how to improve soompi

[yyuyy]

honestly its becoz sum people r tired of kpop, like me for exmple. also coz we hav move to college, working etc. so this things is kinda too teenage for me at least. i still listen to some kpop things bt im not a hardcore fangirl anymore. its too tiring.

[Guest .moony.]

Exactly. Don't get me wrong, I do think that soompi is a VERY well maintained forum, moderators rarely let off people who break the rules and constantly keep things on track. However, there are way too many new rules and restrictions. While the protectiveness keeps the forums peaceful, it also holds people back from making interesting threads/replies. I love reading JBarky's articles in the news section and I remember he mentioned that other editors wanted to censor his writing or something because they were afraid the soompi community wouldn't be able to handle it. This is exactly the kind of over protectiveness that makes soompi a bit lacking.

I also agree with others that soompi has turned into more a info surfing/commenting place rather than a discussion/sharing place.

Sadly this is the exact reason why soompi is dying.

[soomp]

hey party peeps!

what a sad thread, but good that you guys are giving us specific things to work on.

the over-moderation thing is something we have been working on for a while, and are continuing to work on -

the mods are doing their best - it's a hard balance between keeping things in order and letting things get interesting...

this is something that we are constantly talking about - hope you see some improvement.

as mentioned, the forum mobile skin is out, and hopefully working nicely for everyone.

as of today, the Meebo bar is finally gone. i think you'll notice that the forum especially loads a lot faster. i just got the green light to get rid of it, so happy day!

please help us to figure out how to revive this beautiful place. we are getting a lot of new people to the homepage (news site), but we want the forums to flourish as well.

thanks everyone!

-s

[Guest t.luu]

This probably won't help much, but I wanted to point out that in recent years, to accommodate the rapidly growing popularity of K-pop, a lot more websites with a focus on K-entertainment have begun to surface and are really gaining steam. I remember that back then if I knew one of my friends was into K-pop, I could easily bet money that they were active on Soompi or at least knew of it. Now all the people I know who are into K-pop point to AllKPop as their ultimate resource for news and updates.

It makes me pretty sad to see this =\ Before the big crash, I remember frequenting the fanfics page to get my fill of Shinhwa stories, and I returned again a few years later right before the start of the idol-group wave to visit the various sub-forums and be a part of the many small communities we had on here; now, I find myself visiting the forums only to browse the beauty&fashion page every now and then. I've gotten a little older, my life has become busier and chaotic, and my interest in K-pop has shrunk exponentially. To me, it just feels like the quality of the K-pop scene that I was so in love with back then has changed too dramatically, and I don't know if it's for the better, but I'm sure that many old Soompiers might say the same. Sigh.

[Guest mandapanda]

i used to go on soompi 24/7 checking out most of the topics on every section. now i only lurk on the GG & shinee threads for the pictures. no one posts anymore. i remember back in the day it used to be the only kpop source for me lolol. i agree with some people that mention all the newer kpop sites like allkpop, koreaboo and others for news. i think its because of that. or maybe people are just bored or too lazy.... like me lolol.

[Guest karyee]

I really don't like the profile pages. They're too complicated for a stupid person like me to navigate through. I miss the old but simple profile pages!

[imtoghai]

Personally, I stopped coming once the new layout was released. There was too much going on. It also made my computer lag so I resorted to AllKpop for updates and news on my favourite groups/artists. Not to mention, an influx of rookie groups started to emerge and it became too hectic for me to keep up with. K-pop was evolving and I found myself not being able to adapt. I'm not so sure if the "getting older" and "growing out of K-pop" of old soompiers thing has to do with it? Because when I was on here (whoa, deja vu) there were plenty of members in their 20s, actively participating in discussions. So why didn't THEY "grow out of K-pop" when they were in their 20s, as well? Plus, Soompi is not only a place to discuss K-pop. Because most of the time, if not on the Super Junior thread, I came here for the "interests" forums. But, who knows, that may be a potential reason for the decreased activity. I also think Soompi should focus on reviving the threads/forums as opposed to the news and entertainment aspect on the front page. Because if the forums are alive, wouldn't the news aspect follow suit and show up in the threads? I know I was "turned off" by the emphasis of the news section on the front page since that itself can already be found in the threads.

