actually, that does sound reasonable. I'm only scared that it will be run by jerk mods, unlike the number of nice mods here. It's worth a try though. (hey, can't blame me for like'n ya so much ocean) :)
Concerning Certain Issues
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Satsuki's post is about Japan. People in the thread who live/have lived in Japan chimed in on their experiences, leading to more discussion about Japanese food. If you just change the topic title to "Japan experience", then it's solidly on topic. :laugh:
See, that's the thing about being off-topic; there are instances where an off-topic conversation can actually be beneficial while a thread that is entirely on topic is not. I think I've learned more about One Piece by Chapter Discussions drifting off into uncharted waters long after the latest release than I have from any number of newly locked topics in Manga that remained on-topic until they were locked for redundancy or outright inanity.
A situation such as that one helps people learn about Japan, even if part of that conversation is off-topic, it's still raising the general level of discourse on this board by including actual discussion that some people might find useful. The vast majority of the closed threads or those under the watchful eye of Sauron did not or do not, several of them could be best described as one-dimensional spheroids that displayed distinct vellicative tendencies. Keeping them open accomplished little and nothing is lost by their loss that could not be recouped by switching to an instant messenger or chat service.
There's also a difference between drifting away from the subject and a deliberate threadjack; the latter will resist attempts to return the discussion to the original topic while the former will not.
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Well it's all going to come down to how different people find something 'beneficial' off topicness. Sure it's a fun thread for the people posting but to those that aren't it isn't. You'll always get people on both sides of an arguement. The people that posted in the threads that closed or the ones that get warned of going off topic will probably say that they like the way the conversation turns.
If you are going to close something for a reason then you have to spread that rule accross all the threads that follow that path. It's not fair to close a thread and leave another open just because you have a fondness for one and not the other.
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Please know that staff here are trying to be as objective/neutral as possible. When a thread is closed after a long time, that's when we could no longer let that thread to go on due to various reasons mentioned earlier.
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I aloplogize for sounding like a brat earlier. I sounded rude earlier and i appologize and thinking it over a spam board woud be horrible. I am sorry for that.
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Well, now that I know the situation better, I can say that I support you guys in what you're doing. Some of those threads are no big loss to me (especially the 'rate the member' thread…) we're better off without them
though, one thing i did find weird was that this thread was closed and that there was already one, but its also closed…??? i just didn't see the point in that. its not a big deal, since it kinda is a useless topic, but still.... i can see how it would upset people that really wanted to discuss that...that just seemed strange to me honestly. not pointing fingers, not whining or anything, just a simple question.
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@pirateneko:
though, one thing i did find weird was that this thread was closed and that there was already one, but its also closed…??? i just didn't see the point in that. its not a big deal, since it kinda is a useless topic, but still.... i can see how it would upset people that really wanted to discuss that...that just seemed strange to me honestly. not pointing fingers, not whining or anything, just a simple question.
Some things have been discussed so many times there's really no point to do it all over again. The topicmaker in that thread wanted to know what the community thinks about something and since it's been already discussed he can read the previous thread to find out. And besides Oda doesn't do romance so it's useless to discuss it anyway.
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Basicly you guys don't want fun here. You want discussions. It would be alot more easy just to come out and say that.
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Basicly you guys don't want fun here. You want discussions. It would be alot more easy just to come out and say that.
Aren't you on your second warning or something?
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…What am I doing wrong now? I don't see what I posted would cause any problems..
From how I see it thats basicly what they are saying, the game threads are meaningless and they want topics with proper discussion.
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Our goal is to have fun here. The threads we're closing are only fun for a select few people who take them over with pointless and usually off-topic posts, or the threads themselves simply begin that way. Yes, we want people to have fun, but most people don't with those threads.
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Our goal is to have fun here. The threads we're closing are only fun for a select few people who take them over with pointless and usually off-topic posts, or the threads themselves simply begin that way. Yes, we want people to have fun, but most people don't with those threads.
So what? As long as people are using these threads and it doesn't hurt anyone, not like they are causing abuse to anyone.. Why should they lose their threads because some people don't want to post there? It's their choice if they post there or not, different strokes for different folks.
