WARNING: I have a tendancy to post excessively irrelevant information that somehow becomes relevant ...
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I have decided to initiate a petition for a new forum area within the Aquastar-Anime forum community - an area in which serious non-anime-related conversations can be held without interference from off-topic and unrelated posts.

Those of you who read this will already know how infuriated I have become due to the abundant instances of spam posts that have invaded important topics of debate and study within the Blue Star Lounge (referred to as the BSL), and hopefully you understand my reasons for finally announcing this plea for an area independent of the BSL, where off-topic posts can finally be removed to allow proper discussions to thrive.

I would like to make some points clear ...

First of all, even if most of you know me to be an advocate for discussions on politics and economics, I do not believe this area should hold these themes of conversation exclusively. I want any serious thread, whether it is about literary works, current events, or other similar considerations (even the etymology of the word "woot"), to be permitted here with the single provision that the threads be allowed to remain on topic without interference from posts that provide nothing for the discussion at hand.

Secondly, I ask for the post count increase to be activated within this new forum area, since this area would house discussions that discourage simple post count enhancements by way of double posting or one-word posts, as allowed within the BSL. The post count block should remain in the BSL, as this will become the place where the non-serious topics will be held, so people can spam to their heart's content without interfering with this new area. (After all, my post count would have been at least triple by now, and others, even more, if the topics we had replied to had counted towards our own post totals. But since the BSL was the only area to hold these threads, we had no choice.)

And finally, I would like to ask that the restriction of non-topical posts be enforced. I am tired of being the unofficial moderator of the threads of serious nature within the BSL, as I already administer my own forums, where I have held much of my own serious threads (in a much more organized manner) simply because topics such as those that I create are much unwanted by everyone in the BSL. This was one reason for the reformatting of my forums, from the simple (?) development of my game, to a partitioning of serious topics into several areas of consideration. I am not asking for a similar partitioning, but only for a maintenance of a spam-free environment that can be enjoyed by all.

As for the name of this new forum area, I have no opinion, besides any name that might provide a wrong impression of the purpose of the area itself.

I am aware that there will be resistance to the creation of a new forum area just for the purpose of holding serious discussions, as there has been a rigid outcry against this when I first proposed the matter. I do not know what the outcome will be now, but should it be decided that this area would not be created, I will peacefully resign from my attempts and allow the spammers to win, completing their stated takeover of AQS itself. Should this happen, I will cease my thoughts on the matter completely, not that it would be noticed by the main body of forum viewers. After all, by this time, I truly am one of the most unknown members of this forum community (since I have stopped posting in almost every area due to various reasons, mostly self-antagonistic), and my silence will only be noticed by those who do know me, spammers and otherwise, who will hold my resignation with great joy due to the final cessation of my words. Does this make me "emo", as one has said repeatedly ...? I cease to care.

After all, these are just the rantings of someone who is marginalized by the society of stupidity that holds spam dear, and that holds intellectualism with malice ... as I do the reverse ...

If I have said anything insulting or worthy of increased warning or banning, or otherwise locking of this thread, or if any reply to this post does the same, then I accept those outcomes. But I will not accept an invasion of spam into this thread, as tempting as it might be for some ... Reply if you have something to add to the debate, whether you support or resist, but not if you intend to spam.

And, as always, I submit to the decisions of the site administrators and appointed moderators, but not to anyone else. I imagine the same applies to others, but I might be excessively enthusiastic.

i can dig it.....

i agree with a serious discussion area, but as for the post count i really don't care.....

knowing mel it will focus on politics and could be the sole purpose of the area.

I also agree with your idea. This has worked to decrease spam in other forums that I've been to that have a serious forum area. It also worked vise-versa in which there is a purely spam forum that doesn't add any posts to your post count. If that forum is created, I also would suggest appointing Mel as a moderator or at least a global moderator of the said forum.

I agree with your idea. There are times when I feel like having a serious discussion on a certain topic, as many here do feel. Sure, randomness isn't bad, but it tends to get on people's nerves (and mine, sometimes). The Blue Star Lounge is more like a place to relax and converse casually, but not necessarily seriously. A new forum for serious discussions is a welcome idea.

As for the post counts, I don't really mind if they are disabled, but then again they are serious discussion posts which are relevant to the topics at hand. So it would be an added plus if the post counts are enabled.

