Have any of you noticed a decrease in forum activity?

[SeijiSensei]

As I asked off-list back when the most recent round of voting took place, I would really like to see an official announcement of the Awards at the top of the forums next year. I don't think the fact that it isn't run the staff makes it any less deserving of better advertising so that all AS members are aware of the awards process. I certainly think it is at least as important as the proposed new banner competition. All our members can participate in the awards process; the banner contest is obviously only really relevant to people with graphic design talents.

The Choice Awards have been running for seven years now. Surely the time has come to raise it more official status, even if the moderators prefer to leave the management of the process in the hands of the volunteers.

[Sackett]

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

In general terms, we have gone precisely the opposite direction in terms of older shows, keeping our focus on newer content, and gradually allowing older franchises to phase out. (This is why they get even more restricted once retired.) This is partly because the communities for older franchises tend to be very "clique-ish", and they tend to want to play by their own rules which aren't necessarily compatible with our general policy and forum philosophy. They often seem to basically become Social Groups that keep on debating endlessly about the same topics (often shipping-related) and tend to favour creating increasingly inane topic suggestions just to give people "something to do". They are also hard to moderate because they're older sub-forums and aren't visited as often by the moderation team, despite being visited regularly by a core team of regulars. Increasing the emphasis on older series would mean that the amount of sub-forums that need active moderation would only ever increase with time. So, basically, my experience is that trying to manage communities for older series is something that has consistently gone badly on this forum, so it would not be my first choice in terms of an area to "specialize" in.

The other thing is that I've tried splitting out topics into their own threads, and tried to encourage people to create more creative threads. But most of the time people end up with very similar options to what we already have, and people even complain when comprehensive threads get split up into pieces. So it's still open to debate whether loosening the policy will result in more interesting threads, or if it'll just result in more stupid and duplicate threads (which means more things to moderate in areas of the forums that are less visited). And if people do have suggestions for interesting threads for older series, why not just suggest it now as it is? There's no reason why interesting, useful threads couldn't be created now, just because a mod has to approve the idea first. So although I'm not opposed to trying ideas that could increase the variety and uniqueness of threads in sub-forums, I suspect that it'll require much more active moderation to manage the process, and older series isn't necessarily where I'd want to put that effort.

Well, I think the point would be to basically say that retired sub-forums are self moderated. Official mods would only get involved if some behavior violation is reported.

It's a trade-off. Effective moderation to forum activity. I would think that focusing the moderation efforts in the new and recent show forums would make sense. Long standing sub-forum communities are less likely to wither from lack of moderation then the newer forums. If you aren't willing to make the trade off then I guess that's off the table.

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

As far as the other suggestions:
- There are also a number of anime sites that tie forums to reviews, including a few rather well-known ones. Plus, becoming a repository for reviews is sort of like some sort of organized blog aggregator, which has its own dynamics. I'm not really sure what the big differentiator here is, or what need we could serve better than what's out there.

Maybe someone else is doing it, that doesn't mean there isn't space for it here too. We have our own community flavor that I'm sure can fit a niche. There are plenty of anime forums out there, but I find I like the one here much better than anywhere else. There are a larger number of people interested in a different type of anime then what I see heavily discussed at other forums.

I also think the current community at AnimeSuki is well suited to providing reviews. A lot of people would be willing to do it, and I would expect pretty good quality reviews as well. This is an area that plays to our strengths as a community. If we want to expand the product we provide this would seem to be an easier area to do so then others.

I'm not saying it's the only possibility though. I'm just brainstorming right now. I'd be curious as to the ideas other people have.

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

- As far as the choice awards go... basically it would take someone on the staff who has a passion and vision for that, along with the time/ability to do the needed work. I certainly appreciate that the are some very dedicated and passionate people who have helped the project grow over the years, and I hope it continues to grow. But I'm not sure that the current staff have anything really beneficial to contribute at this point regarding the running of the contest itself, and it's probably better if the people who are already passionate about it keep doing it.

Well, thanks to felix the amount of effort in supporting the AnimeSuki Choice Awards is smaller than it used to be. Mainly it involves tinkering with the script to support various nicknames and exclude/include exceptions. This is the main effort still required (other than arguments about whether we ought to keep the Sports category available).

After that it's just running the script to collect data.

The second part could probably be reduced even further if there was some sort of built in voting form instead of people having to format their posts themselves.