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Its not our damn faults people don't post, you can't pin that on us nore the topic.
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No, it isn't your faults that people don't post, necessarily. What we're saying is that in the pleasure of the few the pressure of the many intensifies. Let's run down two threads, shall we?
Rate the Member
… I can't even speak of this, it was so laughable by the time it was closed. Don't you think it was getting a little ridiculous, giving the same scores to the same people?
Rate the ava/sig
Yes, we can all agree that "100/10 100/10" is a FINE choice for a post. Sure! Please shoot me. In all honesty, this was just the same people posting time… after time... after fuckin' time. We've said it before and we shall say it again: That's stupid.
In short: If you want to spam so bad, get your own InvisionFree as was suggested. The uselessness is over.
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Picture Battle however wasn't like that. People posted images to defeat the last, some of which people actually thought about.
And don't give me this "bandwidth stealing" bullshit. Cause I can tell you right now, the sites we posted images from weren't getting hurt.
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Rate the Member
… I can't even speak of this, it was so laughable by the time it was closed. Don't you think it was getting a little ridiculous, giving the same scores to the same people?
I'm not even gonna defend that thread either I have no problem with that closing
Rate the ava/sig
Yes, we can all agree that "100/10 100/10" is a FINE choice for a post. Sure! Please shoot me. In all honesty, this was just the same people posting time… after time... after fuckin' time. We've said it before and we shall say it again: That's stupid.
Your taking the 100/10 posts out of proportion, there were still people giving honest opinions and I know it serves well when you aren't sure of your sig/avatar. You don't need a whole paragraph on why you like them so of course your gonna get short answers.
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I had no problem with rate the member being closed, I was complaining greatly cause I was stuck rating the same person over and over.
Rate avi/sig was different tho….sorta.
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Picture Battle however wasn't like that. People posted images to defeat the last, some of which people actually thought about.
And don't give me this "bandwidth stealing" bullshit. Cause I can tell you right now, the sites we posted images from weren't getting hurt.
Oh don't make me laugh. You can't possibly imagine people don't notice it when you hotlink their stuff of private sites when you find them on GIS. Even 'free' image dump sites can and will IP block a site and/or user that's abusing their resources.
Add that onto the fact that the thread generates no discussion whatever and, uh, yeah, I closed it. Like ocean said, you can start your own spam board if you like and go pleasure yourself there. We don't want it here anymore.And if you have to clearcut it, yes, it's discussion, not games. Fun is not immediately contained to just games; if it is for you, then, well… tip a hat to that.
@Bad-Beat:
Your taking the 100/10 posts out of proportion, there were still people giving honest opinions and I know it serves well when you aren't sure of your sig/avatar. You don't need a whole paragraph on why you like them so of course your gonna get short answers.
I fail to see how the thread was providing any significant amount of constructive criticism. Here's a smattering of pages from it:
http://apforums.net/showthread.php?t=60&page=5
http://apforums.net/showthread.php?t=60&page=45
http://apforums.net/showthread.php?t=60&page=68
http://apforums.net/showthread.php?t=60&page=123
http://apforums.net/showthread.php?t=60&page=153
http://apforums.net/showthread.php?t=60&page=203Just about the only person I can see who delivered CC every time was Bounty1Berry. 'Honest opinion' here basically equates to 'well since i like narrto i give u 10/10', deshou ?
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That thread was not spam.
SPAM X 50 <–-shortened because it got annoying every time I had to scroll through the thread - wanderer-zero
THAT is spam. But okay. I've accepted, I can understand you guys intentions. I can see your point in closing those threads and how you guys are trying to run a professional board. Most likely if I was a mod I'd think the same way from the begining.
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Some things have been discussed so many times there's really no point to do it all over again. The topicmaker in that thread wanted to know what the community thinks about something and since it's been already discussed he can read the previous thread to find out. And besides Oda doesn't do romance so it's useless to discuss it anyway.
