Instant Messenger

The forums may be replaced or supplemented in the future with something else. I'm not sure I'm satisfied with what we have right now, since it does not cater to our current usage patterns. A lot of the threads on these boards feel like chatrooms, where each post is the equivalent of an instant message. I feel that forum posts should be more similar to emails than to IMs, so perhaps it might just be for the best to adopt or create another system of communication that fits our needs. I've already tried to cut down on the "forum baggage" by streamlining and changing various parts, but I'm not really sure if it's helping.

i dunno.. maybe an IRC channel might help but i'm not sure if there will be enough people in there to make it interesting..

but isnt forums just a place to chat anyway? but if it will increase the usage of the site im up for it....so long my 70000 views ecchi pics thread....

i have been to some irc channels but nobody ever goes there except for getting anime . so it pretty boring that why i think a forum is better but i dont mind either way.

i don't agree with IRC much. i have an idea. how bout just make a website chatroom, like something similar to animecrave.com that uses java script.

thats what i meant when im saying about making a sister site...

i know i know. so any plans yet, daft?

QUOTE (daft27 @ Oct 7 2005, 06:27 AM) The forums may be replaced or supplemented in the future with something else. I'm not sure I'm satisfied with what we have right now, since it does not cater to our current usage patterns. A lot of the threads on these boards feel like chatrooms, where each post is the equivalent of an instant message. I feel that forum posts should be more similar to emails than to IMs, so perhaps it might just be for the best to adopt or create another system of communication that fits our needs. I've already tried to cut down on the "forum baggage" by streamlining and changing various parts, but I'm not really sure if it's helping.

i dunno.. maybe an IRC channel might help but i'm not sure if there will be enough people in there to make it interesting..
I can't see what else you could setup. I don't think chatrooms will work with everybody not being exclusively within one time zone. You could make a shoutbox or something similar as long as you have moderation over it (to remove spoilers or obscenities)

Alternatively just mod/place better guildlines to posting here in the forums, but then I reckon that just might kill what posting goes on here anyway.

animecrave had the same problem with timezones as well. but they didn't start our with forums...so i guess shout boxes would be ok.

One of the changes I'll probably make is to make it so that your post count doesn't go up when your post is too short. Therefore, if people are posting just to increase their post count and they only say a few words, then they will have to elaborate more or think of more things to say.

I find it annoying to see posts that have no content or don't contribute anything worth reading. It feels like a waste of time when I read it, don't get anything out of it and have to scroll down to the next post. I even have signatures turned off so I don't have to scroll as far. Perhaps the problem with linear forums is that there's no split or place where people can chat about something while there's a discussion on the same topic being held at the same time. Forums are a place where people can communicate with other people, but there's a reason why they're more often called "discussion boards" instead of "chat boards."

A shoutbox is an idea, but I don't think it'll work. Shoutboxes are places where people chat about random things. I'm looking for a place where people can chat about specific things. If forums were meant for discussion and chatrooms were meant for chat, then I think it might be necessary to create something that has a bit of both.

There is a distinction between the two modes of conversation, and each person has their own preference. When both of them are used at the same time at the same place, I feel it lowers the quality of the thread as a whole. Therefore, I think that something needs to be changed to allow for both forms of communication to happen at the same time without them bumping shoulders with each other.

its sounds like the system used on AO...its like minimum of 30 characters in a post and post have to relate to topic, and theres a warning system for those who dont obey the rules

I totally agree with this. I ignored this forum for several months, and I don't feel like I missed a thing (except sasha's brief return and departure). I'd prefer to have more discussions on anime, not just "omg ep 50 was dum" or "y dosn't ep53 wrk?"

Sure that's an exaggeration, but only barely. I may be alone in this, but I prefer visiting forums for intelligent conversation, not a cheap alternative to IRC.

~ SP

i second that, except for the war thread. which is a exception.

this is getting pretty ridiculous. i leave for twelve hours and there're two pages of new posts and some new member with eighty-some posts. come on.

i joined up because these forums had decent conversations. there was very little pointless blather and i couldn't find any morons arguing about nothing. no one is going to go through your posts, looking up words, trying to find a redundant statement.

sp: i know what you mean, and you're not exaggerating. i actually find the posts along the lines of "omg pe53 not work unbanned me???!!!" somewhat humorous. that's why i liked the 403 forbidden on sora thread. it said "don't ask about being unbanned" in the title yet had like 15 pages of people asking someone to unban them. funny.

Just because I have 80-something posts doesn't mean anything.

Look at the threads I started in the Anime & Manga part and see if I have anything "blatant" or ignorant.

I just expressed my opinion at certain areas, albeit short posts, albeit 80-something posts.

chill guys, this is the "alt. communication" thread, and ben-sama i think there should be reason for so many posts today. afterall, today is thankgiving right? (well...its here) and ppl are free and wants to post things up in the forum. that should be a good thing, just that it got annoying when every minutes theres a new post and all the posts are under 30 characters...but just dont get mad for just one day...peace

p.s. really the forum should have a bot that restricts posts with atleast 30-40 characters

Hey, Spacepirate is back!

Im not that bothered, I only visit parts that I like and there are people with whom you can have a normal conversation.

But I like the karakterlimit idea. I dont know of anything that could replace a forum.

At the moment, all short posts no longer show avatars and signatures. This way, your attention can be prioritized a little better.

one of the things i have to agree with is signature restrictions -- both in screen size, especially vertical size, and in kb.. a forum page takes forever to load, usually, and the posts are lost in the middle of a huge number of pictures..

personally, i don't think there's a better alternative to the forums. but it's also true that there's more chatting than discussing in here.. the best would be discussing with a little chatting, and not chatting with a little discussing (that's the current status of these boards).. i don't know of effective ways to do that though.

/jp

QUOTE (daft27 @ Oct 10 2005, 01:55 PM) At the moment, all short posts no longer show avatars and signatures. This way, your attention can be prioritized a little better.
nice, atleast its better than just limits

QUOTE (daft27 @ Oct 10 2005, 07:55 PM) At the moment, all short posts no longer show avatars and signatures. This way, your attention can be prioritized a little better.
I see, that explains why some of my posts doesn't show my avatar and signature any more, but maybe it's better this way. On some other forums you can't even post if your post doesn't have at least a X number of words and characters and space's doesn't count because in the past people would put a lot of space's or enters between words and line's so they could post. But it would be a nice rule in the future, that you can't post with 1 sentence or with a few words and smilley's or only smilley's like some people do (i have seen that alot on different forums) But let's us know what you have decided to do in the future with this forum daft. And if you have a few idea's we could have a poll to see what other people think of the final idea's.