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-   -   Forum Diversification (https://forums.electricmole.net/showthread.php?t=886)

Glathannus 2008.10.28 09:00 PM

There isn't much debate or disagreement on whether or not we should start more life/pastime boards. My question is, should we be more organized about other artists, and if so, do we want to be cautious about the fact that many of these artists don't have this kind of coverage anywhere else yet? You can find videogame/TV/etc subforums all over the web, and even dedicated communities for those topics. If we start organizing our related/unrelated artist subforums so that they're the only rich discussion resource for those specific artists within the entire internet, I'm concerned that if we don't have rites of initiation - we will end up with a saladbowl EMF, which to me would be an immigration nightmare.

If we shrug off the whole "Let's organize our Related Artists" idea, then we miss out on site rank, bigtime, but those topics are going to push us closer to the front of the Google "Shiina Ringo" results than any amount of life/pastime subforums we could start up (which I'm not saying we shouldn't still start up anyway).

There's more to life than site rank, and I'm not hellbent on it. I'm all for hiding a bunch of Related Artist subforums if that's what's better for this community, so two-way constructive criticism, and more specifically these kind of Fate Of The Community discussions, are very important.

Osiris12345 2008.10.28 09:19 PM

Meh. I don't really see this as necessary. I enjoy EMF just the way it is.

ShinjiPG 2008.10.29 03:07 AM

I remember how I found EMF.
The "I Won't Last a Day Without You" collab with Hikaru Utada and her participation in the Casshern OST made me aware of Shiina Ringo. Then came Kono Yo Kagiri single and HF, and that's where I got hooked on her.
Trying to find more info about her discography and lyrics, I found both shiinaringo.se and frecklegirl's Nostalgic Lavender. Both of them mentioned EMF as a great and active community about Ringo and that it was easier to catch up with news there than on any other site. I started lurking then eventually joined.

Which means... Google never was part of it. I actually found Jonny's and frecklegirl's sites through wikipedia =P
And unless the forum would change it's name to Ringo's Mole Forum or Electric Ringo Forum, no new fan would guess that this was a Ringo/TJ community (I may be wrong :x).
So I guess "word of mouth" works more than trying to search for a Ringo forum, in this case. And that may be why there aren't many new members, because that word of mouth has become even more obscure (Ringo Catalogue and sr.se being dead...).

If EMF was, however, one of the top results for a "Shiina Ringo" Google search, it could make a difference. That and I think getting the layout more "obvious". We are already familiar with the different boards, but I wonder if new members don't get a bit lost the first time they enter.
Reading from top to bottom, as is natural for most members here (lol), the first time we read the words "Shiina Ringo" or "Tokyo Jihen" is after the Community Center sub-forum, and that's already a lot of screen space. I think it wouldn't hurt merging the two Boards that constitute it.
Something like this:

[Community Center]
- Site Announcemments/Feedback/Suggestions/Tutorials

[Shiina Ringo & Tokyo Jihen]
- News
- General (News, speculation, memorabilia, favorite songs, etc.)
- Product Reviews & Information
- Images

[Related Artists]
- News
- General
- Product Reviews & Information

[Off-Topic]
- General
- Music
- Videogames
- Movies
...etc

Just an idea D:

Inaudible-Whisper 2008.10.29 04:36 AM

Shinji's set-up looks good. I'm not really for locking people out of the off-topics -- especially until they've garnered 50 Shiina-specific posts. If it's a Shiina n00b, or even a Shiina veteran, there's only so much you can say about Shiina, especially in a drought like this, before you have to go to the off-topic if you want to continue posting else you'll end up as a lurker, irregularly checking back for news. Once they've posted about their favourite album, how much they hate/like Variety and maybe commented on a live show or two they'll be left either digging around looking for somewhere to post, or they'll just give up and forget the place exists. They need that off-topic sanctuary to make the place a home. Sure, some people are happy spending 90% of their time here just talking about Shiina but I do think locking newbs out of off-topic will probably scare more people off than it will protect us from waves of I-don't-care-about-Shiina posters.

Maybe have it so that nobody can post in the off-topic at all, or even the whole forum until they've introduced themselves.

Glathannus 2008.10.29 05:17 AM

There isn't much wrong with Shinji's layout, except I don't feel entirely comfortable merging Tutorials into another board. Doesn't mean it has to stay under Community Center, but... nobody ever really set in stone that the subforum had to be about "how you use this community". It's more general purpose, so it could be Community related and it could be Off-Topic.

Also, I'm not against having just one Products subforum for Related Artists, if we stick to the most absolutely closely-related artists. We rule out anyone Shiina Ringo was a guest for, and anyone who was a guest for Shiina Ringo, and stick with only the solo-careers of Tokyo Jihen members, or any alternate band (like Appa or Petrolz) where a Tokyo Jihen member is a central figure (which would barely rule out PE'Z because HZM is more like their composing/performing lieutenant than their captain).

Otherwise we set up one Product board per loosely-related artist, ontop of having Micky/HZETTM/Appa/Petrolz all thrown together into one small board. Once you start including discographies for like SOIL&"PIMP"SESSIONS (probably about as big as all the closely-related artists put together), and PE'Z (at least twice as big), and Asai Kenichi (absolutely huge), having just one Product board for Related Artists will turn into an epic mess.

And let's not even get into all the generic JPop that Kameda produces (not composes). As a bit of a stretch, maybe SPITZ (because he produced for them and Shiina Ringo covered them), and everything else with Kameda is totally off-limits (unless he's doing some central composing/performing that I don't know about). If SPITZ were allowed, they would have to get their own Products board, just like PE'Z would need.

ShinjiPG 2008.10.29 05:47 AM

Maybe include sub-boards inside the "Products" board for each band? That way, the main page wouldn't be so huge.
It would still make a huuuuuuuuuuuge forum, which EMF isn't really, atm, so it might sound "unfamiliar" to old members but we musn't be afraid of changes!
However, I wonder how many new members that would bring. Are there really (m)any Asai Kenichi fans outside of Japan?

Tokyo Jihad 2008.10.29 05:59 AM

I still think Shinji's OT is too fragmented. I'm not sure we'd have enough unique threads and posters.

cjhobbies00 2008.10.29 06:06 AM

Love that you guys are getting into the debate

Just want to point out one small thing

My desire was never to attract MORE members, my goal was only to furthur integrate the fringe members that we do have. To have the forums be something more than Shiina to those people.

I'm not really interested in attracting solely Gamers or sports fans (I know how some of them can be...)

ShinjiPG 2008.10.29 06:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tokyo Jihad (Post 40897)
I still think Shinji's OT is too fragmented. I'm not sure we'd have enough unique threads and posters.

It's just 2 new boards: Movies and Videogames. I think those are common subjects among most members and that usually spark a lot of talk. Movies would include TV Shows as well.
But meh, I can't be sure if it would have the necessary activity to justify their creation, with or without new members.
Etc means something else :x

Inaudible-Whisper 2008.10.29 06:21 AM

What about an 'Entertainment board' (Movies, TV Shows, Video Games) and an 'Anything Goes' board for the rest of the off-topic stuff.


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