Hello, /qa/. Given how generals have been rapidly growing since moot's departure and continue to grow during Hiroyuki's reign, I've slowly started to ask myself what exactly has been their purpose given their popularity on certain boards and my own. I've observed popular threads being turned into 24/7 generals about a specific topic in which the discussion and post quality within rapidly deteriorates due to the nature of the threads(24/7, kept alive by off-topic discussion/questions and what some refer to by 'stealth' bump; That would be bumping a thread via inane or asinine questions that everyone on the thread already has the answer to, or has no relevance to the topic at hand which are the most common, those being hypothetical questions) and are soon constant circlejerking and shitposting threads that discuss everything but the topic itself.
Has any general-style thread in your most visited board served an actual purpose, /qa/?
>>590297
I don't hate the doctor who general on /tv/. I'll post in it occasionally when the show is airing and you can actually discuss the show to some degree. Also, there's five decades of that show, so theoretically they would have something realted to doctor who to talk about most of the time. i haven't looked at it recently though so i have no idea what it's like right now.
from lurking /int/ I can tell you that their generals are just /pol/ in other languages + facebook-Tier meme spam. I'd like to mention the Swedish, British and the German general as the worst threads on this entire board.
On /a/ there's only two generals I would say are useful. The Daily Japanese Thread, which is a pretty valuable resource that has helped me learn Japanese, and the drawthread, which generates OC related to the board.
The rest can go though. Absolutely no reason there needs to be a Jojo thread up 24/7, or a Titan thread, or a MonMusu thread, etc. Wish the mods would ban these people outright.
I didn't used to hate them, but /qa/ has taught me to hate them
Some are useful, I think the useful to useless rate is higher in useful on /pol/
>>590308
Generals make most sense on /int/ because that's the board for people other than anglos can speak in the native langs. I don't see a problem with it there since non-general threads tend to be about politics and belong in /pol/.
>>590297
>what exactly has been their purpose
There is no purpose. They literally exist just to exist. That is it. People will give you stupid reasons, but they are meaningless. Generals exist solely to exist. They aren't there to 'contain' shit, they aren't for discussion, they aren't for OC, they have no meaning. They exist just to exist and everything else about them is secondary. They have no actual purpose and they conceptually don't belong on the site. They are cancer and create cancer, because by concept they are cancer.
>>590330
/int/ is supposed to be about interacting with other cultures/countrys, not holing yourself up into your own country. /int/ is actually one of the last places generals should be.
>>590311
I believe DJT would be far better suited to /jp/. Very rarely is it about anime, manga or even LN discussion and mostly about everyday situations. Despite it being blessed by the mods, /jp/ would ultimately be a much better fit, /a/ just needs to start using appropriate boards for the content they want.
>>590303
>there's five decades of that show, so theoretically they would have something realted to doctor who to talk about most of the time
It would've been discussed to death, but I can imagine newfags coming into the board and asking about old seasons of it. But that rarely happens and they stick to what I referred to in the OP, I just checked some of their threads in the archive.
>>590308
I'm not too sure about the purpose of /int/ itself, though. But I can't imagine what exact purpose they would provide when they can make normal threads instead.
>>590320
It's only very recently that they've gained a lot of traction, it's only normal, given their contents.
Generals are just reddit on 4chan. They should all be banned or at least quarantined into their own boards. /sp/ has turned into one of the most lifeless boards on the website because it's all generals all the time. Notice how /vg/ is fucking terrible? A board with all generals is shit, who would have guessed? Meanwhile, /v/ still has generals like the daily New Vegas threads. Do your fucking job mods, you should do more than just delete anything vaguely political. The more generals the more stagnant the board.
>>590336
>People will give you stupid reasons, but they are meaningless.
That's what I was given yet I was hoping to attract some of them here for some discussion as well.
>>590342
It does make me smile a little when they come to /qa/ to complain about problems plaguing their board or general. It's like they just starting to realize how bad it is.
When a board gets too large and people have conflicting interests, they naturally segregate themselves with generals. The reason why they're still here is because the majority of people want them here.
>>590346
>When a board gets too large and people have conflicting interests, they naturally segregate themselves with generals.
That's not what happens. We went for a long time with a large user base and went along perfectly fine without generals. Generals aren't a natural product, its an artificial product that people force and was originally forced. No one natives naturally segregates themselves to generals, its people who come from elsewhere that don't have actual knowledge of the site and find its layout uncomfortable. It is also done by people with thin skin and can't tolerate people different to them, the same sort of people who don't belong here. You aren't entitled to a hugbox.
