What's your opinion on generals?
Do we really need them?
Could this site work without it?
>Do we really need them?
We most certainly don't. They are in nature bound to stagnate and they attract circlejerking, since you need a certain amount of liking, not mere interest, to continue posting when there's nothing new or interesting to talk about.
>>565544
Oh look, more bandwagoning spergs. Are generals still here?? They are! How does that make you feel?? Pretty upset, huh.. poor babies :( well you can all gather here in this thread and hug eachother.
Annoying fucking faggots. Generals arent going anywhere GET THE FUCK USED TO IT.
>>565544
They're fine in my book as long as the people who keep the thread going give it a rest after a while and don't make the same repeating general thread every day for months or years. It also sucks when people try to make a general thread into a forced sticky by bumping it over and over for 250 posts.
>>565581
Settle down mr. Cockmongler, just answer the questions.
>Do we really need them?
Not really.
>Could this site work without it?
Well yeah, obviously.
That said, they're easily filterable and I don't buy that they detract from conversation on the rest of the board.
>>565598
>don't buy that they detract from conversation on the rest of the board
What about small boards where they are always taking the first page and don't let other threads stay relevant?
>>565609
It's better than the board being flooded by 10 threads of the same topic
>>565610
No it's fucking not you insufferable cockstain.
If you want that sort of order, fuck off to a phpbbs forum.
>>565610
>It's better than the board being flooded by 10 threads of the same topic
But that's exactly what generals are.
>>565609
Wow, there are still people who don't use the catalog?
They're fine when on boards where people don't shout "Take it to the general!" every time a thread is made that could be inside an existing general.
>>565598
>That said, they're easily filterable
I fucking wish
The stupid shits keep changing names because their edition needs to be a special snowflake and not /brit/ but \brit\. And when there's 40 of them at any given moment, there's bound to be at least one fucker who needs to be oh so creative. My filter list grows everyday.
>>565138
>>561868
>>564460
>>564759
There's been about 8 threads on /qa/ in the past few days about people complaining that their generals have:
>attention whores
>avatarfags
>high concentration of shitposts
>"bump" posts just to keep the general alive
>rule breaking and trolling in general
Who would have guessed the general cancer would eventually notice the reasons why their kind is so widely despised by those who go to imageboards to use them as imageboards?
It's as if they're gaining sentience right in front of my us, like little hatchlings breaking open their shells to see the world for the first time.
>>565655
/brit/ was the final nail in /int/'s coffin. It opened the floodgates to generals once it was apparent the mod's were tolerating and even protecting it.
1. Generals clog up the boards.
Their permanent presence is contradicting the ephemeral nature of 4chan. 4chan is not supposed to be a forum with permanent threads. There is a reason why we only have 10 pages per board. When new content is posted, old threads 404. Generals undermine this concept. Their enforced presence takes away originality and novelty from the user experience. It is dissatisfying to find the same threads on top, every time you visit one of your favorite boards.
2. Generals tend to degenerate into off-topic circlejerks.
Since the existence of a general is not justified by novel topics of discussion but rather by a perceived entitlement of its posters to have this thread on the front page 24/7, most content of the general consists of mindless bumps or shallow unrelated small talk between its posters, mostly tripfags or otherwise identifiable attention seekers.
3. Generals create an atmosphere of exclusion
After almost every question on the topic of the general has already been answered several times, new posters are not welcome anymore and are usually being ignored or ridiculed by the "oldfags" of the general. This goes against 4chan's nature of being open to everyone. The general becomes a closed community detached from its surrounding board.
4. Generals discourage active discussion
It is almost impossible to create a thread asking a relevant question on a topic which is related to the topic of a general. You won't receive helpful answers because the knowledgable people reside in the general and don't even browse the surrounding board anymore, and the only replies to your thread will be redirects to the general. This way fewer novel or original content reaches the front page.
first for maisie
Generals on /tg/ dedicated to particular system work just fine. I dunno about other generals.
Bumping a thread with discussion due to the flooding happening right now. iu
>>565544
Double edged sword. On one end it helps to keep people from constantly starting threads asking dumbfuck questions. On the other it can create an insular, isolated culture from the rest of the board, developing a circlejerk.
They're definitely useful on some level. /vg/ is actually better for finding threads about and discussing popular games, and finding people to play with because they're well concentrated, but no, we don't explicitly NEED them, and this site has lasted before without them, it could work again, you'd just have to be prepared for the endless dumbfuck threads asking the same 5 questions over and over per subject per board. Personally, I think that would suck, but hey, to each their own.
