What would you like to see at the Japan Forum?

[thomas]

In a bid to arrange and improve our board, we would like to ask you, our valued visitors, what you would like to see at the Japan Forum.

Please post any suggestions or ideas right here.

Cheers.

[halloalex]

Hey there!

Thomas, I guess, you are one of the heads behind japanreference, right? Then I just like to thank you for your efforts. Since I found this board a couple of days ago, I regularly come back and hope, that other users will do the same. Because this is really a great opportunity to share thoughts, ideas and even help each other to learn more about Japan. And if each of us helps a bit, I am pretty sure, that this forum will soon become the leading community for japan-related issues. That would be great, right?

Hope, we keep in touch,
alex.

P.S. If there are more users, who speak German, I would recommend to open a German-language forum anytime.

[thomas]

Thanks for your kind words, Alex! I'm not sure if we'll ever be the leading J-related forum, but we shall be happy if we have a few dedicated regulars. It's you, our valued visitors, who add the flavour!

Much obliged for your suggestion to create a German-language forum, I'll certainly do so once we have some sort of "German community".

[gohki]

I have been checking out your Japanese links with great interest. You have a wide variety of topics - fantastic.

However my search for free Japanese e-books has been unfruitful. Do you forsee the Japan Reference site compiling a e-book list in the near future? Otherwise, does anyone know where I can find Japanese reference e-books for free? I'm thinking that some educational institutions will offer reference e-books for free... I ask because I am in the process of compiling a list of Japanese e-books for my school library's website. check it out at www.library.utoronto.ca/east

[thomas]

Hi Gohki, and welcome to our board!

I assume that by "e-book" you refer to resources ("titles") in electronic format, not to hardware that runs software required for reading books in electronic formats (I checked e-book.org).

Your idea of establishing a new subcategory in our directory, entirely devoted to e-books sounds splendid. Frankly, I have never thought of that. Anyhow, it seems as if you have already gathered a lot of resources. I will look further into it.

The web site you mentioned is very interesting and informative, good luck with your project!

[eimik]

CHAT CHAT CHAT CHAT ROOOOOOOOM

[thomas]

It's at the top of my to-do list.

[deborah gormley]

yes a chat room would be great, but maybe running a chat room all the time would prove too exhausting(hehe) .
It would need monitored by the staff of course and then all the members would need to be veted!!!!!!!!!!
HAHAHAHAHA
just tell me when its getting set up and I'l be there!!!

[lineartube]

One thing comes to mind. I don't know how people navigate around here, but when I type the address (yes, I do type addresses ) and as soon as I see that the front page has loaded, I always click on "Today's Active Threads" since it get me up to speed to the current and active topics. You have a similar function in www.japanreference.com lastest threads, so what I had In mind would be an optional setting that could be set on or off in the user CP that would allow the viewing of the latest "x" threads in the last "y" hours, in the front page.

That would be great! At least for me, that is.

[thomas]

@ chat

I was already looking for chat programs that could be integrated into the forum, so that existing members could log in with their current handle. It's not that simple though. Also, Debs is right about the monitoring issue. Any volunteers?

@ navigation

The top menu features a "New Posts" button displaying the latest threads ( = new threads since last visit).

[lineartube]

Yeah... but my way would make it one less click...

[thomas]

Well, if happiness is just one click away... ;)

Seriously, I'm a bit reluctant to clutter the forum's index page, but I'll give it a try.

[lineartube]

That's why the option of turn it off or on. Some people will like it, other won't.

You probably should make a poll of the ideas to see wich are more interesting and popular to be develop, since it doesn't make sense to develop an idea just for one person to use or take advantage of.

On the other hand, if you want to make me happy, buy me a beer. It's cheaper and requires less work.

[zahid]

What about a board on programming

[thomas]

Hi zahid, you can post all programming or script-related issues to the Geek Forum. Of course, this doesn't necessarily imply that all programmers are geeks.

;)

[Ami]

How about ummm.... some sign that shows the person is male or female? near their avatar or something... o-o

[Ami]

Oh I know! More Smilies!

[Mandylion]

It might mean more work for you Thomas (as they would have to be approved first), but I would like to be able to make some quizzes of my own.

[Ami]

Take your time Thomas! I was just suggesting things._.

[Maciamo]

I think that's a good idea to open sub-forums in othe languages than English. "Halloalex" has proposed a German forum, I propose a French one and am ready to moderate it. We should then advertise JREF in as many languages as there are forums.
In a little survey of mine I found that "French-speaking forums about Japan" were even more popular than those in English, despite the fact that French speakers are outnumbered something like 10 to 1 in the world if we don't count Africa.

Have a look at these forums' activity. The French forums (especially Nihon-fr) beat everything in English.

Forums in English

Japan Forum (here !)
Members = 2050
Total Posts = 24000

****** Gaijin
Members = 550
Total Posts = 24000

Japan.box.sk
Members = 700
Total Posts = ?

Metropolis-Japan Today
Members = 1400
Total Posts = 18800

Forums in French

Forum Japon
Members = 570 (all active, as inactive member ID's are deleted after a few days).
Total Posts = 31000

Nihon-fr
Members = 4000 (!)
Total Posts = 100.000 (!!)

Japon.org
Members = 1550
Total Posts = ?

I only know one Italian forum about Japan :

Giappone Giappone
Members = 990
Total Posts = 33500


There aren't any multilingual forums so far. As we are leading the English-speaking Japan-related forums, I suggest that we extend it to other main languages likely to attract an audience interested in Japan : French, German, Italian for a start.

[kirei_na_me]

I think it's a great idea since it seems we have so many French speakers in this forum.

It would also give someone like me, who has all but lost her French-speaking ability, some quality practice...

[Twisted]

Personally, i'm not too keen on a multilingual forum (par the Japanese section of course). I'm affraid it would cause too much seperation among the members.

Next thing you'll get that people start asking for a Spanish, Chinese, Esperanto and Klingon forum as well.

[thomas]

Thanks for your suggestions!

@ quizzes

Currently, it is technically not feasible to allow members to submit their own quizzes. I'm not sure if my PHP skills are sufficient to tweak the script accordingly. Also, we'll be upgrading to vBulletin 3 within the next few months (something I'm not really looking forward to), so I'm a bit reluctant to add new features.

@ French & German fora

It's an idea worth considering. While some of the boards Maciamo mentioned are pretty active, the quality of their average post varies. I won't expand on that for obvious reasons, lol, but we could definitely set up two additional sections for French and German speakers just to see if there's a demand for these languages.

May Kahless be with us. Qapla'!

[Ami]

What about my suggestions?

[thomas]

Sorry Amie, I missed your suggestion. I will see if I can find some new smilies that fit into our collection.