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Back when I first discovered this site in 2008, I actually only read the NewsFeed (including Mari's blog translations, I was a big fan of those, thank you for the translations back then!). But then I found out a lot of the information and news posted on the NewsFeed were also being posted in the forum, and this was often were the information would be posted first, so I switched to the forum. Slowly but surely I stopped reading the NewsFeed altogether, but then again the amount of contributions also decreased. Personally I don't see much of a difference between now and six years ago when it comes down to the content of the threads/posts (unless that had already started back then, of course). I don't mind the speculations, I think they're quite fun to read (the only thing that really grinds my gears is the complaining about the quality of MVs, but this is mostly exclusive to MM singles. Seriously, guys, that's H!P for you. We all know this). If there's a lot of arguing going on I just skip it, I can't be bothered by it, to be honest. And I personally feel there were a lot more arguments/fights a few years ago, which actually made me hesistant about creating an account. The only thing that really ticked me off was the amount of perverted posts (and those horrifying fanfictions) in Mizuki's thread and how that scared off a lot of her female fans, but that has fortunately died down (her fans did not come back, though...). Other than that I really enjoy the forum. I'm not really bothered by the arguments, you don't have to read them after all. And honestly, there are fan forums/fandoms out there that are a million times worse. I think the key is to not take things too seriously, this is a fan forum about Japanese idols after all, something we enjoy as a hobby and for relaxation