I'll have to agree that Mel would do a good job as a moderator, as long as she keeps her mind open to all points presented. I believe she is, and I believe she has the capacity to do so, as her so-called "insanity" is not directed into her posts, but rather into her game development. Hence, Mel as a moderator of said forum is a very good idea, unless proven otherwise...

I think Mel would be open-minded enough to not only talk about politics, although it seems to be her primary interest. Let's just have serious discussions, and not direct points to any individual, but to the readers of the threads in general.

That being said, I rest my case.

WARNING: I have a tendancy to post excessively irrelevant information that somehow becomes relevant ...
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I do not want to be tasked to moderate this forum area. Remember, I do have my own forums, housing a certain project that should be my priority. Besides, if you have been reading my most recent posts, both in the BSL and in the Introductions area (before I exiled myself from here as well), I become very confrontational against people who post worthless words without regard to the purpose of the threads. Think about it this way - I left the introductions committee because there were people who openly deplored the use of the word "sanity". I find this offensive in entirety, and I said my thoughts without care for how harsh my words were. And even after doing so, I was distinctly ignored, leading to my resignation from the Introductions area completely.

And although I do try to keep an "open mind" within threads of worth, I have a very firm base of opinion in anything dealing with politics/economics, and I strike against opposition in the style of debate (in most situations). I just like to participate in the debate itself, even when I am usually the sole supporter of a position. I do not want to moderate debates, nor do I believe I should be given authority within this forum - you do not want me to know your IP addresses ... believe me ...

Regardless of what happens, with currently 35 views of this topic, a new forum area seems to be a far reach ... >_>

Give it some time. The main people who would need to see this isn't on yet,....

I see what you mean though. Too much needless spam is in the Lounge...>_>

thats a +1 to actually getting this thing going......

Well, I think that there are probably enough people that would be interested in a 'serious' section to the forum to warrant its creation, but I do question whether it is actually all that necessary in a geekdom-focused forum like AQS (no offence intended).

I feel that in general, the serious discussions in the BSL have served their purpose reasonably well in that there have been proper discussions (although in a lot of cases, plenty of bone-headed arguments without much consideration to the idea of a 'discussion', which, amazing enough, is supposed to involve 'give & take'), and they usually only succumb to spam when the seriousness of the discussion has worn itself out.

I mean, it's just not possible (for most normal human beings) to talk 24/7 about economics, politics, world affairs, law, religion, the environment or whatever else is the hot topic of choice and to continue making intelligent, factually-grounded comments without requiring serious amounts of research, which I honestly believe most people here won't be bothered doing.

Those are my thoughts on the idea.

good idea, i might be overlooking a few obstacles though. spammers like to be 'funny', so they'll post in any thread they get their mouse on to try and be that. spam is also a 'last resort' for people that don't have enough support for their point of view or have a shallow interpretation in a discussion [reference: blue star lounge's War in Iraq thread]. the latter will cause some problems in a new non-spam forum if it's not moderated regularly. also, a fine line exists between spam and not-spam. sometimes we include a bit of spam in our posts even if the rest of it relates to the topic. this doesn't lead the topic off-course, but it opens the doorway for thread-hijacking or a new side-discussion that people don't always stop or move to another thread.

First and foremost, the biggest problem with this idea is not everyone feels like going on a serious topic (especially in a forum where serious topics take a distant second precedence to animes and mangas), and there is a remote chance for someone to be offended, especially on topics like county-bashing and the like.

Of course, I would jump on the chance of people talking bad about my country, since it is the truth here.

No one is forcing anyone to go into a serious topic and post there, this area will be for people who WANT to have serious talks about stuff without having to worry about people coming in and spamming it up. The original purpose of the BSL was to allow a place where spam was tolerated not to be an all spam area just like the bar was supposed to be an online version of the bar from Cheers where you could go and have small conversations with each other and talk about stuff that would not be long enough for a thread to be made about it ie a bad day you had or a quick question you wanted an answer to.

I agree, but this might have been the wrong route to take. Should have talked to a mod or Aqua first.

which is why we have to delegate all serious topics, political and such, to an area by itself.

granted.. i'm one of the biggest spammers here... but even i would like to have a serious discussion about some things in life every now and then...

and no, i'm not contradicting myself!

Yes. Too much spam is bad for your health... A serious place to discuss serious matters would be a good change. This thread should include a "petitition poll" of some sorts...

