Ever since /q/ went up, one of the most talked about issues for /a/ is the subject of recommendation threads. Although I personally don’t believe that this is as big of an issue such as shitposting/trolling, the latter unfortunately cannot be solved by the understaffed moderation we have right now. So leaving that aside until we have more janitors and mods, let’s discuss whether or not /a/ would benefit from a recommendation sticky.

Please keep in mind I’m talking about recommendations such as “I liek Death Note. Wut do I watch next” or “Gimme some anime but none of that uguu moeshit.” The janitors and mods ALREADY DELETE THESE TYPES OF THREADS, as long as the userbase reports them enough to catch our attention. However, we have no intention of taking any action against recommendation threads with legitimate effort and thought put behind them such as “I want more anime that features Kanada-esque animation.”

Now the main argument for the sticky that I’ve seen so far is that it would cut down on the number of incessant recommendation threads that are created daily. Some users have pointed out that there really aren’t too many created a day and that it’s a minor annoyance at most, but as someone who personally goes through the reports every day, I beg to differ. Although there might still be the occasional trolls and lazy newcomers who’ll continue to make recommendation threads in spite of a sticky, I do believe having a sticky will not only cut down on the overall amount to an extent, but more importantly, it’ll also encourage the users to simply report and move along when such threads do appear, which is far better than having a thread full of troll-feeding angry replies.

Having said that, the main aversion to a sticky is the possibility that it would encourage the “spoon-feeding” mentality many newcomers seem to have. As a person who solely lurked close to a year before actively posting, I myself profess to be a big proponent on the virtues of lurking. However, I have my doubts on whether or not a sticky would actually unleash a torrent of newcomers of the worst kind as some of you fear. That’s because the people that do make inane recommendation threads aren’t necessarily intending to stay on /a/ for the long-term. They merely want to drop by temporarily and get a couple recommendations in the same way that people drop by /g/ and ask for pc-building guides with no intention of staying there any longer to argue about different OSes. If they do intend to stay on /a/ for several hours every day as many of you do, then I do believe the board’s inherent elitism will force them to adapt.

But of course, in the end, speculation is speculation, and none of us can say for sure what will happen unless we try something. And so, I’d like to propose 2 options.

First Option:
A short, locked sticky containing a link to the /a/-wiki (can somebody update this site so it includes the seasonal anime charts as well?). This sticky will be temporary, probably 1 or 2 weeks at most, but if the outcome is largely positive, it may last a lot longer than a few weeks.

Second Option:
To continue on as the way things are.

To make the job of gauging responses easier, please write either “1st” or “2nd” at the beginning of your post if you wish to vote. Also, please keep the discussion civil and leave out petty board rivalries. I’ll lock this thread once it has lasted long enough and then have other mods read through it before any further action is taken.