It would also help if there was an easier way to collect and find the previous awards. I know I have to go do a search every time I want to link to it in answer to a question in the Suggestion thread. Maybe a sub-forum would help.

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by Sackett

The second part could probably be reduced even further if there was some sort of built in voting form instead of people having to format their posts themselves.

Felix and I talked about that at one point. If the voting site was run as an application on another server, you have to handle authentication against the AnimeSuki user database. Other than switching AS to something like OpenID, it's hard to do cross-site authentication securely. The "online helper" ices and felix built was a clever solution to this problem. It made creating a correctly-formatted ballot much easier and didn't require any communication with Anime Suki's servers.

[serenade_beta]

I'm not sure about the original purpose or that type of stuff, but I decided to stay with AnimeSuki for my anime forum because it is well moderated (cheers to the mods) and organized. It hasn't changed and I still stick with this place.

That said, I personally feel recent anime seasons lack the type of anime to discuss or generally was lacking, so I have not been as active as before. So I end up usually only posting first impression and final thoughts. Like for instance, Manga-ka and Assistant-san. I enjoy it greatly every week, but there just isn't anything to say. Even if I did say something, it'd probably be an unfortunate generic "It was good" type of post.

[Vexx]

I have barely posted at all outside my story thread but I blame my real life schedule and deadlines. I only really got to watch seitokai yakuindomo this season.
Animesuki remains my primary destination for keeping up with japan anime and manga.

[kache]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

Just based on a random sampling of episode threads for current and past popular anime shows, there does seem to be a considerable decline in episode thread activity.

I just checked random mid-point episode threads (i.e. not first episode, not last episode or penultimate episode) for Kill La Kill, Gundam Build Fighters, Ore no Imouto, SAO, Madoka Magica, Nanoha StrikerS, and Code Geass. I did this since episode threads tend to spike at the end (and/or have humble beginnings or spiked beginnings for sequels) so I felt a random mid-point episode would give a pretty good indication of overall activity on series subforums.

Code Geass R2 - A whopping 80 pages
Nanoha StrikerS - Well over 20
Madoka Magica - About 40
SAO - Well over 20
Ore no Imouto - About 20
Gundam Build Fighters - 8
Kill La Kill - 8

So yeah, considering this is in order from oldest to most recent, it does show a bit of a decline. Code Geass does appear to represent a high water mark. It seems like it was a truly special anime in its ability to bring together both old-school mecha fans and modern moe fans.

Madoka Magica may suggest, though, that this decline is probably less about Anime Suki in general then it is about current anime content offerings. In other words, Anime Suki's level of activity is understandably at least somewhat dependent upon what's airing at the moment.


That being said, I do wonder if...

1) A lot of the old school mecha viewers simply moved away from active anime watching (or at least internet discussions thereof).

2) If discussion is just as active today, but simply more fragmented (i.e. less "all in one place"). Dr. Casey's point about wall messages is something I definitely relate to here. Another possibility is that maybe Social Groups have picked up lately.

Not only social, but places like reddit (/r/anime) and myanimelist forums have a HUGE amount of users, and that's without even counting 4chan's /a/.
Now, of course the level of the discussions is (often) lower than the serious analysis I find on animesuki (which is the reason I still lurk here a lot), but the sheer amount of users and content is on a completely another level.

And, as I said many times in the past, MOBILE IS HUGE NOW, and animesuki not having tapatalk support is a VERY big liability...

[DonQuigleone]

I think two factors might reduce the amount of discussion on animesuki, compared to a few years ago:

1. The lack of support for mobile, I spend a lot of my time on my phone now, and posting on animesuki is a pain.

2. The retirement of the reputation system. I found the reputation system gave me a "reason" to write lengthy detailed posts. It felt really good when I'd write a great post, and someone would plus rep it. I get that the reputation system was abused, but it also gave a way for people to know that their post was read and enjoyed by someone else. Not knowing makes the experience feel pointless to me.

I wouldn't bring back the old system, but I would do one of the following:
1. Put in a system for "thanking" posts. I've seen this on boards.ie (another vbulletin forum) and I think that serves the same purpose. Maybe give a list on the User CP (not viewable by others) of all the times you've had a post "thanked", and a number showing the number of thanked posts you have.
2. Bring back the old system, but without negative votes.

Maybe it doesn't seem "pure", but the rush of getting an +rep on one of my posts motivated me to write them, and without that it feels pointless, because I have no idea if anyone likes what I wrote.

