In its own separate thread for convenience!
There are two main elements to this:
1: Archiving old threads
To clean the boards up a little bit, and to marginally lighten the load on Kareha, the plan is to move all threads that have not seen any activity for the past ~8 years (half the age of this site) to the archive. Maybe with the exception of DQN which can get an earlier cutoff date (or none at all), and I'm definitely doing this for Romance which has over two thousand (!) unarchived threads.
2: Merging boards
This has been a recurring topic for some time, and I think it's about time something be done about it. So as not to have a bunch of barely active boards on the boardlist, and to make the site slightly tidier (and more convenient to moderate), it seems prudent to merge some of the less active boards and the ones that have overlapping themes. My proposal is as follows:
General
Internet
Culture → Media
World
Please use this thread to voice your opinions and ideas. This is also probably a better place to discuss necrobumping, rather than the mod requests thread.
I would like to get the archiving done pretty soon (and it would also be easy to undo at some later point in time), but the board merge isn't all that urgent and the final decision on it can take its time.
Previous discussions:
https://4-ch.net/req/kareha.pl/1490471877/
https://4-ch.net/req/kareha.pl/1441723964/
https://4-ch.net/req/kareha.pl/1601991764/ (some posts)
I think a cut off date of 8 years is reasonable.
I agree with all of the mergers but I don't really know where to put the food board. It's such an odd one out. I think it makes sense to merge it with the lifestyle boards, but in practice, all of the threads dedicated to recipes will really stand out like a sore thumb. And I'm not sure how many people would want to continue posting recipes on a hobby board (not that it's an active board anyway). Maybe food could be moved to the world section? The recipes to me look international enough that it would fit.
Politics + Debate ⇒ Politics & Debate
"Discussion" doesn't really convey that it's a board for contentious topics or how it's separate from General. I'd rather keep News separate but I guess I can see how it could bleed over into politics depending on what's posted (though lately I & some other(s) seem to be using it mainly as a weird & zany news board.)
Otherwise I don't see much to object to.
If food gets merged into a general hobbies board, I don't think I'll be using that board. It's already pretty dead, so I'm not expecting you to keep it anyway.
All looks good to me. Go for it!
>>4
Maybe "current events"? It could contain both news, as well as discussions of hot topics of the day.
I agree with >>4 and >>7. I think >>7's name is probably better, it allows for nazi & pedo discussion threads to be removed as off topid if you are so inclined (except when nazis & pedos are in the news)
I also agree food is an odd fit for a hobbies board but it was fucking dead except for joke/troll threads anyway, even more so than the rest of the boards. Looks like the last time actual recipes were posted there was today (probably as a direct result of this thread,) on 2021-01-06, and then on 2019-07-11 in the "Chicken Tendies" thread (sort of, it was a link.) I'm in favor of merging and starting a single recipes thread on the new board.
>>8
But /food/ has a cool header image.
>>9
Yeah, today was actually the first time I looked at it and was surprised. Most of the hobby boards don't have one.
"Current Events" sounds reasonable.
( ﾟ -ﾟ) I don't think merging News and Politics is a good idea.
If the News board ends up getting political that's another story, but for now I think they should stay separated.
>>12
It's more that the politics and debate board (when the posts aren't shitposts) overlaps with news than the other way around.
Suggestion: Create a few header images for each board (or invite other people to create them, I think this is what Squeeks did aeons ago) and make them randomly rotate with each visit to the webpage. Include the current header images in the rotation if you don't think them being labeled with the names of different, nonexistent boards would be confusing.
That way Hobbies can still have food header images. The current Film & TV one is pretty cool too.
This definitely seems like a good idea overall but the elitist in me will miss the old esoteric list of topics... this is just nostalgia speaking though, so axe away. Thanks for the hard work, ssz
I've actually (I think?) never posted on /food/ but now have kind of vowed to be active there after reading it for a bit thanks to this thread.
Will existing links still magically work in the future? I know that now-archived threads seem to parse.
>>8
The problem is that it's a thread about simple recipes. I often don't make anything simple when I have the time, so I never bother posting in there. Making a thread for more complicated recipes would be pointless since it would be even less likely to have a dedicated posterbase than the simple one. Having a unified recipes thread would be best, but that's not really feasible unless the simple recipe thread reached bump limit.
Having thought about it, I don't mind if food gets merged, it's not as out of place as I had previously thought.
>>16
tbqh I didn't consider the ramifications of the word "merged." I think, ideally, all the current threads on Food should be archived for being 98% kusosure and a new recipe thread started on the new board.
>Anime + Manga ⇒ Otaku culture (/otaku/, tentative)
Please go with something else e.g. Animanga, Anime&Manga
>>20
In other words: garbage.
>>4 et al
I would like to have the politics board be a sort of quasi-containment board to redirect bad posters to (instead of pointing them off the site or straight up banning them)... But then again, there hasn't been any actual need for that in the past 2.5 years or so.
"Current Events" sounds nice.
>>18
"Merges" could also involve moving a few select threads, or none at all (retiring the board completely and only having its front page redirect to the replacement board). Very partial towards the latter with Fashion and Nordic.
>>14
I would rather just put out tender for entirely new headers, and relegate the old ones to the archives. Some of the remaining boards don't have any, and it might be nice to create some for those at the same time.
Also: Would it be possible to combine the "western media" boards somehow? On the other hand, they're just about active enough that it's probably fine to just leave them.
>Internet Addicts + Net Culture ⇒ Internet (/net/)
I'd prefer to see this new board still named Internet Addicts. Net Culture always seemed the less "iconic" one to me, so it would make more sense for it to be absorbed into /iaa/.
