Is it maybe time to move around the H!P sub-forums a little bit?

I've noticed that it's been quite a while and there's been a lot of changes since then...

 

Kobushi is disbanded

Berikyuu isn't a really a thing anymore since everyone is gone

THE Possible / Ciao Bella disbanded

Country Girls is disbanded

 

Yeah, maybe it's time for some rehauling of certain things so it doesn't feel quite as dated, perhaps?

Hmm, so you're suggesting to move all the disbanded groups into the Former Groups and Soloists section? Perhaps it's not a bad idea, but I guess some of the users who actively update those threads are used to the current organization. What I want to say is, wouldn't the Former Groups section be overcrowded and maybe a bit 'messy'?

Yeah, that may be the thing, but H!P isn't gonna get any smaller lol...so I don't know the good answer to that to be honest.

Maybe Angerme, Juice=Juice and Tsubaki can be grouped in a single section.

 

I think the Berikyuu section is still here because all of their members are known because of Berikyuu, even if the groups disbanded years ago.

 

Team Makenki is no more, but Up Up Girls has lots of members and ex-members so it would be inconvenient if the UUG member threads were just part of the general "Official Members" subforum.

 

I would regroup the sections like this:

Morning Musume , Angerme/Juice=Juice/Tsubaki , BEYOOOOONDS , Hello Pro Kenshuusei , Berikyuu/Up Up Girls/Kikkawa , Former Groups and Soloists

Either all former groups move to the former groups folder or none of them. Picking and choosing which groups or members are worthy of staying is insulting to their fans who try to keep their threads active when they can.

As it stands, reorganizing would be difficult because not only would the 'Former' section have to be completely redone so that threads are easier to find, but also because there are a number of members who are still part of Up-Front. Then, it's another game of picking and choosing, since former Morning Musume members get to stay in the Morning Musume thread while Berikyuu are moved, which I don't think is fair to the people who use those threads.

For the time being, it is my feeling that things should stay how they are so that longtime users don't lose track of threads and so that fans of the more recent graduates can ensure that their threads are more visible. That said, if enough people feel that it's time for some sections to go or more groups disband (which is less likely now that most units are generational), I'm not opposed to a restructuring.

I think the forum sub-sections are fine as is. 

 

The only suggestion I would have is; Divide each rotational groups sections into current members and former members. When your group is as large and as generational as morning musume or angerme's, we need a clear "graduated members section" within each groups member section. Stage48 does it well, we can do the same (if this is something you have access too).

Divide each rotational groups sections into current members and former members. When your group is as large and as generational as morning musume or angerme's, we need a clear "graduated members section" within each groups member section.

LOOK AT THIS MAN SWAGGERING AROUND WITH HIS COMMON SENSE.

 

Please, listen to him.

 

And, please, put the graduated members subsections under/behind the current members' sections.

(Please Delete) 

 

Look Minaeshi, respectfully, I understand your emotional attachment to this forum. We've all gotten used to this site. But the fact is, the admin doesn't care. It happens! Even if the admin did come back (which he won't),

So it seems you're on H!O for some time ? Why do you post with a week's old account ?

So it seems you're on H!O for some time ? Why do you post with a week's old account ?

Actually, I've been on H!O for many years, but my previous account stopped working, and then for over a year I wasn't able to register a new account. It was only thanks to Lurkette sharing their email address that I was able to finally get another account made for me.

 

To be fair though, I rarely used the forum (mainly because I wasn't allowed to make threads). I was mainly interested in the tracker and picboard.

Actually, I've been on H!O for many years, but my previous account stopped working, and then for over a year I wasn't able to register a new account. It was only thanks to Lurkette sharing their email address that I was able to finally get another account made for me.

 

 

To be fair though, I rarely used the forum (mainly because I wasn't allowed to make threads). I was mainly interested in the tracker and picboard.

 

Fair enough. Then you must know that there's already others H!P/idols related forums ?  My point is, the western idol fanbase is small, and the "forum users" part of it is even smaller. So what's the point of creating yet another forum ? I think it will only dilute the community more.

 

In the events where H!O is totally unusable, and Haku doesn't give any sign, wouldn't it be better that the community regroup under existing forums ? I know dramas happened and some people wouldn't want to go to some places, but most would fit somewhere.

Fair enough. Then you must know that there's already others H!P/idols related forums ?  My point is, the western idol fanbase is small, and the "forum users" part of it is even smaller. So what's the point of creating yet another forum ? I think it will only dilute the community more.

 

 

In the events where H!O is totally unusable, and Haku doesn't give any sign, wouldn't it be better that the community regroup under existing forums ? I know dramas happened and some people wouldn't want to go to some places, but most would fit somewhere.