Eh, another forum for serious topics would be nice...

I mean, I might not go there a lot, but still, I think it's worth a shot...

@ zap we wanted to see if there was enough interest in it first before we spoke to Aqua about it.

if a forum for serious discussions and no spam is made, it won't be as active as the bsl, but it'll definitely be a place where someone can have a discussion safely with the assurance of a relevant answer.

*scans over thread*

A serious discussion forum? Sounds like a good idea to me.

Unfortunately I have no power over making forums. That's the administrator's job alone.

EDIT: And I knew of a forum who went through a similar thing, and the concept does work.

so that means we have to get Aqua or Eziro(sp) on board....

As much as i hate Mel's nagging, I agree that we should have some serious topics or something without spam. besides, i too get tired of having to read spam so i can determine weather it is serious or not, or if it's funny :P . but seriously we need to have less "SPAM" if you will so we can stay on track. but i suggest that we should also have copies of the threads so the spammers can spam it up all they want without it bothering the rest of us. i'll set up a poll right now.

copies of threads? that's useless. spam all you want in the blue star lounge, we're discussing a forum COMPLETELY WITHOUT SPAM.

i think this "conference room" is an excellent idea- when i signed up to the board in the first place, i thought it was mainly serious discussion. i was wrong, of course, but i still retain that idea. the only problem that i can see is it may very easily turn into a place where we end up with a lot of flame wars when two or more people harshly disagree with each other.

However, i disagree that the post count should go up in the conference forum. this will just encourage some people to post needlessly to gain respect (and i know i speak for a lot of people when you judge people on a. their sign-up date and b. their post count as a first impression). This may make the forum less popular than it may have otherwise been, but i think this is necessary to stop the flow of spam that will inevitably germinate from a lot of users, me included probably.

i apoligise for repeating some of the points that i made in the now-closed gen. minion poll thread, but as this is the only thread that the moderaters will find worth reading i decided that i must post my suggestion here.

EDIT: of course i'm always open to persuation

Do we really need to have a post count in the first place? It might be the very reason why people spam... to increase their post count.

If we eliminate the post count entirely, the motivation to spam will disappear.... but that's for another discussion. :P

I would have said that the BSL had most of the spammers, but recently the other boards have seen an increase of that too.

The problem of post count is not really one, per se, for the people who will be involved in this sub-forum. Why is this?

First, any person ready for a serious discussion is welcome to make a point, as long as personal attacks and such are avoided. People should make points to the reader, and not just at another poster.

Second, any person who judges by join date and post count is wasting time in doing such. It is not a real measure of whether someone is respected as a community member, as I know people who have high post counts yet are not respected, or if the said poster has made any relevant points in posts in the past.

Third, one should think carefully before making any post in the said forum. Most spammers press the quick reply button without any serious thought to it, and type away. The removal of such a button is not the solution, though, as it is particularly useful for dial-up users.

The problem with spam is not "whether the post are funny or not" or if the post is "stupid". The real problem lies in the nature of spam itelf, as it is useless to any serious discussion. Spam can be "needlessly stupid", but not all stupid posts are spam.

And why ban everyone else from entering? It is needless and stupid, as it would marginalize the said members. This is a forum for a reason. The said reason is serious discussion, not a meeting place for the elite. Doing such would also put you in danger, eh, Minion? Not to mention almost everyone here has made a spam post, except for some, including Mel and the mods.

WARNING: I have a tendancy to post excessively irrelevant information that somehow becomes relevant ...
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So why was a mirror thread of this topic made ...? Making a new thread just to house a poll is largely unnecessary, as the popular opinion can be gauged simply by reading this thread alone. And if such a poll was wanted, the moderators can add it themselves in this thread. Additionally, what was said in that alternative thread seems to be a complete misinterpretation of what I had wanted - banning people for being spammers does nothing but eliminate interest in a forum, and making the entire forum spam-free should be understood. My intention was to separate the spam threads of the BSL with the serious threads within the same area, which deserve an area of their own. And it is the choice of the forumgoer as to which area would be more frequented, as long as the rules of each area is understood.

I would like to thank the moderators for closing that poll thread promptly, as it granted nothing but redundancy and confusion, as proven by some of the replies to that thread. In any case, duplicate threads are disallowed, as stated clearly within the "Board/Chan Rules". This can also be applied to the idea that copies of threads would be made, as doing so breaches this provision within the rules, as well as being nothing more than an alternative means of flooding the forums with threads.

