What Can be Done to Make General Anime Better

[EarthCurrent]

I created this thread to allow users of this forum to share ideas they have that might lend themselves toward helping to make General Anime a more helpful and enjoyable place to visit here at the org.

If we are lucky, we'll get some intellegent ideas and discussion about what is and isn't wanted from this forum.

If we're not lucky, forum users won't contribute anything. Of course, if this happens, it seems doubtless to me that many of the mods will take it as a signal that General Anime is a silly place that isn't worth bothering with saving.

But, you might be asking yourself, does General Anime need to be saved?
Personally, I think it does. As it stands, the org's anime forum isn't anything special. There are dozens of better anime-themed forums out there, and though some might disagree, I don't feel the org gets much in return from General Anime. Heck, OT contributed more to the org, I feel than General Anime does. In recent months, General Anime has been inundated with countlessly repetative themes of Who is Tougher / Sexier / Eviler / etc. And Fanbois and gurls seem unable to write about anything other than their short list of 2 or 3 favorite Cartoon Network titles that they love to death.

What I'd Like to see (my short list):
What I'd like to see from General Anime is more outright and lengthy reviews of domestic DVD releases, or reviews for entire series. People are always making requests for animes that fit a specific emotion or feeling, and longer reviews would be especially helpful if these reviews went over animation style and themes present.

I'd also like people to start discussing anime titles other than YYH, IY, Kenshin, and other CN fodder. There's more to anime than what is shown on American TV, and it is helpful if people start hearing about new things and broaden their horizons a bit

This is not an invitation to flame. This is an invitation for intellegent discussion. Give me your opinions on what you like and don't like about General Anime.

[TheDarknessFlame]

I think that the "Who likes Trigun!" and "DBZ IS THE GREATEST" threads should be stopped. The same threads that get done over and over again are boring and should be removed by the mods. I agree that there should be more dvd reviews and wider selection of anime put into these threads.

[Flint the Dwarf]

What I'd Like to see (my short list):
What I'd like to see from General Anime is more outright and lengthy reviews of domestic DVD releases, or reviews for entire series. People are always making requests for animes that fit a specific emotion or feeling, and longer reviews would be especially helpful if these reviews went over animation style and themes present.

I'd also like people to start discussing anime titles other than YYH, IY, Kenshin, and other CN fodder. There's more to anime than what is shown on American TV

I second this. I was turned off to GA rather quickly, but if topics such as the ones you describe popped up, I'm sure I would visit much more often. Most topics here I find I can't contribute to because I haven't seen a lot of anime and so I'm basically left out. However, I would like to see reviews and intelligent discussion of anime (such as the few Eva threads that have gone right).

I think people should honestly make an effort in preventing this forum from turning into another OT (in the eyes of those with the power). Think about your topics before you post, avoid flaming at all costs, and try to bring something new to the table if at all possible.

[angelx03]

In my opinion, I like General Anime when there's threads that talks about new anime series and some underrated ones. Even though I like some of the mainstream series like the ones EC mentioned, it gets pretty tiresome where all they talk about is those series only. I try to make threads in the General Anime which discusses about newer series since it gives a decent amount of variety in the forum. Oh yeah, the Anime Trivia and Weird Screencaps is what makes it more interesting as well.

What I don't like about the forum is where a bunch of fans of ONE anime series only talk about that series only, and when they say it the "best" anime series ever. In my opinion, that shows ignorence since they're not exposed to enough anime. That also shows how close-minded that person is and how he or she make bad conclusions about the series or movies without sampling enough titles.

[CaTaClYsM]

YES. DVD REVIEWS ARE NEEDED! Not just "OMGROFLWTF THIS ANIME IS THE BEST!" but info about how well it was encoded, if it's interlaced or progrssive the image quality and so forth.
But that still wont save this forum. If it's a slow year for anime then this forums is going to go the way of the OT forums and get filled with spam.

[Zarxrax]

Yep, basically like everyone else has said, the pointless posts need to be done away with.
While I'm not questioning the abilities of the mods or phade, I think the only way for this to happen is through more rules and better enforcing of the current rules.

One thing that I have seen on the forums over at doom9.org that I like is a system wherein users can be "striked". I think you get 3 strikes, and you are banned forever.