The large majority also don't want them. People have been against them since inception. Generalfags are the perfect example of a loud minority. And even if people wanted them, they are still undesirables that don't belong.
>>590346
>majority of people
more like a small dedicated group of autists who are using 4chan as their IRC chatroom
>>590297
you are absolutely 100% spot-on about this. generals are pure cancer and are popping up left and right because newcomers don't understand the format of the imageboard or its purpose. as more features have been added to 4chan, notably thread archival, and with the validation of generals vis-a-vis /vg/, the site is pretty much a typical forum now, complete with circlejerking cliques and namefags.
there is hope, however. Desktop threads were removed from /g/ by the mods.
>>590350
How are you today anon
>>590349
Weekly anime get generals when they air. Clearly, the majority prefers the format of one thread containing all the discussion of one series rather than having it scatted throughout the rest of the board.
>>590354
Those aren't generals you fucking retard. You don't even know what general fucking means. Airing threads aren't generals in any way and exist for different purpose than containing the discussion.
The problem with generals is they quickly exhaust peoples' appetite for a subject and then devolve into permanent clubhouses for a small band of people willing to put up with that shit day after day. They become less about serving the board and anyone interested and more skewed about specific people going off on tangents strangers who also like the subject don't even know how to contribute to, so they don't, so they leave the thread alone and it keeps filtering itself into more and more of an off topic circlejerk.
For example you commonly see in the SnK thread on /a/ people talking about for example their new pet dog, and then sometimes realizing "oh wait this has to be thread related somehow" so they stuff in a sentence like "I bet (character) would like (dog breed/dog I have)" etc. It's fucking lame.
>>590358
Okay then, define generals. Airing threads have the series name in the subject field and their own little community. The only thing that separates them from other generals is that they disappear when they've finished airing. They're definitely related. If you confine discussion of a series all into one thread, then they'll create their own community, and if the series is popular enough and the community is large enough, they're not going to go. Killing generals would involve killing the keep it all in one thread mentality, which the majority of people seem to like.
>>590367
>stuff in a sentence like "I bet (character) would like (dog breed/dog I have)" etc. It's fucking lame.
I stated so in the OP, that includes those kind of ridiculous things going on in generals. They make sure of never providing a legit reason as to why they continue to make these off-topic threads. Their fallback excuse being that they're discussing x or y, blatantly lying.
>>590371
>>590358
Some airing threads can behave sort of like generals so he's not exactly in the wrong here. They do tend to disappear once it finishes airing and they wrap up their discussions. Spontaneous threads do occur, as always.
>>590371
>define generals
Are you fucking serious? You know what a fucking general is but you would rather loosen its meaning for the sake of arguments.
Just because something uses the subject feature, it doesn't mean its a general. Just because something is reoccurring, it doesn't mean its a general. Threads are not community's, a board is a community. Airing threads do not have a community, reaching much? They are just normal threads that are normally no different to the rest of the board. Airing threads are, however, VERY FUCKING DIFFERENT to generals. What are generals? Why do I even have to explain this? Generals are reoccurring threads with a topic. No, rather, they are boards within a board. They exist just to exist. They never end, they never die and are almost always the exact same people. They are a board within a board. This is all I should have to actually say and you should be capable of putting it all together. I'm not going out of my way to write a essay to explain the details between a normal thread and a fucking general.
Now, I'm going to repeat this. THREADS DO NOT HAVE COMMUNITY'S. The fact you even tried to *imply* that, shows you have a grave misunderstanding of the website and are a hardcore generalfag yourself. There fanbases, but this for the most part is still irrelevant.
The keep it in one thread mentally is largely new and INCREDIBLY FUCKING CANCEROUS. Airing threads are NOT that mentally. How could you even imply that. Airing threads are made to talk about what just aired, normally because people are watching a live stream. It isn't to keep it contained, its because they don't have a reason to make any other threads. There is nothing to post about or discuss yet. Once shit starts rolling or something happens, people will quickly spam boards with threads.
I'm not going to give you a proper response simply because you fucking dared to imply threads are community's. The only actual reply I have for you is
FUCK
OFF
FROM
4CHAN
>>590386
>Generals are reoccurring threads with a topic
Which are airing threads. The only difference is they disappear once they're finished. Hell, why don't you actually browse /a/ for once? Most shows max out one thread, and by the second or third thread they exhibit typical general mentality, namely posting pointless shit when their thread is about to die just to bump it.
