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Okay, so some of us may have noticed that there is a lack of good discussion in this forum. I propose the following new rules in order to liven up things:

1. Stop asking hypotheticals like "what anime character would you be", "who would you want to date or marry", "what if the world were like an anime", etcetera and so on. These do not lead to intelligent discussions, they usually lead to a string of one-word replies, usually just a title or some asinine "OMG FAYE IS SO HOTT I WOULD DATE HR" response. These threads don't ever have anything worth reading in them. I honestly do not care that SakechanBD would just love to date Crayon Shin-chan. In fact, nobody except Sakechan cares. That, and I think every question under the sun has been asked. All that's left is "which furry anime mascot would you skin and make a hat out of." To which I say, "Mokona."

2. Stop posting questions about when something's coming out or when it's going to be licensed. Use common sense here and go to google and do a search or, god forbid, READ THE NEWS PAGE, where stuff like that is announced. We also have a helpful (albeit sarcastic) Answerman column DESIGNED to answer such questions. Cluttering the board with these questions is ugly and messy and pointless. They get 5 replies and then die, which wouldn't be a problem but it seems like there's always 3 or 4 of them at once. This board seems to have turned into more of a place for n00bs to ask asinine questions that have obvious and/or easily found answers than a place for discussion. Since we already have an entire column dedicated to asinine n00b questions, we don't also need a forum for them.

3. When people are discussing a series, PLEASE REFRAIN from asking if/when more is going to be made, where can you buy it, etcetera and so on. That brings the discussion to a grinding halt. I think every time we've tried to have a nice discussion about Berserk, somebody fouls it up by wandering in and asking when more is going to be made (see our most recent Berserk thread for a great example). I don't think we've had a single thread about Berserk where someone didn't ask that. Same with Hellsing. If that's all they care about, when they can have more, then I really don't think they're going to add anything insightful or interesting to the conversation. If you can't think of anything smart to say, don't say it.

4. There's more to life than discussing the routines of purchasing anime, which also seems to be a big discussion topic. I'd rather hear about what you thought of the meaning behind Cat Soup rather than how much it is at Suncoast versus Best Buy or why you can't find it in your town or why Gamestop has it cheaper or any of that garbage. Anime is and should be more than simple consumption, at least for discussion purposes. We really should be discussing content more. What is it that intrigues you about Trigun? And I don't mean "What did you like" ( IE, VASH IS TEH FUNNIE AND OMG LEGATO IS KEWL I HEART WOLFWOOD), I mean, what about the story and the characters spoke to you? What did the story mean to you? You know, questions that actually have some potential for lengthy and intelligent discussion rather than lame one-sentence answers that simply repeat what every other idiot fanboy on the planet says about Trigun.

5. I realize that a lot of us are around 15 and still in High School. There's nothing wrong with that, but you're in the company of adults, so please try and be on your best behavior. It really doesn't take much to type complete sentences and actually think about something before you write it or ask it. www.google.com is a great place to answer most, if not all, of your questions. Instead of asking questions, try posing a discussion topic (and I don't mean "who would you date").

6. READ THE TOPICS BEFORE YOURS. If you're too lazy to just scroll down before writing something, then you have no business participating on this forum. If you're asking about Hellsing for the 8,000th time this month, people will only respond in anger. Seriously, just check to see if someone else had already brought this up. Doesn't take any effort on your part.

7. "Joke" threads are funny and all (sometimes) but too much of a "funny" thing is annoying. I don't wanna name names, (starts with an A, ends with an rron) but just how funny is it to post "joke" threads over and over? Furthermore, sarcastic responses to stupid questions are fine (I appreciate them), but someone eventually has to say THIS IS DUMB, STOP ASKING THESE QUESTIONS AND COME UP WITH SOMETHING WORTH TALKING ABOUT. If that happened sooner rather than later, I think we'd all be much happier.

Does anyone else have anything they'd like to add? If people are unanimous on these new rules, I'd like to implement them on the honor system.

