Anime New Subforum Follow-Up

[Dagger]

I've closed the [url="http://www.otakuboards.com/index.php?/topic/43941-vote-for-a-new-anime-forum-round-2/"]Vote for a New Anime Forum (Round 2)[/url] poll. One Piece and Bleach got roughly the same amount of votes, which put them way ahead of the other candidates. But there are still a couple of issues I'd love to have your input on.

[list]

[*][b]Should subforums continue to be anime-only, leaving the related manga thread(s) in Manga Alley?[/b]
[/list]
This is how we've managed the FMA forum--all FMA anime discussions go there, but the FMA manga topic is in Manga Alley. The downside of this, of course, is that it separates closely related topics according to their media. On the other hand, if we change our policy to allow relevant manga topics in an anime subforum, it could take a lot of activity away from Manga Alley.

[list]

[*][b]Should each anime subforum cover a single anime or groups of anime?[/b]
[/list]
Do you think Bleach or One Piece can sustain a subforum? One possible alternative is making a forum for all Shounen Jump-related anime, although this might tread a bit too close to the idea of doing subforums by genre, with we previously discussed and rejected as being too vague.

Any other relevant suggestions are welcome, including those not covered by my questions. Also, the choices aren't necessarily limited to just One Piece or Bleach, but they're both reasonable candidates for the time being.

[Magus]

I remember asking if the sub-forums would be anime only or would it also include the manga section as well. I don't remember James's answer, but looking at it now, I think it could go either way. Technically, there are only 3 active threads in the Manga Alley. (Bleach, Naruto and One Piece... I'm not really counting Psyren and FMA at the moment) And if you take those 3 and give it its own sub-forum I do believe that'll be the end of the Alley. Not many people post in Manga Alley to begin with, but then again who knows, if they did get a sub-forum it could bring more topics... (I can think of quite a few for each )

As for the other question... Yes and no. Give or take both of them are still currently running, but at the same time OB don't seem to be heavily into shonen as other communities.

[Sangome]

[color="#9932CC"][font="Microsoft Sans Serif"]Well, as one of the mods for this spot, I guess I better put in my two cents.

The first question: While that makes a good amount of sense, you're right in that it would take a good chunk of activity away from Manga Alley, which is obviously not ideal. Plus, it seems a wee bit redundant to me, so I'm ultimately against throwing the manga in with the subforums.

Second question: I'm not too sure I'm keen on that, either. Shonen Jump also changes their series every once in awhile, and while it would be easy to simply move the main thread back into the main forum, it'd still be rather tedious to clean up any random threads that might be in the subforum as well.

Which leads me to my own question -- what exactly is going to happen to the FMA forum once this is all said and done? Is it going to just stay there, or is it going to be pruned in favor of any new subforums? While there's not a lot of other threads there outside of the main discussion, they're still there, and I'd hate to see them get deleted.

That said, I'm also all for just not having subforums altogether. Not to be a killjoy, but I don't think the level of activity in Anime Central really necessitates a subforum to begin with. Not to mention, most of the activity in the FMA forum is contained in the main discussion thread, as opposed to any adjacent threads in there. [Though, admittedly, most discussion is going to be halted now since Brotherhood is about to end in Japan, the manga just ended there as well, and, unfortunately, those solely following the English releases of both mediums here on OB seem to be in the minority]. I'm not really sure if that would change if Bleach or One Piece got subforums, either.

All in all, I don't mind if subforums stay, but I wouldn't be broken hearted if they left.[/font][/color] Edited June 14, 2010 by Vivian

[James]

[font="Palatino Linotype"]Just to throw another thought into the discussion, what if we re-merge the anime and manga forums, so that any sub-forums that are specific to a franchise can by definition include the relevant anime and manga? That's another option.

I think the only way to really know how this will pan out is to experiment, anyway. There won't be any surefire bets. If something really doesn't work, then that's okay - we can change things around again.

And Vivian, not to worry - we won't be deleting any topics. It'll really just be a matter of moving stuff around as we go.
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[Gavin]

[quote name='James' date='14 June 2010 - 08:21 AM' timestamp='1276500105' post='695252'][font="Palatino Linotype"]Just to throw another thought into the discussion, what if we re-merge the anime and manga forums, so that any sub-forums that are specific to a franchise can by definition include the relevant anime and manga? That's another option.[/font][/quote]

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]I think that's probably the best solution, but at the same time I'm hesitant due to the fact that the last subforum died rather quickly after its inception. Perhaps we could do the new subforum based on WSJ manga and their anime adaptations, which would cover all the big manga currently under discussion. [/size][/font]

[James]

[font="Palatino Linotype"]Yep. Another idea is that we could have a single anime/manga forum and still keep a topic directory, but allow multiple topics for a single franchise. That way people would have the freedom to post whatever they want, but we could still link to the "major" topics.