Can you see if there's been a decline in forum activity since the old reputation system was removed? Because I know that's played a role in my posting less.

[Flying Dagger]

I personally think AS built upon the momentum many years ago when it acted as a torrent index for anime. I think it used to be the case that people come here for their turrets, and while they are at it join in to the discussion on the forums. Over time it sort of became a nexus where people come together to talk about anime/manga/games/novels, etc...

Yet over time some of that has became more... decentralized.. people aren't allowed to share links to actual anime/manga (which caused people to go elsewhere first and they might choose to "settle" there). The scene also changed from many years ago: fansubs are released sooner than before (no more need to go on a forum to find spoilers to the last cliffhanger), and instead of original content anime we have a lot more LN based franchises which imo are very disorganized on this forum.



@rep system:
I disagree with the existence: people should not feel "rewarded" via rep/thank buttons to contribute to the forums. I mean, if someone has something to say, just say it. The participation in a discussion should be rewarding enough.

[Ledgem]

I admit, I haven't been around enough over the past few months to say whether there's been a decrease in activity or not. I've felt that there has been a decrease in quality discussion over the course of the years that I've been here, but perhaps that's just nostalgia, too. I feel that there isn't much conversation, but rather, that people treat their posts like a blog. People aren't talking to each other or responding to each other. It's an information dump, and few look back once they've dropped off their thoughts.

In the past, I attributed this to the increasingly strict moderation. Disagreements are heavily scrutinized by moderators, and the scope of what is considered "off topic" can be quite narrow. The easiest way to avoid being moderated (and the ensuing bad feeling) is to talk to no one, and simply treat the thread topic as an essay prompt. The likelihood that someone would get themselves into trouble that way is minimal.

I still maintain the idea that harsh moderation impacts conversational activity, but I wonder if the culture of the internet is also shifting. More recently I've been spending some time browsing through the MyAnimeList forums. My complaint that people are just writing thoughts and then abandoning the thread seems to be even worse there. Granted, making a generalization off of two forums is pretty weak, but it was interesting to observe. I also admit that I don't know much about how MyAnimeList is moderated; I've seen complaints written about the moderators with accusations that they're too harsh and/or inconsistent, but the cases seemed to resolve around pretty stupid topics that deserved to be moderated.

So who knows - perhaps the moderation is simply something visible, but not responsible for the shifts that are occurring. And that further assumes that the shifts are something real, and not imagined. The human mind is fairly easy to manipulate, after all. If enough people say that something is bad, people who would have otherwise been neutral or positive come to feel badly about it, too.

Originally Posted by Flying Dagger

@rep system:
I disagree with the existence: people should not feel "rewarded" via rep/thank buttons to contribute to the forums. I mean, if someone has something to say, just say it. The participation in a discussion should be rewarding enough.

DonQuigleone was offering a potential explanation for decreased activity. Regardless of what you think that people should or should not feel, what Don described is something that I felt, too. I used to write massive posts (that I'm sure nobody misses), engaging in discussions that occasionally became heated. While I would have written my posts regardless of reputation, receiving green blocks on those posts encouraged me to continue the discussion. It created the sense that others were following along, agreeing with you and cheering you. It was a source of encouragement, and in essence, recognition of your efforts at providing fruitful discussion.

I don't really know whether absence of the reputation system has done anything to the activity levels, or to the quality of discussion. Anyone who received positive reputation after writing a long and/or passionate post has probably felt its impacts, though.

[DonQuigleone]

I think that when discussing the Reputation system, we should avoid being too idealistic. Yes, in a perfect world people should write for the sake of writing, but most people are not perfect in that way. I and Ledgem both felt motivated by the reputation system, and our contributions weren't any less valuable due to the fact we did it "for a reward". Ideally I'd try to be that pure too, but I can't deny my own behaviour and motivations.

Even if only minority felt the reputation system was of benefit, I would still bring it back. Let's say only a 1/3 liked the system, they would lose a vote to keep it going. But let's flip things around, what if that 1/3 of users posted substantially less (like me) once the system was gone. Would we be willing to lose ~1/3 of the forum activity for the sake of removing the reputation system? Because that's what I think removing the reputation system ultimately did. I've noticed the people I had discussions with the most all post substantially less since the reputation system was removed, and there are a lot less "philosophy" type discussions in the general chat forum.

I think in removing the reputation system we threw the baby out with the bathwater.