 

It's certainly an option. I just figured in case people here prefer to have a forum fit to their design-liking, they may wish to use a new site. Otherwise yes there are other forums out there. I think JPHiP and Stage48 are good (however, neither of those has a dedicated MM section, and to be honest, their structure is not very good). I think the structure of JPopGirls will be much more engaging (discussions-wise), and it will be way easier to find quality content.

I went to your new site to take a look and i had to run away when i found that horrible gravure pic of 48 in the homepage.

 

 

Don't forget this is a Haropro community, my friend. 

I'm sorry im confused. You're telling us to move to a new forum that you made, but you also said that you don't have time to maintain the site. If that's the case then there isn't any point in you making a new one, since it will end the same way as this one. Remember that forums are a dying online community space, in favour of real time social media like twitter and chat groups like discord, so trying to move a remaining users of this site, users who have been here for years, to yet another forum that doesn't have any of the content as its predecessor, is a huge ask. 

 

And while I know you literally just made the new forum, there are many issue's I can see with it already. It's cluttered, looks older than H!O graphically, and the sections aren't as varied. There's no news forum, status updates, or community polls. The issue's that we've pointed out in this very thread like grad/current threads, picboards, and trackers have not been shown to be rectified on your new forum, so there isn't any reason for those frustrated with H!O to move to the new site. You can't simply link the picboard and call it a day when there are issues with the picboard we currently have. A!O was a response to the tracker closing down, but what would be even better is if you tried to contact them and create a forum that integrates A!O with the new forum, otherwise you're not really giving us anything new. You've got a 48G section there that's just as useless as H!O's 48g section since Stage48 is still regularly moderated and active with 50-150 active members a day. The H!P discord channel has more subsections than the new forum you made. So again, why would anyone decide to migrate there when there isn't anything new there that hasn't already been done on S48, Jplop, heck even Allkpop has a quite but still active jpop section. Consider whether you want to have a H!P only forum or a JPOP forum.

 

And again, if you know you will be too busy to maintain the server yourself, simply giving the reigns to someone else wont solve the issue unless you can find people who are as dedicated to creating and maintaining a new forum board, keeping it fresh and modern, and being able to tweak it as needed. If the admin of H!O gave up the reigns all of the problems would be fixed, correct. I'm not going to shut down any attempt at making a new forum so long as the new forum created actually fixes all the issues that the current forum has. If I were you I would try to get into contact with some knowledgeable editors and administrators who can help you in creating a new forum. The H!P wiki is a constantly updated site that has generations of editors and mods to keep the site modern and useable, consider contacting them and integrating the wiki with the forum, like the Stage48 forum does with it's Stage48 wiki. There is no shame in copying a formula that works.

 

Lastly, trying to get users who have been here for years, to move to a new forum by saying "it's a dead site, lets move to this new one" and being quite frankly patronizing with your response, without acknowledging that this is a community that already has largely moved elsewhere to continue discussing H!P in a more modern setting, and are happy to come back here from time to time, is not going to help you in inviting users over here. It takes a community to create a successful and active forum.  Most new fans don't discover H!P through the forums anymore, they do so by social media or youtube, and quickly find the community through a quick google or twitter search. The twitter h!p community is constantly active and talking about new things every day. When we host events we see the same number of engaged fans as we did here on H!O in it's heyday.

 

The few that remain here are the few that also use those social media's to interact with the same users that were on here, and quickly welcome new users to the community too. I know this because I literally follow and interact with them on a daily basis! A lot of them I even see on Stage48 too. If Lurkette or RoKun or someone that I've seen active here even during the most quiet hours of the night like YellowAccel, Nyaok,or Ahornbjorn, or even newer but prominent users like Rurupedia decided to say i've had it lets make a new forum, I and many others would be likely to move there and make it into something great, because we've seen how much they care for the current H!O and have tried to make it work. And I mean this with no disrespect, but I don't think i've ever seen you around before, so I feel much more apprehensive to just move to another site with the belief that you will be able to maintain it just as much as the guys here do, especially when you've mentioned not having time to do just that.

 

I say all this because I'm a huge fan of forums, which is why I always come back here, and it's why I've had experience being both an active forum user, forum moderator and h!p/h!o community member who has contributed a lot to the forum and community over the years. It's a lot to handle but above all, you need to have the community at the heart of your decisions, and understand that some things can't just be fixed quickly. If you manage to find a group of fans who want to help create a new forum sever, i'd be much more interested in building a new home for the migrating and somewhat fragmented community. I'd even be willing to help. But as of right now i'm not seeing any incentives to make that move.