[Guest junyi]

I personally come here for Kpop and Kdrama news a lot in the past. Back then when all of us were still actively posting news&photos to the drama & music threads everytime.

Soompi was more lively back then when other international kpop news sharing websites did not exist.

The threads are not really moving or updated nowadays and I had to go to other places to source for news instead.

Also, most people have ventured into opening their own international forum for their favourite groups, thus the lesser traffic flow in soompi.

I miss those days

[kissez*]

I have some theories as to why Soompi is dead (dead, not dying).

1) The new layout - when it was first introduced, a lot of members complained that it was causing their computers to lag and even though you guys eventually fixed the bugs, it still took quite awhile and people were fed up by then.

2) Kpop news being featured on the front page and not posted as a discussion thread. The Kpop subforum was lively because people were able to engage in debate. Your front page is now full of troll comments or 5 word sentences such as "oppa/unnie is the besterest!" People can't quote/reply to each other the way they used to.

3) This place is waaaay too organized. Did SNSD, Big Bang, etc really deserve their own subforums? Probably not. Did each and every single Kpop artist deserve their own ***OFFICAL THREAD***? Probably not.

4) Mods warning the beejezus out of everyone for the tiniest thing. Here are two fine examples. Someone used the term "effing" in a Kpop thread and the mod (edwardsomething) jumped on that mini cooper and was all, "THAT CONSTITUTES AS BYPASSING THE SWEAR FILTER. THOUGHT YOU WERE BEING SNEAKY, EH? WELL NOT ON MY WATCH, A WARNING STRIKE FOR YOU!!!" Okay, so he didn't write all that but close enough, you get the point. Example number two - someone was warned for calling another Soompier a "fool" (true story). The mod claimed this was member bashing (lol).

What is the average age of the mods on Soompi? 14?

5) This place is boring and way too PG. I noticed you guys are now trying to facilitate discussions in various subforums. Remember when this was something that happened naturally?

We-ell... it appears as though you guys wanted to attract a certain demographic - the drama-free, let's hold hands and sing kumbaya crowd and I think you got it.

I'm being totally honest here. When people think of Soompi, what comes to mind? "Strict rules, nonsensical fans, and happy-go-lucky teenyboppers".

Right now, there is no way Soompi can compete with Omonatheydidnt or Allkpop/6Theory. They're like frat parties and this place is tea time at the retirement home.

[NPB-XK]

^ Agreed with the mod thing... But it depends who's the mod though, I thought the mod in General Discussion is pretty awesome for instance.

Or the admins like awdark, etc... (No idea if they're still admins though)

In my case, I still post like whatever... Not afraid of expressing anything or hijacking any thread discretely. I encourage more people to speak out their mind and not be restrained by any fear. Many people on Soompi asked me "Wow you aren't scared of the mods warning you for blah blah blah? Etc". Maybe I'm always on the limit where mods don't even know what to do with me... Like when I post "Dude had a bj from his gf last night" and I put myself in a mod's shoes, I wouldn't even know if I'd warn the post for sexual content or something... Because it could have meant "Dude had a blue jeans from his grandfather". Not giving a damn if anything happens against it though. I'll never elaborate my posts further when they're mysteries.

I remember how I talked about some random guy in the street being an bubble gum for doing something highly annoying... Got warned but what can I say? Tom Cruise are Tom Cruise (Tom Cruise is the filter word for a-holes apparently... oh am I getting around the swear filter by saying a-holes? My non plural a-hole word turned into bubble gum), I'm not gonna call them gentlemen. Like "There's this gentleman who walks around and aggressively grabs every women's boobs in my town" would make me sound like I'm siding up with him or something...

Those who got warned so much got banned but later returned... Many returned in other accounts... But some (like dumas) returned in another account that clearly shows it was him and the General Discussion mod even welcomed him back (she's awesome). Everybody loves dumas... What a peaceful atmosphere it was.

