You know, I've been thinking for the past few weeks... /bbwalt/ is almost entirely furry. The things that aren't furry typically have no one interested, or are so tame that I'm not sure why they're /alt/ at all, while at the same time, over on /drawn/, there are extremely /alt/ things being posted, but nobody gives a rat's ass. That brings me to my point. Why do we even keep the two separate? Threads can be hidden (something which I encourage as part of my moderation policy), and the problem of "What is alternative, exactly?" is always coming up. Why don't we just allow previously /alt/ content on /drawn/ and give the furries their own board, since it's really the furry that tends to set people off. The thing is, even if something was monstrously, clearly /alt/, there wouldn't be enough of it to constitute an entire thread, and that's my point: there's very little /alt/ drawn BBW content in the first place, since BBW itself is considered /alt/. Anywho, opinions?
You should keep in mind that people post alt-skewed real content on BBW Alternative too. I'm not going to lose sleep either way, but I do think we need to set some concrete definitions of what is considered alternative since no one seems entirely sure.
The distinction exists, I think, because we have multiple people who get entirely too butthurt about what they're looking at. People angry that furry seems to dominate drawn stuff, and people angry that farting/vore/whatever dares to get near their precious fetish of choice. Far as I'm concerned, illustrations go in drawn, and real life or drawn alt-fetish stuff goes in alt. But I try to leave those boards as frequented more often by the mods that like them more.
Well, the problem is that /alt/ is currently a clusterfuck that is almost entirely dominated by furry and pony threads. The things that get posted there are relatively tame, and outside of the furry content, I can't see anyone but the most prudent of prudes shitting a brick over what they might find in said threads, and quite frankly I don't give a fuck and I'd wager to say most browsers of /bbwdraw/ wouldn't give a fuck either. I'd rather have one live board than two hooked up to life support. The same could be said for a lot of the other boards, that some of them have similar content and should really just be lumped into one, with an "if you don't like it, hide it" policy. Soul, you and I both know that the traffic for all but the main boards is abysmally low. I'm gonna drop a heads up in the rules thread over on /bbwdraw/ to see if I can get some more opinions in here.
It seems fine as it is. Slob/farting shit is pretty popular too and there's a few threads for that on /alt/ too, and anytime it ends up in bbw drawn there's a clusterfuck. Plus as someone else pointed out, /alt/ occasionally ends up hosting SSBBW or Amputee or whatever other fetish the main board doesn't want.
I can hide the minimal amount of content in Alt that just ruins my mind easily enough and as long as Drawn isn't being choked to death by a sea of furries and ponies, it's hardly a big deal. It's not like it would greatly increase the total content heading into Drawn. That being said, and this is something that would require attentive moderation as a case-by-case basis sense, you'd probably have a lot of people seeing peanut butter in their chocolate and not liking that shit one bit. It's one thing to post in a thread, "This content is of godawful bad quality, why would you post that here," and another entirely to post, "EW I DON'T LIKE FARTS GET IT AWAAAAY." Bitching about shitty art helps keep the level of quality in Drawn up, but bitching about content probably just sort of drives drama, especially if we fold any amount of Alt content into it. THIS RAN LONGER THAN I'D PLANNED.
My whole point is this: I've had to lock, delete, or tell people, "Go post this in /bbwalt/ it doesn't belong here" when the content was hardly /d/ at all, but because we're pandering to whiners who can't hide threads, that thread, once posted in /bbwalt/ fucking stagnates and dies while the furry threads cover the front page with four or five iterations of the same old shit. No offense, furries. You just post a lot. But if that same thread had stayed in /bbwdraw/ where there's actually frequent traffic, it would've flourished for a bit and then died, having produced some content. Ideally, this is what I was thinking of: 1. Previously /alt/ drawn content is A-OK in /bbwdraw/, with an increased emphasis on the "If you don't like it, hide it" policy 2. Furries get their own BBW board so that they don't piss anyone off 3. /bbwalt/ is repurposed for /alt/ BBW real content. Maybe merge another board or two into it so it doesn't die. Also, the longer I dwell on this, the stupider it seems, but it's for the same reason that I'm suggesting it: There's not enough /alt/ BBW drawn content out there to fill more than a handful of threads, the majority of /alt/ BBW drawn content is only /alt/ on account of it being furry.
The last suggestion breaks the board up into 4 boards total, when one of your older points was to consolidate the boards to help generate more activity on them. :V I frequent draw and alt like once or twice a day for new content and I've never thought "man there's nothing but furry stuff here." Either there's new posts or a new thread or there isn't; if a thread isn't getting bumped it isn't because people are scared off /alt/ by furry stuff, it's because those were niche fetishes to begin with and either they turn out to be bigger than the creator thought they were (like the weird stuff or the loli thread) or they disappear into obscurity because there really isn't that much content to share (like the amputee threads) Besides, all the furry stuff gets consolidated into one thread until it hits posting cap at the moment anyways. Almost nothing would change, except you'd have two even less active boards at the expense of making /draw/ slightly more popular.