>Once shit starts rolling or something happens, people will quickly spam boards with threads.
People don't spam the board unless the show is super popular and has obvious crossboarders (i.e. Re zero), they stick to one thread.
>threads don't have communities
But they do. People naturally segregate themselves and don't go to threads of shows they don't like. Generals essentially are their own communities. As examples, I'd say Konosuba and Schwarzesmarken had definitely formed distinct communities.
>The keep it in one thread mentally is largely new and INCREDIBLY FUCKING CANCEROUS
It's been going on for at least two years, most probably three or four. Definitely not new, and definitely what the majority of people want. And there's no blaming them, there's so much anime being produced, and the keep it all in one thread mentality is one way to ensure even less popular shows get a fair bit of discussion.
>>590403
Do not frisk my posts.
>>590405
Your post was mostly garbage, I'm just picking out the content for the sake of discussion.
>>590407
Your post was just a garbage frisk that illustrates a lack of knowledge of /a/ and 4chan and also misses the point of everything and intentionally ignores what makes generals and applies it to not generals for the sole sake of defending his shitty hugboxes.
Threads aren't communities and until you understand that point, you're an fucking idiot not worth actually having a discussion with.
>>590410
Define communities and why airing threads can't form them. I've already explained to you why airing threads are basically generals, and generals are widely agreed to be their own little communities.
There are really three options for dealing with any super-popular subjects:
1. Have as many threads for a popular subject as people want to make. This leads to lots and lots of threads being created for every popular subject, which crowd out other topics, and in turn leads to surging complaints from people who are "sick of the spam", and want popular subjects contained. (Go to 2)
2. Confine popular subjects to single threads each. But such confinement creates subcultures, which by nature diverge from the median 4chan and are thus weird and icky. This in turn leads to surging complaints from people who think "generals are cancer", and want discussion of popular subjects broken up into smaller, more focused threads. (Go to 1)
3. Placate both groups by banning discussion of any subject once it gets too popular. This leads to surging complaints from people who want to discuss popular subjects which are, after all, in line with their board's purpose.
(And I suppose it's tempting to pick the one that appeases the loudest and most obnoxious group of complainers, but that in turn incentivizes the other two to be as loud and obnoxious as possible!)
So what should it be? Or does anyone have another option?
>>590413
The problem is there are generals that has no reason to exist. They're alive 24/7 for the sake of it, despite having nothing to discuss. See, if there's a thread about a monthly manga and within 2-3 they exhaust all discussion concerning that latest chapter, what reason do they have to continue their cycle of constant shitposting and off-topic garbage threads that now discuss nothing? No one would have a problem if it was organic, not forced every single day for the sake of 'discussion'. That's what happens and that is what people want gone.
The first option is the best one, given that 'spam' dies down with the hype naturally and disturbs no one. It actually gives the sense of a community, watching the same anime and feeling the same emotions others do. (Chu2's Shinka is the most prominent example I can remember right now)
>>590412
because airing threads are about a specific episode you fucking retard
>>590413
1 has worked fine for most of 4chan's history
>>590421
And generals are about the latest chapter of whatever material it is they're about. No real difference. They have the same main characteristics of making shitty posts just to bump a thread. Airing anime threads are just generals on a shorter time scale.
>>590425
>And generals are about the latest chapter of whatever material it is they're about
You were making some average points, but please don't be so naive to the guy you're arguing with.
I fucking hate Hiro right now after he fucking bailed without offering a solution to the horrific mod situation
>>590419
>'spam' dies down with the hype naturally and disturbs no one
Eh, in theory, yeah, but in practice, not fast enough for people's tastes.
Example: MLP. (Now that I think of it, that's probably the incident that got people deciding Option 1 wasn't working, because I don't remember generals being much of a thing before that.)
>>590429
No, MLP was on every single board. And they sure as hell didn't die given that they have their own board.
>>590419
>See, if there's a thread about a monthly manga and within 2-3 they exhaust all discussion concerning that latest chapter, what reason do they have to continue their cycle of constant shitposting and off-topic garbage threads that now discuss nothing?
Those aren't generals, those are normal threads. What is a problem is people fucking calling things that aren't generals, generals because there is a small similarities. But it isn't really surprising that users who grew up in a 4chan environment where generals and its culture consumed everything wouldn't understand what a normal thread is.