As much as I despise the pairing threads, I don't think it should be an outlawed topic. That isn't exactly a topic that you can go back to an old one just to get information, a new person can bring up something new to discuss each time. It's not like it's the same members on the forum all the time. So I didn't really understand why that one was closed, unless it was for fear of pairing bashing. But that should have been the reason given for the closing, not linking back to an old closed thread. Sure Oda doesn't do it, but Oda doesn't do a lot of things that we discuss here. That's my feeling on that. I haven't seen any problem with any other thread being closed.
Basicly you guys don't want fun here.
Riiiight. Yes, all the mods are a bunch of meanies who never want anyone to have fun.:laugh:
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I fail to see how the thread was providing any significant amount of constructive criticism. Here's a smattering of pages from it:
http://apforums.net/showthread.php?t=60&page=5
http://apforums.net/showthread.php?t=60&page=45
http://apforums.net/showthread.php?t=60&page=68
http://apforums.net/showthread.php?t=60&page=123
http://apforums.net/showthread.php?t=60&page=153
http://apforums.net/showthread.php?t=60&page=203Just about the only person I can see who delivered CC every time was Bounty1Berry. 'Honest opinion' here basically equates to 'well since i like narrto i give u 10/10', deshou ?
We'll you can say that those half a dozen out of 200+ pages are spam but I don't, especially when I look at those half a dozen pages and still see some honest answers, and comments on the sigs/avatars on them. Well if that's how high you are going to set the spam bar, then so be it. The ranting of one member isn't going to change the outcome of what the admins and mods do, isn't my forum..
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I closed the pairings thread and linked the old one, but I actually didn't notice that the old one had been closed. That was my mistake.
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That thread was not spam.
SPAM x 50 <–-silly Buuhan - wanderer-zero
No, that's trolling. You fail at the internet. :P
We'll you can say that those half a dozen out of 200+ pages are spam but I don't, especially when I look at those half a dozen pages and still see some honest answers, and comments on the sigs/avatars on them. Well if that's how high you are going to set the spam bar, then so be it. The ranting of one member isn't going to change the outcome of what the admins and mods do, isn't my forum..
By jove, man, I'm not saying that ALL of the answers are useless. I'm saying the vast majority of the answers are absolutely empty and all they do is serve as an ego-booster. I'm not going to cowtow to anyone and I am certainly not about to go through over 4,000 replies just to prove to you that that thread was 99.9% bull. The thread would've been a ton better if there was actually a plethora of honest-to-goodness observations, of which I see little to none. And NO, in NO WAY, does 'i like ur sig because kakashi is cool' COUNT. AT ALL.
Good grief. I hate to get frank, but how could you possibly not see that thread for what it is ?
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what is with this insecurity that your avatar or your signiture is not good enough that it needs to be rated by other members?
I can understand rating something from the designers standpoint, pointing out flaws in composition, design, color, and usage of text. But when it comes down to rating something, everyone has their own tastes and when it comes down to rating an avatar or signiture image that maybe even you yourself did not make, that really raises the question as to why use it at all if you aren't so fond of it yourself that you need reimbursement from other members that say it's 10/10?
awesome avatar by the way cosmicdebris. 10/10
oops =\
EDIT: I think a rating of avatars and signiture thread is a great idea! just atleast put in some thought into why such a rating is given. And if the person is truly looking for a rating, then they'll accept whatever harsh criticism you give them.
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Thank you for clarifying that Bevin.
For those who think this is really heavy-handed, I've been on a lot of forums and AP mods and admin are really very laid back. Not too many mods will actually explain their actions and open them up for discussion or suggestions. They are some of the friendliest mods I've ever seen.
Also, if people become more thoughtful about what they post from the start, then the mods won't have to take as much action. They just want everyone to be more aware that a problem exists, so therefore it always is more heavy-handed in the beginning.
awesome avatar by the way cosmicdebris. 10/10
Haha. XD
I only think rating is important when you actually put some creative effort into making them anyway. Like even though I made the gif for my avatar, I didn't really do anything to it, it's just screengrabs. At least I created my signature. If you're creating signatures and avatars, why not create your own thread in the creativity forum and people can comment there.