I said I was done bumping stuff but I just can't walk away damn it.
LIVE, THREAD, LIVE!
>>565544
I doubt hiro will listen this time. He's gone rogue again. Does he even lurk or does he just acknowledge random threads?
>>565544
They're weird
They'll serve their purpose, promote OC, community and fun in general for god who knows how many threads
And next thing you know? There's nothing else to talk about and it's just keeping itself alive for the sake of being alive.
Generals are fruit, and you've got both the fresh and the rotten. Can't really do much but, when the time comes, let them know they're dead and have them wake up from the dream if they didn't already
>>566616
>On one end it helps to keep people from constantly starting threads asking dumbfuck questions.
Stickies and pastebins.
Then again that hasn't stopped people opening up threads asking stupid questions or in generals people continuing to ask shit question despite the pastebin and stickies being splattered front and center.
>>567251
Then again Katawa Shoujo on /vg/ is on it's 3062nd and it's a single player /vn/ that released ages ago. It's basically a chatroom at this point.
>>566881
Generals are cancer and don't work.
>>567317
You can't have more than one or two stickies if you want that magical page 0 effect that so many people believe in.
Should have a button when creating a general forcing thread ID's for it.
Nothing but circlejerks anyway.
>>565716
That's a load of bullshit
Generals don't necessarily clog threads, if anything they do the contrary by condensing a fuckton different threads into a single one.
Wouldn't you rather a /d/ickgirl general than a boardfull of futa threads leaving absolutely nothing to any other threads and fetishes? Not only does that warrant a general of their own but is also enough to tell any faggot clogging up the board with yet more of the same bullshit to fuck off to their containment thread.
And 4chan's ephemereality is a bullshit excuse, and you'd know it if you had actually contributed anything to 4chan at all. Projects like /tg/station, /vg/station, katawa shoujo, all the music /mu/ makes, that book /lit/ wrote, and whenever shi/tg/ets done? All of that needs some permanence to get organized and actually go somewhere. Not to talk of the death of ephemereality, since both the 4chan Archive and shit like moe, loveisover, desustorage, fireden and the like have been and will be a thing for years to come.
And not all fucking threads are perpetuated "by a perceived entitlement of its posters to have this thread on the front page 24/7". There not just the ongoing projects, there's also content that keeps gatting made and generating discussion every few days like /co/'s endtown threads used to. Those faggots would have enough discussion at a constant enough rate to have their threads last until the new strip came two days later, warranting a new thread with renovated discussion.
Don't shit on legit, content poducing, active generals just because some faggots overstaying their welcome trigger your autism. Yeah, no shit that after enough threads there'll be nothing to talk about and quality will go to shitpost levels. But that shit happens even without generals, and any one who's been on a Prequel thread will be able to tell you that.
>This goes against 4chan's nature of being open to everyone
The very sentence "lurk moar" would like a few words with you, namely "newfag".
>>565716
>1. Generals clog up the boards.
They, when combined with actual moderation, prevent hundreds of threads on the same topic being made; like GoT--however this is dependent on janitors' ability to do their fucking jobs.
>4chan is not supposed to be a forum with permanent threads.
You need some sense of permanence for content creating generals like some of the vidya making threads on /vp/ or the "books" /lit/ writes.
>Generals undermine this concept. Their enforced presence takes away originality and novelty from the user experience.
1 thread on a topic is somehow less original than 37 how exactly?
>It is dissatisfying to find the same threads on top, every time you visit one of your favorite boards.
Do you not use the catalog? What the fuck? Who cares about the front page?
>2. Generals tend to degenerate into off-topic circlejerks.
>Since the existence of a general is not justified by novel topics of discussion
Except in the cases where there is novel material like /@/ where the franchise is updated all the time, or online video game threads that require community organization.
3. Generals create an atmosphere of exclusion
>After almost every question on the topic of the general has already been answered several times, new posters are not welcome anymore and are usually being ignored or ridiculed by the "oldfags" of the general.
What are FAQs in the OP post? Which almost every general thread has.
>This goes against 4chan's nature of being open to everyone.
Lel
>4.
This is almost exactly the same point as 3, reworded slightly.
I'm not for generals that keep dead and irrelevant shit alive (/ksg/, /madoka/) but for stuff that could take over a board and has content that reasonably merits discussion it's fine. Or something that requires some cohesion like content creation or coordinated games like on /tg/ or /vg/. They're not entirely bad; they just become bad when they outlive their purpose.