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by DonQuigleone

I wouldn't bring back the old system, but I would do one of the following:
1. Put in a system for "thanking" posts. I've seen this on boards.ie (another vbulletin forum) and I think that serves the same purpose. Maybe give a list on the User CP (not viewable by others) of all the times you've had a post "thanked", and a number showing the number of thanked posts you have.

I like this idea.

On the whole, I think that losing the reputation system was probably for the best for Anime Suki (I think that losing the neg rep side freed up discussion a bit more). But Don's idea here would bring back what was perhaps the reputation system's most useful function - A quick and easy means for members to give other members discreet/private encouragement. And such encouragement can fuel more discussion which means more activity, of course.


A couple separate points:

1. I've noticed in recent seasons that Overall Series Rating threads have almost totally died, activity-wise. The one-week gap (between final episode thread and overall series rating thread) might have been beneficial at one time, but in an increasingly fast-paced internet (and world in general), I think it means that people have already mentally checked out and have moved on to other things. Perhaps narrowing the gap between putting up the final episode thread and putting up the Overall Series Rating thread would encourage more activity on the latter. A gap of, say, 36 hours, might be better than a full week.

2. Anime Suki's spoiler policy has almost certainly cost the site some members in recent years. That's a 800 lb elephant in the room that we might as well address. AS' spoiler policy is pretty strict given what the modern anime fandom is like. I have no doubt that this strict policy has meant that some people that otherwise might have stuck around, decided instead to go to other anime forums with less strict spoiler policies. Now, I'm not bringing this up to say that the spoiler policy should change. But we might as well be honest about the very real cost to it. Especially given that we're talking about that cost right now - If forum activity really is down significantly, the spoiler policy is almost certainly part of the reason why.

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

I like this idea.

The comments area in the New York Times uses this system. Only positive votes are allowed.

I have no doubt that this strict policy has meant that some people that otherwise might have stuck around, decided instead to go to other anime forums with less strict spoiler policies.

And some of them, like me, have stayed here because of the spoiler policy.

I'd attribute the overall decline in forum activity to three factors:

• nterest in anime itself has declined;
• there are many more places to discuss anime online; and,
• the usefulness of the torrent index ended with Crunchyroll, et. al.

I came here originally for the torrent listings, then joined the forum. That probably doesn't happen any more. Many (most?) people who watch anime on legal and illegal streaming sites probably have never heard of Anime Suki. (The Hulu audience is more of a puzzle. Who watches shows like Ghost Hound on Hulu? How would you know it exists?)

I'd put the spoiler policy pretty far down the list compared to those factors.

[Mentar]

Originally Posted by DonQuigleone

I think two factors might reduce the amount of discussion on animesuki, compared to a few years ago:

1. The lack of support for mobile, I spend a lot of my time on my phone now, and posting on animesuki is a pain.

2. The retirement of the reputation system. I found the reputation system gave me a "reason" to write lengthy detailed posts. It felt really good when I'd write a great post, and someone would plus rep it. I get that the reputation system was abused, but it also gave a way for people to know that their post was read and enjoyed by someone else. Not knowing makes the experience feel pointless to me.

I wouldn't bring back the old system, but I would do one of the following:
1. Put in a system for "thanking" posts. I've seen this on boards.ie (another vbulletin forum) and I think that serves the same purpose. Maybe give a list on the User CP (not viewable by others) of all the times you've had a post "thanked", and a number showing the number of thanked posts you have.
2. Bring back the old system, but without negative votes.

Maybe it doesn't seem "pure", but the rush of getting an +rep on one of my posts motivated me to write them, and without that it feels pointless, because I have no idea if anyone likes what I wrote.

Can you see if there's been a decline in forum activity since the old reputation system was removed? Because I know that's played a role in my posting less.

Now that would have been a note getting positive reputation from me ... if I could.

Agreed on both counts. I do think that allowing forum members to give positive feedback to an article without having to post "ditto" responses would have a positive impact. Keep the negative votes out and don't "accumulate" them like in the old system, if you feel that this encourages abuse, but getting feedback definitely increases _my_ motivation to contribute.