Should mergers occur, would it be possible to add little tags to thread titles to indicate which board they originally came from? Maybe it's a bit of a strange idea, but something about not knowing which of the retired boards a thread originally came from stresses me out.
...though in the case the board no longer exists, it should probably say "former Requests (/req/) board" or something.
>>26-28
Good idea. I've added one to this thread, please tell me what you think.
>>15
Yes! https://4-ch.net/dqn/kareha.pl/1613075215/29 (only as an example; this link is probably going to break in the future!)
>>12,13
Well, it's not like there isn't enough overlap already. Besides, there's not much happening in there aside from the funny headlines threads — which would work very well as a single thread in a /current/ board, IMO.
Revised proposal:
General
General /general/
Hobbies¹ /hobbies/
Personal /personal/
Requests /req/
Images /img/
Culture
Anime & Manga (/animanga/)²
Games /games/
Film & TV /tv/
Music /music/
Literature /book/
Internet
AA Bar /ascii/
DQN /dqn/
Technology /tech/
Internet Addicts /iaa/
World
Language /language/
日本語 /nihongo/
Current Events /current/
Science /science/we could always just steal "society for the study of modern visual culture" for /animanga/
maybe /gen/ for short
But without /fashion/, where will I mass reply to every thread about my fabulous codpiece?
On a more serious note, the proposed board groupings could probably be improved. DQN fits the Internet category well enough (though it's such a unique board in content that labeling it an "internet culture" board seems a little disrespectful); it's weird seeing DQN so low on the list but I'll get used to it. The inclusion of Hobbies and Personal under General also feels rather off, but I can't think of any better place to put them. Seeing as I can't think of any better groupings, these are probably good enough after some getting used to. We'll see what others say.
/nijigen/ sounds okay, better than /animanga/ at least.
Should've pointed this out earlier, but I think "Personal" by itself sounds weird and vague as a board name, it only works as a header because the boards under it give it context. I'd prefer that stay as the full "Personal Issues."
If that's too long, maybe "Life Issues"?
>>31
Good luck cleaning all the trash from people coming here every x day asking what's the board's deal is all about (some people just can't read).
In my opinion keeping things easier is the best for boards dedicated to specific themes.
>>32
DQN used to be low on the list, I think we've all been spoiled by it being on the top now
> Good idea. I've added one to this thread, please tell me what you think.
Looks nice to me, I like the unobtrusive location.
>>37
Sports is already proposed for the new hobbies board.
>>30
（ ´_ゝ`）/net/ should stay instead of /iaa/ because /net/ has a cool header image.
>>39
Probably the easiest header image of them all to remake, though.
/net/ doesn't collide with /img/ for me so the url should stay that way
but "internet addicts" sounds better as a board title
Archival is done, except for DQN and /ascii/ which I've left alone for now. Also fixed the templates, CSS and JS, so you should be able to switch to the modern stylesheets now. The only thing missing is removing the thread form and fixing the closed thread messages, but that can come later.
i personally disagree with the "merge" but i know there are good reasons for it, for the rest, i agree with the "arrangement" of the [new] boards
check em
So is this happening or?
>>46
It's still on, tentatively scheduled for the 15th.
The site is fine the way it is in my opinion i completely understand archiving old threads but boards don't need to be merged together maybe just get rid of the inactive boards.
>>47
my vote is "Society for the Study of Modern Japanese Culture" instead of "Japanese Media" though "Japanese Media" is fine.
thanks for all the hard work <3
>>48
Most of us don't want the boards to be completely deleted.
Pointless idea but it would be pretty nice if the boards that will get annexed in this merge could get full archives instead of just being for stuff prior to 2012. I know the threads will also live on in different boards but I'm sure moving the <30 threads on boards like /sports/ or /fashion/ to the archive as well as to /hobbies/ wouldn't be a big issue. That way the archive can serve as a full capture of the board before it died and all of the threads that were ever made there can exist in one place.
Boards don't need to be merged together this is fucking gay.
The board merger makes it surprisingly more pleasant to read through old threads. More content in fewer places, I suppose.
>>51's suggestion sounds reasonable, not sure how others feel though.
Looks like it's still possible to make threads on /food/. Tested it and was surprised it went through.
I like it a lot, the side menu feels a lot cozier now and the merged boards are fun to read at the moment
This update is gorilla approved 🦍
>>51
Not sure I agree; since the threads are going back to their source boards upon archival it would create some conflict there. Ended up fully archiving the smaller boards though.
The boardlist looks quite nice now.
How about a news post detailing exactly what boards were merged?
Perhaps the shortlived /anime/ banner could be implemented on the archive.
So are you gonna update the board list so this all makes sense now? Also some boards being merged together like Nordic being merged with language but why is romance merged with personal? why is debates merged with politics? people can debate topics that have nothing to do with politics you know. The site was fine the way it was should have just archived everything and started over fresh and deleted inactive boards that would have been a better decision IMO we can live without certain boards that nobody uses.
Fashion & Food got merged into /hobby/
Is there a list or portal to the boards?
>>61
😭🔫🦍
You should hold a banner contest for boards that lack one
please make a newspost about the board mergers the news almost never get updated think about how sad they must feel
Accepting header images for /japan/, /current/, /iaa/ and /games/!
Upload your images on a stable filehost or on the imageboard, then link it here. If there are multiple submissions for the same board, we'll have a vote over it.
>>69 You forgot to sage, new new admin! Naturally when your post doesn't relate to the thread you sage it. Silly you.
>>70 considering their current lack of header images is a direct result of the board merge it's plenty relevant. at least for the first two boards.
Sounds like a fun challenge. Are animated gif acceptable? Should we post our submissions to the imageboard, or just link them here?
> no SVG
Sigh, ssz-kun...