How Often are the Discussion Boards Updated?

This topic should answer your question as to why the "Video Games" board is so slow at the current moment.

As for the other boards, it does give you the impression (or at least me) that compared to the past years that there isn't as much in-depth intriguing topics as in the past.

I see, but video games is not the only board that hasn't been updated frequently. Plus, the person that updates video games gives a lame excuse for not updating. He or she has lost interest for games so they don't post.

Let me ask this, do all post need to be screened before posting? And if so, is this person, BigManZam, responsible for screening them? Nothing personal against BigManZam, I don't know this person, but if he/she is not posting regularly, isn't there a chance some topics or replies are being held back?

I am not trying to start any fights or put anyone down. But Uncle Ben said it best in the Spiderman movie, "With great power comes great responsibility."

I am just passing by. If I can't get info here I'll just have to go somewhere else. Thanks anyhow.

Hi. I'm the evil dictator of this site that handles moderation for all but the blogs and video game discussion. I check periodically throughout the day (Japan time), and occassionally sleep in late (like today) making it about 10 hours between checks. Depending on my access to a computer (I'm not at one all day long, even though it sometimes seems that way), I check often throughout the day.

As for the video games section, I've noticed that BigManZam often takes weekends off. I try not to interfere there, but will occasionally push things through when it seems like he's been gone a long time (I usually give it at least 24 hours). I've just gone through and committed all of them in the queue.

Now for the other problem, a lack of response to a given question for comment. I don't know about the video game section, but in general discussions about baseball it's contriversal statements that get the most response. Something that is pure opinion, not provable, can really get a lot of people fired up.

On the other hand, the same question asked over and over again (like "who will be going to the Majors next off season?") doesn't get much response because those of us who have been here a while are quite tired of the question and/or we'd really appriciate it if people would actually look for the answer before asking the question.

On a personal level, I find that I write more often when the BayStars are winning. (If you're not following NPB, the BayStars just managed to win their 20th game of the season yesterday - to 46 losses.) It's my belief that this explains why there were so many Swallows' fans writing in the 1990s, and why there are so many Hanshin fans who have been vocal over the past several years. It's just a lot easier to write when one's team is winning than losing.

Furthermore, I tend to spend 30 minutes to a couple of hours when I reply to someone. I want to be as complete as possible, and there are often many things that I will want to double check to try to prevent errors. Am I perfect? No. (Like I recently said Tamura when I meant Murata in one post.) Fortunately, nobody is shy about pointing out such mistakes. Still, putting a great deal of time, heart, and soul into a reply very rarely generates the kind of feedback that would make me most happy - someone genuinely interested in learning more and contributing more to others.

Brooks-san brings up a good point; that these boards aren't nearly as exciting and dynamic as they once were. Is that because I've failed the Pro Yakyu community? Seeing as many people are branching out on their own on Blogger and WordPress rather than contributing here, I'd say that that is so. I've succeeded in keeping the spam and racists out, but some think that the site has become too sterile with my policy of keeing the language clean and the flame wars (personal fights) out. Is it time to rethink these policies?

Well, I'm getting a bit off topic here, and I think that this discussion does need to be done sometime. (But it would belong under Administrative.)

The only thing left to add about the frequency of updates is that I've disabled moderation during the few vacations I've taken over the past few years. I think that the last time I went 24 hours without moderating posts was April of 2006.

Does this give you a good overview of how everything works?

It's cyclical - at the moment no one is fighting and really we haven't been bashing each other. Work pressures and other things outside this board mean that sometimes we cannot construct the discussions we used to have. However, this will return.

Yes it does "Westbaystars," your reply makes sense and explains a lot about this site. You do have a great site and you cover a great deal of baseball all around. Thank you.