Forum - View topicI'm new here... is the ANN Book Club still an activity?
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EvanUnisil
 Posts: 48 |
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I've been using the search engine to find series that I'm watching and read the discussions that people have been having on them and I stumbled upon the Texhnolyze ANN Book Club thread and thought it was a really cool idea. So I'm wondering if the ANN Book Club is still around, and if not, would anyone be interested in giving it another try?
I'd love to watch a series at the same time as a group of people as opposed to reading a two year old thread and adding to a dead discussion  If the BC was stopped for a reason I apologize, I've tried searching for a thread about why it's no longer ongoing but I can't seem to find it...
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abunai
Old Regular
 Posts: 5463 Location: 露命 |
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I believe the book club threads died out through a lapse in commitment on the part of the involved posters.
This happens, sometimes -- even with worthwhile projects such as these threads. The threads may be going strong, then several of the most active posters become busy with everyday affairs, and the thread dies for lack of frequent enough posts to keep it "alive" (= on the front page of the forum). I think I speak for all the moderation staff when I say that we thought the book club threads were extremely entertaining and interesting, and we would love to see the idea revived. For reference, here's a list of the Book Club threads: ANN Book Club -- Haibane Renmei. ANN Book Club -- Kino's Journey. ANN Book Club -- Paranoia Agent. ANN Book Club -- Serial Experiments Lain. ANN Book Club: Texhnolyze. ANN Book Club -- Wolf's Rain. - abunai |
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daxomni
 Posts: 2650 Location: Somewhere else. |
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Welcome to ANN EvanUnisil.
It may not be active at this specific moment but I wouldn't be surprised if many of the original participants are still around in one capacity or another. My first criteria for joining in with new series would be having them on Netflix or otherwise easily accessible through legitimate streaming. Series that require blind purchases would be a much tougher sell for me and I don't mess with P2P out of respect for the medium. My second criteria would be a title with an interesting plot that can provide substantial fodder for discussion. Of the titles Abunai listed, I enjoyed Haibane Renmei, Kino's Journey, and Paranoia Agent. Serial Experiments Lain was boring to me though and I never saw Texhnolyze or Wolf's Rain.
As Abunai said, I don't think there is any one reason. I've never heard anyone say anything negative about the threads. Personally I wish I had been more active in those threads so if the format came back I think there's a good chance I'd join-in when the title interested me. I say give it a shot and see what happens. |
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JacobC
ANN Past Staff
 Posts: 3728 Location: SoCal |
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AromaticGrass and I started the idea in different capacities, but couldn't keep it going, basically for the reasons abunai stated. It was a lot of fun and there were a lot of people who added great insight to the shows, but usually by the end of a series' run, the especially talkative ones keeping a thread going became occupied with something else and had to clep out. The biggest problem was, as I later found out, while many people read the threads, few contributed. So I got a little bummed by not having enough participation to keep one going and then receiving a bunch of PMs asking if I would do more or finish the others.
That being said, I do suggest looking at the pages and pages for the series we did go into. There's some interesting stuff there and I think you'll find more info on understanding Lain, Texhnolyze, Haibane Renmei and Wolf's Rain there than anywhere else on the net, possibly. Kino's Journey also had some interesting discussion headway, while Paranoia Agent never quite got off the ground, but if there was a groundswell of support, I'd be happy to finish it. Oh, and this one is important! It wasn't part of me and AG's Book Club plan, but Tony K. did an in-depth exploration of Mushi-Shi that's pretty incredible. I'd add it. ANN Book Club -- Mushi-Shi |
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daxomni
Posts: 2650 Location: Somewhere else. |
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There may be some changes we can make to help promote more participation in the future. Perhaps we could speed up the review rate and/or comment on an individual episode every day or two? It seems like a lot of folks marathon through a series here in the era of thin-packs and on-demand programming. Maybe the first post would be a request for people to sign-up for reviewing so that they feel more involved in the process? I've never joined a book club before, but I assume you sign up and then you're expected to show up and give your thoughts, even if you end up disliking the book. Asking for people to sign-on to see it through to the end might help keep them active. Or maybe starting out with a couple feature-length movies that only take a single viewing to watch would help get the ball rolling. These are just a few ideas that popped into my head and maybe none of them would have helped, but it seems with all the interest that the book club threads generated there might be a few simple changes that would help keep them humming smoothly on their own.
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EvanUnisil
Posts: 48 |
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Great, thanks a lot for all the links abunai.
I'm glad all it takes is motivation to get it started again, I think it could be fun. I'm going to read over the previous book clubs (as I've seen half of the shows already) to get the feel of how it was setup. I like daxomni's idea of having a sign up for it. We should see if we can get different users to start the discussion after each daily/weekly schedule to try and encourage more people to get involved. Thanks for all the information guys, as soon as I'm done getting the feel for the Book Club I'll post a sign up and suggestions thread. Sound good? |
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abunai
Old Regular
Posts: 5463 Location: 露命 |
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I'm always in favour of people doing some community work by running threads like these, and we can always use another active and motivated user.
In any case, I find it refreshing to have a new user who can write in clean, clear English. Lately, it seems like every other new user has been one of the "lolspeek" crowd.... - abunai |
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JacobC
ANN Past Staff
Posts: 3728 Location: SoCal |
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Seconded! It would be fabulous if you'd take that on! I gotta warn you, it's more work than it sounds like, but it would be super-cool to get the book club running again under new management! I'd be happy to help if you need any ideas or assistance! I also agree that dax's idea is a good one, with the exception that having a sign up sheet might make it feel exclusive, so you'd just have to make it clear that everyone can participate, but a few people should be responsible for coming up with discussion-starters for a specific episode or whatever. All the same, I would really love to paricipate in a Book Club thread I'm not...actually running...hee hee... [/lazy mooch] |
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Teriyaki Terrier
 Posts: 5689 |
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Agreed. And it seems those type of new members usually only last a day or two before they go back to 4chan or something. It is rather refreashing not having to read improper or "lol" from a new member for once. |
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