I was also one of the "low-life kids" before 2005 who would anonymously retaliate on forum mods who were being too "strict" or "abusive" like as if they needed to do it to feed their kids or something (if they had any or were old enough, but unfortunately they might be 5 years old themselves). Not laid back. Methods used were annoying spams, personal threats outside the forum, hacks, etc. I'm not like that anymore for sure because it's stupid as hell but there could be some new bored kids out there walking the same ugly path as me... I used to run many forums but now I only run a gaming forum where I don't even visit that much anymore compared to before. I've noticed from my experience that when the admins and mods are all laid-back and have great personalities with great sense of humor, they make people feel more comfortable at expressing themselves. While forums with super mega strict mods (or mods that easily get angry) will only cause more kids to provoke their anger even more. It provokes attacks, hates, etc. The kind of hate where some kid would secretly stalk an angry mod from a certain forum that went to a special "forum meet up" (where many members from the same area meet up for fun) and would *you don't wanna know the rest* the crap out of him.

Anyway just speaking on behalf of the internet's dark side because I've been from there before... There are many kids (but more adults) on my gaming forum but they're very cool individuals there (although they're turning into beasts to plan to attack some angry mods from other forums but what can I say, they're kids having fun... who would have thought those awesome kids were the low-life trolls on other forums?)... If admins and mods from my gaming forum weren't so laid-back, I'm pretty sure many would put their hates on us or lose total interest in hanging out in the forum. Keeping it open is a way to keep the forum entertaining for everyone. When it's being polluted with haters and very provoking posts, we turn into some awesome janitors that will clean the mess up calmly and kindly. Not some low-class angry anti-social janitors that will even hunt down whoever spits the gum on the floor. Kids will come back and annoy him personally! And others will be scared to hang around there!

Anyway...

I'm here mostly because I got some cool friends still posting around here, they like to read my randomness but one of those days we'll all get bored of it and disappear I'm sure.

I type this huge post and if it's taken out because I'm being too direct with my way of expressing, so be it... May the readers who had the chance to read this cherish the moment!

[imtoghai]

kissez*: I agree with everything you said. Except for number 3, what do you mean? Doesn't creating an "official thread" for a Kpop artist/group prevent repetition of the same thread?

When people think of Soompi, what comes to mind? "Strict rules, nonsensical fans, and happy-go-lucky teenyboppers".

Right now, there is no way Soompi can compete with Omonatheydidnt or Allkpop/6Theory. They're like frat parties and this place is tea time at the retirement home.

Actually, when I was here around 2007-2008, I thought Soompi had a very mature and helpful community haha. But who knows, maybe it's just me.

v I agree with what Poop-Shoop-A-Loop said, as well.

[Poop-Shoop-A-Loop]

^ I agree with the whole discussion happenning naturally thing.

The thing I loved MOST about Soompi was the friendly atmposphere (now gone catty cause of major fandom wars and whatnot) and the fact that Soompi flourished because it was mostly COMMUNITY/MEMBER POWERED.

Everyone was really interactive with each other

and that's how we came to have "Soompi Ulzzang Contests" major collabs in performers forum, the reason why threads in the kdrama & kceleb forums flourished by itself. the reason why fanfix had so many quality fics. the reason why s&t forum had so many sellers/buyers (a mini laundromat if you will. if you guys know what laundromat was haha) ..& now theres so many rules in the s&t forum and huge blocks of texts! i dont even bother to go there anymore o_o

and how WITHS2 subs was created

Lots of great things came out of Soompi's members & were all self-volunteered because of their love for the forum (renember soompi radio?) and the great interaction between the members

I'm not sure how to explain it..but yeah and then Soompi decided they wanted to push everyone towards the main site where no discussion could really be involved & stepped in and tried to "improve" on things that didn't need to be improved. I renember when Soompi kept pushing and pushing for our main site to be where all the members go to and an admin saying they wanted the place to be more than a discussion place (i forgot exactly what was said..) but that was basicallly just killing the main reason why and how Soompi flourished. It was said this had to be done to "keep up with the times" but i think instead it just made members go away to other sources.

They wanted all the discussion and info sharing that was being done in the threads to go towards the main site. and they were trying to make Soompi into a completely socialnetworking site (with the new profile pages that no one looks at now..and all those widgets) instead of what it actually was .. A COMMUNITY/FORUM. Soompi was already socialnetworking on its own without the push of the authority.

& now Soompi wants to go back and improve the forums again ..when it was originally them who took it away (oh the irony)

I really can't be specific cause this was years ago when the new laggy layout first came out so I don't renember all the qualms I had with the changes.