>>565544
Generals are great.
The catalogs of most board attract so much cancer.
It's nice to hop into a general and speak with people you genuinely like.
>>567351
It's common sense to keep specific fetishes in one thread on image dump boards. You replied to a post that was clearly about generals on boards primarily for discussion, so your assertion doesn't disprove anything. Furthermore, I don't think you know what a general is so I don't understand why you're posting about it.
>>567452
>prevent hundreds of threads on the same topic being made
Why do you want to prevent people from posting about something they want to post about? There's nothing that says that they want to discuss the same aspect of a topic, even if they're related. Note that I'm not defending unoriginal posts such as "x thread" or "let's talk about x" which are obviously made by ignorant posters.
>You need some sense of permanence
There is nothing wrong with making chain threads, but there is no reason to keep a thread up when no content has yet to be made.
>1 thread on a topic is somehow less original than 37 how exactly?
If it's artificially kept alive for the sake of being alive then of course it is.
>Except in the cases where there is novel material like /@/
Again, the post was about discussion boards. Whether some threads on /vg/ has new content or not, which could justify their existence, is irrelevant since it's on the board for generals.
>What are FAQs in the OP post?
I understand the usefulness of FAQs since a game has a myriad of information that is best viewed organized, I do think it looks ugly and messy though. In any case, pastebins do as you say not exclude anyone since information is provided.
The conclusion "Generals create an atmosphere of exclusion" however still stands true, though for different reasons in my view. A general becomes detached from the rest of a board because regular posters become too comfortable, which quickly degrades the average post and invites shitposting.
It become exclusive because regulars tolerate shitposts while outsiders, who may only be mildly interested, most likely won't since the thread is shit.
>>565544
/sp/ here
Generals need to be purged forever
Or at least make /spg/
>>567470
You're the fucking problem you retard. Boards voluntarily segregate themselves then complain when they can't find anyone they like except in their own shitty circlejerk.
Depends upon thread, I don't think we need constant 24/7 imagedump threads for shows that aired a year+ ago, but I don't mind "generals" for airing shows or one with new content at the time.
The thing with generals is, while being undesireable, if you don't have one then the most popular topics will still have threads and with no unifying force you might end up in situation where you will have abundance of threads about some topic, thus /tv/ complaining about /GoT/ or capeshit.
>>567983
>"generals"
Why? You know full well it's an existing concept.
Before we do this dance yet again, lurk more.
>>568000
What made you think that I think that there's no such thing as a general?
>>568001
Read my post again.
>>568005
Excuse my poor reading comprehension then and ellaborate it to me like the retard I am, because I can only read it as you thinking that I imply that general is not an existing concept.
Generals are fucking worthless on /tv/
The rest is ok
They're cancer. Most of them are, at least.
The real problem with generals is that they're breeding grounds for shitposters, attention whores and other forms of cancer. They eventually devolve into personality circlejerks and try to spread their "memes" to other threads or boards.
Point in case. Take a look at Homestuck general (/co/), /cum/ (/int/), /balt/ (/int/), dota general, starcraft general, etc. The Homestuck general was cancer incarnate and it was only tangentially related to the webcomic. The /int/ generals I mentioned are plain trash and against board rules.
Mods were smart enough to ban Homestuck general during the hiatus and I think that's a step in the right direction. If a general does not follow the board rules it should be banned/filtered and deleted on sight.
Generals invite the stupidest people alive. The kinds of people that would endlessly shit their own threads up just so they won't die so they can continue to shitpost, all while claiming they aren't the extreme cancer that is ruining the threads in the first place. The kinds of people who think responding to blatant shitposting is legitimate method of keeping a dead thread alive.
Generalfags are less concerned with discussing the subject of the general, and are more concerned with keeping the thread alive so they can shitpost.
>>568087
Don't bother, there are many general goers that think exactly like them. Just make your sound arguments while they attempt to shitpost and false-flag like always.
>>567351
>Don't shit on legit, content poducing, active generals
I'm about to blow your fucking mind, so trap in tight:
The most valuable content on 4chan is discussion.
Generals limit discussion therefore they are inherently negative.
>>568087
Not all generals are bad, but all generals are destined to become shit eventually.
It'd be nice if a mod read trough this thread.
>>565544
Depends on the general. Some are good, others are bad.
>>567351
>by condensing a fuckton different threads into a single one.
