@philtecturophy well, I don't know if you have the time or desire for it, and how enthusiastic you are about it in general :) if you're extremely tired of it not working out, and the evidence shows that it won't succeed, then maybe it makes sense to abandon it. I'm just looking at it from this angle: "If it's very important to him, and he doesn't mind spending some time on it, then why does it matter if the chance of success is low?". I don't think about whether it can survive on MAL or not, I hope that it can :) so, my main purpose here is to encourage something that I thought was very nice, even if it's not particularly in my sphere of interest, with a hope that success will eventually find it. I just thought that maybe if there was a way to constantly advertise it in a non-intrusive way, all the time, some people (like yaawwwnnnn above) would take interest, which would lead to some of them staying indefinitely and even taking on themselves the responsibilities of moderating it as well. I definitely don't have any kind of evidence that says it'll succeed :) but if it suddenly becomes the RP club of MAL, then it very well may be successful. I've seen a specific niche clubs (or similar things) thrive in communities that weren't too populated to begin with, simply because of the high quality and lack of competition working in their favor. In any case, it's true that it's hard to know how many active MAL users would want to spend their time on RP because of how time-consuming it can become. I don't know. I can only speak for myself :) I don't mind the "a lot of thinking" part, but I'm just not interested in the process of RP itself.
A simple and quick way to satisfy one's social needs? I don't know about others, but sometimes I just have some thoughts or feelings that I want share randomly and not with any specific friend/acquaintance. Someone makes a topic like "What does an anime you rated a 5 mean to you?", and it suddenly ignites something inside of me. I start to remember how much of pain and thought went into trying to define those numbers for myself, and I just feel the desire to put some aspect of it into words and post about it. A lot of times I don't even care if people read it or not, since it's just an outlet, and I understand that reading long and personal posts can be pretty boring and tiresome if you don't care about the poster specifically. As for debating, I like when it's done in good faith and aimed at solving some problem, no matter how insignificant it is. Coming to mutually beneficial terms with a person who has different views on things is very satisfying and can create a potentially harmonious atmosphere, especially if you meet that person on the forums again and again. That said, I never thought that I'd be writing long posts on some anime forum either :) I don't mind it, as long as doesn't interfere with more important things too much, especially since it's the only place on the internet where I'm socially active among strangers. I will get tired of it soon enough and will tune out for another half a year or so anyway.
Oh, and it's your 10th anniversary on MAL soon! Congratulations :p |