I'm not saying its entirely the forums' fault for how we've changed, the fact that the demographics of the members have changed is also definitely a factor. No matter how we try to improve the forums & please the members..it's all about what the members interests/needs are & what we have to offer to cater to those interests/needs

The old members: have grown up, different interests, are too old to accept change (&therefore cannot cope with new soompi changes ), etc

New members: come to the forums for different reasons than how we used to come to soompi for our resources because they now have access to other places (allkpop, tumblr, twitter, their own fan forums)

i still heart soompi to death though : ) hopefully our forums will still continue to bring people in and flourish like it use to some day.. xp

I renember when us mods had to be really strict about spam and stuff b/c it uses up soompi's resources and we'd always have the site going down cause of too much activity..

so i dont know if this suggestion would actually help but why don't we have a spam (no post count) forum? if you look at old threads members used to be able to *really* interact with each other because of the spam here and there..they got to know each other more. maybe the spam forum will make members more familiarized with each other and recognize each other around the other forums/threads. = friendlier atmosphere =) by a "spam" forum i mean just a place to talk about nonsense and not getting trouble for saying "lol" ..not that imsaying making into a convo forum . if its not plausible i really do think the old soompi profile where people got to customize it & comment on each others profiles was something the soompiers enjoyed a lot and were able to interact with each other more that way.

[Guest knockblock]

I'd like to revisit a question that was asked at the start.

2) A follow-up question: What could we do about it??

Two years since this was created. I still feel the same thing as I did back then.

So now I'm compelled to ask. What are we doing about it? What are we as posters doing to help the cause? Other than stating the problems and leaving them at that?

[imtoghai]

^ What do you have in mind? I know starting new threads is one of them, but what else do you suggest?

[kissez*]

kissez*: I agree with everything you said. Except for number 3, what do you mean? Doesn't creating an "official thread" for a Kpop artist/group prevent repetition of the same thread?

It just looks "off limits" to non-fans. There's more to it but I'm too lazy to delve any deeper.

So now I'm compelled to ask. What are we doing about it? What are we as posters doing to help the cause? Other than stating the problems and leaving them at that?

I don't know about anyone else but I'm not doing squat. An internet forum dying is not my concern nor is helping revive it on my list of priorities. Part of why I'm no longer an active member is because Soompi is dead.

Lol, maybe you guys can try DDOS-attacking Allkpop and Omona...

[dot1q]