-Zac

Last edited by Aaron White on Thu Sep 25, 2003 1:47 pm; edited 1 time in total

Zac wrote:

7. "Joke" threads are funny and all (sometimes) but too much of a "funny" thing is annoying. I don't wanna name names, (starts with an A, ends with an rron) -Zac

Since my name is spelled with two a's and one r, I'm in the dark on this one. The rest sounds good. Although it seems that much of the troubles you're identifying come from new posters who haven't read teh rules anyway. Maybe we need a way to ensure that people read the rules upon signing up (besides trusting to their good sense.)

RULE NUMBER 8:

Punctuation is your friend.

I will demonstrate.

. , ; - ! ? " " '

Fun!

Try it on your friends!

LordByronius wrote:

RULE NUMBER 8:

Punctuation is your friend.

I will demonstrate.

. , ; - ! ? " " '

Fun!

Try it on your friends!

And a dictionary!! http://www.dictionary.com is free. If you don't know how to spell a word, look it up Very Happy

Unfortunately, there is no way to force people to read teh Rules. Even if we scripted it so that you couldn't continue with the registration process unless you read the rules, people could just as easily scroll past everything.

I'd actually like to point out something that not many people know about. Heck, it's so well hidden that even I only recently discovered it, and it's the forum Search function. On the right hand column under "Forum Functions," there actually is a tool that lets you search through past threads.

Often times, questions that you may have have already been answered in an old thread. While this may lead to the argument on whether it is better to start a new thread, or resurrect an old one, use your best judgement. If it's a discussion thread (i.e. The symbolism in Neon Genesis Evangelion) and you want to add new insight (i.e. the symbolism of Misato's cross, or where each character received an injury, or hair length, etc), feel free to dredge up the old thread and post it there.

However, if it's something completely tangential (i.e. the juxtaposition of Eva with Mahoromatic), please start a new thread.

I know that everyone wants a cool forum to hang out in, but we can only do that with your help. We don't lock threads because we hate you-- we do it because we think that no further intellectual discussion can occur there. Also, if you see that your post has been deleted-- PLEASE don't start another similar thread!! It will also be deleted! If a thread is deleted, it means that we don't want discussions of that nature anywhere on the ANN boards. Yeah, it may be fun for 10 or so people to talk about which anime weapon they want to me, but remember-- there are thousands of registered users on the forum. It may be necessary to sacrifice the forum thread happiness of 10 people for the other thousands.

In short, try to use some common sense, okay? We love having your company here, but we'd also like to make it a nice place for the other forum users as well. Age and level of schooling isn't an excuse to post unintelligent topics or write at a 2nd grade level-- even if you're in 2nd grade. We'd love to make the forums bigger and invite more people in here to talk, but if they keep being driven away, that's just not going to happen.

Thanks for reading, and do please try to keep the ideas in this thread in mind. Enjoy your stay!

Last edited by mahoro on Thu Sep 25, 2003 3:39 pm; edited 1 time in total

Zac, these are all excellent suggestions for implementing new rules for the forum that hopefully will lead to more intelligent, constructive, and astute discussions. On a personal note, I apologize for asking previously about a release date for Berserk. I understand now how inquiries on if/when xyz title will be released is redundant and terribly boorish. One thing I would like to suggest is adding a rule where discussions that have been revived from the dead, e.g. older than one year should be locked or archived strictly for viewing. IMO this is certainly valid when under the existing system often the new post contributes little in facilitating intelligent discussion.

**I wish to alter my previous comment** "...if the contribution is clever and encourages new insights and contributions to the preexisting topic... which can developed into new topic/thread, IMO the user should make a new thread and not resurrect dead threads.

What do you think? Lastly, I agree these addendums to the rules should be added to the existing registration rules and be enforced based on the honor system. Wink

Summmary Quote of Zac wrote:

1. Stop asking hypotheticals.
2. Stop posting questions about when something's coming out or when it's going to be licensed.
3. When people are discussing a series, PLEASE REFRAIN from asking if/when more is going to be made, where can you buy it, etcetera and so on.
4. There's more to life than discussing the routines of purchasing anime, which also seems to be a big discussion topic.
5. I realize that a lot of us are around 15 and still in High School. There's nothing wrong with that, but you're in the company of adults, so please try and be on your best behavior.
6. READ THE TOPICS BEFORE YOURS
7. "Joke" threads are funny and all (sometimes) but too much of a "funny" thing is annoying.