Apart from general rules, I think one of the biggest problems before us is what exactly should be allowed on this thread and what shouldn't. While some stuff is obviously completely worthless, there are plenty of things that could walk the line. While posts like "who likes dbz!!!" are obvious garbage, what if someone made a post "who likes <insert random obscure anime title you've never heard of here>" then writes a paragraph about why this anime is really great. A thread like this could potentially get people to watch an anime they've never heard of, and go on to make an amv from it. But at what point does that thread get seperated from the likes of "who likes dbz!!!"? Threads such as weird screencaps might be seen as worthless by some, though this thread has given me a few ideas for anime to use in an upcoming video.

All in all I'd say it's going to be a tough battle, and will require some organization and diligence from the people in charge, but also a lot of cooperation and patience from those of us that simply post.

[Lyrs]

You guys said pretty much everything I was thinking.

[Trident]

Hmm... it may be a good idea if some recurring threads are stickied (y'know--"What is FLCL about" and "What does otaku/OAV/seiyuu/insert-word-here mean?" threads). Then people could just add to them if they think they can add something new, thus leaving the rest of the place open for intelligent discussions of lesser-known anime.

Though if more threads are stickied, the mods may want to prune those occasionally to make sure that things don't go too off-topic.

[Arigatomina]

I'd also like people to start discussing anime titles other than YYH, IY, Kenshin, and other CN fodder. There's more to anime than what is shown on American TV, and it is helpful if people start hearing about new things and broaden their horizons a bit

Aside from myself, I know of 6 steady posters who mention YYH, that's it - out of thousands of people who pass by these forums, the number of ones starting threads or mentioning this anime more than once or twice is no more than 6. I've seen more posts about Love Hina than I've ever seen about YYH. And how about Ronin Warriors? That was aired on CN, but never mentioned in the 6 or so months I've been here. I'd hardly say there's a need to boycott every anime that has been shown in the US.

Besides, what happens when people *do* post about unknown anime? The last 2 times (in 6 months) that someone mentioned Prince of Tennis only two people replied - including myself. The last 'unknown anime' thread made it to two pages before people decided to talk about shows they've seen instead of reading about things they had no interest in.

If the GA is supposed to help people making amvs, then you don't want to only focus on unknown anime. Amvs using rare anime tend to get very few downloads, very few creators have reason to make them knowing no one will watch, so talking about them (when others ignore the threads in favor of something they know/care about) isn't going to help anyone. Now, if you want to clear out every thread on popular anime (the ones aired in the US), you can. You can have a new thread for each unknown anime, and see how well it makes people aware of what they're missing - the people looking over those threads will only reply to ones they know about or have heard about. Maybe a creator or two who doesn't care if no one watches his vid will glance over for ideas, but only if he's already heard of the title.

I know, this is about what we want to see in the GA section, but that should include what we *don't* want to see (since you did list what you don't want to see people talking about) so I'd say it's relevant for me to say I don't want to see a bunch of threads that no one cares to even click on because they don't know or care to know about the anime discussed inside them.

I like anime, and I'd say there are 50 or so anime I'd be happy to talk about. But there are thousands I could care less about. I'm sure this holds true for other people, especially the ones who don't hate an anime just because other people like it. I know a lot of members think if an anime is known it's automatically bad and that only the rare unwatched anime can possibly be good. But you know...if you take that unknown anime and make it popular by sharing it, then you'll have to hate it for being popular, right? What would we have to talk about if you make the unknown anime popular after banning any discussion of popular anime?

[bazanime]

Excellent point Arigatomyna. This was one of the reasons I started the "where do you get yours?" thread and maybe I did not question it right.

You see, I for one do not get to see these "rare" anime, just simply because we dont get many, if any. The only titles that dont require traveling far and wide are those mainstream titles that get chunrned out on cable tv and then onto DVD months later.
When I came here, i was astonished to see the diverseness of anime being discussed and that did give me an insight into what to look out for.

I agree that discussions should be more "intelligent" and focused. One main thing, is to exsponge the tradition of flamming, just for the fun of it.

I say do your part, mod, start some threads.....introduce us to these other anime and I'm sure the members will be happy to contribute. Lead and we shall follow.

Good job, for bringing this up, but I do not think an Anime Music Video forum is complete without an Anime forum.