Maidens of the Kaleidoscope
~Bunbunmaru News~ => Letters to the Editor => Topic started by: Romantique Tp on March 30, 2016, 01:26:07 PM
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The way that thread flows is a combination of the following 90% of the time:
-Person posts low effort what if so they can reply to the post above
-Person posts low effort reply to the post above so they can post a what if
-Person posts low effort reply and what if just to keep the thread at the top of the board (why)
And of course, the format of the thread pretty much forbids any real discussion from taking place. So you have this thread that's basically an endless stream of low effort posting and no discussion constantly hogging the top of the board, taking attention away from threads and replies that may actually have some thought put into them.
It's almost reaching the 1000 post limit again. Can we please just let it die permanently this time? Just let well-thought-out what ifs get their own threads like back in the day, some of them even got multiple pages of replies.
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We've banned these types of threads in the past because they're largely contentless spam receptacles and contribute nothing of value to anyone. So yeah, that's on the table.
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Seconded. That they've been around forever is no reason to keep them going.
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There are a few more threads that have the same nature. I would mention and target them for the same reason as mentioned above but personally would offer a chance. Though agreeing in general the "What if" has become extremely poor quality and spammy thread.
The main problem with these threads is that there are people who post in it too much without considering others around them. Lack of effort is a problem too as mentioned. When I see the same person almost every 1-2 posts, then in my eyes you're being a little bit too fanatic / spammy and not giving other people the chance to join in the fun.
Similar problems I see in Rumia's section. Some text based games are played like by 1 person, sadly. (But I guess that is another issue)
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Yeah, I remember the first one or two What If threads actually being fun. Like people would pose some amusing hypothetical and get a humorous response, both showing at least a minimum of effort. Today, it's like Hele says - we got like 2 or 3 folks in that thread spamming nonsense, and not really replying to posts above with anything substantial.
So it's kinda less about the thread itself than about who participates and how. Although the format does lend itself to spam.
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Similar problems I see in Rumia's section. Some text based games are played like by 1 person, sadly. (But I guess that is another issue)
I would argue that isn't so much an issue with the section as it is an issue with text based RP's. Players disagree; the GM had to pick a route; and the players who didn't get their way are unhappy and leave. Repeat until you end up with 1~2 players and it effectively becomes a choose your own adventure book.
As someone who had this exact thing happen, it sucks but I wouldn't count it in the same spammy nature as What If [And Rumia's is supposed to be for forum games/roleplay so as long as the games have players who are roleplaying it's not too bad]
I'd say the addiction thread is almost as bad. Almost. A quick glance also shows the same frequent users. Strangely that thread is on #9 but it at least seems wittier than What If.
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Some people post in threads to discuss things.
Some people post in threads to just have silly fun.
And of course some people do both.
One could theoretically dig through post histories and determine the distribution of each poster "type" we have on this forum, but I'm not gonna do that. I'm just wondering if "fun" threads were closed, would that actually result in more discussion/discussion threads? What happens to the posters who just post for fun?
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I'm sure it isn't that difficult to have fun with posts that are more than just two sentences of eight words each.
I really don't think closing the What If threads is an instance of no-fun-allowed. If it didn't consistently tend towards posts that take all of ten seconds to think and type and goes absolutely nowhere, this wouldn't be on the table.
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Addicted thread was one of the threads I also intended to point out. Sometimes I wonder validity and genuine level of the statements. Especially when again the same people start posting in a possible spammy frequence. There is hardly no interaction when someone makes a statement so for me it feels like a drop-a-post-and-leave thread. But as said, giving it a chance is more fair than the 'what if' thread.
About the Rumia section: if players leave because the route one player caused was unlikeable then imo the structure of the game is poorly made. You can never please everyone as GM and I can see the difficulty in order to prevent people from leaving. This is why I only hosted boardgame-like threads myself
Finally about the 'fun' threads being closed. Fun is subjective. I personally wont go around tagging/judging threads fun or unfun. That would be a bad idea and terrible moderation choice.
The 'what if' thread lost its charm and became spammed by the same persons daily without sharing the fun. And this behaviour has been repeates multiple times. And this is kind of the moment where we as moderators start feeling iffy. On one side we dont want to take away the fun but on the other hand we dont want to make it become spam.
@shockdude's question/wondering. We dont close down threads expecting people to post 'qualify' (another subjective thing). We close threads when they lost their purpose or became poor.
It is up to the community to decide whether they want to post 'quality'. I dont see also why anybody should feel pressured to overthink when posting a thread. Just use common sense.