>>590429
/mlp/ is something completely different. It was something comparable to furfags and these things weren't a problem that came from natural organic discussion and the like.
>>590426
On the surface, they are. SnK is about the latest chapter, Jojo is about the latest chapter and episode, etc. The problem is they devolve into posting totally inane shit once they've exhausted the discussion points.
>>590431
Exactly. Hype's still going, and it's been about, what, six years?
Even things much less egregious than the Great Pony Apocalypse last long enough to rub people's nerves raw. My suggestion, in that case, would be for people to just suck it up and deal with the fact that people like things that they don't like, but when has that ever worked?
>>590440
>On the surface, they are.
They really aren't. On the surface and below, they are about that entire topic. They just so happen to talk about the new material. Or, well, I think it might be better to say they just so happen to actually talk about the topic.
>>590434
>Those aren't generals, those are normal threads.
I'm specifically talking about general-style threads that do this. They circlejerk 24/7 until next month when the next chapter comes out, discuss the latest chapter and recommence the circlejerk after exhausting all discussion about it until the next chapter. I know exactly what a normal thread would be and that threads about things that have been discussed already may pop up again.
>>590440
And they get away with it just being on the surface. If you make a 'thinly veiled' general thread by simply not adding the word 'general' to the subject form, your thread will not be deleted.
>>590442
MLP was pure shitposting on every board, you picked a bad example.
>>590445
>you picked a bad example.
Yep. Got me there. I'm trying to come up with earlier examples but most of what I remember from back then was /tg/ storytimes. Hmm. Homestuck? Panty & Stocking?
But that's really not the point: moronic subculturey things (that take root and fester in generals, but originate in the minds of people who come to this site) would be splattered even more across their respective boards if generals weren't around, lasting not nearly as long but being much more visible. That's what makes people call for containment; the tradeoff is fewer awful threads on the first page/catalog in exchange for abysmal generals. You'd be okay with the reverse? (I don't really care, myself.)
>>590462
The first option has always worked and bothered no one since it always died down and doesn't actually fuck with other threads. At least it's natural.
>>590462
>moronic subculturey things (that take root and fester in generals, but originate in the minds of people who come to this site) would be splattered even more across their respective boards if generals weren't around, lasting not nearly as long but being much more visible.
When they are like that, they are no longer a 'subculturey thing' and rather, something apart of the community. It is no longer an inside joke, but a joke amongst the greater community. The result of that is that it takes more than a single autist posting once a thread going 'look at me look at me im funny' for it to gain traction. The first option has always been the best one for 4chan. It is the website in its most natural of states and functions. People were actually incredibly happy with it, even when they bitched before autists came in and forced their outside culture. But more importantly, the first option has always been the one that generates the most fun and interesting things.
>>590351
>circlejerking cliques and namefags.
/mu/ should be deleted desu
>>590464
>>590469
Well, it doesn't bother me; it doesn't bother you; I just don't think it bothers/bothered no one. And I can't help but envision a /qa/ just as filled with people calling for generals to be instituted "because of all the spam" as it is now with people calling for generals to be abolished "because of the cancer", and then the cycle begins again.
I dunno. Maybe I should just be more Rousseauian and hope for the best.
>>590476
Don't fucking project. It bothers lots of people. Just because you don't care, it doesn't mean others don't. People bitched about generals since their very inception. People bitched about the 'spam' since forever, however, those people were in an INCREDIBLE minority and generally were laughed at. People care about generals and bitch about them on every single board on the site practically daily. Generalfags themselves bitch about them. People bitch about them and care about it because it is an actual problem that shits all over everything 4chan has ever been.
>>590479
Sorry, I didn't mean "generals"; I meant "spam (lots of threads)" as the "it" in "it doesn't bother me" (unless that's not what you thought I meant, in which case, sorry for misinterpreting you now!)
And I'll take your word for it that anti-spammers wouldn't be a problem. I certainly shouldn't claim I've always had my finger on the pulse of this site.
>>590311
>On /a/ there's only two generals I would say are useful. The Daily Japanese Thread,
Fucking no.
That shit does not belong on /a/ and the only anons who ever did anything good for that thread, who effectively put together all the good things -of which are entirely external to the thread- were all systematically demonized and made into boogeymen because autistic manchildren cannot help but bite the hand which feeds.
>and the drawthread, which generates OC related to the board.