As for post count, I simply thought that it was odd that some the people who had the highest post counts (other than the AQS staff and moderators/admins) were able to obtain their post counts through off-topic posts outside of the BSL, which already has a post count block, whereas the people who partake in serious discussions are forced to hold them in the BSL due to the fact that there is no other area to hold such discussions, which causes the post count for these topics to be not counted. Ultimately, this is up to either aquastar831 or erizo to decide, as well as the existance of the new forum area itself ...

I agree with the concept. Luckily, I've not had as bad luck as Mel has had with her threads. Mine either fail to attract attention, or manage to stay on topic. The only one that I have complaints about is the "Star Trek vs. Star Wars" thread, which ended up devolving into a basic RP thread where people bashed each other with random stuff from different Sci-Fi shows. Luckily again, after that stopped, PicardX showed up and we had a serious discussion going on for a bit before it died.

I would prefer that the post count be enabled in this new thread. I would like credit for the long posts that I would no doubt be making there. I get credit for making long posts in the Gundam thread, but never in the BSL, which annoys me to no end.

As for the concept (further), I agree that spammers should be kept out (or warned), but I wouldn't like to force discussions to remain "on topic." Some of the most informative discussions I've had have gone far off topic, and making a seperate thread for every different topic around would be a pointless waste of space if two topics can be discussed simultaneously. Like Wikipedia and Time Travel. It keeps things neater and ensures that random people don't just jump into the middle of a discussion once they see a new thread.

As for mods for this new forum, I would volunteer, since I have a bit of time and good judgment. I can weed out spam rather effectively.



As for Melissan, I do not believe that you have been marginalized by this forum. Everywhere I go on this forum, people compare your and Esperman's posts to my own, due to length/details/rants etc. And everyone wants to rape your avatar. So I don't see a problem. Mainly, these things get mentioned in places that I don't see you post. Like the Gundam thread etc. And of course that disclaimer at the top of your posts.

The problem with enabling post counts in the lounge (Without that new forum everyone is suggesting) is that the moment you do, even the most serious of discussions will turn into a spamfest...>_>.

Rofl, this forum sucks to begin with, mostly filled with lolis or mega perverts with no life (lol)

BSL is the area described in Mel's post, sadly. I say split BSL into a spam area and a nonspam area.

@ijuki: don't generalize. >.>

i thought the last maintenance downtime was to add the forum, but i guess we have yet to see aqua's answer.

Not necessarily. Most other forum areas have stayed relatively spam-free since they have defined topic areas. But the BSL is just the "everything else" forum, and evidently, "everything else" includes spam.

As Tmoo said, please don't generalize. I am neither a pervert nor a loli. And I do have a life.

... you are idiots, get a life outside the can you so occupy very often. thank you for reading...

And i do not care about generalization... it is my freedom to do so, this is internet, not a god damn oppressing country.

EDIT: AND IF YOU GET YOUR DAMN PENIS OUT OF YOUR OWN ASS, YOU MIGHT BE ABLE TO READ WHAT I MEAN. SEE THE WORD "MOSTLY"? IF YOU DO, THEN LEARN HOW TO *&#@ING READ ENGLISH DUMBSHIT !

y halo thar. might i interest you in a mirror?

anyway, if discussion here is done, someone lock the thread so it won't be spammed - as proven so nicely by our ijuki.

So you want:
1. Create and area where you can get your post count up with a justified post.
2. Enforce the rules by technically telling people what to post and moderators reading each and every single post therefore making an assumption if the post is SPAM or not.

Fact:If the topic is not attractive to members then it will die or be spam'd to death, you can't blame people for having different interests.

If you want to be like Ijuki who insults people so his E-PENIS grows in good health, by making posts about Politics and science then you need another whole new board for that.
You just can't come to a NEGIMA forums and hope people care about anything other than Negima/anime/manga itselft, proof to this fact is how empty other anime forums are other than NEGIMA. They become hot topic while anime is there but they all die soon or later because it's not people's priority.

We can't make everyone happy, if you don't want to read the BSL please serve to do so, that's what I do 95% of the time and just refer there when there is a topic that interests you.

edit: Topic is now closed, It will be reopened if moderators see fit. right now I still have a conversation pending with aquastar.