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what is with this insecurity that your avatar or your signiture is not good enough that it needs to be rated by other members?
Who knows but obviously people like to show off them off, otherwise it wouldn't have gone on for hundreds of pages. And at the current time it was the only place where people could show off their new sigs. If people feel they need praise for their handy work then that's their own personnal decision. You yourself created a thread asking for comments on a sig that you created, why did you do that? Most likely the same reasons that all those people posted in the rate ava/sig thread.
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it wasn't for a sig. It was for a banner for a website, different in the sense that the banner will be seen by hundreds(hopefully) and that if it looked off or different, it would be distracting from the overall experience of the website. I was looking for criticism, not ratings.
My signiture is a miniturized version that I've never asked anyone besides dythim for an opinion for, simply because dythim through past experiences has given me good advice on what is wrong, misplaced or looks off.
I would also like to point out the signiture is entirely my own creation started from a blank simple grey background. Granted, the image of the buildings and the templar are not my own, the composition and positioning of the two objects were and so were various other aspects of the image. The image I showed was after hours of work and a number of large changes so that the image would flow better with the rest of the layout of the website.
So my reasons for posting such a thread as you described were in fact very different from what people seem to do in the currently locked rating of ava/sig thread. Again, like I said above:
EDIT: I think a rating of avatars and signiture thread is a great idea! just atleast put in some thought into why such a rating is given. And if the person is truly looking for a rating, then they'll accept whatever harsh criticism you give them.
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why don't you just ask for comments in the creativity forum?
ooshi78
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Also, if people become more thoughtful about what they post from the start, then the mods won't have to take as much action. They just want everyone to be more aware that a problem exists, so therefore it always is more heavy-handed in the beginning.
I really don't think that this be called heavy-handed in any way. To me, that would suggest that they wouldn't be debating the issue with people on a freely open forum, but would be closing the threads and then banning people that complained.
@Bad-Beat:
Who knows but obviously people like to show off them off, otherwise it wouldn't have gone on for hundreds of pages.
When a thread goes on and on for hundreds of pages and it's not about the same topic as the forum, it should probably be retired. It's not that hard to create a forum somewhere else devoted exclusively to that topic; if it can generate that response, then it surely warrants a forum of its own.
If people feel they need praise for their handy work then that's their own personnal decision.
Why would you make a signature or avatar for praise rather than simply because you think it looks cool? Especially if it has to be solicited?
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Why would you make a signature or avatar for praise rather than simply because you think it looks cool? Especially if it has to be solicited?
You tell me, I can't read minds. Stuff like that happens everywhere in this world, people buying the latest fashion trends or buy the latest gadgets, it's a shallow world.
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Change is good. I thank the mods for addressing these issues and trying to bring up the general level of quality around here. It's their forum to govern, not ours, so their choices are the choices, and that's all. And you know what? I've seen places where that works, and I've seen 'em where it hasn't. In a period of time where I wandered aimlessly from forum to forum with no particular goal in sight, I saw totalitarian dictator mods, mods that don't do anything, mods that do all the wrong things but are friendly and mods that do all the right things but are mean. But this place is the one I'm happy to come to on the internet. The mods are oftentimes more like friends than anything else, but when it's time to get down to buisness and settle a problem to make this place more fun and less spammy, they do so. I appreciate that they bothered to tell us the policy change, and I appreciate that they allow debate on it. So the very fact that they have done such a good job in the past makes me pretty much borderline blindly stick by what they say. Because from what I've heard about the past and the very little I've seen of it, things will turn out for the better in the end. I was not around for the "golden age" of APForums that is being discussed, but even in the very short amount of time I've been around (maybe last fall?) I've seen a bit of a decline, and I'm sad to see it. Even if you think things aren't bad now, you could always take this as a pre-emptory measure - if things move gradually and gradually closer to chaos (damn you entropy!), then maybe not soon, but eventually this could become spam city like the ytmnd forums.