[Seitsuki]

To me rep is (was) a kind if incentive. Being perfectly subjective, the vast majority of posts here are of questionable value-I liked x, x happened, god x sucked, end post. Moderating (I'll leave my personal feelings on that subject out of this) cuts down on the lowest end of the spectrum. There is however in my opinion little incentive to produce content on the higher end of the spectrum because a) it's likely to just get drowned out by the sea of mediocrity and b) there's no tangible benefit in doing so. I know it can be argued that that's a shallow motive, people do still make thoughtful posts/insightful convos for the sake of it but honestly motivation through incentives is a proven thing and I don't believe it can be dismissed so easily. Tldr I don't think activity is all there is to be worried about, quality matters too.

Assuming this sudden focus shift onto rep isn't OT.

[Hooves]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

I like this idea.

On the whole, I think that losing the reputation system was probably for the best for Anime Suki (I think that losing the neg rep side freed up discussion a bit more). But Don's idea here would bring back what was perhaps the reputation system's most useful function - A quick and easy means for members to give other members discreet/private encouragement. And such encouragement can fuel more discussion which means more activity, of course.

I also like the idea of a positive-only reputation system. I sometimes got positive feedback for my posts which made me glad I made them. Sure that may sound like that makes it the only reason I post, but it was a subtle and nice way to encourage activity in me.

[TinyRedLeaf]

I suspect that this is merely a cyclical thing, and the forum is currently entering a trough period, as one generation of members make their exit while another one enters.

(1)
Why do I think so? Dig way back to the very earliest posts on the forum, and you'll quickly see what I mean. Back in the earliest days of AnimeSuki, conversation — if you could call it that — wasn't what you'd describe as scintillating.

There was a "golden" peak period of sorts, sometime between 2005 and 2008, a time when anime like Death Note were all the rage. Stories that naturally lent themselves to passionate debates about "big issues" like morality and what not.

While I don't have anything to back it up, I believe I'm not the only one who feels that anime as a whole has been in general decline over the past three to four years. We don't get "big topic" anime like Death Note or Ghost in the Shell any more. The industry as a whole, seems to have turned inwards, generating a string of series that tend to rely more heavily on "insider", self-referential humour to keep things moving.

It's not surprising to me, therefore, to see the quality of anime discussion decline over the years. The medium itself is no longer attracting as many of the fans who used to revel in the "deep" discussions that define AnimeSuki.

(2)
And the key words from my last sentence are "used to".

Like Vexx, real-life commitments have greatly reduced the amount of time I have to spend on anime. This, combined with my waning interest in the medium, has reduced my overall motivation to post lengthy topics.

I don't feel that keeping or revamping the reputation system would have made a difference. No one quirk of any particular discussion forum can never make up for (A) changes in my real-life habits; and (B) what I perceive to be a lack of interesting topics about anime to discuss.




And finally, let's not forget that many of the long-time members of the forum, those who used to be very active, are now in their mid- to late 30s and beyond. Most of these members now have many other things on their mind other than anime. You know, boring but vital stuff, like mortgages, children and mid-life crises, to work through.

Quite simply put, they've moved on. It's really up to the next generation of anime enthusiasts in the teens and 20s to pick up the slack. And I think it'll just take a few more years or so before they improve.

[Last Sinner]

Over time, people change. What they like changes somewhat then they find the place they want to chill/unload in. Usually amongst somewhat like-minded people that won't get up in arms if one of their most beloved titles is in the bottom tier of yours. Gradually people won't like what currently airs and will move on while the next lot who love the current material will migrate in and lap it up.

A few people to converse with every now and then and the odd thread of interest is fine for me. But I won't touch a series thread ever again. I really see nothing to gain from it anymore. And I'll wait anywhere between when a series has concluded to a few years to watch it. I feel no need to be utterly obsessed with the moment and what's airing/happening right now.

Nothing lasts forever. You've done alright to be more stable and tolerant than other places.

[DonQuigleone]

@ The decline of Anime.While I agree that there probably has been a decline in Anime over the last 5 years (It doesn't seem to be the "it" thing it used to be), I think it's also important to be a bit cautious before declaring such. For one thing, I remember back in 2006-2007 when I got into the fandom, people back then were saying "Anime is in decline, it ain't what it used to be", whereas in hindsight, those years were arguably a peak, probably the time when Anime was Healthiest before the Financial crash, and the (unrelated) crash in the US DVD market both put a double whammy to Anime finances. Though I think Anime producers just went back to how they were in the 90s, ignoring "crazy westerners" and producing anime for a Japanese audience.


However, I never really took part in Anime discussion, I mostly stuck to General Chat, and I think General chat had a dive in well thought out posts after the removal of the reputation system.

