What makes a good forum?YOUR opinion required! (take 2)

I know it is shallow of me, but the bugs on Fakku have made me not show up on several occasions because they are annoying, and I can tell by the recent drop in activity that just happens to correlate to the errors, I'm not the only one who has felt that way.

What makes a good forum is a forum that is moderated when it needs to be. Serious Discussion definitely needs it. If Gambler or another mod can handle it then that is fine. I too agree that we don't really need more moderators on Fakku in general, but if Serious Discussion continues down this path then Jacob should seriously consider it. As for what else makes a good forum, I think Serious Discussion used to have it. There is just so many topics in here that belong in Random or even IB, and a handful of members that derail topics with no obvious repercussions.

That was pretty funny. How can you spend any time on the internet and not know what fapping is.

I mean, my god, the man is posting in a forum on an h-manga site.

You are pertaining to just a single user, am I right? It is no big deal. He is still trying to learn on this wonderful site.



But some trolls get out of hand.

I don't agree that more strict moderation make a better forum; look at sakurahana, would you say it's a free open community which is very accepting of new ideas?

Good users and a willingness to consider new ideas to me is one of the key elements of a good forum, does fakku have that? for the most part, yes.

I don't know, to me that's like part of this growing fad about censorship. A lot of people are treating the growing anti-censorship movement as also a anti-rule movement. Like "You can't delete my post! That's censorship!" Granted I don't think Fakku is like that yet, but it certainly could start to go down that road. There is nothing wrong with a stricter presence of moderation in Serious Discussion. It demands it really. It is designed to be one of the strictest forums in what kind of topic should be posted, the general trend of how posts should be written, and how people should treat the topics (in terms of respect, not how to think.) There is nothing wrong with that, and there is nothing wrong with there being someone to help enforce that.

And i thought at the beginning that this was about all forums ^^" sorry

You post lacks any real sense.

The most important thing that makes a good forum is the staff. I have seen forums flourish because of a new moderator or admin and then go to hell when they leave. The staff uphold the rules fairly and help new members too.

And no bugs is definitely helpful. Can't tell you how much I want e-mail notification to work again since there is not thread subscription panel here.

I think i just heard something...? Nope doesnt seem so :/

For Fakku, I think what's lacking is a clear, definite sense of what the rules really entail anymore. Insults/harassment is pretty common in IB, and even arises from time to time in heated SD topics. Even though multiple accounts aren't supposed to be allowed, users still got past it. If the staff's thoughts on acceptable behavior has changed since the rules were written, it'd help users out if the rules were updated to reflect that.

I think it'd be a good idea to change Meet & Greet to allow farewell threads as well. A lot of the farewells that were posted in IB generated unwarranted responses that were rude, and I feel like that was only because it was posted in IB.

On getting a specific moderator for SD, I think the fault lies more in the users themselves. A lot of OPs fail to include a cohesive discussion prompt. They just post a topic and include their own opinion, without giving any sense of direction for the thread. So even though the topic might have potential for interesting conversation, the OP doesn't provide that avenue.

[size=10]Okay, stepping off my soap-box now, lol.[/h]

Serious Discussion needs a bit more modding for sure. Too many topics turn up that are far below serious. "Most Painful Thing You Have EVER been through.." belongs more in Random than SD. People just list off their painful things and there is no actual discussion going on. What SD needs, is a clearer definition of serious. Apparently, "intelligent answers to intelligent questions" is not good enough. People these days don't seem to understand the definition of intelligent.

To be honest, when I read topics, there are certain users posts that I never read because I know that nothing they say is in any way serious. Those usually turns out to be people who don't know how to type in a readable format. Yes, everyone types differently, but if you're going to be giving an answer to a serious question, it shouldn't be too much to ask for them to type coherently enough that my eyes don't bleed when I read it. It's not that hard to make proper paragraphs, proper punctuation and proper capitalization. It's very basic.

