[TalnSG]

Originally Posted by MissMisa

Recently a lot of very interesting topics I have been posting on have had to be closed because of silly spamming and general inconsiderate comments, and sometimes petty arguing. I like having interesting debates with people who can do it in a calm and rational manner, without being personally offensive. I think it's a shame that Japan Forum finds it difficult to hold up controversial topics without them eventually dissapearing into the abyss that is the spams/bans/flames thread.

Not only do I agree, but JF management needs to consider that reading rational and polite debate is how less mature people learn to discuss serious topics. They don't learning by just being silenced.

I think that the Serious Discussion should be restricted only to veteren members to avoid silly comments and spam, and should be limited only to very dedicated members who are able to debate without causing arguement. For example, a member needs to have 1000 posts [steep, I know], or for example have to answer questions about topics to see if they are able to debate in a concise manner.

While I understand the thought behind a posting minimum, it sabotages your intent. It is exactly the minimum required posts concept that causes most serious forums to be cratered with spam. Immature or inconsiderate users spam the boards until they reach whatever minimum is set. Let's strike that requirement and replace it with a formal request explaining why they think they should be allowed to participate being submitted to either a moderator or a group of users with the authority to approve or deny.

I also realise that this is Japan Forum - but there are also a lot of controversial topics about Japan that people would also like to discuss too, for example Japan suicide rates and so on - this is something that people want to know about but can be difficult to discuss with newer members. There is a lot of topics about racism in Japan, and people could also ask these too.

Agreed. There are far too many threads that are really not applicable to Japan. And yet there are political, social and artistic topics that are global enough to be suitable.

I think it would help tidy up the forum a little too, instead of having these random discussions popping up all over the place.

Now here is where a posting minimum might help a little. No starting a thread till you have been participating for 30 days and have posted # times.