We have a fucking board for drawing which is dead because every attentionwhore faggot seeks to make cancerous drawthreads on their hugbox homeboard and turn it into a cancerous circlejerk and without fail establish an inner circle of drawfags who use the thread to make money out of morons.
Fuck those threads.
>>590346
The moderators exist to break shit like that apart because it is antithetical to the concept of 4chan.
People come here to get away from the cancerous normalfag hugbox communities online tend to become anaerobic environments entirely without a breath of fresh air in terms of perspective or novelty.
>>590297
>Has any general-style thread in your most visited board served an actual purpose, /qa/?
The ones I've used over the years have acted as a safe space where you can enter a board for the purpose of discussing a singular thing with a guaranteed sense of familiarity and the cycle of acceptance and drama which comes with such safespaces in an environment which seeks to attack them as though they foreign bodies fighting against an aggressive immune system.
I only used them as starting threads about the topic normally would lead to autists sperging out and telling you to fuck off back to the general. Over time I began to feel around these people no different to how I felt around normalfags in real life in a situation wherein everyone agreed to dislike something and you were the only one who could see how irrational and unfounded their hatred was. The problem was that in these generals these anons were supposed to be fans yet their behaviour stood as a massive fucking insult to the series. I'll be honest, it often made be butthurt and I felt irrationally offended on a personal level for just how much these retards shat all over everything in a space that was supposed to be where people who appreciate X came to discuss X, not a place where people who appreciate X come to talk about Z.
/a/ is the board which I've experienced this in its worst incarnation. Hypersensitive EOPs who freak out and get offended when you try to discuss raws or post something that hasn't been filtered by some poor amateur translation attempt. How can people claim to appreciate something if they are offended by the suggestion of trying to appreciate the content in its original form? Are there any other hobby boards on 4chan which react this way? Is it more of a self entitled American thing? I don't fucking get it.
>>590311
>The Daily Japanese Thread
The reasoning why that thread was begrudgingly allowed to exist after mods gave up deleting them was that they can potentially provide a valuable supply of anons who are able and willing to translate and help bring more content to /a/ for discussion. The reality of the situation is however the thread meme is out outright disdain for the concept of translating anything for anyone. These anons don't give a shit about /a/. They aren't here for /a/. If mods moved the thread to another board, after a week or two of autistic tantrums, they would populate the general on the board it was transferred to and continue to exist within that bubble, just like every other off topic general thread.
>>590340
>I believe DJT would be far better suited to /jp/.
You aren't alone in that thought. Problem is that /jp/ has a long history of being disliked and disrespected by mods and plagued by the worst janitors to ever be "hired".
I never understood the need for generals. 4chan just really doesn't seem to be the place for them, they're pretty much just a poor man's forum. I always thought it was better to just post a topic about whatever, discuss it, let the thread die, go on with your day. Not even bashing forums but they're better for long term discussion.
Look at Katawa Shoujo General, they don't even talk about the game anymore, it's either about themselves or other games, games not even of the same genre and they make up the excuse that they're a community now and don't need to talk about the game.
>>590525
>Hypersensitive EOPs who freak out and get offended when you try to discuss raws
I haven't seen anyone attack raw threads, it simply would just not get any replies or very few as if it's not translated, as you know, most of the board knows very little japanese and what they know is what they picked up over several watched anime. You can still discuss raws with certain people just don't expect a lot of them to pick it up unless you're willing to translate it, many simply don't have the willpower for it.
>I'll be honest, it often made be butthurt and I felt irrationally offended on a personal level for just how much these retards shat all over everything in a space that was supposed to be where people who appreciate X came to discuss X, not a place where people who appreciate X come to talk about Z.
I'll have to admit, I have yet to watch some shows that have spawned generals since I wouldn't be able to discuss it on /a/ outside of their thread. I'm sure I'll be willing to power it through but it does bother me a bit.
>>590529
Seeing as how DJT behaves it should really be a perfect fit on the board, despite the 'rogue' janitor as some have called him. Although most of these complaints have stemmed from a general itself, which I find somewhat hilarious.
>>590650
>Look at Katawa Shoujo General, they don't even talk about the game anymore, it's either about themselves or other games, games not even of the same genre and they make up the excuse that they're a community now and don't need to talk about the game.
It's already up to its 3087th thread. I can imagine it still won't die out, since they use it as their personal IRC client. It is one of the most obvious examples of how bad generals get.
ban generals 2bh
>>590330
There are some English speaking generals on /int/, they have no purpose
>>591443
Please don't bump if you have nothing to add.