You're always going to have people who become disinterested with subject matter (in this case being kpop, korean culture, halyu, etc whatever you want to call it). There is nothing you can really do about that and it really doesn't matter as there will always be new people who do become interested. So how do you attract those who are interested? One of the main things I noticed through the years of coming on Soompi and being a part of the administration team for many years in the past is that I don't get a sense of identity for the site. Basically, how do you define what Soompi is and how is it different from other sites? Yes, the site has vastly improved from what it was but end of the day, it just feels like everything is so static and lacks dynamics. There are so many sites that do the same thing today. You report on news, have a top x, have a blog, presence on facebook/twitter, etc. Ok so? That's what every other music/culture oriented site does. Some sites do certain functions better but it's also highly subjective based on the visitor. Don't get me wrong, these things do matter and they alone can dictate who gets more visitors but there has to be something which sets you apart. I personally work in the media industry and its becoming more and more important how original content and the ways that original content is distributed affects viewership. For example, Soompi does a wonderful job at reporting on kpop news but all I really see is a translation of whats already out there and reselling the information. Although the content itself gets distributed, the majority of the articles lack any sense of flair or uniqueness to Soompi. They lack a personality. It makes no difference whether I read it here or somewhere else. In fact, other sites which do foster a personality actually peaks my interest more and drives my attention. If pure content is the only drive, its clear who the winner is going to be as "quantity" will dictate where I get my kpop news. Basically, who has more and who gives it more frequently. I understand that having a personality isn't going to please everyone but end of the day, it will make Soompi something special. Growth is obviously important, but maintaining existing viewership is even more important and the only way you are going to do that is by giving a reason why Soompi is different and why you can't get it anywhere else; however subtle it may be it does matter. It's kind of like the music/media industry in general where just replaying publicly available content and distributing it through traditional means just isn't going to cut it. Looping through movies, just selling cd's, etc won't promote growth. Likewise, vanilla translating articles, redistributing existing photos, using facebook/twitter, etc isn't going to cut it. These are just the core requirements and base. You need go beyond that and create original content or augment existing content with a dose of "Soompi" to it. I just don't see this happening today. Too much focus is on adding more and more to the site of features/functions which are already out there. Don't get wrong, these are important as they create the foundation but pure horizontal growth (quantity) isn't enough. There has to be more vertical growth. How about more editorials? create some controversies? more exclusives with celebrities? more events? original photos? I know the above is probably stating the obvious and it's much easier said that done. I'm just throwing random things out there. It's not always about being positive and getting approval from visitors. Haters drive traffic too. Have an opinion sometimes. "oh shi* Soompi said....". The point being, make the brand mean something that's exclusive to Soompi. Make the content matter that it was displayed on Soompi and not elsewhere. You still have an edge in that the brand is still relevant to most on the Internet. You need to make sure that you develop that brand to continue to mean something. I need to be able to explicitly define Soompi as something unique. If all I can say at the end of the day is Soompi is a "kpop" site then that is a failure. I can give the same definition to sites x,y, and z and there is no differentiation except who has more. It's easy to define who has more and the winner can be clearly stated. It's not always about being the best and having the most visitors/clients/customers. Having an identity keeps you running in the long run and maintaining a sustainable and lucrative business. Apple, Burger King, and Pepsi are not the leaders in their respective markets but maintaining their identity is what keeps them relative in their industries. Being a leader is a plus of course but not a requirement. Soompi team is working hard to make Soompi the best and I wish the best to the site and all those behind the scenes but for someone who has been coming to the site and having been a part of the site for a decade, this is something I feel needs more attention. This isn't to say that you guys aren't putting efforts to do this (I'm sure you are!!!) so please take this constructively. Happy new year and wishing you guys the best in 2012.

[imtoghai]

^ Speaking of identity, even though some people say Soompi has too many rules, I think Soompi's organization is what distinguishes it from other sites. Also, as kissez* mentioned previously, Soompi had a strong identity in the past as being a forum that you can count on for discussions and news of Korean artists in the individual artist threads...But I think that by putting their main focus on the main page, Soompi lost this identity.

[NPB-XK]

Watch these fish coming in our tank!

http://www.soompi.com/forums/topic/374524-6theory-forums-offline/

Out of control!

[imtoghai]

^ That was an interesting occurrence lol.

Ok, I kind of get now how people can view Soompi as "too" organized. I was just looking at the Super Junior sub-forum, and I think some of the threads there are unnecessary. Such as the Super Junior Twitter thread or the currently pinned thread for Super Show 4. I don't see how all of what these subjects embody can't be discussed and included in the official SJ thread. Why create a separate one for it? I don't think there's a point of having an Official SJ thread if things are just going to be separated and divided. Plus, I think creating a sub-forum for any artist, not just SJ, defeats the whole purpose of the thread. It's an official artist thread for a reason: to discuss anything related to the group/person. Otherwise, why else should you have it? Might as well designate an "official performances thread" for the artist(s), or an "official pictures only" thread for the artist(s), or a "questions only regarding [insert-artist(s)-name-here]" thread, a "concert experiences thread" for the artist(s), an "official fan accounts" thread for the artist(s), and so on and so forth. After a while, you'd be left with nothing else to converse about in the main artist(s)'s official thread. I don't discourage the organization at all, because it's what makes Soompi 'soompi'. I just think some of the things that I mentioned previously can all be merged into one single thread, as opposed to multiple ones.

edit: Though, I see how designated threads may prevent spam. So, maybe just a little tweaking LOL.

[Guest LittlePinky82]

I dunno the complaints about "too organized." I'm someone who likes my things organized. Even my "messy" stuff is organized and I know where everything is and have everything in it's spot. I don't go nuts or anything like that if things aren't there but still I like things in their spot. I like that about Soompi. I like having like a thread for each individual member of an act, or like a tour or something special like that. I really like it a lot personally but I guess that's just because of my personality with being organized.