That said, I really see no reason to complain because I always thought we were just plain lucky in a One Piece forum, a forum about this one thing, to have subforums like Media and General Discussion that are not about what the forum is about at all when you could just as easily go to this forum for One Piece and some other forum for everything else. It's common, yes, but that doesn't make it any less good.
And to Buuhan: I'd personally rather have order and no Picture Battle (which I quite enjoyed) or other such games than let certain topics be loopholes letting in spamfests. Besides, I know a lot of people (myself included) find crazy theories and just plain discussing the manga to be fun. The mods aren't trying to kill fun, they're just trying to kill spam as efficiently as possible, which is sometimes fun. At times it may seem like killing flies with a shotgun (not saying it has yet, just covering my bases for the future), but the mods are human too and you just have to hope that the person holding that shotgun knows what a fly looks like.
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It's good to know that AP is starting to change up alittle bit and be more strict. I was noticing that things were getting alittle out of hand, it's nice that you guys were noticing too. Change is good and I'm glad this forum is gonna start changing alot of things. ^^
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AP was good back when I first joined…then it started dying down in activity and it was kinda getting out of hand. I miss how AP use to be back when I joined.
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actually, AP has far more activity now than back when you joined buuhan >_>
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Sure the hell don't seem like it. It was insanely fun back when I joined, I remember. Now theres not much that really goes on besides chapters a week.
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pity…you don't have to stay around if you don't want to o.o
By the way, if you're bored you should check out that neat thread about the new Super Smash Brothers Brawl.
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As a rank nublet, I'm interested to see what the forum will become. Every forum has its own tone and its own customs, and it's nice to see concern over what kind of a place you want to shape. Anybody trying to bring a bit more respectfulness to the internet is appreciated. As to the particular thread closings, I don't feel qualified to comment, as I'm really too new to be considered a community member– I'm just visiting your house. I'm a mod at a forum which is extremely loose, created as a spinoff from/reaction to a forum where the administration was perceived as rather dictatorial-- a split which has created a number of unfortunate repercussions. It's dangerous. But yes, re: lowering contempt-- I've never yet been to a place that couldn't use such a policy.
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Well…I've never played a super smash brothers before. I don't even own any nintendo device besides a GBA.
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you know the spam that bugs me; spam from newbies who haven't watched but a small handful of episodes and are making threads to answer questions that would be answered if they just watch past the Arlong arc. Stuff like "does Nami ever join the strawhats again?"
I haven't been reading the manga, so obviosly I don't know much about Ennies Lobby. I'm not going to make a new thread to ask stupid questions like "did franky join?" Not when I can get off my ass and read the manga.
I think if people want to join a OP board, they need to know something about OP.
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captain usopp, I see what you're saying. But also…well..we are a board for all one piece fans, so new people are going to ask questions. The thing is...questions like that don't warrant a thread. Hell, all you have to do is go to wikipedia if you're too impaitent to read or watch. Threads like that are not threads I would want to keep open.
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Would it be possible to add some kind of warning when people decide to start a new thread? For instance have something that says about checking sites like wikipedia or to use the search function when they click on the 'new thread' button.
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you know the spam that bugs me; spam from newbies who haven't watched but a small handful of episodes and are making threads to answer questions that would be answered if they just watch past the Arlong arc. Stuff like "does Nami ever join the strawhats again?"
I haven't been reading the manga, so obviosly I don't know much about Ennies Lobby. I'm not going to make a new thread to ask stupid questions like "did franky join?" Not when I can get off my ass and read the manga.
I think if people want to join a OP board, they need to know something about OP.
Actually, we have a thread for them to ask, just I (and I guess others) forgot the existance of that thread. Next time I'll make sure to direct them there.
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Actually, we have a thread for them to ask, just I (and I guess others) forgot the existance of that thread. Next time I'll make sure to direct them there.
woot! nice, i completely forgot about it too. directing people to this thread should "clean" the op board.
and i think that making a sticky thread in the introduction forum with a title like "TO READ AT ALL COST, YOUR LIFE IS ON THE LINE!!1!" in which the main rules are explained (especially the ones about making new threads) would be fine.