I found the argument against consolidating Alt and Drawn. http://bbw-chan.net/bbwalt/res/9642.html#i9642 IMAGINE THE SHITSTORM.
I know, the shitstorm would be spectacular; so spectacular I'd pay to see it. I get your point, but the thing is that there's still a decent definition of "alternative." I've got a few counterpoints for you, Loki. I present to you... Threads On /bbwalt/ That Have No Place There and Could Have Been On /bbwdraw/ Instead (title pending): 1) Force Feeding: http://bbw-chan.net/bbwalt/res/6483.html 2) Splash Woman (as in, Mega Man 9): http://bbw-chan.net/bbwalt/res/3996.html 3) Chubby/BBW Fighters: http://bbw-chan.net/bbwalt/res/2972.html 4) Adventure Time: http://bbw-chan.net/bbwalt/res/7614.html 5) TAD Sequence (posted on /bbwalt/ I assume because the girl has wings): http://bbw-chan.net/bbwalt/res/9458.html 6) An adorable fucking manga that I assume was posted on /bbwalt/ because of lesbian content: http://bbw-chan.net/bbwalt/res/5184.html Debatably, but this is the kind of, "Does this shit seriously bother anyone to need to be quarantined over in /bbwalt/?" shit that I was talking about: 7) Cowgirl Thread: http://bbw-chan.net/bbwalt/res/8571.html 8) Mermaid Thread: http://bbw-chan.net/bbwalt/res/9014.html Case in point: "Alternative" is poorly defined and the inability to move threads means we should find some way to more clearly define what the fuck goes where, because "Alternative" isn't cutting it. Obviously there are "extremes," e.g. anything with dicks involved, apparently, but there are also tenuous cases (e.g. cowgirls, mermaids, monstergirls) where people tend to post in /alt/ when it could've just as well have gone in /drawn/ and gotten more attention, and then there are other cases entirely where the content isn't alternative by any means and winds up posted there anyhow.
Oh no I agree completely that those threads had no real business on Alt or, more specifically, could have been on Drawn and anyone who batted an eye would have been a dick. The issue is that there is drawn content that is absolutely Alt and while there might be quality not-quite-Alt content that goes there, it's probably better for everyone's psyche if people err on the side of not posting it in Drawn. Of course, it's not like the amount of Alt content that's actually Alt (but not furry) is that massive. On the entire board, I count five things that are definitely "so Alt that Drawn would flip their collective shit" and two of them are a slob thread (not that big a deviation from the fetish) and farting (aerosol poo, come on). It's pretty fair to say that it would just come down to enforcing the policy on hiding threads with content you don't like, but as someone pointed out, why go from two boards (Alt and Drawn) with tons of content to three (Alt Real, Drawn and Furry) with one of them having pretty minimal content. Plus, is fat furry porn so varied that it warrants its own board? I haven't girded my loins enough at 7:30AM to go off and investigate, but I can't imagine that an entire board is necessary for what a perennial thread has been doing well enough.
Despite the fact that the furry thread is one of the strongest running threads on /alt/ (at least, sequentially given that it's approaching it's 10th incarnation) it's only a subset of an already niche interest. I see either of two possibilities of the split: the proposed furry portion dies a pathetic, content starved death or the board would possibly attract the monumental amounts of AIDS and fail that usually come with any online community (nonfurs here could possibly relate, what with Animexrection). Even more complicated, some might take the liberty to post furry splinter fetish / interest material that would possibly further confuse and partition the userbase. On the flipside, look at what the furry thread has now. It's essentially one or two guys posting regular drawfag updates, hosting Livestream sessions and in turn, inspiring more participation, whether it's OC or just the common picture dump. It'd be nice to imagine that having it's own board, the whole furry thing that everyone else detests can have it's own corner, and maybe even draw in participants from FA and whatnot. As alluded to before, such a positive turnout would be a longshot (it would have to be closely moderated, that's certain), but hey I can dream can't I? An interesting double edged sword, to be sure... Still not resolute on this issue, but it'll be interesting to see how things turn out, change or not. That's my 2 cents.
Plus, is fat furry porn so varied that it warrants its own board? Ok, ok, stop. You're both turning this into, "WE NEED A FURRY BOARD!" which was an idea I already trashed and shot down a while ago. The furry board was a tertiary point that was simply something that would *have* to have come about if /alt/ content were to fly on /drawn/, because furry is the one thing nobody would've swallowed. Obviously, that is no longer the case, so that point is moot.