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Is this ANN forum dying?


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yuna49



Joined: 27 Aug 2008
Posts: 3804
PostPosted: Sun Apr 17, 2022 11:43 am Reply with quote
You seem to be suggesting that ANN exists only because of its forums. That ignores the enormous amount of editorial content that appears here. Also the Encyclopedia is my go-to source for information about cast members and staff.

And while you might not care (I don't either), ANN is the place to come to learn about English dubs and dubbed releases.

The ANN and MAL audiences are pretty different. I'd expect the median age of the two groups alone could differ by ten or more years.
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Joined: 14 Aug 2006
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 17, 2022 2:21 pm Reply with quote
TF wrote:
classic forums (like ANN) are past it's hayday.

There will still be post but it'll never be as active as it once was. The thing I dread most is the question whether or not ANN can compete against MAL and continue to exist.
I like ANN for it's simple use and easier rating system with more nuance than MAL where you have to give a score.
Still, the fact remains that MAL is more popular than ANN and ANN hasn't really changed much over the years. It makes me wonder if the people behin ANN still want this site to continue and keep existing.


No, I'm sure all the people who are paid staff and use ANN as their primary source of income would love for it to not exist. Rolling Eyes

Comparing MAL to ANN is apples to oranges in of itself. Very different atmospheres, and different purposes. Not to mention rather different user bases as was already brought up. The popularity of one over the other really depends on what you're looking for, and what your goal is. The forums here at ANN have also always been more of an extra, and not the main purpose behind the site. The structure of the forums also plays a part. Over at MAL you can have tons of little small "groups" and chat rooms in essence. Some like having a giant swath of topics and 100 possible discussions for each title, some like things more condensed and easier to find. While their forum(s) might be more updated I personally find them much harder to traverse when looking for topics as they are too many threads IMO. Which one of the 5-10 threads on new show "X" do I go to to discuss it?

Online forums as a whole are losing popularity over other social platforms IMO. Much as print media has lost a lot due to digital for another example.
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Joined: 14 Feb 2006
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 18, 2022 3:41 am Reply with quote
TF wrote:
Still, the fact remains that MAL is more popular than ANN and ANN hasn't really changed much over the years. It makes me wonder if the people behin ANN still want this site to continue and keep existing.
The thing you cast doubt on keeping ANN forums alive may actually be what's helping it stay alive. Things that remain unchanged won't discourage the ones who like ANN for not always trying to be fresh and trendy. It's kind of like scrapbooking, who still does scrapbooking? Well for all or any of those people who still do, they need at least one place they can all gather and feel there are others with a similar drive to stick with it.

ANN is not MAL and if it was more like it, then all the more reason for whatever MAL copycat site to close down, keep doing its thing or just cause those users to migrate to MAL. But WE have ANN.
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Lone Immortal Bai Xiang



Joined: 05 Apr 2022
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 22, 2022 8:29 am Reply with quote
TF wrote:
Still, the fact remains that MAL is more popular than ANN and ANN hasn't really changed much over the years. It makes me wonder if the people behin ANN still want this site to continue and keep existing.


I wonder what MAL has going for it. If i is about information on staff etc. then anidb is better and when it is about anime itself anisearch is better, since they have screenshots. I can also recommend anikore for their nice tagging system, which is really helpful in finding similar anime, but if you don't know Japanese you have to rely on a a translation service. Anikore also has terrible design for newcomers, so it takes some getting used to figuring out where the tagging system even is (you have to scroll all the way down).

It's always been like this, though. ANN never was any good at being a database or a place to have discussions compared to the alternatives. But ANN is good at being a news site. Or at least it was at some point. I don't know if it's still like this, since I stopped reading news altogether.
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