Agh! @.x;; Geeze...

[Sora]

See, here's the thing.

This board was made for, yes, the stuffy boring discussion and debate on theories and characters in .hack. It's also a place for fanart, stories, and .hack fandom related media. It's a place for people to spread information regarding .hack, such as releases of DVDs, games, merchandise, etc.

But we created the board, for the most part, for the first one. The discussion. While .hack//SIGN was running, we had a lot of fun making theories, only to have them cut down by new information. Then we'd make new ones. Debate them. Change them, and try to figure out what was going on.

There are a few 'heated' debates going on in the Serious Discussion forum that I am loving to death. Debates over technicalities, debates over theories, debates over translations... It's for the sake of the debate that we continue to argue over things like that. I enjoy it! I love it! Until a theory I make can be shot down absolutely, I'll continue to argue it.

It's less the matter of being 'right' or 'wrong', and more, 'how far can I go in my resources to prove what I believe to you'. That's why we debate.

As the .hack series comes to a close, the theories on what is what are going to become fewer and far between. Not gone completely, for sure, because the .hack team refuses to clear up some of our more pertinant questions. Who/what is Morganna, really? Is Sora Skeith, or is he trapped in the Staff? Who are they in real life?

These questions, while POINTLESS (especially the Sora one) in the long run, are argued for the sake of argument alone. Woe to any who haven't realized this. It's not a game of 'I know more than you do', it's a game of 'I'm going to try to prove you wrong'.

I hope people can realize this, too.

But I find less and less enjoyment checking these boards every day because I have to spend upwards of two hours a day (one for every time I check it) checking threads, answering what I need to, moderating what I should, and arguing my points in the few threads I care to.

But I have a real life. I should have gotten to work on my comission two hours ago. However, I've been previously occupied arguing my point, moderating the board, answering PMs, and trying to catch up with Bear. I still enjoy moderating this board, but I know, for a fact, Tsukasa is tiring of it quickly. It's not really that much fun anymore, but I appreciate some of the things we've come up with here. I really do.

But keep in mind, when Tsukasa gives up the ghost and quits, I can't do this job on my own. We are the most active mods here, since the others can't get on as often. We haven't met anyone, yet, whom we've thought would make an excellent moderator. Not yet. We haven't looked yet, admittedly, but perhaps we will, soon.

There are many of you, and I say this honestly, whom we would never consider at all. But there are a few I've seen that know the ins and outs of boards, know how to behave, and have a good head on their shoulders. Those people we'll be keeping an eye on.

I'd like this board to keep going. I'd like the needless spam on the babble board to stop. It's there because I know it would be here, but I didn't want it on other forums that are supposed to stay on topic.

The focus should be .hack. Not chicken or religion or a combination of both. Learning more about others.. that can be done by reading profiles, or PMs, or something like that.

We are -very- close to removing the Babble Board. We're just tired of checking it, frankly.

Now, let me state our current reasons for a lack of a 'game help' forum.

One, we don't want to check it. What are we supposed to do there? I'm not going to answer game help questions, I'll tell you right now.

I'm sure many of you can, but we're not going to.

My idea would be to make a 'Game Help-Yourself' forum and leave it unmoderated, for the most part. You ask, you answer.

The only problem is, BANDWIDTH. Spaaaaaaaaaaaaammmity spammy spam. We can't afford this. Bear is hosting this out of the goodness of his heart. If it starts to be a burden on his wallet, this thing is gone. Now, maybe we can get some donations, but I don't think this board is really good enough, right now, to warrant that.

But again, a game-question board will likely become the most active board, and if we aren't moderating it, and if we aren't checking it, and if we don't know/care what's going on there...

.... WHY would we be hosting it? We'd be thrilled to have someone ELSE make a board for it, and we'd continue to link new people TO that board, however, it can't be hosted on sandwich.net because it's just too much needless spending, in my opinion.

And this is the same thing for the Babble Board. We don't like to check it anymore. For the most part, we don't NEED to check it. But we're moderators, we have to check it so things don't go to hell there. But we don't LIKE checking it. I think I've emphasized this enough. We care about .hack, we DON'T care, quite so much, about chicken.