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And you said you can't write good:ninja:
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Short sentence is okay? :ninja:
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looks at ocean nicely pointing out one thread, and creating another. Not insulting, gets right on top of things, improves board for us
ocean, i swear your my favorite mod I notice a good worker when I see one.
pats on back
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AP was good back when I first joined…then it started dying down in activity and it was kinda getting out of hand. I miss how AP use to be back when I joined.
I've been in a lot of forums and I've been [permanetly] banned from all but 1 (JPOPMusic and how I managed that there of all places don't ask me). In all of my journeys I've noticed something strikingly similar in all BBS's: the inevitable "Man it used to be so good back in the day."
I firmly assert that this statement is bullshit.
Nothing about this forum is different from the day it was conceived except that it is now highly streamlined, works without glitching/violating XXXXX issue and has a helluva lot more posters.
The most probable scenario is, you've run the gamut of typical OP-related talking points and now there's not much left. I spend VERY little time in the manga section these days because the same topics keep popping up. "Who is Luffy's Grandpa?", "What OP really is!", "XXX will fight XXX", "Who will gather at the big pirate meeting?", "Who will join?", and so on. If you've been here longer than a year, you've either debated or read through those topics or topics like them to death. Sure, every once in a while a little nugget of joy comes along but as far as OP goes, we've really hit all the biggest topics…several times.
Another thing to keep in mind is that we're not in a completely new environment. When I first came to the board we were just arriving at W7 and at that point, what WASN'T there to discuss??!! These days we're finishing up this gimungous arc and we all know the villains, by this point what many of them are capable of and as far as speculation for the future goes, it's as if we decided to discuss where they'd be by now after they fell from the sky.
Long story short, there isn't as much to talk about since we're watching this arc slowly but surely come to a close. In maybe half a year we'll all be talking about XXXXXX or YYYYYYY but for now the manga is in fight mode where each week we can be wowed by battle, but can't really tak about much else.
So what's a board (or should I say bored) member to do? Try threads you hate. A guidance counselor once told me that each year you should take a course you hate, cause you just never know.
I'm vehemently opposed to reading other manga because its such a time-muncher but I managed to find some neat series through the anime and manga thread.
The AP Q&A thread is a great idea and that's why I tried to put in some unique/discussion-inspiring questions to get people talking or giving one-word answers.
Media is incredible and where I spend most of my time now because of all the television drama discussion. TV dramas not your style? You might be surprised. Some of the stuff on TV these days easily rivals something like OP much to my surprise and pleasure.
How about cooking? We haven't even touched that. Reading? Well yeah we had a 'Favorite Book' thread but that ended up too similar to 'What are you listening too?'.
Honestly? Many of the threads that seem to have been closed are nothing you can't easily find elsewhere. Yes, I'll admit it may be cool doing that stuff with your friends from AP but...is it really promoting thought? This CERTAINLY doesn't apply to all my posts (seriously) but when I make a post, I often try to think if someone else would want to read what I've posted. And I don't just mean as the newest post, I mean when someone finds the thread 3 weeks later.
Of course all of this only applies to those who really can't find any other way to spend their time. What's the best advice if you get bored with the board?
Do something.
Anything. Paint a picture, design something, write a story, make a OP Pirate Crew Profile (Hey, good idea!), build something, help around the house, read a book you heard about in a thread here, check out another forum, make an album, volunteer or anything that will take you away from the board. When you come back there will be a ton of crap for you to catch up on.
I don't see how anything that's the creation of thousands of minds working together could be boring. Repetative to the point I don't want to read it? Yeah maybe, but to the individual who just joined 5 minutes ago it is overwhelming.
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See that is all well and good Omae but the guy you were aiming that at quite earlier today…:laugh:
Still, you speak the truth and I agree with what you said.
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See that is all well and good Omae but the guy you were aiming that at quite earlier today…
Actually, I'm not aiming it at anyone in particular, I saw a goodbye message of his earlier. That's pretty much for anyone who reads it to digest because that general attitude seems to be in abundance, and not just at this board.