Like chiwa said, another big problem I see is that the OPs usually have terrible opening posts. They offer absolutely nothing to start a discussion.

I don't see the forum needing stricter modding. Most users here are ok. But there are a handful of people who are absolute idiots. Although they spend most, if not all, their time in IB, it's irritating to see them pop out of their little hidey-holes to go to another section and start insulting. It can't even be qualified as trolling. It's just idiocy. -Reping them isn't going to work, because all it does is make them feel like they're actually trolling and continue on doing what they do.

IB used to be at least some-what amusing. Some topics were actually funny. But now, it's just a steaming pile of shit. The threads that pop up are worse than god-awful.

The rest of the forums are actually not too bad. It's just IB and SD that have problems.

In an ideal world, trolls would respect the limits of IB/Random and act like normal people on the other forum boards, but that is just an impossible dream.

I agree with Tsurayu in so much as bugs are definitely taking their toll (the lack of email notifications must be having a massive effect), and I agree with lollercookiez in so much as that 'serious discussion' needs to be more clearly defined, although tighter moderation is part of that. I think the most frustrating thing is that bad posters are responding in droves to bad threads, where they would once have been left to die. Of course there's nothing that can fairly be done against that, but it does make a mockery of the tagline.

IB has been pretty bad, but the last few days have at least seen some content. The atmosphere is perpetual, and the modding is as reasonable as you could expect, so there's nothing fundamentally wrong. The Special Interest forums are all perfect, although I quite like that guy's idea of subject-specific themes. I don't think it'd work in every forum, but somewhere like Video Games or VN discussion you could have a sticky about a great but little-played game/franchise, with discussion and content; oldfags would reminisce, newfags would learn something, it could draw people in, and ultimately you'd have some wholesome forum activity.

Serious Discussion could actually be an interesting testing ground: someone takes a major current affairs story each week with an important theme (racism, religion etc.), and asks an overarching question (say 'can the Pope really restore confidence in the Catholic Church after ____?); queue a lengthy sticky. Could be a mod posting it each time, or they could sticky a particularly good topic. So much of SD is either rehashed or shock stories that a bit of actual discussion on a relevant backdrop would be refreshing, plus you'd get new content like clockwork. What I'm seeing at the moment is topics being replied to past ten pages, keeping the same shit on the front page for weeks with no actual discussion taking place.

Tsurayu, Chiwa, lollercookiez, and doswillrule all have valid points that are worth discussing.

I think one of the most scary things right now is that the main IB section is turning into a 4chan cesspool, of which I don't want to happen. Whether that needs more or less moderating, I leave it in your hands, Waar.

Part of it, as the above users and I used to champion it, has to do with greater staff interaction/activity on the forums and as well as an increased amount of moderation. Ever since Hibia left, SD has kinda fallen to the wayside. I understand that FAKKU! doesn't want more moderation or the like, but looking at the reality on the forums, it suggests that the administrative staff either need more manpower or more time and effort spent in moderating(cleaning as well)/participating in the forums and holding events and updating the site/forums. (re: the new coding bugs) In a way, it seems like the new users are taking advantage of the lax moderating and doing what they want. Repeat threads, threads in wrong sections, piss-poor threads, and the like have grown like weeds around here. Perhaps it has to do with F!'s new coding issues, but I think it says something about how F! is run. Forum format is fine in my opinion, but the Special Interests subforum needs some attention and loving.

Elders (and I say elders because it's too easy to become an Elite now) also need to spend some effort in guiding and showing other users what is respected and what is frowned upon. Even threads in other sections should be set up properly so that it can generate discussion. Most of the newer threads in SD and in other places like General, Anime, Manga Discussion sections are set up so poorly that I don't even bother to respond. Bad threads lead to bad responses lead to poor interaction, a vicious cycle that I don't have a solution for other than to counter bad threads with more good threads.