So keep all of this in mind, folks. In the next few months, we may or may not decide to keep this board here. I'll be getting a job, whether I stay in Texas, move to California, or go back home. That's inevitable. And a job will take up, yes, my time. I won't have the time to be a good moderator and spend an hour or two every day keeping up with things on the board. It's too much to ask of anyone to do that.

But for the time I still have no life, and only the scarce comission here and there, I'm happy to do this.

Please don't change this for me.

[Pin]

If the Babble Board really proves to be that much of a cumbersome duty to you all, then merely remove it.

[Sora]

We haven't decided which will be worse yet, Pin. We're considering it, as I've stated.

But we also aren't exactly looking forward to dealing with the offtopic drabble that will, undoubtedly, appear in the main discussion forums. That's WHY we have the board. So when you just CAN'T resist something weird, you can put it there, and be done with it.

We're also not exactly looking forward to the number of complaints and questions asking 'why did we remove the board' we're going to get, EVEN if we post our reasons.

[Invisible Egg!]

Well, I have to agree that the Babble Board serves a purpose. Kind of like how blow-off valves have a purpose. And rev-limiters have a purpose. And bibs have a purpose. Babble is bound to happen, so it is forgivable. But this IS a .hack forum, so I agree that much of the babble is way too out of place. The idea about more detailed User Profiles sounds really good to me. That way people could see what people like, where people live, etc. and PM them about it.

And I don't really like it when the Moderators are angry at us. There's no need for that to happen, is there?

[Ruby Red Rose]

*pat pat* Pobre Sora & Tsukasa...

Suggestion: Not sure if this is even possible, but...
Is it possible to limit the number of posts per person, per day, in the babble board? To say...three? That way, even with the number of people on the board, the sheer volume of new posts would be limited, but you would not have to get rid of it (and deal with the ensuing chaos).

Babble, babble, babble, babble...!

[Guynietoren]

I agree with Ruby Red Rose. That way people would put more thought in how they used their posts. Maybe have the system check user name with with post dates before a new post can be made. For the intros, we could just have a sticky thread that says "Introduce yourself here". So the new members would see it at the top.

Heh, the babble board certainly seems to be a pressure valve for the brain. To spill out all those funny ideas before they die.

The direction of discussion is largely in the hands of the members. Some problems really have no answers when focused around a goal. Such as maintaining a healthy amount of .hack discource. As long as the Babble Board is available.

[Nebu]

I'm all for the more detailed profiles idea...

maybe things like "gender," "age," "dislikes," favorite quote"

heck... then I wouldn't even USE the babble board

[ichi]

Yay for more detailed profiles- More stuff for me not to reveal!

[Krono]

problem with that is getting people to fill them out... I know I don't take the time to even fill out the teeny tiny profiles we have already...

[bountyhunterryouko]

I agree with the idea of an intro board, and more detailed profiles (ok so I'm late on entering this subject i know) but if it wasnt for the babbel borads then I woulnt had made some fo the friends that I have. I enjoy the babbel board and think it should stay. and be a place where about anything goes. Not all of us have a life. I mean my info on dot hack is very, well little. Mainly because I came acroos the show 2 weeks ago in a hotel room. and dont have cabel at home. when u live where I live too, well there are very few ppl in my town who actally know what Anime is.9lets just put it this way) the babbel board has really helped me meet other ppl who are like dot hack. I tried going to the other boards, but I don't really understand to much. I'm so new to this too, that I didn't know the Babbel board was on such a sort lease iuntill just tonight. so I am truely sorry for all my errelvent post's in the past, I didn't mean any thing bad by them, I wasn't trying to boost my score. I was just having fun talking to ppl. And I didnt really know that u could send privet messages (srry im a blond) till just today as well. so again sorry for all errelvent post's. exspeacily to the poor mod's (I didn't know you guys had such a hard time) and all the ppl who have put up with me as well. I also still hope to better understand things about dot hack......

[Krono]

I'm all for banning introductory posts... they don't serve a purpose... I mean... from an introductory post, I learn nothing... from a post about people's favorite fried chicken... I learn about chicken....

[Invisible Egg!]

WE NEED A SOLUTION TO THIS BABBLE EPIDEMIC

... that being said, does anybody have one? (more creative than shutting down the Babble Board, please)