Feedback: Splitting light novels/Manga in 2 sub forums

[Lyase]

With that many webnovels joining the manga/light novel section, i think is a better idea split those two up in 2 sub-forums so when you search for a title is a easier to find.

[ReinZwei]

What about the titles with both version then? ~_~

[RRW]

Originally Posted by ReinZwei

What about the titles with both version then? ~_~

Chose the one that come first?

[Solace]

We're already working on it. I can't give a time frame for this, however.

[DemonOfWrath]

I'm going to be a pain in the arse and ask when or if there's going to be anything done with regards to this. While I'm in no capacity aware of how long such a thing would take, I can look back and see this has at least been in some stage of consideration in one form or another for over 2 years now and it's an issue that isn't getting better the longer it's left. So please forgive me for looking at the timespan and being a bit cynical.

Like honestly the board has become utterly useless to manga discussion for all but the dozen (at best, it's more like 8 or 9) or so mangas which can generate enough discussion (and often only around the time new chapters come out) to compete with the huge LN threads. If I look at the front pages right now it's 3/20 topics are manga on the front page, and 5-6/20 on the second and third pages. Any new manga discussion (or probably LN as well actually) is going to immediately get thrown back several pages and effectively killed by all the huge threads on the front page or two, the only new-ish (last year or so) manga I see that has a thread that's surviving is UQ holder, which had the the advantage of a really popular author+characters from his previous series to piggyback off (at least initially, I never got into it but just followed the initial discussion). If it gets much worse you may as well just drop Manga off the title of that sub-forum (a bit hyperbolic but it's been starting to feel that way for a while).

[Solace]

It has taken a while, but we're finalizing plans for the split at the moment. Expect to see an announcement about this soon™.

[zzhk]

On a related note, what is Animesuki's stance on webnovels? They are essentially amateur self-published works, equivalent to fanfiction written in English, except rare exceptions such as SAO or Mahouka that ended up published in print and even obtaining anime adaptations.

Then there are Chinese and Korean webnovels, which will almost never end up in anime format simply because they're not Japanese to begin with. If discussion of these novels are lumped together with light novels, wouldn't western novels be equally fair game? In any case, discussion of such novels seems to really stray away from the category of "Anime Related Topics." Do these discussions even need to be on Animesuki?

[Honoakari]

@zzhk: equivalent to fanfiction? But fanfics are derivative works (hence the "fan" part), whereas webnovels are original material...

Anyway, I strongly agree with the second paragraph. The way I see it, non-Japanese novels belong in the General Chat section. Same with foreign equivalents of manga.

[Solace]

That's a difficult question to answer, honestly. We haven't really decided yet.

[OH&S]

I'd group Web Novels and Light Novels under the same banner to keep things relatively simple. Web Novels have the potential to become Light Novels but since they are both wholy text based, they are quite similar.

The only thing I'm unsure of is how to deal with threads that cover discussion of Web Novels, Light Novels AND Manga. Or the rare cases like Owari no Seraph which have a manga series and light novel series separate to each other (telling different stories) but are intricately linked to each other (one is a prequel of the other and both stories are being published simultaneously).

[relentlessflame]

I guess I can say, as a bit of a heads-up, we are going to be separating out Web Novels from Light Novels, and also splitting any threads that talk about multiple mediums together to prevent spoilers.

The distinction we are planning to use for Web Novels vs. Light Novels is this:
Light Novels are books published and made available for sale (i.e. "commercial works"), and Web Novels are published by the author and made available for free on the Internet (i.e. "non-commercial works").

This isn't a perfect definition, but the reason for distinguishing it this way is so that we know what links are okay and what links are not okay as far as "raws" go.

As for Chinese and Korean works... I think we'll be fairly flexible, but for works that really have no passable connection to anime at all, we may move them elsewhere.


Anyway, I'm hoping we will post more info about all of this over the next few days, so stay tuned.

[zzhk]

Very sensible and logical. Thanks, relentlessflame!

[larethian]

Originally Posted by OH&S

I'd group Web Novels and Light Novels under the same banner to keep things relatively simple. Web Novels have the potential to become Light Novels but since they are both wholy text based, they are quite similar.

The only thing I'm unsure of is how to deal with threads that cover discussion of Web Novels, Light Novels AND Manga. Or the rare cases like Owari no Seraph which have a manga series and light novel series separate to each other (telling different stories) but are intricately linked to each other (one is a prequel of the other and both stories are being published simultaneously).

For Seraph, the title of the LN is slightly different (ie. Seraph of the End - Ichinose Guren's 16 year old catastrophe). Unfortunately in my hindsight, and unwillingness to have a long thread title, I omitted the subheading, which probably was not a good idea if we want to distinguish them properly.

But in general, I honestly think that it's a bad idea to have a combined thread for manga and LN though it's the thread starter that normally made it so. Manga adaptations of light novels are obviously behind, and I do find that there are some people who will only consume the manga adaptation and only the manga and these people are completely alienated from the light novel part of discussions, or may not even bother visiting thread because of spoilers. Similarly there are light novel-only readers who care nothing about the manga adaptations and the manga readers' complaints of how the art sucks or unfaithful adaptations and stuff like that.

[OH&S]

^
I'm aware of the title. But they are still part of the same franchise. Perhaps this issue in particular could be solved by creating a subforum for the anime and then moving the threads there (like what happened to SAO and Durarara!!, etc)

As for what relentless suggested, it seems quite well thought out. Given the nature of the task at hand I don't think any feasible method that splits up all of the forums AND makes everyone happy exists.

But perhaps, instead of just keeping threads that cover differents types of media together, a rule could be decided on where to sort most of them?

For example if the majority of discussion in a LN/Manga thread is about the LN it makes sense to me to put that thread into the LN section. For example, Danmachi and Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry. For threads like Mushoku Tensei and maybe Tate no Yuusha, discussion is mostly centered on the Web Novel. etc, etc etc.

This needs more discussion though. I guess I didn't read properly...

[darksassin]

Sorry for bothering, but I have a suggestion after the split. Can a link be put on Opening post to link to other version's thread so that it is easier for those who follow multiple versions. I.e a light novel thread's OP has a link to manga version's thread and vice-versa.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by darksassin

Sorry for bothering, but I have a suggestion after the split. Can a link be put on Opening post to link to other version's thread so that it is easier for those who follow multiple versions. I.e a light novel thread's OP has a link to manga version's thread and vice-versa.

Yeah, that seems fine. Feel free to make that request in the sticky thread, and we'll get to it when we can (probably after we get most of the migration done).