If a topic has many different interesting aspects, then there's nothing wrong with having separate threads for these. A dozen threads with varying insightful starting posts are more valuable than a copypasted repost of the same cancerous general. You generalfags are basically the cultural marxists of 4chan. Your goal is to reduce diversity.
It worked fine without them, they are a persistent pest.
Especially on /tv/, and /mu/.
One cannot even have music discussions on /mu/, it is a circlejerk of attention seeking general chart threads or social media music sites like Last or RateYourMusic.
A parasitic forum as a result of the circlejerking, a genuine thread that isn't outright bait is a god send.
Same can be said of /tv/ except it is GOT General #18782 or capeshit bait spam.
Generals have been going on for years with little mod intervention, so I doubt they will ever cease at this rate.
JUST FUCK MY BOARD UP
JUST FUCK DISCUSSION UP
>>568696
/mu/ is the worst
>3x3
>4x4
>5x5
>all at the same time
>none of them ever get to the bump limit
>>567452
>1 thread on a topic is somehow less original than 37 how exactly?
I can only quote my wife's son: Diversity is strength.
>>565578
I don't know about that.
>>568696
>Generals have been going on for years with little mod intervention, so I doubt they will ever cease at this rate.
/hsg/ was banned for a while
Most mods don't give a shit though.
>>568800
I do.
>>565544
>Do we really need them?
Fuck them.
Ban them all. The worst ones at the very least.
Some shitty generals are relatively harmless and don't affect other users, like /ksg/, some end up becoming pure cancer and shitposting centrals where posters organize raids and other stupid shit.
>>565544
Those are some generally impressive dubdubs.
>>565544
i like generals
robert e lee was a general and he was a pretty cool guy
>>565544
Generals are the only threads worth browsing on /o/, the rest is Corvette vs GTR shitposting
>>565620
???
Generals are one thread about one topic. That's the whole point. There may be many generals, but they are each about a different topic.
>>569937
Generally I don't mind genuine generals ass long as they create new disscution
Generals are a good way to contain shit in 1 thread
Don't like a general? Just filter it
>>570307
Except that shit spills over to other threads and boards regularly. If a general becomes disruptive to other users it should be banned.
>>570281
That's not what a general is. Stop posting anytime soon.
>>570307
This isn't a traditional forum, that isn't an excuse. Containment is nothing more than cancer on 4chan. You are not entitled to a hugbox.
>>570307
I take it you've never seen /tv/ or their GoT general
There's like 10 other threads about GoT along side it
>>570312
Generals usually become disruptive to their own users. They're an easy target because shitposters will move in and find out what makes a general tick. That way the shitposter can get (You)s any time he wants.
>>570324
>generals are bad because of shitposter external to them bait people
Nigger, can you get any more delusional?
>>570324
Said shitposters eventually form their own little groups of followers in the form of steam groups or IRC and organize shitposting outside their general.
I've seen it happen in /gsg/, /d2g/, etc.
Generals simply do not work without strict moderation.
>>570323
/tv/ is the exception because of how shit of a board it is
The generals killed /int/ at least. /int/ is now a slow board outside the generals/chatrooms.
>>570327
Too bad the mods on /vg/ are useless
>>570387
>poo in the loo killed /int/
>>570392
/vg/ generals are not even the worst offenders
/int/ generals are
>>570326
They're disruptive because the users can't not respond to shitposting/bait. The legitimate users are innocently stupid.
>>570530
Mods are also at fault here.
Blaming the community at large is dumb.
>>570316
But it is, anon. It's a thread about a certain game/show/whatever. People may have subtopics within that general, but any thread that starts with a broad topic like "how about last episode of GOT?" will wander.
>>570530
Nigger, this is 4chan. That is 100% the generaltards fault. If they lack the tolerance to ignore or bait back and are stupid, they don't belong here.
>>570630
In some cases, even if you ignore the bait they'll just spam and create obnoxious "gimmicks".
And reporting does jackshit.
>>570634
Then you continue to ignore them and regularly report them. Simple as that. This is the way trolls have ALWAYS been dealt with and it is the most effective way. People who are incapable of doing this deserve no sympathy.
>>570638
>and regularly report them
Reporting gets you banned.
Literally.
>>570642
Unless you are reporting mod favourite things or using the illegal function, you only get warnings.
>>570644
Some dipshit that used to spam /nepgen/ was reported en masse some time ago.
Almost everyone got a 3 day ban or a warning. His posts were only deleted like two hours later.