I'm sorry but I have to laugh, you're trying to get a bunch of H!P fans to move to a new forum for H!P, and the picture on the banner is of AKB48 pre 2010, in which you say it's the best photo you could find? You really couldn't find a better photo in the last decade? You couldn't find a nice H!P photo for a forum you want H!P fans to migrate to? Also, AKB48 is not the most popular idol group anymore, so if you wanted to make a forum that's popular with newer fans, you would put some sakamichi group or =love or niziu, not AKB. So the suggestion to consider whether you want to create a JPOP forum or a H!P forum still remains. If it's solely H!P, a simple MM22 photo will suffice, or even Ocha Norma to show you're really about the new and current era, that will get people more interested in joining.

 

Has been done, there's "Idols" and "Idols (Graduated)". It was actually my idea to separate these in the first place! 

This has been an idea stated many time and many years before you. So, definitely not your idea.

 

And when I say integrate the wiki or picboard or tracker, I mean actually contacting the people behind those websites and seeing if you can build a new forum together with those elements in place. I would be much more interested in the new forum if it had it's own designated tracker and picboard like H!O did, and since we already have a great tracker in A!O, you could cut the work in half by reaching out and asking to merge the creators. You could contact the team at H!Pwiki and ask them to help keeping the news feed updated so that everyone who enters the forums first see's important news and announcements just as H!O was before. You tell them that you're a long time H!O user and they recognise you as such, it definitely won't be hard to connect with them and develop plans to make this happen. I know a few of the guys that mod and run those sites so I could even direct you to them if you like.

 

What was your username? because like I said, you would have a lot less trouble getting users to move over there if we know what your previous account was? My account was made years ago and I was a frequent lurker years before, so I'm sure if you namedropped your previous username, I and others would be able to recognise you, and be more open to your suggestions. Also, I'm one of those people who couldn't get access back to my account for months because of the site being broken. I was able to get my account back because many of the users here, my community and friends, contacted the mods here to help me access my old account. I'm sure one of the mods could do the same for you, if you have an older account. 

 

As for the new fans who want to use this forum but can't, I've had many people asking me and others on twitter about H!O, and while we cannot help them with making an account (it's out of our control), we welcome them right into the community and even point them to the direction of the discord server, those fans are usually very happy to be welcomed, and rarely show any animosity over not being able to get onto this site.

 

I'm giving you honest feedback on the site, and your approach to getting people to move there. Before giving you the feedback, I already acknowledged the site is still fresh and new, so there is no need for you to respond with such aggression. If you don't want to take that feedback, that's fine by me, but don't complain when no one wants to move to that site because you dismissed all the suggestions and critic and took nothing we said on board. You're once again patronising users who love H!O despite all it's flaws and forget that the users who are still here are probably the hardest users to convert to another forum platform. If you're really keen on giving the community a platform and new home, you should be doing more research on the other area's of the internet that H!P fans reside in. The fact that you dismiss twitter when the community is at large over there is interesting, but the fact that you weren't aware of a discord forum suggests to me that you aren't as invested in H!O or the H!P community, and that's okay if that is the case. I don't care whether you're as invested in the fandom as others, but there is a way to approach this topic and you're going about it the complete wrong way. I'm sure if you went to stage48 and said "hey guys this forum is so broken look at this new and improved one that we should all move too", you would get grilled so fast and probably banned, for the pre 2010 akb photo alone.

 

And lastly, don't you dare have the audacity to try and make it seem like all I do is complain about the issue's while not trying to fix them. I don't need to list the things I've done and continue to do to make this forum and the international h!p fandom a fun place for everyone. As for this site, I know what this site needs to be fixed, and would be happy to help moderate the site when the owner decides to make an appearance. The one reason I haven't reached out to the mods to become one is because 1) i'm a busy lady and 2) i want to be confident that I wont spend my free time moderating a space that could break down and crash at a moments notice because the owner doesn't care about the site as much as I or other mods do. I'm a lot more apprehensive to move to another platform when the creator is being quite frankly rude to those of us giving genuine critic and feedback that's necessary for anything to grow into something bigger. Calling my valid critic nonsensical and saying it demotivated you to further improving your forum again makes me question if you would be able to handle making the site and maintain it long term. There is no point setting a bare minimum foundation if you know you can't maintain it, it just leaves us all in the same situation we are in now. If you can't handle me saying that, you won't be able to handle hundreds of the H!P community saying similar things. If you want to make it happen, do it.

All I want is to bring the atmosphere that this forum once had long ago back to life again. And I admit I'm not an expert in the "latest" in JPop groups and would benefit greatly from other users advice on things like sections and banners. 

 

Either way, it's up to you guys.

Not that this is relevant at this particular moment, but Ro-kun and I do have the ability to manually create new users, so if people did want to join the community we can set that up for them. Again, not the most relevant at present, just like moving former members to their own section is not particularly relevant while everything is broken, but creating users is one of the few things I can do with the privileges I currently have.

just like moving former members to their own section is not particularly relevant while everything is broken

^ IF the current refresh issues are fixed for most people then that is something I will get to work on.