[META] This sub’s decline

Decline can be seen in many, MANY subs, but the anime sub does feel to be in a permanent state of decline. I’m sure this post may be downvoted into oblivion but here are some of my thoughts regarding this sub’s decline:<br><br><br>* Lack of veteran posters and lack of new blood<br><br><br>Many veteran posters like dandemroe or gafblaze or marcoscar have either stopped posting or have deleted their accounts. I think there are many reasons for this: the sub’s increased moderation of any “offensive” comment, the sub’s overall increase in toxicity, the sub’s shift towards being a completely personality-less sub with the deletion of any post that’s deemed too “off topic” and the sub’s over-moderation of comments. I don’t think I’ve ever seen any other sub on reddit where inoffensive memes, or innocent comments are removed for being “offensive” or “off topic”. With veteran posters either leaving or being persecuted by mods, there’s no reason for new people to join the sub because there’s no personality on the sub anymore.<br><br><br>* Lack of creativity<br><br><br>Many other subs host creative projects or AMAs, interviews with industry professionals, or art contests. This sub used to, but now they’re either extremely rare or completely dead. The “ask an anime related question” thread was a great way to encourage discussion and to get answers to questions that you wouldn’t normally find on a google search or on a normal ask reddit thread, but that thread is completely dead now. The sub also used to host a monthly “rate my anime list” thread where you had other people rate your list of up to 10 animes, that thread was also very fun, but it’s completely dead now.<br><br><br>* Lack of discussion and quality of discussion<br><br><br>There are many metrics you can use to measure a lack of discussion, whether it be less comments in threads, whether it be more karma on posts than comments, etc etc. Although the sub has blown up in popularity, i think the sub is less popular than it was when it had 1 million subscribers. Many other subs host “discussions of the week/month”, but this sub has none of this. The sub also lacks quality of discussion, whether it be people being too afraid to state controversial opinions, or people downvoting controversial opinions. This is the biggest problem: people on this sub do NOT want to talk about anime. They want to boost their karma by posting anime girls, and they want to try and “out leftist” each other by being the most offensive out of the crowd, and by calling out people who they think are offensive. The sub is personality-less and its full of people who call others out for stating opinions that aren’t deemed acceptable even though they aren’t even offensive. The mods also delete any post or comment that’s deemed too “offensive”, which kills all discussion on the sub. The sub also lacks any discussion regarding upcoming anime as well, whether it be the seasonal polls, or announcing what animes are getting delayed or cancelled. The sub is just so empty anymore because there’s no talks about anything related to anime.<br><br><br>* Lack of useful information<br><br><br>This sub lacks any in-depth information regarding anime news, and the sub also lacks in-depth information regarding upcoming anime. Whether it be interviews with voice actors, talks with directors, information about upcoming anime, or information about delays/cancellations, there’s none of it on this sub anymore. The sub feels empty because there’s no information about the actual topic of discussion on the sub, and that topic is anime. The sub is so empty because there’s no personality or creativity on the sub, and there’s no in-depth information regarding anime news or upcoming anime.<br><br><br>I’m not sure if the sub can ever be improved. i think the sub has gone down too far to ever recover, but i still have some hope. I think the first step is get rid of the current mods and replace them with mods that actually give a shit about the sub and are passionate about anime, and not a bunch of leftists trying to virtue signal and boost their ego and karma. I think talks about metrics and the like are BS and the mods need to talk to the userbase. Maybe the mods should host a thread about what changes the sub should go through, or host a poll about the sub’s overall direction? Maybe the mods should reach out to industry professionals and see if they’d be interested in doing an AMA/interview? Although the sub is in a terrible state right now, i have some glimmer of hope that maybe the mods can listen to the users, listen to what they have to say, and make an earnest attempt to change the sub and make it better and more engaging for the users.