We could then move the Convention Center into the Anime & Manga category and complete its transformation into a proper full-on convention forum (and I think we could actually do a few things to give it a bigger "con" flavour).

Again, just throwing some thoughts out there - the more we think outside the box, the better!
[/font]

[Gavin]

[quote name='James' date='15 June 2010 - 01:18 AM' timestamp='1276561083' post='695299'][font="Palatino Linotype"]We could then move the Convention Center into the Anime & Manga category and complete its transformation into a proper full-on convention forum (and I think we could actually do a few things to give it a bigger "con" flavour).[/font][/quote]

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]The only concern I'd have about any move of the Convention Center is whether or not it has the activity to maintain it as a full forum rather than making it a subforum. Most threads only get a handful of replies, if any at all so perhaps it would be better off as a subforum ?[/size][/font]

[James]

[quote name='Gavin' date='15 June 2010 - 11:45 AM' timestamp='1276562705' post='695303']
[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]The only concern I'd have about any move of the Convention Center is whether or not it has the activity to maintain it as a full forum rather than making it a subforum. Most threads only get a handful of replies, if any at all so perhaps it would be better off as a subforum ?[/size][/font]
[/quote]

[font="Palatino Linotype"]I don't really think it matters too much, honestly. Whether it's a sub-forum or a regular forum...it's still a forum. The only difference is how it is displayed on the main page.

What I would like to do with the Convention Center, though, is give it a much stronger emphasis on cons by using pinned topics to post upcoming con information. So in essence we'd need somebody to be keeping track of that and updating it. I think it has more potential to grow bigger if we actually use it properly (and at this stage it's kind of in-between two functions, which is just confusing).

Anyway, I'm getting a little bit off the subject. I really don't want to dominate the conversation with this stuff - we should try to focus on Dagger's original question to help her make a decision.
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[TheShinje]

[b]â?¢Should subforums continue to be anime-only, leaving the related manga thread(s) in Manga Alley?[/b]

Anime-only sounds like the way to go here. Including discussion on manga storylines inside the anime forum could be a little confusing. They can also be very different beasts from one another, as some animation companies make slight changes to the manga, add filler etc. Keeping them apart would be ideal, unless a subforum within a subforum could house the manga in another way.

[b]Should each anime subforum cover a single anime or groups of anime?[/b]

I'd like to see the anime subforums cover single anime. I've always disliked having only one thread for an anime, a forum encourages discussion about different issues in a particular series. With one thread, the only discussion that thrives revolves around the latest storylines. There is no room in the thread for discussions on anything else, lest the thread become jumbled with multpile topics and it becomes another Padded Room Party.

[Gavin]

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"][b]Should subforums continue to be anime-only, leaving the related manga thread(s) in Manga Alley?[/b]

I'm a bit split on this one. While obviously if we include the discussion of manga we're both taking away from Manga Alley and providing the potential of spoilers for those who just want anime, I can't help but feel that discussion should embrace the entire series in all its mediums. Maybe we could move the associated manga threads from Manga Alley for the duration of the new subforum and then move them back if/when we change the designated subforum's content ?

[b]Should each anime subforum cover a single anime or groups of anime?[/b]

As I said before, I think given how the FMA forum died rather soon after its opening, it might be best to dedicate the next one to WSJ's adaptations.[/size][/font]

[TheShinje]

[quote name='Gavin' date='16 June 2010 - 06:01 AM' timestamp='1276621260' post='695339']
[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]

[b]Should each anime subforum cover a single anime or groups of anime?[/b]

As I said before, I think given how the FMA forum died rather soon after its opening, it might be best to dedicate the next one to WSJ's adaptations.[/size][/font]
[/quote]

...With multiple threads allowed for each anime. I'd be happy to see OB run with something like that. I still think we should give Bleach and One Piece a go with their own forums, and if they turn to die the same as FMA, merge them into one forum (unusre if FMA is Shonen Jump, never did pay attention to it.)

