, so that this stuff would be 100% noticeable and unavoidable. I think that is a great suggestion to come out of this thread; it directly relates to what I'd like to do.[/color]

[color=#334366]I think that shame is a tricky thing. Shame is often used to force people into one particular way of behaving. And shame is often the cause of further problems. For example, many women who are raped feel [i]ashamed[/i] and that can sometimes partly be the reason why they may not alert the authorities. This also happens with children who are sexually abused. It's often shame that stops them from coming forward and starting a process of recovery (however much one can recover from such horrific events, anyway). So I don't think that shame is even mostly a good thing. We are often ashamed of things that we shouldn't be ashamed of and that in turn isn't good for one's self confidence and so on. But like anything else, it depends. Sometimes I think you can be ashamed of yourself for something (maybe a lack of effort in school or whatever) and that can be a good thing, if only because it allows you to acknowledge a personal failure to yourself. And that in turn may help you to change in the future, for your own betterment. But in terms of public shaming and stuff like that...eh, I don't know. The whole concept of "shame", at least from a religious point of view, seems mostly to be a system of control and belittlement. Not to say that this is always the case, or that shame is always bad (as mentioned above). It's just that I don't think shame is always good. If you do something (or avoid doing something) because you might feel ashamed otherwise, I kind of wonder how good that is if it's your primary motivation. I know that I don't do good things for people to avoid feeling shame, I do good things because I care about people and I want to help them. So it's not about avoiding the stick or incurring the wrath of a deity, it's instead about improving my relationship with someone and making a genuinely positive impact in their life.[/color]

[color=#811C3A]I like this idea but I don't think it will change anything. A member with low-quality posts is a member with low-quality posts. I find that members tend to improve when they are encouraged directly by staff (so thread closures can actually have a benefit for members who are keen to participate, because they are reminded of what we require here). The most this would do is cause some new members to simply give up and leave. But as Azure correctly pointed out, people who are going to create awful posts will do it one way or another -- if they aren't making threads, they'll just respond incoherently to existing threads. I think you will find that most spam at OtakuBoards doesn't come from new threads/thread starters. Most of it can be found within existing threads, where people post very short or incoherent replies. Many of these posts are not deleted and they are harder to detect when they are sitting buried within the longer threads. Our biggest challenge is to make the rules more comprehensive, easier to access and more noticeable. That is something that I am going to tackle with our next version change. But other than that, I don't want to add further restrictions. OtakuBoards is, by default, a place that has certain standards. Some already view it as being an exclusive place. But I am always trying to encourage new members to participate and to have standards while also allowing for certain flexibililty and freedom where possible. On a purely functional level, I don't think that this proposed change would impact the site positively. But also, as we are today, I think we are as restrictive as we are going to get for a long time. If we put further borders and boundaries in place, we may end up discouraging a lot of the members that we would rather attract. I will say, though, that as our average membership age increases (as it's doing and as it will continue to do), there might be room for something like this. But right now I think it's critical to streamline what we have, rather than implement additional measures.[/color]