[Artful_Dodger]

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

While I don't have anything to back it up, I believe I'm not the only one who feels that anime as a whole has been in general decline over the past three to four years. We don't get "big topic" anime like Death Note or Ghost in the Shell any more. The industry as a whole, seems to have turned inwards, generating a string of series that tend to rely more heavily on "insider", self-referential humour to keep things moving.

I'd say the past 10+. Imo, the peak of anime was when the movies(i.e. Ninja Scroll) were more popular than the series; and there used to be some really great anime movies around. After this era, most authors went after the bigger potential in getting an audience hooked on a series, and the long, dragged-out series we all know started taking over where we're given mostly fluff episodes with cliffhanger endings. I started becoming increasingly disintrested in anime when most of the big titles were these types of series, and I'm not nearly as immersed in anime as I used to be.

Like Vexx, real-life commitments have greatly reduced the amount of time I have to spend on anime. This, combined with my waning interest in the medium, has reduced my overall motivation to post lengthy topics.
I don't feel that keeping or revamping the reputation system would have made a difference. No one quirk of any particular discussion forum can never make up for (A) changes in my real-life habits; and (B) what I perceive to be a lack of interesting topics about anime to discuss.

How engaged are you in social media?

Originally Posted by Last Sinner

But I won't touch a series thread ever again. I really see nothing to gain from it anymore. And I'll wait anywhere between when a series has concluded to a few years to watch it. I feel no need to be utterly obsessed with the moment and what's airing/happening right now.

lol kudos to you. I've decided to do the very same thing for series like Penny Dreadful and Hannibal(I didn't have the willpower to do it for GoT lol). This is why I love that Netflix series are uploaded in their entirety, so you can binge watch it if you want to. I hate the obvious contrivances of filling an episode up with crap and throwing a cliffhanger at you in the end; I find it very annoying.

This is why certain BBC series have been great these last few years --Luther and Sherlock especially. There are only ~4 episodes per season, yet each episode can be around 1:30 - 2:00 hrs. I think this is so much better than a series like heroes that has over 20 episodes where most of the content is fluff and wasting time. I haven't been that involved with anime series anywhere near to the extent that I used to be, but I think they should try this approach with some of the more mature series if none of them have already.

[TinyRedLeaf]

Originally Posted by DonQuigleone

For one thing, I remember back in 2006-2007 when I got into the fandom, people back then were saying "Anime is in decline, it ain't what it used to be", whereas in hindsight, those years were arguably a peak, probably the time when Anime was Healthiest before the Financial crash.

I'm certainly aware of the dangers of selection bias, which is why I stated outright that I have no figures to back up my opinion.

But I will nonetheless assert that the anime industry as a whole is chasing a shrinking market. It's churning out shows that are still mainly targeted at teens and young adults in their 20s, at a time when the number of babies born in Japan is hitting record lows. A good number of anime's original audience has, in the meantime, grown older. Yet, there aren't that many anime series every year that specifically targets this group of older, one-time fans.

Many people will claim that there's no age limit to watching cartoons or anime. That's true. But the reality is that people's interests do change over time. That ought to be a no-brainer. As teens turn into adults, they enter university, graduate, land their first jobs, get married, have kids of their own, buy their first homes, rue their greying crowns, and worry about funding their children's education.

Amid all these pressing concerns, they simply aren't going to be cooing over the latest animated high-school romance/drama, no matter how brightly coloured it is.

And if you're not making shows to cater to these changing interests brought on by changing perspectives, then you're quite simply going to lose these fans over time.

So, if AnimeSuki appears to be losing long-time members, I'd say the root cause has very little to do with the forum itself — with or without gimicks like a reputation system. It's rather that the genre as a whole is stuck in time and is increasingly irrelevant to many older fans, who've largely moved on.

Originally Posted by Artful_Dodger

How engaged are you in social media?

I'm moderately active on Facebook. My Twitter account has effectively become the replacement for my now-defunct RSS feed. I'd opened an Instagram account, but unlike my younger colleagues in their 20s, I don't have the compulsion to photograph every dish I eat at restaurants, nor take narcissistic selfies to broadcast to all and sundry.

So, no. I won't say I'm particularly active on social media, although I don't see how that's relevant to the discussion. I would say, though, that the only reason that I started using social media regularly is thanks to my smartphone. A pocket computer that's essentially designed to keep you connected and in constant communication makes social-media use a natural extension to daily face-to-face interaction.