Need to summarize to save space, anyways.
1) Depends on what type of hypothetical question it is, some - I agree - don't belong in a forum of serious discussion; however on the other hand some are interesting and can raise some interesting discussions. As such this is something that would need to be one a case-by-case basis and spelled out what is deemed inappropriate.
2/3) Some of these I agree do pop up in the wrong spot, but sometimes it is a legitimate question that gets good responses. The Encyclopedia is not complete and some newbies might find it confusing at first. As such we should not be quick to rip into someone that is asking what is generally an easy question.
4) I kind of disagree with this one, if I am looking for something I sometimes need to ask where I can pick it up. Especially if it is more of a specialty item. Plus, these threads tend to be longer than the average thread.
5) I think the same can be said for some of the "adults" here.
6) This is generally something that most people do already, and the newbies are the ones whom tend to post same topic threads. But our forums are 45 pages deep, and most people are not inclined to search through that many pages; at most 2-3 pages back.
7) Not much to say here, I agree that sometimes the joke treads are not necessary and sometimes they are good and run for awhile. It depends more on the joke.

Personally I think that most of the things that you mentioned are generally something that all message boards have problems with to one extent or another. However, if you wish to cut down on newbie questions, and release date questions in the general sections, perhaps a "Newbie" section might be considered. A good number of message boards tend to have such a section and there is a good signal-to-noise ratio in the other discussion areas. If something is deemed a newbie question it could be moved to the appropriate section.

I say the new rule additions are not a bad idea at all(even though I'm guilty sometimes of spelling/grammer errors Embarassed

)

As far as making members (new, and perhaps current?) read the rules, instead of long explainations, how about keeping it simple, and making them 1 or 2 sentences (like how radicaled did it)?

Also, I would like to purpose another rule (if it is not on "Teh Rules" section already). Some of us on here check the board at work, so it would be kinda nice if the swearing was kept to a minimum. You could still express yourself, just not the whole word (for example, like I do: sh#$, f**&, etc).

mahoro wrote:

One thing I would like to suggest is adding a rule where discussions that have been revived from the dead, e.g. older than one year should be locked or archived strictly for viewing.

My above post lays out some of the guidelines for thread resurrection.

radicaledward wrote:

6) This is generally something that most people do already, and the newbies are the ones whom tend to post same topic threads. But our forums are 45 pages deep, and most people are not inclined to search through that many pages; at most 2-3 pages back.

*points to above post* If you look on the right hand column, you'll see a function marked "Search." That should make things easier.

SakechanBD wrote:

I'd actually like to point out something that not many people know about. Heck, it's so well hidden that even I only recently discovered it, and it's the forum Search function. On the right hand column under "Forum Functions," there actually is a tool that lets you search through past threads.

I'm a member of the same club of people who just recently found the search function. I think the point is that if those of us whom have been here for awile just noticed it, how can we nessecarly expect a newbie to find it right away?

radicaledward wrote:

SakechanBD wrote:

I'd actually like to point out something that not many people know about. Heck, it's so well hidden that even I only recently discovered it, and it's the forum Search function. On the right hand column under "Forum Functions," there actually is a tool that lets you search through past threads.

I'm a member of the same club of people who just recently found the search function. I think the point is that if those of us whom have been here for awile just noticed it, how can we nessecarly expect a newbie to find it right away?

I knew it was there all the time. Just about EVERY forum has some form of a search feature. You just have to look for it.

Last edited by Delthayre on Thu Sep 25, 2003 3:11 pm; edited 1 time in total

I'm essentially in agreement with Zac regarding this. Further, can we place some restrictions on colored text, namely that they be used only for emphasis, differentiation,and the occasional bit of sarcasm. I find them difficult to read and they clash with the more sober black on white grey of most of the board.

Also, as Zac said, PLEASE THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU POST BEFORE YOU POST IT! I've harped on this rather a lot myself. A well composed and generally correct post, rather than a sloppy and borderline incomprehensible one is far earier to read and respond too. Please, before you hit the submit button, look over what you've just written and make sure nothing is maddeningly incomprensible or idiotic.