TL DR Dont spam. Try not to post meaningless spam enforcing threads. Dont overthink and have fun.
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I'm just wondering if "fun" threads were closed, would that actually result in more discussion/discussion threads? What happens to the posters who just post for fun?
This is a false dilemma. Literally no one is talking about banning fun. Spamposts and shitposts though, have never been accepted here. That the What If thread used to be fun and is now a shitpost repository is the point here.
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I'm sure it isn't that difficult to have fun with posts that are more than just two sentences of eight words each.
I really don't think closing the What If threads is an instance of no-fun-allowed. If it didn't consistently tend towards posts that take all of ten seconds to think and type and goes absolutely nowhere, this wouldn't be on the table.
@shockdude's question/wondering. We dont close down threads expecting people to post 'qualify' (another subjective thing). We close threads when they lost their purpose or became poor.
It is up to the community to decide whether they want to post 'quality'. I dont see also why anybody should feel pressured to overthink when posting a thread. Just use common sense.
TL DR Dont spam. Try not to post meaningless spam enforcing threads. Dont overthink and have fun.
This is a false dilemma. Literally no one is talking about banning fun. Spamposts and shitposts though, have never been accepted here. That the What If thread used to be fun and is now a shitpost repository is the point here.
Gotcha. Haven't looked in those threads in a while, didn't realize it was that bad.
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"You Know You're Addicted to Touhou When..." is one of the "classic" MotK threads but in the past few years I feel like it has become primarily a big list of stuff that would obviously remind anyone of Touhou. It's nowhere as silly as the What If thread, but I still find it kinda pointless these days.
Then there's the Touhou Dream thread... This one is a bit infamous and mocked outside of MotK. I would move it to Shrinemaiden Caf? because unregistered users really shouldn't be seeing personal stuff, and turn it into a general dream thread to try to even out the "obvious fanfic:actual dream" ratio.
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I second the closing of the dream thread. It's making a mockery of this fine site.
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I apparently really need to read more TARC threads. That dream thread is pure cringe.
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There's a reason I don't post in the dream thread.
However, I don't think closing it would be the best idea.
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Yeah, I'm still of the opinion that cringey threads that don't break any particular rules are best dealt with by ignoring them. I'm just kinda wow about the Dream thread.
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Pretty sure what would happen if the Dream thread was moved to/restarted in Cafe would be that the "regulars" slowly stop posting in it and more other members post in it for a short while, until it eventually dies because people actually don't care too much about posting their random dreams and the incentive for posting "dreams" is mostly gone.
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Title of this thread confused me first but was a bump.
I would prefer to see it locked now as well. Aside from my own scepticism about the 'true story' of those dreams, it became kind of a:
- dump thread with hardly any interaction.
- slightly creepy fictional dreams being posted.
- same people keep posting over and over (dumping).
The dumping part is what bothers me most. Again, just like with the 'what if' thread and such: We don't push / demand quality. We expect the community to decide a lifetime of a thread naturally.
Edit: That said, it is a Touhou-related thread. It 'technically' belongs in the Addict section but a move to Cafe is a considerable suggestion if we don't lock.
Curious what the other mods/admins have to say on this.
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I think it belongs in TARC, the landing pad for gleeful Touhou newcomers. Even if most of the dreams are fake and people are not interacting, it is at least not total spam. I don't get why we need to clamp down on fun that breaks no rules.
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I'm not suggesting for that thread to be closed, just for it to be moved and expanded a bit. People will still be able to post their self-insert Touhou fanfics if they want to, but now they'll also be allowed to post dreams they might actually have had, and people who don't dream about Touhou will be able to participate.
And ignoring whether the stories posted on that thread are real dreams or not for a moment, dreams are still something a bit personal, and people are being mocked for posting them. Isn't that one of the main reasons why Shrinemaiden Caf? and LettyJournal are invisible to guests, to prevent or at least decrease the likelihood of that happening? Sure some silly dreams are nothing compared to posts about personal issues, buuut...
To me that's where a dream thread should have been posted from the start. If I was around when the thread was originally created I would have suggested the same thing. (it was made not too long after I decided that I needed a little break from the fandom...)
It's up to the people to decide if they'll continue posting there and if any newcomers will want to join. Maybe it will become a better thread, maybe it will just slowly die after a while... I think either possible outcome would be an improvement. To me simply not keeping it where everyone can see would be a good thing, even if the thread itself didn't improve a lot.