But the main problem (and one that can't be fixed) as chiwa and lollercookiez pointed out, is in the users. I've seen many new users act like 10 year-olds based on their intelligence shown in their posts, and it's all over the place. Nobody listens to each other either, which is just as equally frustrating. Then again, as technology expands, the trend in usage by age demographics point towards younger and younger kids. Heck, even elementary school kids have cellphones. Other than some sort of moderating and guidance, there's not much we can do about it. The other issue regarding users is the trolling. Trolls run rampant in IB like its a field day. I know F! loves having fun, especially with trolls, but when that fun is generated at the expense of someone else, it ceases to be fun. There's a limit to everything, even trolls. Let's just hope it doesn't get out of hand anytime soon.

I like where harontiar's going with this. Sometimes I leave here with a headache to be honest. And for christ sake its an H website! But because of that I dont think people will particularly care to look at the rules. Unless there stated at sign-up. And I dont think some people know how to act cause they either are depicting what they think society has portrayed the proper "hentai behavior" Like being a total , disrespectful brat/idiot and trying to please society before they even know how to act themselves. (pervertedness aside this is still a hentai website)This. On another note confuses the hell outta of the new users "me being one" I have no clue if your all a bunch of unreal sadistic perverts or just having fun and joking around like a bunch of good buds. This is just my opinion.

Huh?

Aside from the grammatically incorrect written sentences, you've got a couple things wrong. When you sign up, you are automatically linked to a disclaimer page regarding the rules of the site. Two, regardless of the material presented, FAKKU! is a properly run site with standard rules found across most forums. Just because, "Oh, it's a hentai site!" doesn't give the users a license to act like idiots, racists, a-holes, etc. and romp around breaking the rules. As for "proper hentai behavior," I've never heard of that. What you've described as "proper hentai behavior" sounds more like 4chan, 2chan, whateverchan behavior to me.

Unreal sadistic perverts, lol. Not too sure where you get the "unreal" part from, but once you hang around the forums a bit, we tend to be chummy with the other users as we're probably more liberal than conservative.

Listing

-More mods/more active mods

-instead of promoting the site at every con he can attended, maybe Jacob should take to time to actually fix the site
https://www.fakku.net/viewtopic.php?t=31109#735815
(I mean this thread is reaching it's one year mark and has 1 single thing been done yet on that list?)

-More defined rules and guidelines

-More promotional activity events, like motemote or garfest

Flame away

More Longevity's less Mangaka350's.

Removal of forum access from problem users.

Unfortunately, what makes a good forum will vary from person to person.

The forum I'm usually at, for example, absolutely forbids nonsensical posts, and grammar/punctuation nazis prowl like sharks ready to devour anyone daring to text speak. I like that. I find that a good forum.

However, newcomers will always complain. Mods are too strict, so what if I type in l33tspeak as long as I get my idea across, yadayadayada. And as a result, our forums is relatively tiny as posters from more relaxed places are quickly turned off.

What you really have to do is determine what _kind_ of people you want to attract and keep. You want serious discussions members? kick out anyone who makes a stupid/rambling/l33tspeak post. You want a more relaxed attitude where someone who just logged in can post anything without being jumped? Then don't moderate stupid posts.

As of now, I find fakku to be more strongly on the 4chan end of the scale rather than, say, a forum for formal debates. I'm not complaining, just saying that in attracting more immature posters, posters who like a bit of seriousness won't contribute as much.

Anyway, the key to _keeping_ posters (of whatever level of maturity you prefer) is consistency in moderation. No favoritism, even to popular posters ganging up on an annoying n00b. That's going to require an impartial moderating staff, the type of which won't let their emotions dictate how to moderate. They have to be seen moderating (it seems that truly annoying threads are just deleted; I suggest not doing that; instead, a moderator should make a note that everyone can see and close the thread). And, unfortunately, this means that the moderating staff can't get into heated discussions, otherwise if someone loses his temper, it will look like the mod is abusing his power.