And lastly, even though this seems more or less under control, please do not use the word gay to mean 'bad' or in any other pejorative sense.

Here's another one:

- Quit using the word "gay" to express dislike for somehing. It's derogatory, juvenile, and only makes you look bad for using it. Same goes for retarded. Try using these words in their proper context for a change. The word may not effect you and it doesn't effect me, but that doesn't make it OK to use.

Emerje

Last edited by Zac on Thu Sep 25, 2003 3:30 pm; edited 1 time in total

") Depends on what type of hypothetical question it is, some - I agree - don't belong in a forum of serious discussion; however on the other hand some are interesting and can raise some interesting discussions. As such this is something that would need to be one a case-by-case basis and spelled out what is deemed inappropriate."

I think being nebulous and inconsistant on this is really going to get us in to trouble. If you want me and the other forum mods to just say "this is okay and this is not", I'd have a hard time coming up with acceptable "what anime girl do u want 2 do" threads. I'd rather say NO hypotheticals. I haven't seen a thread where they spawned a good discussion. If you can point me to one, that'd be cool, but I don't remember any.

2/3) Some of these I agree do pop up in the wrong spot, but sometimes it is a legitimate question that gets good responses. The Encyclopedia is not complete and some newbies might find it confusing at first. As such we should not be quick to rip into someone that is asking what is generally an easy question.

Okay, but there are too many of these in the anime forum and we have an Answerman column that is intended to serve this exact purpose. I think they are unneccesary clutter and do not facilitate discussion beyond "yes ADV has it" or pointless speculation from some ill-informed n3wb who confuses the person who asked with misinformation and uneducated guesses, which is arguably worse than the question having been asked in the first place. Is it too much to ask that people simply read the news page? Typically these threads are asking the same 3-4 questions over and over. In no particular order, they are:

1. When is more Berserk coming?
2. When is more Hellsing coming?
3. Has anyone licensed (insert show here) yet?

My inbox is flooded with these questions every day. I don't mind people asking about obscure series that maybe haven't been asked about before, but the same darn questions over and over? No. No more. I'm sick of it. So are most of the others. We have a news page. Read it.

4) I kind of disagree with this one, if I am looking for something I sometimes need to ask where I can pick it up. Especially if it is more of a specialty item. Plus, these threads tend to be longer than the average thread.

They go on for pages and pages about where people buy things and for what price and there's a lot of them floating around. Again, I think you're being way too lenient. You're allowing all of this stuff to exist with minor caveats, and that seriously won't solve a darn thing. If we're soft on forum reform, it'll stay the same and we'll be stuck with the same sucky "discussions" of Naru's breast size and how much Bandit King Jing is at Suncoast versus Gamestop.

5) I think the same can be said for some of the "adults" here.

Well, yeah, no kidding. I just happen to notice that half of the really annoying people (who I sincerely doubt know who they are) are in high school.

"Quit using the word "gay" to express dislike for somehing. It's derogatory, juvenile, and only makes you look bad for using it. Same goes for retarded. Try using these words in their proper context for a change. The word may not effect you and it doesn't effect me, but that doesn't make it OK to use."

I cannot agree more, thank you Emerje. This is really a VERY IMPORTANT thing. Calling something "gay" meaning "stupid" is absolutely NO different from me using the word "black" to mean the same thing. People who use "gay" to mean "stupid" should be absolutely ashamed of themselves. If I see someone using that word in that context again, I will edit your entire post and leave only a snotty message telling you to grow up (and please join the rest of us in the 21st century in regards to homosexuality). I promise you that. Totally unacceptable. I don't care what your personal dogma tells you is OK, bigotry and perpetuating the cycle of bigotry is evil and wrong.

Again, and this cannot be over-emphasized, I really don't think we should be soft on this. Saying "Well..." and "but..." to all manner of changes will force this attempt at reform into stasis, nothing will happen and things will go on because we've all agreed that we don't want to do anything TOO drastic, like actually FIX the problems we have on this forum.

-Zac

so what "we" are saying is that immature kiddies belong on the Adult-Swim boards.

p.s. yes that was sarcasm. sarcasm is pretty tough to get across to people online.

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