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Saturday, August 7, 2004
Theme?
I'm thinking of changing the theme here on myOtaku again. What do you think my new theme should be? Perhaps someone will suggest something cool that I hadn't thought of.
Anyway, for those of you who regularly visit OB...you will know that OtakuBoards has recently undergone some changes in The Arena, which is our creative writing and roleplaying area.
This is kind of one step forward, but there are many more to make. I'm going to try and take the time over the coming weeks to finalize a number of other things for the boards, which should tighten the place up a bit.
I've mentioned some of these, but one of them that I hadn't mentioned is a complete ratings system for RPGs. This is something I had been working on, but Shy recently sent me a PM, with a complete set of ratings and explanations. So, save for a bit of shuffling and editing, it looks good to go.
I'm really pleased that the staff have taken initiatve on that issue. But also, having a set ratings system will hopefully make it easier for members to decide which RPGs are for them.
Part of the problem with RPGs is that people throw in their own ratings, which may or may not necessarily be relevant. Sometimes people rate their RPG as "mature" or "adult" -- perhaps just to buffer themselves -- but they never end up including material that could be considered even remotely adult.
So the new system goes into some level of detail, in an effort to help people decide what ratings to use. Initially, I think it will be a difficult transition (and it'll mean that older threads will have to be edited), but after the initial adjustment period, it should be worthwhile.
I've also been thinking about Otaku Lounge.
Recently, Charles hired Panda to look over that forum. And she's been doing a good job.
The problem is that there seem to be two schools of thought on how OL should be handled.
One side feels that the forum is a complete pit of junk and that it should be moderated in a tough way, in order to discourage spammy topics and encourage more intelligent discussion.
The other side feels that, while we should maintain some kind of moderation in OL, we shouldn't be too strict in there -- it is, afterall, an off-topic forum. So as long as people are following the site's basic rules (as in, non-forum-specific rules), most stuff should be acceptable (from the sillier Lyrics Game style threads, to the more serious discussions).
As for me, I've pretty much been content to allow Panda and Lore (Sara) to handle Otaku Lounge in their own way. Obviously, we have site rules, which should be applied there. But anything beyond that comes down to their own discretion.
To some extent, I haven't really understood the criticisms of OL. Some people have described it in a pretty nasty way. But really, if you go and read the first page of topics there now, you'll find that the majority are pretty reasonable. I get the feeling that some people are kind of standing up on a high horse and bashing the forum, simply because it doesn't tend to foster the kind of in-depth stuff that other forums do.
Of course, I can understand that to some degree -- I rarely post in OL myself, simply because very little in there interests me personally. But the cool thing about OtakuBoards is that, if I'm not enjoying OL, I simply don't have to visit it. Why complain about it if I never go there?
Having said that, I obviously have a responsibility to the people who do post there. Those who are regulars in the forum seem to enjoy it, but it's clear that OL is not quite the same as most of the other forums on OB.
So what's the solution?
I have attempted to hire strict Moderators in the past, who would crack down on the place. But what usually happens is that, instead of Lyrics Game threads, we start to get a ton of "controversial" threads that lead to in-depth (albeit fiery) debates.
The problem is that nobody can seem to find a middle ground. I've seen plenty of discussions that are somewhat silly...but that still feature some level of intelligence and back-and-forth discussion.
Unfortunately, it can be difficult to strike that balance.
In any case, I visited OL today and cleared out some of the less desirable stuff.
And in the near future, I'm going to be reorganizing the staff in that part of OtakuBoards. This won't necessarily be done simply to "be more strict", but it will ensure that there is a constant Moderator presence in there. And I think that is needed more than anything else.
Edit: I finally took a photo of the cardboard Uma that is sitting in my house. Unfortunately, the photo came out really badly and my camera is out of power (again), so I'm unable to take another.
But I thought I'd put it up anyway.
There she is. I'll try to take a clearer shot, if you like, to show the bottom of the thing as well.
Her head nearly reaches the ceiling and I haven't yet found a place to put her.
Oh well. It's kind of fun to have her sitting out, to see people's reactions when they walk into the house. lol
Numerous people have walked in and first thought that there was a woman standing there with a sword. They've had to do a double take. It's fun. ~_^
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