[Dagger]

Right now I'm leaning toward recombining the anime and manga forums, for a start.

It's telling, I think, that the Bleach and One Piece anime threads are currently nowhere near the first page of Anime Central. This is of course somewhat self-perpetuating (people are more likely to talk about something if the thread is right there in front of them). But given that the respective manga threads are much more lively, it seems like it would be productive to keep the anime and manga threads in the same subforum.

For the record--nope, FMA is not a Shounen Jump series. In any case, I'd suggest folding the FMA subforum back into Anime Central once we create a new subforum. I'm going to be overseas from tomorrow until the end of June, so I'll let you guys know about my final decision then. In the meantime, feel free to keep throwing out ideas.

[Shy]

[list][*]Perhaps there should be a forum for 'Anime News' and and a forum for 'General Anime Discussion.' If there were some way to include news stories from theOtaku's main page that would be fantastic, but simply reposting those stories on our site would probably generate discussion from members who don't visit theO on a regular basis. You could also discuss upcoming anime that hasn't been released yet, and convention information (and meet-ups.) General Discussion would be for... general discussion. Do I have to spell it out to you?

[*]I say that we don't bother with an anime thread listing anymore. I think limiting all discussion on certain popular series to a single thread ultimately hinders the types of discussions one can have. For older series this makes sense, but I don't think the activity of the forum really justifies needing to keep everything to organized. Having moderated the anime forums in the past I can say it's not a huge strain.

[*]Also, I think sub-forums by their very nature are going to be less popular than a full forum on the main page. If you want to make a FMA or Shonen Jump forum and give it a chance, make it a full forum that's easily visible from the main OB page.

-Shy[/list]

[Magus]

[quote name='Shy' date='17 June 2010 - 02:26 PM' timestamp='1276799205' post='695477']
[list][*]I say that we don't bother with an anime thread listing anymore. I think limiting all discussion on certain popular series to a single thread ultimately hinders the types of discussions one can have. For older series this makes sense, but I don't think the activity of the forum really justifies needing to keep everything to organized. Having moderated the anime forums in the past I can say it's not a huge strain.[/list]
[/quote]
This. I mean it wouldn't hurt to keep the thread listings since it helps me out quite a bit, but I don't think we should be limited to posting topics for a specific series in the anime/manga threads themselves... Wait a minute, I could've sworn that was lifted a while ago, was it not? I guess it's been hard to tell with the little activity we've been getting. (I could've been dreaming it lol) But for the most part I agree with this.

[Desbreko]

[color=#4B0082]Yeah, the one-thread-per-series rule hasn't been in effect for quite a while now. We just kept maintaining the thread directory out of convenience. Though now that the directories are borked, those might get removed as well if no one cares to rebuild them.[/color]

[Sangome]

[quote name='Desbreko' date='18 June 2010 - 07:39 PM' timestamp='1276907957' post='695573']
[color=#4B0082]Yeah, the one-thread-per-series rule hasn't been in effect for quite a while now. [/color]
[/quote]

[color="#9932CC"][font="Microsoft Sans Serif"]... oops?

At any rate, I'm fine with the anime and manga forums being recombined. It makes more sense to me, as I don't really see anime and manga being separated in other forums all that often.[/font][/color]

[Dagger]

All right, here's a plan....

- Combine the anime and manga forums.
- Merge the FMA subforum back into the general anime/manga forum.
- Add the Convention Center as a subforum.
- Add a Shounen Jump forum (not subforum).

This means we will still have two forums listed under the Anime & Manga category, so it doesn't really change anything visually for the moment. If necessary, we can make the Convention Center a forum (rather than a subforum) later, once we work out what we're doing with it.

We can start off by moving the Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece anime and manga threads into the SJ forum and deal with other series as they come up (Psyren, for example, is also SJ). Let's just include ongoing stuff, since there's plenty of that, and it would be quite a hassle to hunt down all the threads for past Shounen Jump anime, etc.

And yes, I'd say it's time to deep-six the thread directory. Let me know if you have any other concerns.

[James]

[font="Palatino Linotype"]I have no problem at all with this. It would be good to actually tighten things up and finally move the Convention Center, etc...

Once you are happy with this, let me know and I'll help you make all of the changes.[/font]

[Magus]

So is this still going to happen? Not that I'm rushing it or anything of the sort. I just been thinking about it for the past few days.