I don't really know how the mods work, but the current report system seems to encourage abuse. Mods will only delete something if it's porn, CP or a blatantly obnoxious post.
>>570649
The fact that only the most absolutely blatant things get deleted is why 4chan is so aggravating to pretty much everyone. Leniency is putting it lightly. This is practically neglect.
>>570658
Agreed.
I don't wan them to overmoderate either, but dealing with avatarfags, attention whores and shitposters is almost impossible.
>>567452
>however this is dependent on janitors' ability to do their fucking jobs.
And it all comes back to this. The reason we had generals in the first place is because the mods were too lazy to do their fucking jobs. So instead they let the users self-moderate by clumping together multiple topics into one general in an attempt to free up board space, and so pre-existing generals could stop hogging the front page. And what would you know? Without moderation the generals turned out shit too. Banning generals isn't going to do shit from stopping a dozen GoT threads from cropping up all at once.
>>570788
>generals were made to self moderate
No they fucking weren't. There is also nothing wrong with multiple threads for one thing. Never has been.
>>570792
If they all have interesting different topics to talk about, they would be fine.
But in 99% of all cases, multiple threads of a thing are just coordinated spams by bored shitposters who think they're being incredibly funny. Teachers should be more strict with those kids and give them more homework.
>>565610
Examples of times when this was prevented by generals?
>>567452
I don't get how people expect mods to monitor every faggy little general on every board.
>>571035
They could simply ban cancerous generals.
>>571039
Yeah but that won't happen because they type of people who post in them relentlessly bitch and moan about them being deleted.
>>570649
Point in case.
I did not report it as illegal. I reported it normally because it was a shitty, inane post and this faggot is an obnoxious attention whore that spams entire threads and never gets banned for some fucking reason.
Pure fucking quality.
Hire needs to ditch these mods asap.
I blame the catalog.
>>570824
No, 99% of the time, 'spam' of a single topic is normally people just wanting to fucking talk about it. Normally because it is popular. The shitposters come at a later time when retards won't stop bitching that people are actually talking about something instead of being out of their sight and cirlejerking.
>>565544
Mods should create an autosage "filter".
eg If a thread with certain keywords is created, it won't be bumped at all.
>>571540
They already have the ability to detect and filter certain words and catch phrases and a separate ability to manually disable a thread from being bumped before hitting the bump limit so your idea is actually pretty doable for them
>>571550
It'd be a nice alternative to banning and deleting a particular general on sight.
>>571846
Why? That won't stop them from spamming threads.
>>571222
Right. Which is why they all use the very same pictures and thread title (right down to the exact same misspelling) in the OP.
>>568056
There's a reason why current cartoons with big fanbases on this website such as Steven Universe and We Bare Bears have generals on /co/ when new episodes air and /trash/ if on hiatus.
>>568699
This.
>>>none of them ever get to the bump limit
but the K-pop (read: popular gook singing waifu) general.
>>571989
Why does WBB need a general? Also, when /sug/ was made its not like there were tons of threads. Seems like an excuse to have cancerous generals.
Generals tend to become bad.
Please get rid of them, they're all cancerous shit.
Fix the boards, then ban generals.
Right now there is zero fucking incentive to create threads that are not generals. Also, give us a way to know when mods/janitards are browsing so we don't waste our time reporting shit.
>>565544
Generals need to go they clog up /int/
>>576038
just /lat/.
>>576038
Yeah. While some generals like on /vg/ or /sp/ might have good info in their OP's /int/ generals are just shitheaps. There's no content, no discussion and only autistic shitposting competitions.
>>576283
Depends on the generals you autistic piece of shit
/cum/, /brit/ and all other generals where only english is spoken should be banned
Those for learning french, spanish, german, polish and so on should be allowed anyway, that is what /int/ is for
Jesus Christ, you all are fucking dumb
>>576286
Generals shouldn't be allowed on /int/ in the first place. The board is supposed to be about interacting with the various country's, not holding yourself off into your own.
>>576288
its about learning another fucking language and about country´s culture du fucknut
>>576286
So you'd allow shitposting if it's in foreign language? I know German quite well, /deutsch/ is fucking garbage and they mock those who come in their theeads trying to write in German and after that go back to circlejerking. Same with /mämmi/ and Sverigetråden.
>>576286
>Learing spanish
>On /int/
Let's not kid ourselves.
>>576292
None of that happens in /int/ generals. They are quite hostile to those who don't have the general's approved flag.
>>576292
>>576111
And /brit/
